RETRENCHMENT

Three eastern railroad executives have accepted the invitation of the Railway Labor Executives Association to negotiate the issues of wage cuts and of employment. Previous attempts at an agreement failed because the representatives of railway labor were unwilling to accept a ten per cent wage cut without a guarantee that the present number of men should continue to be employed.

Although a settlement of the problem is not inevitable this time, the attitude of the opposing factions will undoubtedly lead to a quick and sensible decision. The employers have abandoned their rigid demands which would have led to lengthy legal proceedings, while the employees seem willing to make a sacrifice for their security and for the benefit of the country at large. That it was more urgent to decrease first the income of capital and of middlemen is almost universally admitted, but the reduction of wages, in keeping with what economists believe is the beginning of a long period of slowly falling prices, is another necessary step towards sound conditions of industry.

The action of all parties concerned should be exemplary to other groups of privileged workers who have managed to keep their wages high when their less fortunate brethren were seeing payrolls constantly diminishing. When labor leaders consent to a reduction in wages, they show that they do not cling blindly to every temporary advantage and that they feel strong enough to obtain higher wages, if the price level should rise in the future.