New-York tribune. [volume] (New York [N.Y.]) 1866-1924, 1916-08-25
Out of the Public's Pockets.


President Wilson's man9uvres are the
chief obstacle, at present, TO sane set'le-
ment of the railroad controversy. lie
seems to think he is ordained to speak for
the public in the sense of declaring what
il will or will not do, instead of safe
guarding the public's interests against I'M
due encroachment by the brotherhoods or
the officials of the railroads First ne
promised the unionists that the puonc
would support them in their demands for
"basic eight-hour day" without arbitration
of all the allied questions. Now he tells
the executives that they would be perfectly
safe in granting the "eight-hour day as
he advised, because the public will surely
support their claim for higher freight
rates with which to pay the SlOO,OOO,oOO
extra cost incurred by granting the men S
demands.
In both assumptions the President is
wrong. The union leaders seem to believe
him. The railroad executives, having
wider knowledge of political conditions and
of economies, are skeptical, and well they
may be. The public has manifested, IN a
food of letters and kilograms to the White
House. that it does not believe the President
is right in urging surrender to the men
until fair and thorough investigation Of
hours of labor and wages has proved the
merit of their claims. A goodly portion
of the public has told the railroad eXecu-
tives that it will object vehemently to pay
ing increased freight rates for shipments,
in order to give increased wages to the
highest-paid railroad workers, until fair
and thorough investigation has proved
they deserve such increases.
What the President proposes, in plain
language, is to extract from the pockets OF
the public huge sum of money and put
it into the pockets of the members of the
big Four" To that the public objects,
and has a right to object, until there is
proof on the records of some impartial
tribunal that such transfer would not be
selfish and arbitrary, unjust to the vastly
larger body of railway employees who would
get none of the money, unjust to the stock
holders of the railroads, unjust to The
business men and plain common citizens
of the nation.
The railroad executives are right IN re-
fusing to accept any plan from the Presi
dent which assumes public support of an
increased rate campaign until arbitration,
or at least investigation by an official body,
has made all the facts in the present situa-
ton a matter of record, for the public 10
see and understand. The unions have been
foolish in believing the President could
speak, under circumstances such as these,
for an undivided public. What the public
is thinking now has been admirably stated
by the Chamber of Commerce of the United
States of America in a letter to the Pres-
dent.
"The seriousness of the situation, as we
now see it," said that letter, lis that the
public is informed of its helplessness TO.
protect itself against certain demands, and
therefore such demands must be acceded
to by 1t. We are not IN position 10 say
whether the demands are equitable and
Just or not. Our position is that the facts
ought to be investigated, and if the de-
mands are just they ought to be granted
Immediately upon the ascertainment of the
facts on their merits, and not because
either party is so powerful that it can
dictate its terms to the public. We feel
that there is no hope whatever of per-
manent settlement of this question short
of the method proposed"
1t is not yet too late for the President
to take an impartial, sound course in this
vast issue by using his influence, first for
investigation to learn the facts, then for
arbitration on those ascertained facts.