Without Any Uproar

U.S. management and labor once again demonstrated their ability to get together and settle a major wages-&-hours dispute without any uproar.

A year ago, unions representing some 1,000,000 non-operating railroad workers (clerks, shopmen, telegraphers, etc.) demanded a 40-hour, five-day week (instead of a 48-hour, six-day week), a "third-round" 25-c--an-hour wage boost, extra pay for Saturdays and Sundays. Negotiations were soon mired in argument. After mid-January the unions had the right to strike. Instead they continued to negotiate.

This week, after one continuous 21-hour session, both sides finally accepted a presidential fact-finding board's judgment. The unions got their 40-hour week and a 7-c--an-hour wage boost. They lost their argument for extra pay for Saturdays and Sundays. The settlement would add around $300 million to the cost of running the nation's railroads in 1949, but the board figured that the railroads could afford it.

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