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Show BRIEFS FIEED IN RAILROAD CASE Attorney Sheean and Brotherhood Brother-hood President Place Final Summing Up Before Arbitrators. MEN ADEQUATELY PAID Carter Reviews Long Hours and Mental and Physical Strain of Men Early Decision Expected. Chicago. March 29 Briefs In the Western railroad wage case were Hied with the board of arbitration today by James M. Sheean, attorney for the railroads, and b William S Carter, president of the Brotherhood of Locomotive Lo-comotive Firemen and Enginemen. Oral argument was begun and was expected to last two, and possibly three days. Decision by the board on the demands of the men for higher wages and other concessions will be made on or before April 20. and will affect fi3,000 engineers, firemen and hostlers employed by ninety-eight western railroads operating 140,000 miles of track Mr. Sheean's brief asserted that fh-3 men failed utterly to establish their contention that their labors and responsibilities, re-sponsibilities, and their productive efficiency ef-ficiency have increased since their wages were adjusted by arbitration in 1910, nor said, the brief, had they made good their claim that their earnings, earn-ings, despite a higher rate, had been decreased in this period Their contentions. con-tentions. Mr Sheean said, had not been proven by their ovn exhibits, and had been disproved by actual records rec-ords quoted In the railroad exhibits. The Increased producthity of the railroads was said in the brief to have been due. not to any increased effort of the men, but to stringent economies econo-mies in operation, and the expenditure of $660,000,000 in extensions, additions and improvements to property, including includ-ing heavier power and the reduction of courves and grades Of this sum $220,000,000 was spent for the purpose of increasing efriclency and safety and to expedite train movements. These improvements Mr Sheean said, have actually enabled the enginemen to I earn their money in fewer hours than prior to 1910. Firemen, he said, actually actu-ally Shovel five per cent less coal now than In the previous period II1 ! said that the railroad exhibit showing show-ing that to grant the sixteen demands ot the men would cost $41,000,000 a ear had not been controverted He pointed out the decreased dividend payments of recent years and to the increasing use of labor-saving devices on engines He referred to the high earnings attained by some engineers and firemen and asserted that the bulk of the engineers average between $170 and $l$u a month, and firemen from between Sll" and ?lla. Pay Full, Fair and Adequate. The brid claimed that these pay roll figures demonstrated that th present schedules provide full, fair and adequate pay. whether measured by comparison with other trades by comparison with other railroad em ployea who have taken duties and responsibilities., re-sponsibilities., or by comparison with engineers and firemen of the east or the south; and in making this claim directed attention to the fact that these pay roll figures had not been contradicted b the employes whose names appeared thereon, notwithstanding notwith-standing the fact that during the hearing hear-ing while the railroad exhibits were being introduced, Mr. Carter stated to the board of arbitration: "I have reached the conclusion that our case is lost if we treat the exhibits exhib-its of the railroads too seriously." President Carter's Brief. Mr Carter's brief was divided into nine chapters as follows: Standardization of rates of wages; the sixteen propositions submitted to arbitration; earning possibilities un der existing rates and rules, economic effect of the Increased '-out of living, requisite qualifications of locomotive engineers and firemen, increased work and productive efficiency of engineers en-gineers and firemen- ability of the roads to pay the increases re-quested, and the future outlook. Standardization of rubs and rales of pay as proposed, the brief contend-jed, contend-jed, would be helpful to employes and I railroads alike, tending to clarify the i atmosphere and reduce friction and I would give tlx- men only a living wage Mr Carter insisted that the railroad evidence exaggerated the earning possibilities of the suggested increase. Railroads' Hope of Victory. "If the railroads eould creRte the impression that all engineers and firemen earn as much as some engineers engi-neers and firemen occasionally earn, they evidently hoped to defeat our proposition and retain the old Inequitable Inequit-able order of things." said Mr Carter It has been shown that onh the veterans in service who have survived the dangers and hardships of years of service can and do get the fancy j priced runs: they are the exceptions 'Compared with the rates paid in other Industries, engineers in freight service serv-ice rank below fifteen leading trades and engineors in the Chicago switch varcls are paid 42 1-2 cents an hour compared with 48 cents received by hod carriers, while other trades pay 05 and lo conte an hour ' Mr. Carter asserted that the arbl trators bhould consider the fact that the cost of living has gone "skyhlgh-waxd" "skyhlgh-waxd" of recent years. He dwelt on tho long hours which enginemen work, the mental and physical phys-ical strain to which they are subjected subject-ed and the skill and care aeceasary lo safely conduet high speed passenger passen-ger trains and heavy freights. In the period 1890-1913 Mr. Carter said that the productive efficiency of the men, as gauged by the swelling revenue has increased between 4o and 60 per cent and the roads are abund antly able to pay an increased scale "The combined accumulated surplus of the forty-three largst western systems sys-tems amounted on June 30, 1914. to $625,895,415 and the actual cash on hand to $208,278.1966." said Mr ( alter. al-ter. "Dividends are increasing rather than decreasing." He asserted that the outlook for the companies is bright, increased passenger passen-ger and freight rates are on and the trend of traffic is increasing ir |