Daily Kennebec journal. [microfilm reel] (Augusta, Me.) 1870-1975, 1916-10-05


party and it's candidate are seeking
a vote of power for disingenuous, I'M
sound, but alluring reason. William n.
Taft, former President Of the United
States, delivered the opening address
OF the Republican state campaign here
tonight. Mr.. Taft assailed the Demo-
cratic party's fiscal policy, it's extra
vagance. its free trade tariff, it's claim
to credit for prosperity and its foreign
policy. and he made direct reply to
President Wilson's defense of his
course in settling the threatened rail-
road strike through the enactment Of
the -Adamson Law.
Mr.. Taft said, in part:
The great public advantage in or
ganiZation and combination of capital
and of wage-earners we all recognize.
The one vastly increases the product
of human enterprise and energy, the
other puts the wage-earner on an
equality with his employer in dealing
with wages and the terms Of his en-
ployment Corporations and trades
unions are therefore necessities of
modern economic society that are per-
manent and necessary. The power they
acquire may. however, become so great
as to tempt to serious abuse and pub.
lie injury, and they have done So
Hence we have had the antitrust law
and the interstate commerce law, di-
rected chiefly against combinations of
capital but efecting in some measures
combinations of labor. Labor leaders
have sought exemption from such
laws IS privileged class, and in some
cases they have been successful. While
Mr.. Wilson in one of his memorandums
attached to an appropriation bill
avowed his opposition to such class
legislation. he united with the Demo-
cratic Congress in passing. at the de-
mand of the unions, the Clayton Act
which, the labor leaders claim, takes
unions out of the limitations of the
Trust Act and denies to employers and
'he public the ordinary legal remedies
against collective labor wrongs to bus
mess.
! Cnwise subserviency to the demands
of leaders Of organiz labor finds its
crown;ng instance. however, in Mr.
Wilson's dealing with the threatened
strike Of the Railway Orders Of Con-
Guctors. engineers, trainmen and
switchmen. The Orders claim to con-
troll 10000 men. who run the freight
and passenger trains Of the country
which constitute the arterial circula-
ton OF commerce. and are necessary
not only to the business but to the
health and life of the people. Were
these men able to tie up the railways
of the country, as they said they could
and would. it would mean enormous
loss in business. and great deprivation
and suffering to the public. 1t would
mean that many millions Of other
worllmen would be thrown out Of en-
ploynlent, and lose the high wages they
are now receiving. because without
commerce local industries can net pro-
coed. The Railway unions said to the
railway presidents: We wish an
cisht-hour day, with ten hours pay,
and if we work more than eight hours,
We demand so per cent. more an hour
for the extra hours. If you do not
give us this. we will not only injure
you, but We will bring disaster to the
country" The railway managers re-
fused the demand, but offered to sub
nit it to arbitration. They said it
would increase their cost of operation
sec, 900 Gee and that this would have to
come out Of the pockets of the railway
stockholders, by a reduction Of profits,
or out of the shipping public by an in
crease Of rates They said such a
change ought not to be made except
after a trial by board of arbitration.
in which all parties interested might
have a hearing. The labor leaders
said they had had arbitration in the
past and that it was not satisfactory,
that now unless their demands were
fully granted, no power under heaven
could prevent the strike, with its dis
astrous consequences. Mr.. Wilson
summoned the parties before him. At
ter conference with the labor leaders,
he held conference with the railway
presidents, and told them that he had
decided it was fair for them to grant
1t once an eight-hour day with ten
hours pay. but tina. he thought the
question of allowing so per cent more
per hour for every extra hour should
be submitted to trbitration. He said
the eight-hour day could not be arbi-
trated-that modern society had de-
marded it, He said this in the face of
the fact that he had signed bill pro-
viding for the arbitration Of questions
of dispute arising between railway en-
ployes and their employers involving
wages and hours Of labor. The labor
leaders accepted the proposal Of the
President and agreed not to strike If
they got their ten hours pay for eight
hours work. and a proportionate in
crease Of pay for extra hours. The
President then applied to Congress to
pass a law requiring the railroads to
grant to their employees ten hours pay
for eight hours work each day. With
the short period Of four days. without
investigation or consideration, Con-
gress passed the law. 1t is doubtful II
the strike would have been as injuri-
Gus in its results as the men threatened
to make 1t, but still it would have been
most embarrassing. Under the duress
of the threat, the President Of the Uni
ted States and Congress Of the United
States succumbed. It was one Of the
greatest national humiliations to
which the people Of the country have
ever been subjected. It struck almost a
blow at the principle Of arbitration for