New Britain herald., 1916-08-29

Wilson laid the threatened railway strike before congress today in an ad- dress to both houses assembled ill joint session. He spoke as follows:
 "Gentlemen of the congress: I have come to you to seek your as sistance in dealing with very grave situation which has arisen out of the demand of the employees of the rail roads engaged in freight train ser vice that they be granted an eight hour working day, safeguarded by payment for an hour and a half of service for every hour of work be- yond the eight
 The matter has been agitated for more than a year. The public has been made familiar with the demands of the men and the arguments urged in favor of them, and even more fla m1liar with the objections of the rail- roads and their counter demand that certain privileges now enjoyed by their men and certain bases of pay ment worked out through many years of contest be reconsidered, especially in their relation to the adoption of an eight hour day The matter came some three weeks ago to a final is- sue and resulted In a complete dead lock between the parties. The means provided by law for the mediation of the controversy failed and the means of arbitration for which the law pro- vides were rejected. The representa- tives of the railway executives pro- posed that the demands of the men be su omitted in their entirety to ar bitration, along with certain questions of readjustment as to pay and condi- tiOnS of employment which seemed to them to be either closely associated with the demands or to call for re-
 consideration on their own merits; the men absolutely declined arbltra- ton, especially if any of their estab- lished privileges were by that means to be drawn again in question. The law in the matter put no cOmpulsion upon them. The 100000 men from whom the demands proceeded had voted to strike if their demands ]re refused; the strike was imminent it has since been set for the fourth of September next. It affects the men who man the freight trains on prac- tically every railway in the country. The freight service throughout the United States must stand still until their places are filled, if, indeed. 1t should prove possible to fill them at all. Cities will be cut off from their food supplies, the whole commerce of the nation will be paralyzed.
 Just as soon as it became evident that mediation under the existing law had failed and that arbitration had been rendered impossible by the at titude of the men, I considered 1t my duty to confer with the representa- tiVes of both the railways and the brOtherh Oods.
 ''It seems to me, in considering the subject matter of the controversy that the whole spirit of the time and the preponderent evidence of recent eco- homie experience spoke for the eight hour day.
 T therefore proposed that the eight hour day be adopted by the railway arrangements, and put into practice for the present as a substitute for the existing ten hour basis of pay and ser vice; that I should appoint, with the permission of the congress, a small commission to observe the results of the change.
 IueSe pTOpOSalS were SXaCCly Tn line, it Is interesting to note, with the position taken by the supreme court of the United States when appealed to to protect certain litigants from tho financial losses which they confidently expected if they should submit to the regulation of their charges and of their methods of service by public legislation.
 f'I unh eSitatinglv offered the friendly 1 services of the administration to the | railway managers to see to it that jus tice was done to railroads in the out come. I felt warranted in assuring 1 them that no obstacle of law would be | suffered to stand in the way of their increa sing ttheir revenues to meet the 1 expenses resulting from the change so | far as the development of their busi- ness and of their administrative effici- l ency did not prove adequate to meet them.
 'The representatives of the hrotherhoods accepted the plan; but the representatives of the railroads l declined to accept it. In the face of what I cannot but regard as the prac- tical certainty that they will be ulti- mately obliged to accept the eight hour day by the concerted action of ol ganized labor, the representa- lives ot the railway management have felt justified in declining a peaceful set clement which would engage all the forces of justice, public and private, on their side to take care of the event. They fear the hostile influence of shippers who would be opposed to an increase of freight rates Cor which. however, of course, the public