The Ely miner. [volume] (Ely, Minn.) 1895-1986, 1916-09-01
DECLARES CITIES WOULD BE CUT
OFF FROM FOOD SUPPLIES AND
WHOLE COMMERCE OF MA
TON PARALYZED.
PROPOSES AN ElGHT-H0UR
DAY FOR RAIL EMPLOYEES
Chief Executive Urges Measure SINH
lar to Canadian Industrial Disputes
Act for investigation of All Dis
putes Between Railroads and
Their Workmen.

washington, aug. SU.-freSlQenL
Wilson went to the capitol at $3.50 p.
N. to address a Joint session of con-
gress, hastily summoned a few hours
earlier to hear the executives plea
for action to prevent the threatening
nationwide railroad strike.
Presidents Message.
Gentlemen of the congress!
81 have come to you to seek your as
sistancs in dealing with a very grave
situation which has arisen out of the
roads engaged in freight train service
that they be granted an eight-hour
work day. safeguarded by payment of
sou r0 OF Work Beyond tSe eight
1.-The matter has been agitated for
more than year. The public has been
made familiar with the demands of the
men and the arguments urged in favor
of them, and even more familiar with
the objections of the railroads and their
counterdemand that certain provisions
now enjoyed by their men and base of
payment worked out through many
years of contest be reconsidered. espe-
cialy in their relation to the adoption
of an eight-hour day. The matter came
some three weeks ago to q final issue
and resulted in a complete deadlock be-
Mediation Fails.
"The means provided by law for me-
the means of arbitration for which the
law provides Were rejected. The repre-
proposed that the demands of the men
be submitted in their entirety to arbi-
tratton along with certain questions of
reimbursement as to pay and conditions
of employment which seemed to them
to be either closely associated with the
demands or to call for reconsideration
on their own merits; the men absolute.
ly declined arbitration. especially if
any of their established provisions were
by that means to be drawn again in
question. The law in the matter put no
compulsion upon them. The 400, 900 men
from whom the demands proceeded had
voted to strike IL their demands were
refused; the strike was imminent; it
has since been set for the 4th of Sep
man the freight trains on practically
every railway in the country.
Would Paralyze Nation.
"The freight service throughout the
their places are filled If, indeed, 1t
should prove possible to fill them at
all. Cities will be cut off from their
the nation will be paralyzed, men Of
every sort and occupation will be thrown
out Of LIS, smpioyment countless tie thou
1t may be, to the very point of starva-
tion. and tragical national calamity
brought on; to TO- be added to the other
of accommodation or settlement has
been found.
Spokesman Of Country.
"Just as soon as it became evident
had failed and that arbitration had
been rendered impossible by the atti-
tude of the men. l considered it my
tives Of both the railways and the
brotherhoods and myself offer media
ton not as an arbitrator but merely
nd fritz
of both parties, but not as a Judge,
only as the representative Of one hum
dred millions of men, women. and chill
dren, who would pay, the price-the in
calculable price of loss and suffering,
should these few men insist upon APP
preaching and concluding the matters
as employers and employees, rather
than as patriotic citizens Of the United
States looking before and after and &C
cepting the larger responsibility which
the public would put upon them.
Eight Hour Day Favored. -
1T seemed to me in considering the
subject matter OF the controversy. that
the whole spirit of the time and the
preponderant evidence of recent eco
nomic experience spoke for the eight
hour day. It has been adjudged by the
q thing upon which society is justified
in insisting as in the interest of health.
efficiency, contentment and a general
increase of economic vigor.
The whole presumption of modern
experience would, 1t seemed to me, be
in its favor. whether there was arbi-
tration or not, and the debatable points
to settle were those which arose out of
the acceptance of the eight-hour day
rather than those which affected it's
establishment
Made PropoaaI.
II therefore proposed that the eight
hour day be adopted by the railway
arrangements and put into practice for
the present as a substitute for the ex-
listing ten-hour basis of pay and serv-
Ice; that l should appoint, with the
mission to observe the results of the
change, carefully studying the figures
OF the altered operating costs also the
conditions of labor under which the
men worked and the operation of their
existing agreements with the railroads,