New-York tribune. [volume] (New York [N.Y.]) 1866-1924, 1916-09-18

the chief champion of anti-preparedness
in the House of Representatives, he saw
to it that the reorganization Of the army
was grossly bungled.
AS tested by the mobilization on the
Mexican border, the Hay-Wilson army re-
organization is a melancholy failure The
War Department has been unable to re-
cruit the regular army even up to the
very inadequate limit for 1857 fixed
by Mr.. Hay. The attempt to use I'M
trained National Guardsmen as part of
a first line mobile army has collapsed.
Such a fusion was impossible from the
start. It's chief effect has been to de-
moralize and disrupt the Guard, nearly
destroying its natural usefulness as a sec
ond line reserve, maintained in the states
under state control, for domestic pur-
poses.
When Mr.. Wilson decided to discard the
Garrison Federal volunteers plan, his only
practical alternative was to increase the
regular army to a minimum peace
strength of 100000. This he refused to
do, although the Senate stood ready to
support such an increase. He is COM
mitted irrevocably to the hopeless scheme
Of amalgamating . small regular army
with an unwieldy National Guard.
Mr. Hughes, on the contrary, stands for
rational military reorganization. He
favors the principle Of universal liability
to service, which is the only practicable
basis for the creation of a real regular
army and of a real second line, like the
Continental Army, composed Of short-ser-
vice men of suitable age, entirely under
Federal authority Mr.. Wilson is opposed
to compulsory military service in any
FORM On the whole question of military
preparedness Mr.. Hughes therefore stands
for far greater degree of national con-
troll and efficiency than Mr.. Wilson does.
The same thing holds good with re-
gard to the problem Of larger Federal
control Of the railroads and the proven
ton of the injury which would result 70
the public from an embargo on interstate
commerce. 1t is against public interest
that disputes between railroad managers
and railroad employees should be settled b.
a resort TO force-to strikes or lockouts.
The Federal government has set up ma
chinery for the arbitration of such dis
putes, thus taking a first step toward
new order of tranquility and efficiency in
the transportation industry.
But when the so-called "eight-hour"
was brought to the Presi-
dents attention-earlier efforts to secure
arbitration having failed-he rashly
threw overheard the principle of arbitra-
ton and said that the chief demand Of
the employees was one that ought not TO
be arbitrated. He surrendered TO a gigan
tic bluff, fearing to endanger his chances
of reelection by an insistence on arbitra-
ton.
Congress was even more cowardly than
he was. For though he recommended the
enactment of various propositions-some
of them unacceptable to the four railroad
brotherhoods- Congress, submitting to an
ultimatum from the brotherhood leaders,
passed law which embodied the demands
of the unions and excluded all the other
proposals intended TO benefit the railroads
or the public.
When the news that this humiliatlng
bargain with the railroad unions had beer
completed reached the President he said
that it signalized "the close of a perfec.
day" Mr.. Hughes, however, has frankly
and courageously attacked this so-called
"eight-hour" act as a gross abuse of legis-
lative trust and shameful betrayal of
public interest at the behest of very
minute fraction of the community.
Mr.. Hughes is absolutely right and Mr..
Wilson is absolutely wrong on this issue.
The "eight-hour" dispute which was real
ly dispute over wages and not over hours.
should have been arbitrated. The Inter
state Commerce Commission should have
been instructed TO settle it, since railroad
wages are an essential factor in the de-
termination of railroad rates, and if the
commission regulates one it should logi-
cally regulate the other.
The country needs to get away from.
the notion that wage strikes on railroads
regulated by the Federal government are
to be tolerated A momentous opportunity
to promote the cause of nationalsm was
lost when Mr.. Wilson and Congress were
terrorized into buying off a railroad strike
at a price fixed to the last penny by the
strikers. A President of Mr.. Hughes's
calibre would not have lost that golden
opportunity. The country needs him and
is turning to him because he stands more
courageously and resolutely than his OPP
ponent has stood, or ever will stand, for
complete and aggressive nationalism.
A New British Order.
The local representatives Of several
steamship lines declare themselves at a