OCR Text |
Show INCREASE OF SALARIES. Within the next few weeks, says an Eastern paper, increases of the wages of their employes will be announced by various railroad companies that will, at a conservative conserva-tive estimate, swell the yearly income in-come of the 650,000 men affected by at least $17,000,000. A very comfortable sum, indeed, to add to the pay rolls of these laboring men. But in this connection it is well enough to ask, who pays the raise? That this increase will not be at the expense of the railroads, but at the eventual expense of the public, was indicated in a statement made by an executive official of the Pennsylvania Penn-sylvania road, in which he said: "We have advanced the wages of our employes and it is only fair that the public should contribute toward it, and this can be done by increasing the freight rate." And the railroad magnate meant it, too; for already the country has been informed through the daily press that freight rates would go up about January 1st, and the advance will no doubt fully cover the additional wages paid to the men. |