NEWS & EDITORIAL COMMENT edited/DAVID P. MORGAN WHAT PRICE "PRESIDENTIAL"? Trains I ON the last day of February President John F. Kennedy was handed the 576-page report of the 15-man Presidential Railroad Commission which was appointed in December 1960 to study work-rules affecting the railroads' 200,000 operating employees. The Commission, composed of five public, five industry, and five union members, was presented with 15,503 pages of testimony and 319 exhibits during its hearing; had access to studies made by its own staff; and, in the case of the public members, made several field trips to examine road and yard operations firsthand. President Kennedy accepted the report with thanks, stating, "I know that both sides agree with me that in serving the national interest, they serve their own interest best." As for the Commission itself, the vote to accept its recommendations was, more or less expectedly, 10 to 5. The public members, all of them lawyers, economists, and/or university personnel, voted unanimously for the report. The carrier reps thought that certain provisions were questionable, particularly those pay and severance allowances which would "place an added burden on the already hardpressed railroads," nevertheless they accepted the full report, "the public interest being paramount." Brotherhood reception can be gauged by the fact that three of the union members filed 150 pages' worth of dissenting opinions, one even refused to sign the letter of transmittal to the President and confessed his regret that he hadn't earlier resigned from the group, and — from Cleveland — Grand Chief Engineer Roy E. Davidson of the BofLE declared, "It is totally unacceptable. I can't find printable language to express the repugnance, indignation, resentment, and disappointment which locomotive engineers will feel when they are informed of the contents." In essence, the Commission went along with the industry's contentions that operating work-rules and pay methods have not kept pace with technology. Accordingly, it recommended that firemen be retained only on passenger locomotives and gradually be dropped from nonsteam freight and yard engines; that road employees perform a limited amount of switching and terminal work on their own trains (and that yard crews be eliminated where the volume of work is insufficient); and that the dual basis of pay, currently based on miles or hours be revised to combine both miles and hours as components. Additionally, the Commission pointed toward a gradual reduction in retirement age so that by 1967 the mandatory pension age will be 65; and it recommended that the maximum numbers ex All of the Commission's findings in favor of change were tempered with generous employee benefits. For ample, although no new firemen would be hired, any fireman with 10 or more years of service would be kept on the payroll; and those laid off would receive Washington Agreement* severance pay, previously granted only for mergercaused job reductions. In other areas, the Commission urged seven paid holidays for hourly employees, lodging or lodging allowance for crews away from home terminals, and increased wages for that 75 per cent of operating employees "least advantaged" by the present pay system. Those viewing the Commission's report from the outside, regardless of bias, can agree with the carrier representatives who observed that "no subject as complex as the outdated work-rules in the railroad industry can be settled to the complete satisfaction of everybody." In the case of the Brotherhoods, it is all but inconceivable how any Commission report, short of a total sellout to labor, could have satisfied them inasmuch as their prehearings work-rules "modernization" formula consisted of such basics as shorter work days, weeks, and months for the same pay, a 10 per cent night-shift pay differential, and a five-man minimumcrew consist rule which would have put firemen, for example, on all electric multiple-unit commuter trains. The Brotherhoods, then, have been consistent, maintaining before, during, and after the hearings that the carriers' "featherbedding" campaign is meaningless propaganda and that there is nothing wrong with the status quo that some sweeteners in the form of shorter hours and more fringe benefits wouldn't fix up. Management wanted a wholesale work-rules reform, told the unions and the public as much starting in February 1959, and finally got the five operating unions to agree to an impartial study, albeit with non-binding recommendations. It was unrealistic in 1962 to assume, however, that changes worth the name would have been urged by any commission without genContinued on page 9 *Dating back to 1936, this agreement provides that the displaced employee be paid 60 per cent of his annual earnings (in the year preceding discharge) for a period of five years. IN THOUSANDS THE story I was told about Samuel M. Vauclain, Baldwin's grand old man of steam, is this: He was making the rounds of the drafting offices at Eddystone in the 1920's when he chanced upon a side elevation of the firm's first diesel. Informed that the proposed design was rated at 300 h.p., he ripped the blueprint off the drawing board and told the surprised draftsman, "Young man, Baldwin never builds horsepower in hundreds, we build in thousands!" And so, as our report on pages 42-49 reveals, the first Baldwin diesel of 1925 was a 1000 h.p. locomotive. Say what you will, the Baldwins were big, and so far as the switchers are concerned, some roads wish they were being built yet at Eddystone. Kalmbach Publishing Co. 1962. Title reg. Pat. Off. Published monthly by Kalmbach Publishing Co., 1027 N. 7th St., Milwaukee 3, Wis., U.S.A. BRoadway 2-2060. Western Union and cable address: KALPUB Milwaukee. A. C. Kalmbach, President. Joseph C. O'Hearn, General Sales Manager. Ward Zimmer. Advertising Manager. TRAINS assumes no responsibility for the safe return of unsolicited editorial material. Acceptable photographs are held in files and are paid for upon publication. Second-class postage paid at Milwaukee, Wis. 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(5) Pennsy K4s No. 1737 (4) CB&Q S-4B No. 4002 (3) B&O P-7 No, 5311 (2) MAGMA 2-8-0 No. 5 (1) C&NW E-2a No. 2908. Original water-color paintings created to order, inquire now! ARRIVALS & DEPARTURES C. V. ZIMMER 2034 South St. Lincoln 2, Nebr. MAP OF COLORADO SHOWING RAILROADS AND TOWNS 1878-1958 Price $1.35 postpaid MEL GREEN 6464 S. Downing Littleton, Colo. UNTIL NEW YEAR'S: New Haven's trustees now estimate they can keep the road going until the end of 1962 but thereafter public aid will be required. Ultimate solution is merger with a trunk line, they say. YES OR NO?: I.C.C. has turned down request of IC and SP to buy John I. Hay Company barge line on grounds that the rails and the barge line compete and rail owners would tend to move traffic on all-rail routings. TAKE NOTICE, U.P. FANS! Turndown apparently leaves door open for roads Coming! A century of dramatic railroading in Wm. Kratville's big, action and pictured-packed book for U.P.'s 100th Anniversary, "Golden Rails." Publication date and price not set, but watch "Trains." No orders yet, please. wishing to buy noncompetitive barge lines (e.g., |