Responsibility

". . . An . . . insult. . . . I predict that it is the straw that will break the back of the unfair and inequitable wages and prices camel of the Government." The speaker was the usually conservative David B. Robertson, president of the Brotherhood of Locomotive Firemen and Enginemen. His subject: the decision of a special railway emergency board, affecting 400,000 members of his and four other operating railroad unions.

Thirteen months ago the 15 nonoperating unions began seeking a blanket 20-c- an hour raise on the grounds that they were suffering under a "gross inequity" in wages (typical inequity: the average railroad employe gets 84-c- an hour; a shipyard worker $1.28).

In May a special board, set up by President Roosevelt to deal with the railroad men, recommended an 8-c- increase. This was torpedoed by Economic Stabilization Boss Fred Vinson. Vinson's decision laid down the policy that "gross inequity" was to be recognized only when the workers lived in "substandard conditions."

Last week a second special board considered the case of the operating unions, reluctantly followed the Vinson directive. Its decision: a 4-c- an hour increase, which was too measly for the rail workers to consider.

Promptly the 20 angry union chiefs laid plans for a united front. In the offing was a threat of a national transportation strike. For years Franklin Roosevelt has had no stancher backers than the railroad brotherhoods, but last week the 1,100,000 nonoperating railroad men were told by their union leaders: "The responsibility for the present situation . . . rests with the President of the United States."

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