Christian sociology; Labor -- United States; Labor movement -- United States; Working class -- United States
=Railroads and Churches.= The railroad situation is too complicated
for us to attempt a solution of it in a church study class. It will
demand years of experimentation and a degree of personal service on
the part of the best and ablest men of our nation. What the church can
and must do is to try to estimate the value of the principles that are
involved in the railroad development and management. This can be done
by following the story of the railroad as told by the writers in the
public magazines of the last ten years. The history of our railroad
legislation is also available for us in the records of the Interstate
Commerce Commission. Each study group should write to Washington and
get the literature issued by this commission. Much of it will be
found to be dry reading, being largely a compilation of statistics;
and these statistics dealing in figures so large that they mean very
little to us. The recommendations, however, and the conclusions are of
practical value and will be found to be extremely helpful in the wise
and just conclusion regarding our attitude toward the railroad as a
national institution.
=Other Means of Transportation.= The work of the men engaged in
transportation is not by any means confined to the workers on the
railroads. In our cities there are thousands of men employed on the
street-cars, elevated railroads, and subway railways. The interurban
traction lines employ hundreds of thousands of men. A careful study has
been made of the situation affecting these workers by the Department
of Labor of the United States, and its report is based upon facts
ascertained from actual conditions found in all the principal cities
of the country. Without exception the street-car men, including
conductors, motormen, linesmen, and ticket-sellers, are poorly paid.
Many of the cities are paying the men much less than a living wage.
What do you know about the conditions in the street-cars in your own
city? Where do the men who operate these cars live? What about their
families? A motorman on one of the elevated railway lines of Chicago
shot himself a few years ago. The note he left said: “I have four
children and it is impossible with the rising cost of living for me
to maintain my home on $2.12 a day. I have a Life Insurance policy
for $2,000 and this is worth more to my wife and children than I earn
at present.” The street-car lines in most of our cities are owned and
controlled by capitalists living in some other city, and they are
operated, not for the benefit of the city, but simply for profits. The
frequent strikes on the street-car lines are the direct result of this
foolish policy of our cities of allowing themselves to be exploited
by groups of business men who have no interest in the city, but hold
toward it, its citizens, and its own workers, the attitude of a set
of political and social freebooters. A few places only have attempted
municipal ownership, and in these cases it has met with a large
measure of success.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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