New-York tribune. [volume] (New York [N.Y.]) 1866-1924, 1916-08-27
This Tail Can't Wag the Dog.

There are approximately 100000 mem
hers Of the big Four" brotherhoods OF
railroad employees, the highest paid day
workers in railroad service. There are
roughly, 100000 other employees of the
railroads, not nearly so well paid. There
are. it is estimated, 100,0OO,OOO souls in
this country's population. The big
Four" that is, are .004 per cent OF the
population of the country.
In actual cold fact the members OF
these four railroad employees unions have
the country by the throat. They have
voted to strike if their demand for an
"eght hour day" is not granted, with
punitive overtime" pay at the rate OF one
and half times their present pay. They
have persistently refused to arbitrate
their case before any tribunal. Their
strike would cause incalculable damage
TO business and property, incalculaole SUI
fering to individuals. All these conSidera-
tions they set aside, and in this attitude
they are supported by President Wilson,
who, accepting Immediately 1t was LAID
before him the essential part of their de-
mand. Endorsed it with an ultimatum to
the railroads that they must comply with
the ultmatum or bear the responsibility
of plunging the country into the disaster
of a general tie-up of the railroads.
The basic principle of American govern
ment is majority rule. The underlying
principle of social and economic reforms
is the greatest good to the greatest num-
Der. All this is so generally accepted as
the base of things here that 1t is held TO
he elementary automatic. Yet the rail-
road controversy presents the remarkable
spectacle of four one-thousandths of the
country's population deliberately and per-
sistently threatening to plunge the whole
population into disaster unless they get a
certain increase in compensation, which
ultimately must be paid by the general
public. Stranger than that, there is the
fact that the President Of the United
States. the man who Of all men should
remain unbiased and should hold fast and
safe the interests of all the people, has
espoused the cause of the microscopic mi
nority with its intolerance and arbitrari-
ness, and has given to it the weight and
assistance of his honorable Office.
For the railroad unions and the Presi-
dent to succeed, under the circumstances,
in forcing on the railroads-that IS, on the
country at large-their demands would be
a case of the tail wagging the dog to a
degree utterly ludicrous if it were not so
vast and fundamental an issue. The rights
of the minority were amply safeguarded
and the interests of the majority would
have been properly and fairly considered
under the plan originally proposed by the
railroad managers-that the entire ques-
ton of wages and hours of labor be inves-
tigated and the issues arbitrated by some
official body. That was and is the only
sane, sound. enlightened American plan.
This country has not yet reached condi-
ton such that any minority interest,
whether it represent dollars or toilers'
hands. whether it have or lack the support
even of so eminent a parsonage as the
President Of the United States, can be per-
mitted TO throttle the rest of the country
into submission and acquiescence to its
plans.