Clinch Valley news. [volume] (Jeffersonville, Va.) 18??-2019, 1916-09-08
THE APPEAL TO CAESAR.

BY the terms of the Adamson bill
the United States Government as,
sumes control over railroad wages as
we'll as over railroad rates.
Neither the unions nor the rail
roads seem to realize as yet that as
result of their eight-hour controversy
Government regulation of interstate
common carriers has entered into a
new phase.
Both the union leaders and the rail
road Presidents assume that the Ad-
amson bill arbitrarily establishes an
eight-hour day for train crews. 1t
does not. 1t establishes an expert
mental eight-hour day to enable Con-
gross to obtain information upon
which to take definite action.
By the terms of the act an eight
| hour day is to go into effect Jan. |.
The President is to appoint commits
sion to study the practical workings
of this eight hour day. The activities;
of the commission are to cover per-
iod of not less than six months or
more than nine months. The eight
hour day is extended for thirty days
after the report of the commission,
the whole question having again be-
come subject to the will and author
ity of Congress.
Out of this must necessarily come
n new railroad code under which rail
road labor TO less than railroad capt.
tai will be subject to the control of
the United States Government.
In the mean time the first duty of
the Government is to ascertain the
facts. That is what the Adamscn Act
provides for. That is what the Presi-
dents settlement proposition provid-
ed for. There can be no just and in
telligcnt judgment without know
ledge of the, facts and the facts are
known TIC nobody. All that the Pres-
dent, Congress- and the public have
had to guide them are two conflicting
sets of assertions, one put out by the
railroad press agents and one put out
by the union press agents. Nobody
knows which side is telling the truth,
or whether either side is telling the
truth.
When the railroad Presidents de-
mandcd arbitration of the eight-hour
day they well knew that there could
be no arbitration Of an eight-hour
DAY except after a practical expert
mcnt over limited period, as the
President suggested. All that an arbi-
tration board could do in the absence
of such Il practical test would be to
guess at the probable effect of an
eight-hour schedule in the operation
of freight trains. That is not arbitra-
ton. That is gambling. The railroad
Presidents might as consistently have
asked the union leaders to shake dice
for an eight-hour day or play poker
for it, each side taking its chances on
the dice being loaded or the deal
crooked.
That is what the railroad propo-
sition amounted to. The offense of the
unions did not lie in the rejection of
a false and fraudulent arbitration but
in their determination to throttle the
American people in order to coerce
the railroads.
What is coming as result of the
Adamson act is true arbitration based
on definite information-the kind of
information that court of law de-
mands in deciding such cases. 1t is
arbitration by Congress, not merely
by voluntary consent of labor AMI
capital. The next logical step is to
give the Interstate Commerce Com
mission the same power to regulate
railroad wages and working condi-
lions that it now has to regulate rail
road rates. The two things nccessar-
lily go together for there can be no
just regulation of rates whicE ignores
wages and working conditions
The railroad unions cannot COM
plain of this. for they invited it, When
they accepted the appeal to Caesar
they accepted all the inevitable con-
sequences of the appeal to Caesar.
Government regulation of wages is
q two-edged sword, and the unions
in the long run will find it no more
satisfactory to them than the rail?
roads have found Government regula-
ton of rates. But the railroads were
responsible for forcing the Govern
ment to regulate rates, and the unions
are responsible for forcing the Gov
eminent to regulate wages.
Much economic history has been
made in the last week-for more than
either the railroads or the unions or
the general public seems to realize.
Wage issues in railroad operation
will never again be a personal mat
ter between employer and employed.
There will never again be another
railroad strike or serious threat
of n railroad strike. The Government
of the United States is no longer
n neutral in such labor wars. 1t is
the supreme power and it's fiat is
law, subject only to such restraints as
the Constitution of the United States
may impose.-N. Y. World.
HOW ROOSEVELT "PROTECTED"