The Barre daily times. (Barre, Vt.) 1897-1959, 1916-10-16
TOLD OF COAL CASE
BACK IN 1902
Addressed Crowd at Wilkes
Barre, Pa, Satur-
day Evening

eight hour day for railroad employees II
declared that arbitration would hav
been the proper method of averting tn
/ threatened nation wide railroad strike
, and instanced the application OF thi
principle in 1902, when he settled tn
anthracite coal strike.
, Mr.. Roosevelt said in part
81 have accepted the invitation to com
TO Wilkes Barre to discuss the Adam
: son law because Wilkes Barre is tn
headquarters OF the great industry il
connection with which ! myself as pres
ident was brought into close and init
mate touch with the labor movement il
this country, If what ] have to say il
of any value it must be not because
it represents what in the abstract il
fright, but also because in the eoncret,
! applied in actual practice, when | haC
the power the principles which | crit
cized Mr.. Wilson for not applying now.
THE brotherhoods have demanded leg
islation raising their wages to be tsker
without investigation and without the
exercise of that form of judgment shown
by competent arbitration commission
and such demand ia wrong, and stand
against il because it is wrong. In the
case of the settlement OF the anthracite
coal strike, the action | took was OF pre-.
cisely the kind which President Wilson
now says the law should make obligatory
| in all similar cases in the future. Mr..
Wilson has admitted that his own action
was so bad that it ought never to be re
Ipeated.
In the case of the anthracite coal
strike | held that in any case OF such
Importance and such interest we must
have full knowledge before final action
of any OF the points at issue was taken,
and that this knowledge must be 90
tanned by an unbiased body OF arbi
traitors after a thorough study of the
situation. | held that the power of the
government must be used to make effec-
tive the findings OF this body, and that
pending the findings the work of mining
must go on because the public need de-
manded it.
President Wilson says, This is as
suredly the best way of indicating
principle, namely, having failed to make
certain of its observance in the present
to make certain of its observance in the
future On the contrary, this is the
very worst way of vindicating a princi
Pile. Indeed, it is impossible to devise a
worse way of indicating principle,
than to finch ANONYMOUSLY from enforc-
ing it in the case at issue and at the
same time seek to cover the ignominy
by vociferous protestations about apply
ing it in the nebulous future. Indeed,
leaders of the brotherhoods whom the
president was befriending said they
would never consent TO the legislation
providing for future arbitration for
which President Wilson asked; and Pres
ident Wilson kept weak and nervous
silence about this defiance.
81 have always stood for the rights
of labor. You miners before me know
that stood by you, and | incurred the
hostility of the greatest financial pow
ers of the land by so doing, and | have
felt that hostility in public life ever
since. But did not care, because | knew
that my course was right. stood by
you because | believed you were right.
II ! had been the type OF man who was
willing to stand by you when you were
wrong | would never have dared to stand |
by you when you were right, against |
such opposition as at that time | en-
countered. | believe in the great prin. |
ciple of arbitration. | believe in invoking |
the action of the government to help |
labor; but | also believe that to invoke
such action will in the end be ruinous
10 labor, as well as to the country, if
it is not exercised with wisdom and fear
essness and in the spirit of exact justice
10 all the parties concerned. If these
questions are not settled right, then some
lime they will have to be unsettled, and
infinite trouble is therefore laid for use
n the future.
"Mr. Gompers has recently established
himself as the especial champion of Mr..
and claims joint credit with Mr..
Wilson for their joint conduct of our
oreign affairs so far as Mexico is con (
erned. He asks labor to support Mr.
Wilson specifically on the ground OF Mr.
Wilson's attitude in Mexico, which, he +:
tates, he has helped to secure. Mr.. Com {
ers states that when Carranza refused |
o surrender the American soldiers taken
risoners at Carrizal, in response to Pres
lent Wilson's request, he, Mr.. Gompers,
to him upon the ground of
patriotism and love for the release of
he American soldiers; and that imme
lately Carranza responded on June 20
o Mr.. Gompers. saying that he had or
cred the release of the prisoners.
Il really question whether we have
yer in our history known anything as
as the president Of the
'nited States playing second fiddle in
lch manner to the head OF a private
rgsnization when dealing with interna l
onal matters. Furthermore all the joint
,mmittee of suppliants ventured to do
as to ask that the American soldiers
no had been taken prisoners when their
,mrades were slain be returned They
ade no demand for atonement for the
sath of the American soldiers treach 2
-ously slain by Carranza's troops They G
d nothing about the killing of Boyd and r.
dair and their troopers" Z
Col Roosevelt here referred to Carrsn- y
Is decree forbidding strikes in Mexico. h
This decree was issued on August cI
St he continued. yet Gompers asks 81
Ie support of the lsboring men of the "
nited States for Mr. Wilson on the d
'ound that he Is the sponsor of the mill "
~ tyrant who issued this decree. II il q
w announced in the press that Mr.. g