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Published online by Cambridge University Press: 07 November 2014
The underlying assumption of Dr. Rollit's paper is that transportation ought to cover its own costs, and I should like to register my general agreement with it. But the main argument is to the effect that the present difficulties of the railways are the result of unequal subsidies, unequal regulation, and unequal labour costs. By inference, one would expect that when public bodies come to their senses and when the abnormally low wages paid to transport operators are brought to a proper level, then railways would be restored to prosperity. It is a much rosier picture than the available facts appear to justify.
A study of table I would suggest that the relative retrogression of the railways is not at all closely connected with the rise of direct motor competition. The peak in per capita use of rail service would appear to have been reached well before such competition became effective and the persistence of the subsequent decline in railway gross revenues as a percentage of the national income would suggest that even the most sudden and devastating access of sanity on the part of the taxing authorities would not restore the railways to that position in the life of the community which they once held. Humpty-dumpty has fallen off his wall for good and the sooner he learns to get along on a footing of equality with common mortals the better it will be for all of us.
Interstate Commerce Commission, United States Bureau of Statistics, Wage Statistics—Class I Steam Railways in the United States. The statistics of compensation for 1937 are summarized in the following table:
2 Fox, Bertrand, “The Effect of Methods of Compensation upon Railroad Wage Costs” (Review of Economic Statistics, vol. XVII, 03, 1935, p. 60).CrossRefGoogle Scholar
3 It increases the leisure time rather than monthly earnings because at the insistence of the men maximum monthly mileages are written into the labour agreements. On the fast runs the maximum mileage is run out in as little as thirteen calendar days.
4 Except as it substitutes straight time for overtime which is paid for at time and one-half.
5 See Rates of Pay and Rules Governing the Service of Locomotive Engineers, Canadian National Railways, Steam Lines East of Armstrong, etc. (effective Sept. 1, 1929), article 8 M. The differences between regions, between systems, and between the various divisions of employees are minor only, and may, for purposes of exposition, be disregarded.
6 “Actual mileage will be allowed to engineers: (a) taken from trains on the road to assist other trains; (b) doubling grades; or (c) running for supply of coal or water, such mileage to be added to the road mileage when computing overtime” (ibid., article 17).
7 See, for example, the report of Case Number 423, of the Canadian Railway Board of Adjustment, No. 1 ( Labour Gazette, vol. XXXIV, 1934, pp. 14–16 Google Scholar).
8 Rates of Pay and Rules Governing the Service of Locomotive Engineers, etc., article 7A.
9 Rates of Pay and Rules Governing Service of Conductors, Canadian Pacific Railway Eastern Lines (effective July 16, 1929), Rule 2. The effect of this is to raise the pay of the conductor from 4.72 to 6.25 cents per mile, and of the trainmen from 3.18 to 4.91 cents.
10 Those who are interested in the wasteful complications of these rules are referred to the highly condensed reports of cases decided by the Canadian Railway Board of Adjustment, No. 1, as published in the Labour Gazette. This Board was formed in 1918 and has continued in existence to the present time. It is composed of twelve men, six being appointed by the railways, six by the unions (the Brotherhood of Locomotive Engineers, the Brotherhood of Locomotive Firemen and Enginemen, the Order of Railway Conductors, the Brotherhood of Railroad Trainmen, the Order of Railroad Telegraphers, and the International Brotherhood of Maintenance of Way Employees). They hear only cases which have passed through the normal channels of adjustment and are passed on to the Board for decision as an agreed statement of facts. They represent, therefore, cases of principle to which the unions ate deeply committed, and should be read with that in mind.
11 An assumption which would be a great deal stronger if the Canadian National were not so dependent on the Dominion Government.