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Show rales applicable to men who are sup posed lo be fully qualified for work which does not require men of four years' experience. To. illustrate how. the Index ibilit ies of many of (be rules now enforced up-1 crate to mulct the railroads of large sums for services which in the absence ab-sence of these rules could be obtained for relatively moderate sums, evidence was laid before the Labor Board showing show-ing tbr.t three men who were employed em-ployed at n small pumping station in Michigan, performing unskilled work, would, when classified under the rules, receive an excess of pay amounting to more t'nan the value of all the water wa-ter pumped and current gen?raled at this station. The Chicago testimony contains literally lit-erally hundreds of Instances such as these, all supporting the contention of the railroads that the labor rules un-- un-- der which they have been forced tt work are such as to prevent the "honest, "hon-est, efficient and economical management" manage-ment" demanded by the Transportation Transporta-tion Act. LABOR RULES GOST ROADSMLLIONS Public Directly Interested in Effort to Stop Drain on I Carriers' Income. BIG SUMS FOR WORK NOT DONE i Railways Asking Labor Board to Abrogate Wasteful Agreements Made Under Federal Control. "The entire country, Its consumers, its farmers, its workmen, and even the railway employees themselves, are directly di-rectly interested with the railroads in cutting down railway operating expenses." ex-penses." This is the keynote of the case presented pre-sented by the railroads to the United States Railroad Labor Board, now in session in Chicago. The railroads have submitted evidence evi-dence to the board to show why the National Agreements affecting railway shop labor should ' be abrogated, believing be-lieving that this is a vitally important step in the process of reducing operating op-erating expenses. This step is not only necessary to insure adequate earning power to the railroads, but will make possible an ultimate reduction in rates. The agreements were made by the Railroad Administration .lust before the end of Federal control. The sum total of the rules and working conditions condi-tions provided by the National Agreements Agree-ments have increased the operating expenses of the railroads by hundreds of millions, and have decreased the efficiency and output of the employees in other ways resulting in losses which cannot be calculated in dollars and cents. For several weeks the railroads have been multiplying instances of the absurd and extravagant results of the labor rules fastened upon them by the National Agreements. In one case cited before the board n machinist was paid 16 hours' wages for work all perform within eight hours. This case illustrated the effect of the rule that for each "call" the worker is to be paid five hours' wages even if he -works only ten minutes. The case of a car repairer on the Virginian Railway, wdio was recently paid over $1,000 for services which were never rendered, and in addition the same amount of overtime as was made by his gang, was another example. exam-ple. In connection with the rule that none but mechanics or apprentices shall do mechanics' work, the following follow-ing was cited to indicate its unfairness unfair-ness : Five Hours' Pay for 30 Minutes' Work "The El Taso & Southwestern Railroad Rail-road recently had an engine set out at Douglas, and about the time it was ready to go to its train it developed that a window light was broken in the cab. It was necessary for the foreman to call a carpenter to do the work that be could have performed himself in a few minutes. The train was delayed one hour and 30 .minutes, and the employee em-ployee called to do the work was paid five hours for work requiring 30 minutes." min-utes." The Inefficiency created In inflexible application of the rules contained in the agreements in question was illustrated illus-trated In the following actual case which recently occurred on the Baltimore Balti-more & Ohio Railroad: "An engine was placed In the shops for certain repairs. Because of the provisions of the National Agreement, it was necessary that members of five crafts perform parts of this work; formerly, the, entire operation was performed by the members of but two crafts," $6,500,000 for Work Not Performed How the railroads of the country were compelled to pay almost !?i.."OQ,-000 !?i.."OQ,-000 in the first six months of 1020 for service not rendered because of the effects of but one of the 1S2 rules included in-cluded in the Shop Crafts National Agrueiuont was shown In the testl mony. This punitive payment for work nev-1 nev-1 r performed was required by n clause inhe National Agreement, which provides pro-vides that, when employees are required re-quired to check in ami out en theit -iwn time they will be paid one houi extra at the close of each week. The rigid clasr-iflentinns of labor, when taken in connection with 1 lip rule that, requires, that a man must have four years' experience before being be-ing employed to perforin any of tin hit!; !istMl in them, result in p:"-'ng |