New-York tribune. [volume] (New York [N.Y.]) 1866-1924, 1916-09-20
The "Hold-Up" Issue.

railroad brotherhoods. II is announced
that President Wilson will try to defend
that surrender in a speech to be delivered
at Shadow Lawn next Saturday. This Is
sue is therefore certain TO bulk large in the
six weeks that are left of the Presidential
campaign.
The Republican party will welcome a
clear-cut fight on the Administration
abandonment of the principle of arbitra-
ton in railroad wage disputes and Con-
gress's panic-stricken purchase of peace
with the railroad unions at their own price.
From every point of view, except that Of
the poor hold-up victim who gives up his
valuables in order to avoid trouble, that
purchase of peace at any price was lnde-
fensible. The President repudiated prin-
chile which society heartily approves
(which he himself approves except when
he is called upon to defend it at what he
considers a risk TO his political fortunes)
and which the Federal government has
been trying for years to establish through
the creation of boards of mediation and
other machinery for securing arbitration.
Congress flung away its self-respect AMI
abdicated its legislative functions when 1t
passed the spurious "eight-hour" law, I'M
der time-limit ultimatum from the broth
erhood leaders and embodying the exact
terms of settlement which they had in
sisted upon.
The so-called "eight-hour" law was an
eight-hour law only in name. Had Con-
gress undertaken to pass an act restricting
p davis labor on railroads to eight hours,
the brotherhoods themselves would have
fought it and undoubtedly have killed it
They were interested not in limiting a
DAYS work to eight hours, but in compel
ling the railroads to pay the present ten
hour wage scale for eight hours work
Their fight was primarily fight for higher
wages.
Neither the President nor Congress was
qualified to pass upon the merits Of this
demand for higher pay. The Federal gov
eminent has assumed absolute control Of
the railroads, so far as the regulation Of
their earning power is concerned. Con-
eress has limited the income Of the car
riers. The Interstate Commerce Commits
q sion prescribes what revenue must suffice
to meet the costs of operation and the divi-
dend requirements, if there are any divi-
dends. The commission is therefore the
proper body to determine to what extent
railroad wages ought to be advanced, since
IT controls the railroad wage fund and must
accept responsibility for furnishing the
revenue needed to meet wage increases.
Instead of saying that the claims Of the
railroad employees were not arbitrable, Mr..
Wilson should have told the brotherhood
leaders that they were arbitrabe and could
be Justly arbitrated only by the Federal
commission through which the earning
power and entire economic status of the
railroads are regulated.
A general strike on the carriers engaged
in interstate commerce would be an abb
surdity at the present advanced stage of
government regulation. 1t would be a de-
fance Of national sovereignty. If it is
necessary to protect the public against ex-
cessive freight and passenger rates, 1t is
equally necessary to protect it against the
interruption Of railroad service. Compul-
sorry arbitration Of wage disputes is just as
essential as compulsory reduction Of rail
road charges.
Here is a momentous question affecting
national sove eighty and national eff
cheney. And on it Mr.. Hughes is abso-
lutely right and Mr.. Wilson is absolutely
wrong.
The Republican party does not fear 10
submit this issue 10 the people. -Four hun
dred thousand railroad employees, most of
them the highest paid in their trade, took
the President and Congress by the throat
and forced a wage increase out Of them
without consideration or argument. But
the great mass Of the people-the farmers
the small merchants, the workers in indus
try outside the railroads-will have 20 pay
eventually for this increase through higher
freight rates. II is the case Of small but
well organized fraction Of the public hold
ing up the entire country.
Such tactics cannot be allowed to pre-
vail We do not believe that any amount
Of irrelevant argument about the desir-
ability Of an eight-hour day "a question
which was not before the President and
Congress) will confuse the real situation
In the public interest fuller national con
troll Of the railroads is imperative. The
rule that railroad wage disputes must be-
submitted 20 government arbitration must
be established, and now is the time 10 es-
tablish il.
The greater the prominence given TO this