Daily Kennebec journal. [microfilm reel] (Augusta, Me.) 1870-1975, 1916-10-05
Taft Opens the N. J.
State Campaign for
Republican Party
Declares Campaign of 1916 AS Important AS
That of 1896 and Resembles Its
Characteristics

! IilCll nav { SuSSSCdS0 All COIApCihti6 Gil
abject surrender Of the President and
Congress Of the principle of arbitra-
ton to a peremptory demand for a
compliance with their wishes, without
an investigation or hearing of a most
important issue. These men were not
III distress such as to prevent their
awaiting the delay of arbitration
| Whether they were entitled to an in
crease or not, they are the best paid
wage-earners in the world, receiving
more on the average than many min
listers, teachers and other professional
men. The railway managers agreed
that if the matter could be submitted
to arbitration, the decision might re-
late back to September LIST last, and
, that they would agree to keep the ac-
counts of their employees so that if the
men won, they would receive their in
creases from that date. What the men
| demanded, and what they have in the
AdamSor bill, is not a limitation of
their labor to eight hours a day, and
there is little reason to believe that
the men desire to reduce their actual
hours of employment. In other words
|
wages, and the Adamson bill is COM
pliance with that demand under the
! threat of a disastrous strike. When the
President requested Congress to pass
the Adamson bill, he also requested
them to adopt the Canadian law, de-
claring such a strike unlawful If en-
tered upon before submission of the
issue to arbitration. The theory of
! that law Is that after arbitration. when
! the public have learned the merits, the
strike may proceed, and public opinion
| may be counted to defeat d disregard
! of the judgment. This doubtless would
| have prevented a recurrence Of such
cowardly exhibition Of submission to a
peremptory demand by the government
OF the United States: but the labor
leaders contemptuously rejected the
suggestion of the President. and their
| rejection was SO quickly acquiesced in
| that it is difficult to believe that the
| suggestion was anything more than a
! mere Formally.
The legality of Strikes rests on the
proposition that their economic incon-
venience to the employer gives en-
ploves a legitimate weapon in the in
evitatle controversy over the division
Of the joint product of labor and cap
| ital. In ordinary strikes the injury to
the public at large is incidental and
negligible. When, however the strike
! threatens to reach such proportions as
the one in question. the proba bility of
| its enormous injury to the public
dwarfS other considerations and justi-
! fees legislation to limit anG restrain
concert Of action having such effect.
j Such is the Canada law of arbitration,
If there ever WIS a time when legiSla-
! ton of that kind ought to have been
i passed. it was when It could have been
eXacted as a condition Of passing the
| Adamson law. If. after this. Mr. Will
son and q Democratic Congress are re-
/ elected, all hope of such legislation IS
gone.
! Mr.. Wilson. in response to the just
| and severe criticism. of his course in
betraying the cause of arbitration,
makes defense. He says that he and
Congress We're moved by their love of
! humanity and their belief in the ben
eft to society Of the eight hour day,
and that they did not act under dur
ess. 1t is difficult to speak with pa
thence of the sincerity of such a de-
Tense If the eight hour day was
granted to the Four Railway orders,
not because they threatened to strike
! for 1t, but because they deserved it,
why was it not granted by the same
statute to twelve or fourteen hundred
! thousand railway employees who were
not about to strike, and whose terms
! of employment were much less favor
able than those Of the threatening
strikers? If humanity prompted such
i legislation, why has 1t not been pro-
I jected during the last three and half
years? Why did the Democratic Con-
vention not declare for it? Why did
not Mr. Wilson refer to the necessity
for such legislation in his Speech Of
Acceptance? In his defense, Mr.. Will
son utterly refuses to consider the
question of justice of the 25 per cent.
increase of pay This fact can not be
disposed Of by the shibboleth he uses.
La Dor is not a commodity" Whatever
those words may mean. they can not
conceal or excuse the disgraceful fact
that the President and Congress Of the
United States yielded to the peremp-
tory demand OF the most favored class
Of lator. being only four per cent Of
all labor in this country, to grant them
Is per cent. increase in their pay, be-
cause Of a threat that if this demand
were not granted, they could and
would subject the business Of the
country to disastrous halt and the
other ten millions Of wage-earners to
heavy loss Of wages, inconvenience,
and privation.
Mr.. Wilson's defense Of his action
makes his case worse than If he had
said nothing. 1t is palpably disingen-
uous and confirms the Just inference
that what moved him chiefly in the
matter was to secure votes, and that
the real interests Of the country hao
but little weight.
Mr.. Wilson's action in Mexico should
defeat him for the Presidency. And
now Mr.. Hughes is asked what he
| would have done. He certainly would
not have done what Mr. Wilson did,
and what Mr.. Wilson did is reason
enough for not allowing him to con-
tinue to exercise the responsibility of
attempting to get out of the mess"
into which he has brought the country.