Omaha daily bee., 1916-10-26
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increases by Is per cent the wages Of the highest
paid railroad employees, who need it the least, and,
OF course, if the extra money goes to them, It
can't go to any OF the vast army OF lesser paid
railroad employees.
In the second place, assuming that the wage
increase is deserved and right, who is going to
foot the bill? Surely not the railroads for any
length OF time. The roads will rccoup by raising
rates for their transportation services and it will
be showed along on the dear public. Forcing
rate-raising bill through congress by the stop
watch method would not be so popular with the
voter and so apparently deferred, but the voter
who has foresight and intelligence ought to be
able to look that far ahead, and if he does, he will
see what is coming
In the third place, the hold-up method of
frightening or bulldozing congress into legis-
lating money into the pockets of comparatively
small class, doing It at break-neck speed, without
deliberate discussion even time to investigate
and without pretending to be in possession OF the
facts, is about as dangerous precedent as could
possibly be set. Who was really welding the
powers of our government while the four brother
hood leaders were holding their watches on the
president and congress and brandishing strike
club ready to fall unless their bill were made into
law before the hands revolved to the appointed
minute markl What is to prevent the same four
brotherhood leaders usurping executive and legis-
lative authority again and again in the same
way? Suppose they want another pay increase
next winter and issue a strike order to be re-
scinded only when the lawmakers come down
with the goodsl
Look here, Jack, you know, and so does every
body else who knows anything, that II ever there
is an industrial dispute that ought to be settled
by arbitration, it is demand for higher wage
The Wilson talk about the number Of working
hours not being Admirable" is bunk. The length
OF the work day is regularly included in arbitra-
ton contracts q have made lots of EN- myself)
and arbitration" has been the union slogan all
these years the employers were dehantly saying
they had nothing to arbtrate." In surrendering
the principle of arbitration, President Wilson has
really done the cause Of labor not favor but an
incalculabe injury, and has injured not only the
cause Of labor but also the cause Of the general
public, because betraying the cause OF right and
justice. heard one wag refer to our democratic
president recently in the slang vernacuar as the
gink who put betray' in ar-betray -shun" He
didn't hit it off bad, did her
suppose you saw all those quotations of Viii
sonan expressions on labor made before his debut
into politicsi Where he refused pont-blank to
endorse the eight-hour movement, giving as his
reason that he believed each case should be fully
investigated and considered on its merits--pre-
cisely the opposite of his present position; where
he denounces labor unions as operating to make
their members do as little work for their money
as they can get away with; where he advocated
the open shop, which labor unions regard as
poison; where he brands organized labor as a
class OF enemies Of freedom. These volunteered
free-from-duress declarations gain significance
when compared with his present somersaulted
championship OF labors demands and they sup
port the conclusion that Wilson either took the
side he most feared" or fell for the temptation
| OF what looked like big bunch of deliverable
| votes Hardly anything for democrats to brag
''''' ~ ' YOUR FATHER.