Atlanta semi-weekly journal. (Atlanta, Ga.) 1898-1920, 1916-09-08
The Constructive Element
- OF the AdamsOn Bill.

There are persons who protest that the Adam
son bill stranges the principle of arbitration and
peremptorily sets up an eight-hour day for train
men. without regard 10 the effect on the railroads
the ultimate cost to the public. The bill does
nothing OF the kind. On the contrary. it opens a
way TO well advised. effectual arbitration and to
new order under which the interests of the public
no less than the interests of the railroads and
their employees will be safeguarded. AS the New
York World tersely and comprehensively puts it,
this bill establishes an experimental eight-hour
day to enable Congress to obtain information upon
which to take definite action
The act specifically provides:
That the President shall appoint a COM
mission of three which shall observe the opera
ton and effects of the institution of the eight
hour standard work day and the facts and
conditions affecting the relations between the
carriers and employees during a period of not
less than six months more than nine
months. in the discretion of the commission,
and within thirty days thereafter such COM
mission shall report its findings to the Presi-
dent and Congress"
The findings of this commission will enable Con-
gress to take well-considered and far-sighted &C
ton problems which heretofore have been hope
lessly confused Just and intelligent arbitration of
the eight-hour day issue is impossible in present
circumstances because one now can say with
any degree of exactness what the effect of the
eight-hour day will be- The railroad executives
assert that it will add stupendously to the of
operation; the trainmen assert that it will make
for Industrial efficiency no less than for human
welfare and will cost merely fraction of the rail-
roads increased earnings in the last year or two.
But no one can do more than conjecture and
theorize the matter until it has been studied
impartally in the light of facts definitely ascer-
tanned and in the light of tests actually applied
President Wilson stated this aspect of the issue
eonvincingly when he said
ITO undertake to arbitrate the question of
the adoption OF eight-hour day on a 5asis
of results merely estimated and predicted
would be to undertake an enterprise of con-
lecture. No wise man could undertake it, or
if he did undertake it, could feel assured of
his conclusions"
The Adamson bill is important, therefore not
simply because it averted disastrous strike but
also because it provides adequate means for re-
ducing clear and adjustable basis all the issues
from which the strike was threatened When the
President and Congress took hold of IL e situation
IL was hopeessly deadlOcked Neither the railroads
nor the trainmen would yield on the eight-hour
question. which the crux of the entire con-
troversy. All efforts OF mediation had broken
down. All existing agencies and laws to prevent
a calamitous strike had proved unavailing In
these circumstances the Governments first duty
was TO ward on the unspeakable suffering and loss
which nationwide paralysis of commerce would
have entailed- Its next duty was to find out the
way and establish the means for preventing a re-
currence OF such crisis. In the Adamson bill
both these ends are served-the first instantly;
the second. potentially.
Six or nine months of investigation by COM
petent commission will supply Congress with the
needful facts for dealing intelligently and con-
clusively with all the problems which the threaten
ed strike presented. What particular form the
ensuing legislation will take. it is impossible of
course to forecast. IL seems almost inevitable
however, that the regulation of railroad wages
must be brought under governmental Jurisdiction.
as the regulation of railroad rates long has been
Be that as it may. the Government must be given
the power. which heretofore it has lacked to pre-
vent by means other an industrial war
that would be in many respects more costly and
distressing than a with foreign foe