Clinch Valley news. [volume] (Jeffersonville, Va.) 18??-2019, 1916-10-13
WILSON SAVED
FARMERS FROM
GREAT CALAMITY
BY Taking Only Way Possible
to Avert Immediate Paralysis
of Nations Transportation.
BY FRANK G. oDELL.
Member Executive Committee Farm
ers' National Congress and Edi-
tor Nebraska Farm Magazine.

tor Nebraska Farm Magazine.
The farmers of America have just
facd n crisis from which they have
been delivered by prompt action by
the President of the United States
1t is the purpose of this article to call
their attention to condition which
they have fortunately escaped.
For approximately three months in
the summer of 1916 the country was
faced crisis from which they have
wide railway strike. The railway
managers and representatives Of
"The Big Four" brotherhoods, rep
resenting ali the railroads of the
United States and their 100000 en-
ployed in train service, were dead
locked in a controversy over hours
of labor and wage schedules. About
the middle of August crisis was
imminent. President Wilson volun-
teered to act as mediator in the in
terest of the public. His efforts were
unavailable because Legislation look
ing toward the settlement of all in
dustrial disputes. began by this Dem
ocratic Congress, had not yet gone
far enough: the President had no
power to force arbitration. An inn
passe was again reached. The broth
erhoods issued Strike order to be
NNSSSt'N VII iIupOl lay IDCDS. 4.
The railroad management recog-
nizsd the imminence of the strike.
Embargo orders were issued or
posted all over the United States
stating that because of impending
strike conditions tickets would be
sold only subject to delay. Supplies
and strikebreakers were mobilized at
strategic points. The country wait
ed breathless, for the storm to brake
1t was apparent that neither party
was bluffing.
Presidents Motive.
Assiduous efforts are being made by
politicians and representatives of
special interests to discredit the mo-
tives of the President in his relation
TO this controversy. The inside story
CT the strike legislation is here made
public for the first time.
The President saw national calam-
ity impending. Immediate action was
imperative. He called certain lead
ers of his party into conference with
him in the Presidents room at the
Capitol They were: Senator Kern
democratic floor leader of the senate;
Senator Newlands, Chairman of the
Senate Committee on Interstate Com
merce; Representative Kitchen, Dem
ocratic floor leader of the House;
Representative Adamson, Chairman
of the House Committee on Inter
state Commerce.
The President and these four gen.
tlemen wrote the bill which was
presented to congress with the spe-
cial message of the President on the
following day. Neither the railroads
nor the brotherhood were consulted.
Neither party knew what the bill con-
10 ,,,,f,1 \ L
er party made any demand on
the President or his advisers, or had
the slightest influence in the framing
of the bill
That portion of the bill providing
for the establishment of an eight
hour day for railroad employees en-
gagged in the operation of trains be-
came law. 1t was accepted by the
brotherhoods; the strike was cam.
celled and the impending calamity
was averted.
What it Meant to the Farmer.
An appeal is being made to the
farmer on the eve of the Presidential
election to vote against Mr.. Wilson
because his attitude on the strike
question. Has the farmer considered
what strike would have meant to
him?
No class of the American people
stood the chance of losing so much
from strike as the farmer. A sin
gle week of inactivity in the operation
of freight and express service would
have paralyzed his market for a
of marketing of perishable fall fruits
and Vegetables his loss from this
source alone would have run into the
millions. The decentralization of his
market would have opened opportun-
ity for juggling in the grain ex-
changes and commission centers, an
opportunity which crafty spectators
would have speedily seized, and null
tiplied millions would have been
taken from the hard earned profits
of the producer.
When single deal in the Chicago
wheat pit runs into profits of $4,000
per minute on a "bulP market, hu-
man reason is powerless to conjec-
ture what the gamblers would have
done to the farmer with strike on
and the world clamoring for food
The gambler in foodstuffs has the
game rugged against the farmer
"both ways from the middle" A ma
tion-wide strike would have been 6
gamblers carnival.
This article may fall under the eye
of melon grower in the Rocky Fort
district in Colorado. He can guess
what would have happened to hin
in September had it been impossible
to ship his cantaloupes. Or it may
perchance, reach a peach grower il
Michigan; even water freight acros.
Lake Michigan to Chicago would no
have saved him.
The apple grower of the Ozarks, tn,
l.
been in the same deplorable state
Storage facilitis are inadequate t,
handle the entire normal crop, and i
would have been impossible to get tn,
fruit storage without train service.
The immense dairy interest, tn
poultry market, the citrus growers, tn
growers of prunes, plums, pears, etc
would all have shared in the Nationa
calamity which impended.
All this Averted.
President Wilson prevented thi