The Birmingham age-herald., 1916-09-10
SESSION OF CONGRESS JUST CLOSED MOST DRAMATIC TN
 HISTORY OF UNITED STATES

of a reduction in their hours of work, an increase in wages. When it was evil dent that the differences by employers and employees could not be adjusted, the President made an effort to preserve peace He declared, first of all, that the employers must give the employees an eight-hour day without a reduction n wage. He insisted that the eight-hour day had the sanction and approval of society.
 fThe employers declined to accede to the suggestion of the President The em- ployes issued a strike" order for Sep tember 1. The President, believing that the "strike" order would be obeyed, and aware that in the event of strike" prosperity would be transformed in a trice into financial panic, took the case to Congress. He outlined legislation which he believed would avert the strike and demanded it's enactment.
 THE EIGHT-HOUR BILL
 Congress responded by the enactment of the Adamson eight-hour bill. It pro- vided that after January 1 railroad em- pioyers shall pay to railroad employees working eight hours per day the amount 1 such employers are paid for 10 hours work.
 As soon as the bill was rushed through Congress, the strike order was rescind ed. The President, who had averted war
 
 averted financial war at home-war be- tween capital and labor as a result of which every American citizen, in the role of innocent spectator, would have been seriously, perhaps disastrously injured.
 Other disturbing elements were nu- merous. There was danger of compl- cations developing through the delivery at an American port of the English yes sel Appam, captured by a German gun beat, and through the arrival at Balti- more of the intrepid submersible Deutsch- land-the first undersea- merchantman to cross the Atlantic. And-to cap the cli- max-the year was a presidential year, and as all such periods subject to the ill-effect of political manipulation.
 THE HORRID GRIND Despite the innumerable distracting ele- ments, chief among which are mentioned above, two things stand out in startling l relief-prosperity remained unchanged. and Congress completed programme of , radical legislation more remarkable than | ever before attempted
 Abandoning precedent American and 1 democra tic. Congress prepared the army l and navy for war; established @ merchant l marine; excluded the product of child | labor from interstate commerce.; estab- l lished a system of rural credits; provided 1 compensation for government employees in- | jured in service; established an eight-hour | of wages for railroad employees; provided 1 for cooperation between the government 1 and the states in the construction of good l roads; created a tariff commission and embraced, through a democratic ajority, | the republican principle of protection as l far as "dyestuffs" are concerned; provided 1 means by which this nation could retail l fate against Great Britain in its war l fare against American commerce; pro- vided for the construction of government armor and nitrate plants; and created l a commission to study and solve every ] phase of the intricate and all-important l railroad problem.
 THE GOOD ENDING"
 The conclusion is like that of the happy l fairy tale. After countless tribulations, 1 Congress completed it's work. It main- | tained, as a whole and to all practical purposes, the peace of the nation. Its | adjusted internal complications in such | manner that prosperous conditions were not disturbed It enacted more than 50O new statutes, and is convinced that its legislation, while Gas result of it's radi- cal departures from the well-trodden path), controversial in the extreme, will work in it's application for the material welfare and social betterment of the 1 nation.
 1 It is the transformation of a "winter of discontent into glorious summer. " That the people in their verdict Novem- | Der will so declare. Congress, through | it's majority confidently believes.