The Bridgeport evening farmer., 1916-10-07

tive committee, Farmers NatlOna
 Congress of the United States anG
 Editor Nebraska Farm Magazine.)
 The farmers of America have just faced a crisis. from which they have been delivered by prompt action by the President of the United States. It il the purpose of this article to call theil attention to a condition which they have fortunately escaped.
 For approximately three months fl the summer of 1916 the country wal faced with the threat of nationwide railway strike. The railway man. agers and representatives of the Big Four Brotherhoods, representing all the railroads of the United States and their 100000 employed in train ser vice, were deadlocked in g. controter- sy over hours of labor and wage schedules. About the middle of Au- gust a crisis was imminent. President Wilson volunteered to act as mediator in the interest of the public. His ef- forts wene unavailing because legisla- ltion looking toward the settlement ot all industrial disputes, begun by this Democratic Congress had not yet gone far enough, the President had no pow CT to force arbitration. An impasse was again reached. The Brother hoods issued a strike order to be ef- fective on Labor Day. September 4.
 The railroad arrangements recogniz- ed the imminence of the strike. Elm bargo orders were issued on freight shipments. Placards we're posted all over the United States stating that 1.a oP vi tions, tickets would be sold only sub- ject to delay. Supplies and strike breakers were .mobilized at strategic points. The country waited, breath less, for the storm to break. It was bluffing.
 Assiduous efforts are being made by politicians and representatives of spe- cial interests to discredit the motives of the President in his relation to this lcontroversy. The inside story of the strike Legislation is here made public for the first time:
 The President saw a national calam- ity impending. Immediate action was He called certain lead CTS of hls party into conference with him in the Presidents room at the Capitol. They were:
 Senator Kern, Democratic floor leader of the Senate; Senator New lands, Chairman of the Senate Com mittee on Interstate Commerce.; Rep Iresentative Kitchin, Democratic floor leader of the House; Representative fAdamson, Chairman of the House Committee in Interstate Commerce.
 The President and these four gentle- men wrote the bill which was present ed to Congress with the special mes sage of the President on the following day. Neither the railroads nor the Brothefhoods were consulted. Neither party knew what the bill contained un- til it was made pubAc. Neither party his advisers, or had the slightest influ- ence in the framing of the bill.
 That portion of the bill providing for the establishment of an eight hour day for railroad employees engaged in the operation of trains became a law. It was accepted by the brotherhoods; the strike was cancelled and the inn pending calamity was averted.
 a An appeal is being made to the far mer on the eve of the presidential elec- tion to vote against MT. Wilson be- cause of his attitude on the strike question. Has the farmer considered what strike would have meant to him?
 No class of the American people stood the chance of losing so much. from a strike as the farmer. A single week of inactivity in the operation of freight and express service would have paralyzed his market for a month or more. Coming at the time of marketing of perishable fall frufts and vegetables, his loss from this source alone would have run into the millions. The demoralization of his market wouldS have opened opportunz> ity for juggling in the grain exchanges and commission centers-an opportun- ity which crafty spectators would have speedily sized-and multiplied millions would have been taken from the hard-earned profits of the pro- ducer.
 When a single deal in the Chicago wheat pit runs into profits of $2,OOO per minute on Bull" market, human reason is powerless to conjecture what the gamblers would have done to the
  clam bring for food. The gambler in food -stuffs has the game rigged a against the farmer both ways from the A nationwide strike would have been a gamblers carnival.
 This article may fall under the eye of a melon grower in the Rocky Ford district in Colorado. He can guess what would have happened to him in had it been impossible to ship his cantaloupes. Or it map, per chance, reach a peach grower in Mich Igan; even, water freight across Lake to Chicago would not have saved him.
 The apple grower of the Ozarks, the or New York would have been in the same deplorable state. Sto- rage facilities are inadequate to han de the entire normal crop and it would have been impossible to get the ruit to storage without train service.
 The immense dairy interest, the poultry market, the citrus growers, the grower of prunes, plums, pears, etc. would all have shared in the national calamity which fmpended. s President Wilson prevented this ca Iamity. For this he is denounced by those who fail to state how tn Icy would have protected the interests of the far mers of America in such a crises.
 It Is estimated by the railroad man. agements that the alleged increase in wages which they would have to pay because of the eight hour day would amounL to a figure ranging from $5O,-