The Washington times. [volume] (Washington [D.C.]) 1902-1939, 1908-12-07
Year of Panic Passes With
out Railroads Making
Reductions.
ROOSEVELT'S LETTER
LARGELY THE CAUSE
"Most Remarkable Achievement of
His Administration, Declares
Commissioner Neiil.

Because Of the effective sdministra-
ton o. a law, which for nearly a decade
after 1t passed was a dead letter, this
country has passed through a year of
panic without single case Of wage re
duction on the railroads
Nothing Ike such "A record was ever
made. throughout a year Of financial
depression. including a considerable pc
Tiod Of acute panic, in any country in
the world.
The significance Of the maintenance
Of the railroad wage schedule is ap-
parent when II is remembered that the
railroads employ something like 4 mil
lion and q half Of men, and that they
pay wages that average very high. The
beginning oC wage reductions by The
railroad SYSTEMS would have marked its
Inauguration Ina other lines Of business
and a year of depression might easily
have meant the loss to wage-earners
cf all they had gained by the process
OF SLOW acCretion during a decade OF
prosperity and great business activity.
NeilTs Views.
Fl regard this achievement as the most
remarkable. as il has thus far been
entire Roosevelt Administration" de-
clared Commissioner of Labor Charles
P. Nell today When the panic struck
the country there were some people who
recognized the overweening Importance
OF maintaining the wage scale. Wages
move upward by slow and painfuI pro-
cesses. even in the best times; they are
liable 10 sudden and disastrous reduc-
-
cry is possible only by the rigors of the
hand-over-hand process Of climbing.
But this is not all. The duration and
Intensity Of the panic were certain &c
depend in large measure on the attitude
OF employers toward labor. If the pre-
Cedent of reducing wages had been es-
tablished early by the railroads, and
had spread thence, as would have been
inevitable. to other empIoyments, the
CcuntIy's capacity to buy, to consume.
10 demand the products of industry,
would have been shortened. Instead
of going about the business of living
in the usual way. people would sudden
" have felt the necessity 70 curtail ex-
penses, to wear their old shoes longer,
to save something by wearing last
springs suit II clothes. That would
have reacted to the further depression
o. the business Of making shoes and
clothes and everything else II would
have compounded the trouble.
Need of Prevention.
Therefore as a matter Of the most
practical Industrial psychology it was
necessary that the policy Of reducing
wages should not be inaugurated. The
railroads. because Of the Governments
established regulatory power over them,
were the point OF greatest danger and
Yet they also presented the opportunity
for the Administration 10 make its in
huence felt for the discouIagement of
such a tendency"
Mr.. Neil has been in position to re-
alize what has been accomplished. and
by what methods. toward conserving
the scale Of wages and the standard of
living, because Of his service as a mem
Der OF the mediation board under the
Erdman law This act. which for near
ly decade was never AVOked after Il
stood on the statute bo9ks, has in the
last year proved a marvel OF practical
efficiency in adjusting differences be
tween employers and employees
Originally passed as bOJE an arbitra-
ton and mediation act, the measure
was almost entirely devoted 20 a
Iutes. The mediation provision was an
incident and an after-thOught. 1t was
contained in a very few words in the
law, and nobody realized their value
Aspiration did not appeal to either en-
ptoyers or employees. 1t involved too
much uncertainty. Each side was fear
1ul OF enJrUsting its case with arbitra,-
tors, and agreeing TO stand by the
award lest it should be betrayed. So.
as an arbitration measure, the act failed
utterly of its purpose.
Appealed to Disputants.
The mediation provision was simple.
and ultimately appealed to disputants.
1t created the chairman Of the Interstate
Commerce Commission and the Commits
sioner OF Labor as a mediation board.
Either side TO an industrial disagree
ment might invoke the good Offices of
the mediatOrs- If both sides agreed TO
this, the inediators were called into
the case. They came in, not as UNI
pires or arbitrators. but as mutual
friends, to counsel and advise; to conciI-
fate rather than to irritate. They had
no power beyond this, and vet Ii is a
fact that in no case in which they have
been summoned, have they failed TO
negotiate solution satisfactory to both
sides.
In a little more than two years since
this mediation provision came info
vogue for settlement Of differences, the
mediatOrS have considered disputes
which in the aggregate involved about
three-fOurthS of the railroad mileage of
The country
In the matter of maintaining the scale
OF wages on the SOutherr RAILWAYS
last spring. when they were announc-|
ing plans for reductions, a most inter
esting bit Of labor history is vet TO be
written. But for the work Of the me-
diatOrs, the wages would have been
reduced all over the South, and this
would have spread 10 all parts OF the
country 1t was in connection with