Omaha daily bee. (Omaha [Neb.]) 187?-1922, 1916-08-21
WILSON INSISTS
PLANSAvESR|GHT
OF ARBITRATION
President Declares that II
Strengthens Rather Than
Weakens Basic Principle
Of Settlemnt.
TELEGRAM SENT TO POPE
Executive Replies to Message
Sent Him by Head Of N
Manufacturers.
RAIL HEADS CoNFERRING
TELEGRAM SENT TO POPE
RAIL HEADS CoNFERRING

Washington, Aug. 20.-President
Wilson's week of conferences with
ranking officials of the railroads and
leaders Of their employees threatens
ing nationwide strike, are believed
by all parties to the controversy to
have brought the situation to point
where decisive Developments may be
expected within few days.
| While the negotiations took no
actual forward step, today the pres
ident replied indirectly to contentious
of the road officials that the princi-
pie Of arbitration would be endan-
gered by his plan for putting the
eight-hour basic day into effect while
a commission investigates its prac-
ticability and passes upon other
points at issue. In telegram made
public at the White House the pres
ident declared he held firmly to arbi-
tration as a principle and that his
plan strengthened, rather than weak-
ened it. He also said that some
means must be found to prevent the
existing situation from ever arising
again.
Conferences Continue.
Meantime the road officials, who
have tentatively refused to accept Mr..
Wilson's proposal, continued confer
ences among themselves. The labor
leaders, who already have approved
the proposal, marked time, awaiting
definite decision from the employers.
The presidents telegram defending
his plan was>in reply to an appeal
from George Pope, president Of the
National Association Of Manufacture
ers, urging that the principle of arbi-
tration be preserved in the strike
negotiations. Mr.. Popes telegram
follows:
Hartford, Conn, Aug. IS. 1916.
The President: The White House
On behalf of $500 manufacturing or
4 ganizations employing 100000 per-
sons, and utterly dependent upon tiii-
interrupted railroad service for their
4 continued operation, beg to at once
express our deep appreciation Of your
| efforts to prevent the threatened des-
tructive stoppage Of national railroad
service and to respectfully urge that
you will with all the power of your
great office and personally assert and
maintain the principle Of arbitration
for industrial disputes affecting ma
tional intercourse. No just demand
.n. Ga. .,,ct, a xaet. ~ fa:r da,naud
| can or should survive 1t. ! sincerely
believe no man in our history has
possessed such an opportunity to
fortify his essential principle of public
security against future attack by ems
GEORGE POPE, President,
National Association Of Manufac-
i. turers." 8
Presidents Reply +
The president replied: ALLOW me
to acknowledge the receipt of your
telegram of August IS, and to say in
reply that i hold to the principle Of
! arbitration with as clear conviction
and as firm purpose as anyone, but
. that, unfortunately, there is no means
now in existence by which arbitration
can be secured. The existing means
have been tried and have failed. This
situation must never be allowed to
rise again, but it has arisen. Some
: means must be found to prevent its
recurrence, but no means can be
found offhand, or in hurry, OF in
season, to meet the present national
emergency. &.
What l am proposing does not
weaken or discredit the principle of
arbitration. 1t strengthens it, rather.
1t proposes that nothing be conceded
: except the eight-hour day, to which
the whole economic movement of the
! time seems to point, and the innfe-
diate creation Of an agency for de-
termining all the arbtratable elements
in this case in the light, not Of pre-
dictions or forecasts, but of estab.
lished and ascertained facts. This is
the first stage of the direct road to
the discovery of the best permanent
basis for arbitration when other
J means than those now available are
tsupplied.'
No Outward Developments.
There were no outward develop
ments today pending arrival OF the
j additional railroad executives to
: whom the president sent invitations
:, yesterday. Louis w. Hill, president
Of the Great Northern and several
5 other western railroad presidents vii
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