The Cook County news-herald. [volume] (Grand Marais, Cook County, Minn.) 1909-current, 1916-09-06
DECLARES CITIES WOULD BE CUT
OFF FROM FOOD SUPPLIES AND
WHOLE COMMERCE OF Ma
TON PARALYZED.
PROPOSES AN EiGHT-HOUR
BAY FOR RAIL EMPLOYEES
Chief Executive Urges Measure SINH.
Var to Canadian Industrial Disputes
Act for Investigation of All Dis
putes Between Railroads and
Their Workmen.

Washington, Aug. 3o.-President
m. to address a joint session of con-
gress, hastily summoned few hours
earlier to hear the executives plea
for action to prevent the threatening
nationwide railroad strike.
Presidents Message.
Gentlemen of the congress:
II have ce4pe to you, to seek your as
s sistan &C. in dsaafng with a very grave
demand Of tie employees Of the rail- Ill
roads engaged in freight train service
that they be- granted an eight-hour
work day: safeguarded by, payment Of
an hour and a half of service for every
hour, Of work beyond the eight
The matter has been agitated for
more than n ,1,;, year The public has been
men and the arguments urged in favor
Of them, and even more familiar with
the OBJECTIONS of the railroads and their
now enjoyed by their men and base of
payment worked out through many
years of contest be reconsidered. espe-
of an eight-hour day. The matter came
some three weeks ago to a final issue
and resulted in complete deadlock be-
Mediation Fails.
diation Of the centroversy failed and
the means Of arbitration for which the
law provides were rejected. The repre-
proposed that the demands of the men
be submitted in their entirety to arbi-
tration along with certain questions of
o w to Bay seemed sna nc a
to be either closely associated with the
demands or to call for reconsideration
on their:own merits; the men absolute
re ia11 r
any Of their established provisions were
by that means to be drawn again in
question: The law. in the matter put no
from whom the demands proceeded had
voted to strike, If their demands were
ret refus s;a:o the he's strike was imminent; it
man the freight trains on M Practically 1ast. Ally
every railway in the country.
Would Paraiyze Nation.
THE freight service throughout the
their places are filed if, indeed it
al; cities viii be cut off from their
the nation will be paralyzcd, men of
every sort and occupation will be thrown
s out OF ;, Hmp p o countless thou
It may be, to the. very point of starva,
ton, and a tragical national calamity
brought on. to be added to the other
We I11sSeS VI tale time, because no basis
OF accommodation or settlement has
been found.
Spokesman Of Country.
q, Just as soon as it became evident
{hat mediation under the, existing law
been rendered impossible by the atti-
tude Of the men, considered it my
DUTY DUTY to confer with the representa-
brotherhoods and myself offer media
ton not as an arbitrator but merely
as SPOKESMAN of the nation, in the in
t nf Issh OF justice indeed and as friend
OF Doth parties, but not as q Judge
only as the representative of one hun
G 4d mll1ons OF men, women and chill
o dren; Wh no would pay, the pric e-the in
enould these few men insist upon ap-
Proaching and concluding the matters
u; IN controversy s'ads1oy between them merely
than as patriotic citizens Of the United
States looking before and after and &C.
ffeep p h,5, the larger responsibility which
the puD!4c would put upon them.
Eight Hour Day Favored.
1T seemed to me in considering the
euo]ect matter of the controversy that
me whole spirit of the time and the
p Prep; D aer evidence Of recent eco
nomlc experience spoke for the eight
nour Gay. It has been adjudged by the
thought and experience of recent years
r. t mn st, npon which society is justified
efficiency, contentment and q general
INCREASE e1Ts Of economic vigor.
The whole presumption Of modern
experience would, it seemed to me, be
IN ITS favor, whether there was arbi-
tratlon or not, and the ilebatable points
TO settle were those which arose out of
the acceptance of the eight-hour day
rather than those which affected it's
establishment
Made Proposal.
IT therefore proposed that the eight
hour day be adopted by the railway
arrangements and put into practice for
me present as substitute for the ex-
Ice; that I should appoint, with the
permission Of congress. small com
mission to observe the results of the
OF tho altered operating costs, also the
conditions of labor under which the
men worked and the operation Of their