The Meeker herald., 1916-10-07
No Surrender To Force

The action OF President Wilson and
Congress in enacting the eight-hour
law was no surrender to force.
Messrs. Hughes, Lodge, Roosevelt,
Penrose, Pierpont Morgan and George
w. Perkins may maintain that the
administration surrendered to force,
but that does not prove the fact.
The President and Congress had no
controversy with either party to the
threatened strike. The controversy
was between the managers of the rail
roads and the men who ran the trains.
The effect of the strike would have
been fearful. Everybody realized this.
Telegrams from every part Of the
Union poured In on the President and
congressman praying them to avert
the strike.
The farmers and the fruit growers
products would have rotted for lack
of transportation. The poor in cities
would have suffered for food, for coal
and other necessities The manufac-
turers of the country, the whole bus
mess fabric would have collapsed.
Universal distress and permanent
loss Of tremendous proportions would
have resulted.
Such was the conditions the Presi-
bravely and patriotically averted
from the nation. Action, immediate
action was demanded and immediate
action was taken. Action that was
beneficence and blessing to the
country.
The opulent, sinister, special inter-
ests and persons seeking political cap
ital may condemn the President, but
the working men and women, those
who would have borne the brunt Of
the loss and suffering, will not.
The controversy was settled right.
Neither party to it would have sub
mitted to wrong settlement. The
principle of arbitration, always main
tained by the President, had no ap-
plication to a poiht-that eight hours
labor constitute a lawful days work
already settled by the laws of near
ly every state and the laws of the fed
eral government in its relation to its
own employees and those having con-
tracts with it.
The only force exerted was the NOR
al force of the presidents right posi-
tion backed by the sense and approval
of the whole people. That was the
only force yielded to, and the yield
ing WAS done by the railroad mag
mates, unless yielding to force was
done by the seventy Republican con-
gressmen who voted for the eight
hour law and the Republican senators
who could have prevented its passage
but did not, nor made any effort to.
The railroads take the position that
the question was not an "eight-hour
day" but "ten hours pay for eight
hours work" The "eight. hour" day
never has meant, does not now mean
that man may leave his engine,
drop his tools, quit work at the end
of eight hours. 1t has always meant,
it means now that when eight hours
work is done, one days work endsand
another begins.
President Wilson saved the country
from the strike as he has preserved
the country from war. The alterna-
tive the Republicans argue for is as
worthless and as disastrous in one
case as in the other.
And-by way of footnote-in case
the railroad strike had occurred, how
could the cattlemen of Rio Blanco
and neighboring counties have gotten
their cattle to the Denver, Kansas
City and other markets?
The railroads net earnings for the
year ending June 1, 1915, were $751;
COO 900 more than for the last year of
the Taft administration.