Daily Kennebec journal. [microfilm reel] (Augusta, Me.) 1870-1975, 1916-10-16

leSlSldLlOu 10 tIIdI S1eCt WucA was
President. I believ in the wages in
any industry beingjust as high as it
is possible to make them without in
Justice to the capitl invested and to
the public which isierved. But it is
mere truism to saythat it is impossi-
Bile to get this idealachieved unless an
honest and dispassinate effort is first
made by the propercommission to as
certain the full facs in the PARTICULAR
case. AS regards the railroads. we
have to consider th,wages paid to the
different classes of employes, the in
terest on the investment. the earning
power of the road, and the kind OF
service that must b rendered to the
public. 1t is impossible to secure a
proper solution of te problem unless
all these factors all considered. Mr..
Wilson absolutely declined to consider
any of them. He defined even to ask
what they were. We have not at this
moment one particular of trustworthy
information which will enable us to
decide whether th9 demands of the
men were just or 1T. l wish it dis
tinctly understood hat I am not try
ing to pass judgment upon the justice
of the case. l regaid the engineers,
firemen and enginehen and trainmen
generally as doing peculiarly RESPONSE
BILE and arduous wGk, and entitled to
particular constellation as regards
both hours of labd and pay. | hope
that they are fully Untitled as matter
of justice to what they will receive
under the Adamsonbill and if it so APP
pears l shall heartily support 1T. But
protest against tie far-reaching evil
of the precedent SIT in the method
which has been followed. We are de-
MED knowledge. Ne see Congress
forced to act under threats. l protest
against any law passed under such
duress. I protest sgainst the case be-
| ing decided without giving each party
it's day in court, ard above all without
giving the public it's day in court. l
| hope the demands.of the men were
just, and would have been proved so
to be. if Investigated before a compe-
tent body. But explicitly protest
against any actor by the Government
when no investigation has been held to
see whether the Gains are or are not
just, and when they are granted
through fear and not as matter of
right.
Remember it is the public that in the
end will pay. You do not have to take
my assertion for this. Take the asser-
ton of Mr.. Wilson's master in this
matter. The Union leaders, through
their Chairman, Mr.. Garretson, an
nounced that they would steadily re-
fuse to arbitrate and that in their ac-
ton they were supported by the Presi-
dent of the United States" They
stated their case in a nutshell as fol-
lows: "In times like this, men go back
to primal instinct-to the day of the
caveman with his half-gnawed bone,
snarling at the other caveman who
wanted to take his bone away. We
leaders are fighting for our men. The
railroads are fighting for their stock
holders; and the shippers for them
selves And the public will pay" Mr..
Garretson is right-the public will pay.
And it will pay without having had the
chance to know whether it ought or
ought not to pay. Mr.. Wilson BETRAYED
the public when he refused to insist
that the contest should be decided on
principles of justice. and when he per-
mitted it to be decided in Difference to
greed and fear. Mr.. Wilson announced
that 1t was futile" to stand firmly
against these improper demands. II
would not have beer futile if Demo-
crat of the stamp Of Andrew jackson
or Grover Cleveland had been Presi-
dent. The futility inhered solely in
Mr.. Wilson himself. If President Will
son had stood by the honor and the
interests of the United States in this
matter; if he had insisted upon a full
investigation before action; if he had
insisted upon arbitration and had an
nounced that if there was any ATTEMPT
to tie up the traffic of the United
States he would use the entire power
OF the United States to keep the ar
! teries of traffic open, l would have ap-
piauded him and supported him. But
TO take such action needed courage. II
needed disinterestedness. 1t was ne
cessary that the man taking it should
put duty to the nation first and politi
cal and personal considerations last
! What President Wilson did was to ner-
NIT the overriding of justice by an
peals to brute force.
He says that it would have been
futile" to show courage and stand IN
- WY iiSiil. FIolIl tIie STANDPOINT OF
the nation. the worst type of futility in
a President is to fail to stand up for
the right. President Wilson felt if
was futile to oppose these men. exact
iy as President Buchanan, his spiritual
forbear, felt in 1860, that it was futile
to oppose secession. That type of fl.
! tility gives the real measure of the
man VINO practices it. What Bucha-
nan considered futile Lincoln made
heroic.
l champion Mr.. Hughes as against
MI. wilson because in every such
crisis Mr.. Wilson, by his public acts,
has shown that he will yield to fear,
that he will not yield to Justice:
whereas the public acts of Mr.. Hughes
have proved him to be incapable of
yielding in such crisis to any threat.
whether made by politicians, corpora
tons or labor leaders
| have always stood for the rights of
labor. You miners before me know
that. l stood by you, and | incurred
the hostility of the greatest financial
powers of the land by SO doing, and |
nave felt that hostility in public life
ever since. But l did not care, be-
cause | knew that my course was
right. ! stood by you because I be-
lleved you were right. If | had been
the type of man who was willing to
stand by you when you We're wrong, l
would never have dared to stand by
ri oh v,cfc y,