New-York tribune. [volume] (New York [N.Y.]) 1866-1924, 1916-08-28
UNION GRATITUDE IN VOTES
Might Be Expected by the President for
500, O0O,0 900 Assessed on the Public.
To the Editor of The Tribune.

To the Editor of The Tribune.
Sir: Those who consider the headlines over
reports of the strike negotiations in Wash
ngton are interested in the direct effects
upon each person at his own particular angle
and are blind to the more permanent effects
that will be visited upon him by the prece-
dents now set up.
The Democratic party has always preached
again1t the tendency toward Capitalization
in our system of government, but what ara
we now seeing accomplished by Democratic
President? body OF 100000 men. said to
be some 90 per cent of the total OF railroad
workers, are threatening a strike involving
a great part of the railway mileage Of the
country, affecting 100000 individual invest
ors and the greater part of 100,000,OO0 OF
the public That their claims have right or
the semblance of right is not the issue, al
though it is alluded to as a fact. The issue
is that they have the power and intend to
exercise it. This social violence is quite IN
the same category as physical violence
which places the issue on superior strength
and temporary advantage alone
The whole theory OF a social order is that
it is orderly, and that the social stresses
that are operative all the time shall be dis
cussed, rated, and the issues arbitrated in
full public light. This is a process of lively
public discussion, resulting in final effect OF
legislative enactment or commission or judi
cal ruling. am among the number who De-
lieve that our present industrial system IS
full of Grass injustice to the worker at many
points. it is in many respects the relic OF
an accidental order which will be broken
down stage by stage and replaced with a
more constructive system for the production
and distribution of wealth. | recognize that
the process grows by illogical and sometimes
violent stages, resulting in temporary MUS
tice and dislocation, which are more or less
inevitable look eagerly forward to the
time when no worker will labor more than
eight hours a day and when he will be well
paid for his labor, but | am not prepared fo'
such violence as that threatened in the pres
ent instance, when the whole business I've
of the country is put in sudden peril under
threat unless a debatable programme u
instantly put into effect without discussion
or investigation of any kind. IL is not ade-
quate that the President OF the United ssvs
should have attached his fiat to ii and sfFsa
il standing. He has neither warrant in con-
stitutional right, nor in superiority OF M
formation, to make any such pronouncemen'
Back of this maladroit exercise OF power
which has never been formally conferred
the sinister fact that the President IS one %
two candidates in the field for election 10 tns
Presidency. The railroad workers are
compactly organized body and it is too muea
to ask of human nature that If they e,
what they ask for in this matter they WIZ
ignore the giver when the time comes 70 e's
their votes in the November election. Is y
pressing the implication too far to see IN u.
proposed wage increase of s5O0OOOOo
500, 900 900 the greatest campaign contr'Du
ton ever made in American history sH4
that, too, assessed upon the public at laiss
without their consent or the determinau0"
of any of the factors in the case!
Americans as a whole sleep upon the,
rights too much. The threat now 70
away with arbitration is setting up pre1..
dent that must at some day return 10 plagu'
the workers. J. SHIRLEY EATON
New York, Aug. rs, 1916