Harrisburg telegraph. [volume] (Harrisburg, Pa.) 1879-1948, 1916-08-14
IF ST IKE is CALLED IT VILE.
BEHANDLED FROM MNEWYORk:
WOULD BE GREAT CALAMITY
By Associated Press

New York, Aug. IA. - If President
Wilson fails to persuade the railroad
men and their employers to settle their
differences and a general strike is
called it will be directed from head
quarters in this city. This announce
ment was made to-day as the leaders
of the four big railway brotherhoods
and the railroad managers reached
Washington for a conference with the
head of the nation
At brotherhood headquarters it was
said that all preparations had been
made for putting into effect a strike
that would stop every train, passenger
and freight, on the 225 railway sys-
TENS of the United States. The critical
state of affairs was indicated by the
anxiety displayed in every big in
dustry which would be crippled by the
failure of transportation.
Unless the President can find a
road out it means strike, said A.
3. Garretson, president of the Order
OF Railway Trainmen and official
spokesman of the employees as he
boarded the train for Washington at
midnight. Elisha Lee. chairman OF
the conference committee of railroad
managers, who with the eighteen
members of his committee, went to
Washington on the Same train that
~
the brotherhoods, placed responsibility
upon the men for the failure of at
tempts at mediation. Mr.. Garretson
said that the unbending attitude OF
the railroad managers was to blame
for the break.
Summoned by President
The conference committee of the
railways and the leaders of the four
brotherhoods went to Washington in
answer to summons from the White
House brought here last night by
Joseph p. Tumulty, the Presidents
secretary. President Wilson in his
letter, pointed out that a general strike
at this time might have disastrous
effect upon the country and said:
II feel that 1 have the right, there.
fore, to request, and / do hereby re-
quest, as the head of the government
that before any final decision is ar
rived at, 1 may have a personal con-
ference with you here"
Could Put Soldiers on Trains
Authorities here declared tina
while the national labor law gave the
cially, the broad police powers vested
in him gave him authority to put sol
dierS on the trains and even to de
clare martial law if he believed thu
peril of the situation called for sucl
drastic measures. Attention wa
called to the last national railroad
strike, in 1894, when President Cleve
land used the regular army to guarC
| locomotives and cars.
The tension in business circles herr
| to-day showed a realization of acut,
danger of a national calamity. An ag
gregate of financial losses running per
haps into hundred of millions, labo
idleness and food shortage, were somt
of the possibilities which a strike pre-
sented
Would Cripple Whole Country
1t was to be remembered, business
men said, that there is scarcely fac
tory of any Importance which does no
depend on a railroad for its produce
A strike, for instance would NEAR
that the steel mills of Pittsburgh would
be cut off from their ore supplies il
Michigan, and Wisconsin, the automo
bile industries of Michigan from sup
plies of steel from Pittsburgh, the cot
ton mills of New England from theil
cotton from the south, the carmen
manufacturers of New York from theil
cloth from New England, and ever!
industry everywhere would be cut of
from coal to feed their furnaces anc
dynamos.
Food Question Serious
OF more immediate seriousness
would be the question of food supply
The large communities which receive
the bulk of their food from long dis
tances would be forced to rely on what
products could be brought in by
wagon, automobile, trolley or vessel.
The suspension of the country's eX
ports, the congestion of imports a.
coast cities, the stranding of hundreds
of thousands of travellers and summer
resort visitors far from rneir homes
these are other possibilities which the
strike situation presents, to say
nothing of it's effect on the railroads
themselves, and their employees.