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Show SCHEME TO BREAK DOWN RAILROADS ""ISJLLEGED Intent to Discredit the 8-Hour 8-Hour Law anil Federal Control Con-trol I? Charged hy the! Brotherhood Leaders VIGOROUS WORDS ARE j USED BY WITNESSES j Commission Told Financial j Interests Behind Roads Are Responsible for the General Traffic Congestion yyNHIN;TON Wb. Inefficient Inef-ficient iierai ion of the mil- j rvA-.I?. rcn!nn; in traffic congestion j with s crave attendant evils was on a need by union labor leaders at a j hts today before the railroad j r, e commission To a desire on the h-t art of the managements of the svs- -At- ? err.s To discredit the eitrht-hour law kj make a failure of irovemment control. vr- G- T.ee. head of the trainmen; train-men; A. B. Garretson. "head of the confix con-fix tors, and other witnesses told the commission why they thought the Transportation system of the country, including such road? of splendid record as the Pennsylvania. suddenly ccl-;aved. ccl-;aved. The brotherhood leaders i:sed -j- :i visoro's expressions as "rotten ; railroading"' to convey their opinion of the way the b'j!nes has been carried or since the soverr.ment inok -h a r g e . j and in e- offered to produce ores of instances of dela yed crew. changes in ! Personnel and misuse . f : ol : i n g stock 1 to prove t.ielr statements. Hearine Lively From Outset, j Th e ordinarily quiet co!;r-e of s u c h a hearing was ruffled from the very j -tet. Lee and Garret son. aopeari n g to present tr.e 'Uit:;s of their brother- I roods for waee increases, found se v- i rrtl railroad representatives present1 srd entered an immediate protest, de- J iaring they did not propose to deal j ' iti: two sets of employers. The com- j mission explained that the railroad; n en were there by special invitation to plement, not to a r. ta son ii'.e, the in- 1 ionization presented by the employes. j T:. is -! uestion hard iy had been ; smoothed over before discussion of the working of t li e eight-hour law a r. d t .1 effect of government supervision of the roads precipitated charges by . I--?e that the managements wre doing; t -e!r utmost to discredit both. He said overtime had been doubled and tripled to make the effect of the Adamson law more expensive and to represent that the workers were obtaining large wage increase.-!. Furthermore. he declared Ti a every effort was being used to handicap han-dicap t ran sr orta t ion to erea dissatis-Xictlon dissatis-Xictlon with the government's part in b uslness. '0'Jld go back to about four hankt in Xew York if T wanted to find out The real cause for this.'' he said. Asked how he thought th alleged results had been accomplished, he said he thought the "word had been passed ''own the line" that overtime was to be irr'reaed greatly. He did not think Kere had been a conspiracy "from the iTeMdems down to th. dispatcher." to 1!ay trains under government supervision, super-vision, but insisted sn f f i r-i en t persons """re interested to t hat end to o bra in "hat they desired. If referred to train 'hepathrs as "train delayers."' Feretary T.ar.e. chairman or the commission, com-mission, asked numerous questions corij "rning the union leaders' allegations aid wanted to know if he meant that t' e railroads actually had run up their ration costs in order to discredit the Adamson law. Mr. T.ee replied that M the case, adding that it was "perfectly "per-fectly natural." Wnife Pef If Ion lenored. "T do not think it was natural: I am rot so cynical about human nature," ih secretary replied. 1 i". Garretson supplemented It i s co 1 -lsgue'a Tatements. "The operating iployes are thorough ly a ware of the banner of clearing c o n g e s t i o n w h i c h 'as in effect before the govern men t 1 took over the roads." he said. "They J aiflo are aware of the kind of transpor-t transpor-t l&t Ion now being given, but T want to there is one rlass of employes not j rT?aged in gi tng a demonstration of u Kat a failure govf-rnment operation H. w. Helt. grand chief of the Broth-J'hood Broth-J'hood of Railway Signal Men, asserted 'hat the work of the w;te rommlssion ''a being "us-d as a cloak" by some f't th1 roads to discontinue ncgotia- , yor,n with employes which were bescuii I r,rfore tlie ( cjim ni i 'si on was a ppoi 11 1 d. said the signal mm on the .Wvv j Wk, NVW Haven & Hertford were on the vrjjp 0f quitting thir jobs e-jfr(jt e-jfr(jt inability to obtain sa t isf ;ic-4"-' r' on demands made in I MM-mbrr. I neque.t,, for Inreaed n - w fi J (Continued un 2.) R. R. BREAKDOWN IS THE CHARGE (Continued from Page 1.) behalf of their organizations, by E. H. Morton, representing- the Order of Railway Rail-way Station Agents and the Brotherhood Brother-hood of Railway Towermen and Signal Men, and by P. J. Coyle. representing the Brotherhood of Railroad Station Employes. All of them told of increased in-creased living costs. The unions beside be-side the trainmen and conductors, which obtained an eisht-hour day under un-der the Adaruson law, requested a basic eight -hour day and time and a half for overtime. The interstate commerce committee of the Hou.se voted today to place final authority in fixint? railroad rates during dur-ing the period nf government control In the hands of the President. An amendment to the administration railroad bill offered by Chairman Sims, and adopted hy a vote of JO to 8. provides pro-vides that the President may initiate rates and that upon complaint the interstate in-terstate commerce commission shall hold hearings and suomit its findings Mo the President for such action as he "may deem required in the public interests." in-terests." As amended by the Senate committee commit-tee and introduced in the Senate, the bill provides that the President may initiate rates subject to review and alteration by the Interstate commerce commission upon complaint cither of shippers or the curriers.- A similar amendment was lost in the House committee com-mittee today on a tie vote, 0 to J). "While the Senate committee was considering this section, "members who had conferred con-ferred with the President said he did not desire final authority in rate fixing. fix-ing. The only other important change in the measure today by the House committee com-mittee was to elimirutic the section! referring to d isabili ty compensa tion for railroad employes. The committee expects to complete the bill tomorrow, and Chairman Sims will introduce it in the House &s soon thereafter as l possible. J Sensi t e con id'rn t i on of tho nipas- ure probably will begin next week. Chairman Smith of the Senate committee com-mittee plans to file his report Thursday Thurs-day and call up the measure in the Senate after the soldiers and sailors' civil service bill is disposed of. Senate Sen-ate leaders believe the bill can be 1 ! passed within two or three weeks, although al-though sharp debate is expected. |