Bismarck daily tribune. [volume] (Bismarck, Dakota [N.D.]) 1881-1916, 1916-10-15
ADAMSON BILL
CRITICISED BY
COL. ROOSEVELT
Former President Assails Presi-
dent Wilson and the Eight
Hour Law
- aT
ARBITRATION WOULD
HAVE CLEARED ISSUE
Tells of Settlement of Anthracite
Coal Strike As Compar.
3D.. ison .,

a.. ison
Wilkesbarre, Pa, Oct. 14.-Theo.
dore Roosevelt, speaking at Repub
lican mass meeting here tonight, crit.
icised the attitude of President Will
son on the eight-hour day for railroad
employees. He declared that arbitra.
tion would have been the proper
method for averting the threatened
railroad strike and instanced the ap-
plication of this principle in 1902,
when he settled the anthracite coal
strike.
Mr.. Roosevelt said in part:
II have accepted the invitation to
come to Wilkesbarre to discuss the
Adamson law, because Wilkesbarre
is the headquarters of the great in.
dustry in connection with which l
myself as President was brought into
close and intimate touch with the
labor movement in this country. II
what l have to say is of any value it
must be not only because it repre-.
sents what in the abstract is right.
but also because in the concrete I
applied, in actual practice, when |
had power, the principles whict l
criticize Mr.. Wilson for not applying
now. Therefore, l wish to recapitu-
late to you just what occurred in con.
nection with the anthracite coal
strike and to contrast it with what
Mr.. Wilson has done in connection
with the law for the increase of wag-
es on railroads.
AT the outse!, wish TO express
my very hearty admiration for the
Brotherhoods. ! am proud of the
fact that am an honorary member
OF one of them. While l held public
otlice / found myself in the vast ma,
jority of cases able to support them
in their demands, because these de-
mands were right. But now they
have demanded legislation raising
their wages to be taken without in
vestigation and without the exercise
of that form of judgment shown by
a competent arbitration commission:
and such demand is wrong, and I
stand against 1t because it is wrong,
exactly what have stood against the
demands of bankers and lawyers, and
mine-owners and railroad presidents
when they were wrong. believe in
labor unions. l am proud that am
myself an honorary member of lab
or union. But I believe first of all in
the Union to which all of us belong,
the union of all the people Of the
whole United States.
'1n the case of the settlement OF
the anthracite coal strike, the action
] took was of precisely the kind
which President Wilson now says the
law should make obligatory in all
similar cases in the future. But MIR.
Wilson himself admits that his own
action was so bad that it ought never
to be repeated, for he has assured
the public that although Congress
has adjourned without doing any
thing, it is his intention when Cen.
gress meets to see that it doos some
thing to render it impossible for ar
other President ever to repeat exact
ly what he has just done. in other
words, l stood and stand by my ac
tion as the proper action, CONSTITUTE
ing the proper precedent for future
action. Mr.. Wilson himself confes.
ses that his action was wrong and
that the precedent thereby set is so
evil that legislation must be enacted
rendering it impossible for another
President ever to repeat the action.
There is another point of differ
ence and a vital point. The action
I took was intended to meet the sit.
uation at once. The action that Mr..
Wilson took has been deferred so that
it shall not take place until consider
ably after election.
Fourteen years ago the great an.
thracite coal strike had occurred in
this region. From the beginning I
put the governmental agents in touch
with the situation and kept myself
thoroughly informed, so that should
be able to act Immediately if it be-.
came necessary for me to act. |
hoped that it would not be necessary
and that the parties themselves would
come to an agreement: for l was
very loath to interfere if it could be
avoided. But cold weather approach
ed, a coal famine menaced the entire
eastern section of the United States
and there was not the slightest symp'
ton of an agreement being reached cy
the contending parties. felt that
the time had come for me to act.
On the one side were the greatest
and wealthiest mine-owners and mos:
powerful industrial and railroad CORP
orations in the country. The financ.
ial stength of Wall Street was behind
them. These men absolutely refused
to arbitrate. They said there was
nothing to arbitrate, that I had no
power under the Constitution to act,
and that the public could not in
terfere. nor the representatives OF
the public with the way in which
they managed their business. The