[29] See following article on ["The Prevention of Railway Strikes."]
[30] See "The Freight-car Service," [page 287.]
[THE PREVENTION OF RAILWAY STRIKES.] [31]
By CHARLES FRANCIS ADAMS.
Railways the Largest Single Interest in the United States—Some Impressive Statistics—Growth of a Complex Organization—Five Divisions of Necessary Work—Other Special Departments—Importance of the Operating Department—The Evil of Strikes—To be Remedied by Thorough Organization—Not the Ordinary Relation between Employer and Employee—Of what the Model Railway Service Should Consist—Temporary and Permanent Employees—Promotion from One Grade to the Other—Rights and Privileges of the Permanent Service—Employment during Good Behavior—Proposed Tribunal for Adjusting Differences and Enforcing Discipline—A Regular Advance in Pay for Faithful Service—A Fund for Hospital Service, Pensions, and Insurance—Railroad Educational Institutions—The Employer to Have a Voice in Management through a Council—A System of Representation.
In 1836—fifty years ago—there were but a little more than 1,000 miles of railroad on the American continents, representing an outlay of some $35,000,000, and controlled by a score or so of corporations. There are now (1886) about 135,000 miles in the United States alone, capitalized at over eight thousand millions of dollars.
The railroad interest is thus the largest single interest in the country. Probably 600,000 men are in its employ as wage-earners. It is safe to say that over two millions of human beings are directly dependent upon it for their daily support. The Union Pacific, as a single and by no means the largest member of this system, controls 5,150 miles of road, represented by stock and bonds to the amount of $275,000,000. More than 15,000 names are borne upon its pay-rolls. Its yearly income has exceeded $29,000,000, and in 1885 was $26,000,000. Large as these aggregates sound, there are other corporations which far exceed the Union Pacific both in income and in capitalization, and not a few exceed it in mileage. The Pennsylvania, for instance, either owns or directly controls 7,300 miles of road. It is represented by a capitalization of $670,000,000; its annual income is $93,000,000; it carries 75,000 names on its pay-rolls.