(erielack) Hornell Ice and Cold Storage Company

[Wdburt1_@_aol.com]

Some partial answers to Henry's questions:
 
There is reference in Erie Railroad Magazine articles from the late  1920s 
and early 1930s, and local newspapers during the same  period, to both the 
Hornell Ice & Cold Storage Company and the City Ice  & Fuel Company.  They 
apparently refer to the same company, which was  the contractor and/or lessee 
that operated both the Hornell and Marion icing  plants for the Erie.  These 
were the two principal icing stations on the  railroad.
 
I assume this began as part of the Erie's attempt to farm out to  
contractors many "railroad" functions during the early 1920s, including most of  the 
larger shops, maintenance of way, and many other tasks.  I did not  realize 
until recently that when the federal government handed the railroads  back 
to their private sector owners in 1920, it did so with a federal railroad  
labor board that continued to set wage rates for railroad employees.  The  
railroads contended that the feds had drastically raised wages during the war,  
and certainly it is true that rail wages rose in tandem with wartime price  
inflation.  The problem for everyone was how to deal with the inevitable  
deflation as the economy came down off the fix of easy money.  Railroad  
managements including F.D. Underwood characterized this as trying to return to  
the way it was before the war, which they should have known was a hopeless  
cause, but the underlying economic problem remained anyway.  Wages had to  
come down as the money supply shrank.  They viewed the federal labor  board 
with distrust and outright defiance, especially after Warren Harding was  
elected.  The unions charged that contracting-out was a scheme to evade the  
labor board's orders by claiming that the railroads employed no maintenance  
workers, etc.  Eventually the labor board ruled illegal one  such 
arrangement, on the Indiana Harbor Belt.  The Erie had a similar  case pending when the 
shopmen's strike began in 1922.  Contracting-out  ended at most of the 
Erie's shops after the strike, as did most contracted  maintenance of way, but 
the ice plants continued to be operated under  contract.
 
I do not know whether the Hornell Ice & Cold Storage was anything more  
than a front for the Erie.  The contractor company that ran the Hornell  shops 
for several years was incorporated by several prominent Hornell  
businessmen.  The terms of the deal essentially allowed them to split any  savings vs. 
railroad operation with the Erie--that was their opportunity to make  a 
profit--but the Erie retained the right to dictate who worked in the shops,  and 
the right to take them back at any time.  It is also evident that the  
contractor was dependent on the Erie to fund major capital investments.   Quite 
likely similar terms applied to the ice plants.
 
WDB
 
 
WDB

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