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Show ITS BASIC HOUR W IS NDTJMRMFUL Will Not Reduce Stockyard Output or Interfere With i Foodstuff Supply, Says Witness. i WAGES IN 2 YEARS 57 PER CENT MORE I i General Superintendent of 1 Armour & Co. Testifies in Pay Arbitration Case. CHICAGO, Feb. "6. On cross-e.xamina-I t ion today Jo! in K. O' Hea ni. general su perintendent for Armour &. Co., admitted ;' i hat a basic eis lit -hour day i"or stoek- ' yards employees would not reduce the packers' outpur or interfere with the adequate ade-quate supply of foodstuffs to the mili-j. mili-j. tary forces of this country and Its allies ;; luring' the war. He said it simply would I: -ns i nmre to operate through the payment of extra compensation for overtime. The witness explai ncd, however, that if the J arbitrator's finding was for a basic eight- hour day the inference would be that ten bouts was too Ions;" for the men to work. An actual eight-hour day. he said, would 1 .seriously interfere with the efforts of the 1 pa.kers to meet the government's and counlrv's needs during the period of the I wa r. The cross-examination of the witness fi;c:jpierl practically the entire day at the stockyards wage arbitration. "Do you agree with the report of the ( prepicten i'a mediation commission that tr.e wages paid unskilled stockyards la- borers are inadequate, in view of the in- j creased cost of living?" asked Attorney -'rank T Walsh. Wages Increase. J "They are in i i J i e with wages paid b y ; ot.ier industries for the same class of la bor."' replied the witness. "Our scale :i';iy ho slightly below the average paid in t'i.h-ao. but I believe it compares favor- ably an Kansas City. Omaha and other outside cities. I think the ros: of living has increased about -pi per cent. Wo have increased our wages 57 per cent in two yertrs." The witness said that the four increases in-creases made hy the packers since 1 f'l G iiad been decided upon without out suiting suit-ing the men and without an invest :gruioi: regarding the increased i-ost of livimr. Kverett C. Hrown, president of t;e Chicago Chi-cago Livestock I!xc bailee, testified concerning con-cerning the rti'eipt of livestock at t linstock lin-stock yards and said that more than half the total receipts reached Cue eitv during four or five months of the year. He re. id . statist if s showing the tot.il receipts for various years, and said that ti.e hUh priees of the !;isr two years had not stimulated stim-ulated production to any large extent. Receipts were larger fifteen years ago! than last year. 'On cross-?xam:naiinn the witness admitted ad-mitted that the packers bought about v per cent of all livestock received in Chi- a--ro and that when the packers shut down their plants it had a depressing o::'e'-t on prices. ''Led you ever know of the packers j shutting down when t iiey bad livestock Ion ha:ivJ?" aske.- Attoi-ncy Walsh, j "They shut kow-i from time to time (when ttuy have ii'.:s;oi.-k on hand, but 1 j am tf'ld it is 1 cac-sc of broken maehiner;. ' or soic.e otacr r.iiisc." .Viiur.c ; vis; ; nrs a r the hearing today to-day wee '.:nn I of : fon:e. I'.i . and Vrrnon . ib-.-d of ),-n- er, mcmht i s of tin- pro.-ident mediation ' i'f.;n :i c'sso;-. who slot.r.ed over en rocto to M inneopolis. where they are goimr to : settle a street car strike; I,mris F. Swif; a nd "Mother" Jones, an organizer for the United Mine Workers, who is on her vvav w est. |
