The Timaru Herald TUESDAY, MARCH 10, 1931. CLEARING THE PROSPERITY TRACK.

Timaru Herald, Volume CXXXIV, Issue 18822, 10 March 1931, Page 8

The Timaru Herald TUESDAY, MARCH 10, 1931. CLEARING THE PROSPERITY TRACK.

Since it is no longer true to speak of the railways of the United Kingdom as constituting a “sheltered industry,” or as

enjoying a virtual “monopoly,” as transport operations have never been more keenly competitive, the companies presenting their case to the National Wages Board in Great Britain, contended that their bid to save some millions a year in the hope of balancing their budgets was justified by the economic position of the railways. After prolonged negotiations, the Board recognised the reasonableness of the companies’ plans to meet the emergency and authorised a deduction of 2} per cent, from all earnings, together with a further deduction of 2j per cent, in respect of all earnings exceeding £l2 per week. The decision affected half a million men. Changes in working conditions were also requested. The National Railwaymen’s Union demanded, a minimum wage for adult grades, of £3 per week, but they accepted the recommendations of the Board as an alternative to a disastrous dispute. Presenting the case for the railways, the administrative head of the London, Midland and South Western Railways said:

The 1913 bill for wages and salaries was £47,000,000, and this had become £114,000,000 in 1929. The companies submitted that a reduction of wages could be justified by the following facts:—

The increase over pre-war in the cost of living was 55 per cent. The increase over pre-war in the general level of wages was 70 to 75 per cent. Without railways this percentage would be lower. The increase over pre-war in the salaries of the salaried staff was about 100 per cent. The increase in the wages of railway conciliation grades was more than 120 per cent. The increase in the total railway wage bill in 1929 was 143 per cent., yet the volume of traffic in 1929 was less than pre-war. In 1930 and to-day the volume of traffic was alarmingly less than in 1929.

It has been repeatedly pointed out that the railway employee can only recover what is economically possible for the industry. The facts have had to be faced. The railways receipts for last year were less than those in 1929 by £10,500,000, while in net revenue in 1930, would, it was estimated, be worse than 1929 by £8,500,000. Moreover, it was estimated by the advocates of wage reduction that this year there would be almost £10,500,000 short of the standard revenue determined by the Railw r ay Rates Tribunal. The yield of the proposals presented for the consideration of the National Wages Board of Great Britain was estimated at about £9,500,000, and the companies sought relief under certain heads not within the jurisdiction of the Board, which brought the total to about £11,000,000. The demands of the railway companies were stoutly resisted by representatives of the National Union of Railwaymen, who said the suggestion that rates of pay were out of line with ttie cost of living was not accepted by their organisation. “The demands of the individual,” declared one of the spokesmen of the men, “based upon his economic needs and social amenities, called for a higher rate than was at present being paid to many of the grades.” Much can be said in support of views put forward by both parties to the dispute, but the companies and the men would be courting disaster if they failed to face the stern realities of the economic condition of the country’s railway. The amicable settlement has immensely cleared the economic atmosphere in relation to railways. Coming in a day when the continued existence of railways is being questioned in many quarters; when many are to be found declaring that their day is past; and soon they will be as outmoded as the stage coach; when they themselves are complaining with much justice that rival facilities and not a little local sympathy discriminated against them, so constructive and hopeful a note as marked the negotiations in the Homeland is more than timely. In the United States, the year 1931 opened with most momentous developments in railway history. The heads of the four largest eastern railways ended a ten-year deadlock when they gave President Hoover the opportunity to announce that they had agreed on' a unification of the multitudinous railway lines of the North West, into four great systems. In past depressions, some powerful and decisive factor forced the turning of me business and industrial trend. In 1920, for instance, in the United States, it was the housing shortage which bought a record ( construction boom of nine years’ duration. In 1931, it may well prove that the agreement between the railway companies and the 1 men in Great Britain, and the merger of the railway systems of ! the Eastern United States, was the lever which started economic confidence in the right direction, and cleaned the “old man depression” from, the prosperity track.