In chemical manufacturing, average hourly earnings of skilled and semiskilled workers increased from 51 cents an hour in July 1933 to 63.1 cents an hour in May 1934, an increase of 23.7 percent. Similar trends may be observed for the skilled and semiskilled workers in other comparatively high-paid industries, proving beyond question that such workers received increases greater than the 20 percent needed to maintain take-home pay, with the reduction in hours from 48 to 40.

Part of the incorrect impression given the McDonough Board was in a wage comparison based on the year 1929. This was based on wage data submitted by the carriers comparing 1929 with later years, similar to those Mr. Loomis has quoted on page 656 of the record in this hearing. Mr. Loomis quoted average hourly and weekly earnings and average weekly hours for all railroad employees paid by the hour or by the day for 1929 and 1936, and compares them to data for manufacturing industries. This is an unfair comparison for this reason: Railway workers always have suffered as a result of the great delay imposed upon their wage increases and improvements in working conditions, partly because of the provisions of law. That was the situation in 1929; factory workers generally, as shown by the National Industrial Conference Board data, rose in 1929 to 6.6 cents above the level of 1921. Wages of railroad employees paid by the hour or by the day had dropped 1 cent during that period because of reductions in their wages which were made after June 1921 and had not fully recovered by 1929.

I well recall the day the stock market broke. I was on that very day engaged in an arbitration trying to get a wage increase for the employees on the Nickel Plate Railroad. The railroad employees were quite generally caught in the movements for wage increases by that break in stock market and industrial conditions. While other groups had completed their wage movements, the railway men were very largely unable to do so at that time.

Mr. MURDOCK. You weren't responsible for that break, were you, Mr. Oliver?

Mr. OLIVER. I Suppose insofar as we all shared responsibility in not getting higher wage rates than we did, I was to that extent certainly responsible.

The CHAIRMAN. I think the dishonest manipulations on the stock exchange had a good deal to do with it. They were running up these stocks to fabulous heights, using pools having millions of dollars back of them to manipulate. I know Anaconda was run up toward $200 a share, and they finally got it up to $187, something like that when it began to fall. It came down as low as $3 a share. I was going by a store in Chicago one day and saw a merchant selling suits of clothes there for $35 and he was giving a share of Anaconda stock away with each suit [laughter].

I think the crooked manipulation of the stock exchange had a good deal to do with the situation.

Mr. OLIVER. I know of some effects of individual crooked operations in the handling of stocks at that time. They certainly were disastrous in their immediate local effects.

In July 1933, however, just prior to the NRA code becoming effective in outside industry, the relationship between wages of railroad employees and manufacturing employees was about 2 cents per

hour different from that of 1921. The ups and downs of the previous boom and depression periods had almost balanced. Thus, the whole comparison made by Mr. Loomis on the 1929 level is only a measure of the injustice of railway changes in the 1920's.

I should like at this point, if I may, to interpolate comment on another of the statements introduced through the evidence of Mr. Loomis.

At page 878 of the record of this hearing there is a discussion in response to questions of a member of the committee on the question of productivity. A quick reading of that record or listening to the statements made might give the impression that the yard-service employees had not registered any increase in their productivity. The statement specifically refers to the number of employees. It said that there were in 1921 actually somewhat fewer yard-service employees than there were in 1947, or on a subsequent date, giving the impression perhaps that since the number of employees had slightly increased, there was no actual change in productivity, no actual improvement.

In order that the committee might have a response to the question then asked of Mr. Loomis, I have prepared a statistical summary that I should like to have marked "Brotherhood of Locomotive Firemen and Enginemen Exhibit No. 13," which is headed on its first page, "Traffic units per employee, yard-service employees."

The CHAIRMAN. It will the marked as requested and inserted in the record.

(The document referred to was marked "B. L. F. and E. Exhibit No. 13" and is as follows:)

B. L. F. AND E. No. 13

Traffic units per employee, yard-service employees,1 selected years, 1922–49

Traffic units 2.

...thousands. 410, 225, 271 514, 701, 537 509, 469, 831 384, 087, 844 378, 741, 080 596, 637, 013

Before 1936, included ICC Reporting Divisions 139, 140, 144, and 148; after 1936, included ICC Reporting Divisions 119, 120, 124, and 128.

2 Revenue ton-miles added to twice revenue passenger-miles.

Source: Interstate Commerce Commission, Statistics of Railways in the United States; 1949: Statement M-300 and Statement M-220.

Traffic units per man-hour, yard-service employees,1 selected years, 1922-49

51,776, 836 118, 947, 091

Traffic units 2.
Man-hours:

Conductors.
Brakemen.

thousands.. 410, 225, 271 514, 701, 537 509, 469, 831 384, 087, 844 378, 741, 080 596, 637, 013

Engineers.

84, 076, 600

55, 532, 232 122, 307, 941

Firemen

Total.

273, 646, 060

Traffic units per man-hour:

Conductors.

Brakemen.

10,744

Engineers

Firemen..

10, 117

4, 505 10,584

4,878

11, 970

Total..

Index of traffic units per man-hour:

1,899

1,959

2,156

Conductors.

Brakemen.

Before 1936, included ICC Reporting Divisions 139, 140, 144, and 148; after 1936 included ICC Reporting Divisions 119, 120, 124, and 128.

Revenue ton-miles added to twice revenue passenger-miles.

Source: Interstate Commerce Commission, Statistics of Railways in the United States; 1949: Statement M-300 and Statement M-220.

Mr. OLIVER. When the committee members refer to that table, they will see it is a fact that in 1949 there were more yard-service employees than there were in 1922. I have prepared this table to start in 1922 because that is the first year for which a complete year is available in the method that the Interstate Commerce Commission adopted in 1921 for reporting railway wage statistics. The facts are almost exactly the same from the 1921 base, as nearly as we can calculate.

From 1922 to 1949 the over-all change in the number of these yardservice employees was under 1,000, but there was an increase of about 700 in the number of employees. During that same period the traffic handled by the railroads increased from 410 billion traffic units to 596 billion traffic units. So the productivity per yard-service employee increased 442 percent. That was per employee.

Mr. MURDOCK. What is a traffic unit?

Mr. OLIVER. It is a measure adopted by the Interstate Commerce Commission to give an over-all measure of the changes in the volume of traffic. It is arrived at by considering 1 ton-mile of freight as a traffic unit; 1 passenger-mile is 2 traffic units. By using that, you can combine passenger and freight traffic into an over-all figure giving you the volume of transportation service rendered in terms of these traffic units. So, per individual yard-service employee there was 4412 percent more traffic service being rendered in 1949 than had been true in 1922.

I have attached to the first page of that exhibit a second page based on the number of hours worked by these yard-service employees. The comparison shows almost exactly the same increase. It was 43.8 percent increase in productivity per man-hour in 1949 over 1922, and the same thing would be true over 1921, as nearly as it can be calculated.

At the same time I believe it is a very significant factor and one that I have heard no reference to here, although I have not attended all the committee hearings, that these yard-service employees are in one of the most hazardous of all American industrial occupations. There are very few American industries where the casualty rate is higher than

for these very yard-service employees. That has a very close relation to the hours worked. These men not only work 48 hours, but a very substantial percentage of them are working 7 days a week, I am informed by their national officers. For men in such a hazardous occupation to be called upon to work those long hours is a very serious national problem, in my judgment. Even a 48-hour week with the national standard being what it is, and with acceleration of industry, it is open to that very same serious question.

Believing that the committee might be interested in the facts on this situation, I have prepared a statement that I would like to have accepted as Brotherhood of Locomotive Firemen and Enginemen Exhibit No. 14. There is no reference to this statement in my written document. If the committee members had it before them, perhaps what I am about to say with respect to it would be more clear. Mr. MURDOCK. Is that included

Mr. OLIVER. Yes.

Mr. MURDOCH. No. 14.

Mr. OLIVER. Yes, Mr. Murdock

among your exhibits?

The CHAIRMAN. You wish that to be placed in the record and marked as "Exhibit No. 14"?

Mr. OLIVER. Yes.

The CHAIRMAN. B. L. F. and E. No. 14 will be received.

(The document referred to was marked "B. L. F. and E. Exhibit No 14" and is as follows:)

Source: Interstate Commerce Commission Accident Bulletin 118, 1949, p. 6.

Casualties of yard firemen and helpers, class I railways, 1941–45

Source: Interstate Co.n.nerce Commissio 1, Accident Bulletins, 1941-45, and Annual Statements M-300, 1941-45,

Casualties of yard brakemen and yard helpers, class I railways, 1941–45

Source: Interstate Commerce Commission, Accident Bulletins, 1941-45, and Annual Statements M-300, 1941-45.

Army and Air Force casualties World War II

9.0

Percent of casualties to total mobilized_.

Source: Department of the Army, quoted from World Almanac, 1951, p. 514.

Mr. OLIVER. I should like to ask you to refer to it as I discuss it because it isn't in my written statement. The first page shows the number of yard service casualties from 1930 to 1949 per thousand employees. You will note the number killed and injured, and the total shown in the right-hand column. There was a decline from 1930-1934 to 1935-39. The 1930-1934 average, however, had gone up almost doubling the figure for the preceding 5 years. The highest casualty rate was reached in 1943, when 81 out of every 1,000 yard service men were either killed or injured in service. That has declined so that in 1949 it is 42.8 percent, but that is still, you will note, 33 percent above the 1935-39 average in casualties per thousand employees. The sum for the years 1941-45, which I refer to, which are the war years, and to which there is a reference a little later in the exhibit, show that a total of 328 employees per thousand were either killed or injured in this service during the war years.

On the second page you will see the figures for yard firemen and helpers. They are among the lowest of these yard service employees. Mr. MURDOCK. Lowest in what respect?

Mr. OLIVER. In terms of casualties. In the last line, the extreme right-hand column, you will see that 144 employees were killed or injured per 1,000 during the years 1941-45.

The following page shows the casualties for yard brakemen and yard helpers. Referring again to the same position, the lower righthand figure, there were 550 employees killed or injured per thousand in service of that group.

So that you may have a quick basis for checking these figuresand I say they are among the very highest in American industry, among the very highest-I have shown on the last page the Army and Air Force casualties during World War II; 10,400,000 men were mobilized in the Army and Air Force. The total casualties, includ