The relation of the compensation of railway employes to the gross earnings of the railways, which furnish the fund from which they are paid, and also to the sum of the expenses incurred in producing those earnings for the past ten years, is shown in the next summary, in conjunction with the operating ratio:
| Summary Showing Proportion of Compensation of Employes to Gross Earnings and Operating Expenses, and of Operating Ratio Ten Years, 1899 to 1909. | |||
| Ratio Compensation of Labor to Gross Earnings | Ratio Compensation of Labor to Operating Expenses | Ratio of Operating Expenses to Gross Earnings | |
| 1909 | 41.00% | 62.06% | 66.12% |
| 1908 | 43.38% | 62.33% | 69.67% |
| 1907 | 41.42% | 61.41% | 67.53% |
| 1906 | 40.02% | 60.79% | 66.08% |
| 1905 | 40.34% | 60.40% | 66.78% |
| 1904 | 41.36% | 61.07% | 67.79% |
| 1903 | 40.78% | 61.65% | 66.16% |
| 1902 | 39.28% | 60.58% | 64.66% |
| 1901 | 38.39% | 59.27% | 64.86% |
| 1900 | 38.82% | 60.04% | 64.65% |
| 1899 | 39.81% | 61.04% | 65.24% |
| Increase 1899 to 1909 | 3.00% | 1.65% | 1.35% |
The significance of this statement is that in spite of all the labor saving devices and economies of operation—reduced grades, modified curves and more efficient equipment—adopted by the railways during the past decade, the proportionate cost of labor to earnings and to expenses has increased. It reached an abnormally high ratio in 1908 because of the unprecedented recession in revenues during the second half of the year. The fact that it has been above 40% persistently since 1902 proves that labor continues to receive its full proportion of the receipts of American railways.
Pay of Employes on British Railways.
Although the statistics of British railways are singularly barren of details respecting the compensation of British railway "servants," as they are termed, the reports of Boards of Conciliation afford data as to the rates of pay of several classes as follows:
| Scale of Wages of Drivers and Firemen on North British Railway, 1909. | ||
| Rate per Day of 12 Hours | ||
| Drivers | Firemen | |
| Passenger engines, main line, long road | $1.56 | $0.88 |
| Passenger engines running into chief terminal station | 1.44 | .84 |
| Passenger engines, branch lines | 1.32 | .80 |
| Goods engines, main line, long road, trip men | 1.44 | .88 |
| Goods engines, main line, other than long road | 1.32 | .84 |
| Goods and mineral engines running into depots and terminal stations | 1.20 | .80 |
| Goods and mineral engines working branch lines and collieries | 1.14 | .76 |
| Mineral pilot, pilot and shunting engines | 1.04 | .72 |
In his award in the case of the North Eastern Railway, Sir James Woodhouse fixed the following scales:
Firemen.—First year, 84 cents per day; 2d year, 90 cents; 3d year, 96 cents; 4th and 5th years, $1.02; 6th year, $1.08; 7th year, $1.14; 8th year, and subsequent years, $1.20. Firemen to pass for drivers during the 8th year.
Cleaners.—Age 16 to 17 years, $2.40 per week; 17 to 18 years, $2.64; 18 to 19 years, $3.12; 19 to 20 years, $3.60; 20 to 21 years, $4.08; and an advance of 24 cents per week for each subsequent year up to a maximum of $4.80 per week.
"That the wages of all goods and mineral guards be increased as follows: