The Barre daily times. (Barre, Vt.) 1897-1959, 1919-09-04
UNDERWOOD F4VORS
GOVERNMENT CONTROL
Would Have Tribunal to Fix Rates and
to Determine Wages for Rail-
roads.

Washington, Sept. Establishment
of a governmental commission or board
with powers to fix both railroad wage
scales and transportations was advocat-
ed in the Senate to-day by Senator I'M
derwood of Alabama, Democratic mem
Der of the interstate commerce commit
tee.
Without disclosing whether he favored
the interstate commerce commission as
the proposed tribunal, or discussing the
Cummins bills plans to prohibit strikes
and lockouts of employees, Senator I'm
derwood said the interests of the public,
of capital and OF railroad employees re-
quire such plan. 1t is clearly within
the right ofs Congress, he declared, to
create an agency to determine wages as
well as rates.
MEN will not strike" said the Ala
bama senator, against the Just decisions
of the government. After a fair deter
mination of the controversy by impair
tial tribunal, public sentiment will force
the contending parties to accept the ver-
dict rendered as final 1t must be done
in the interest of the men involved, the
industry, Of the people and the peace of
the nation"
The tribunal he proposed, Senator I'm
derwood continued, must have the au-
thority and power to protect the rights
Of the whole people against to- reeur-
renee of strikes and lockouts." Disturb
ance of transportation, he said, affects
the whole public and therefore railroad
employees owe obligations in their action
different from those in private industry,
There is but one way out, in my
Judgment" he continued, "and that is to
appoint tribunal with the power to
adjust these matters, which has the time
TO consider and the opportunity to know
the facts Such tribunal must not
only have the power and be prepared to
do what is right and just, by the labor
employed on the railroads, but must
have authority and power and see that
property is not cenfiscated by its de.
cisions. For, should you confscate the
property of the transportation companies
you would break down the channels of
transportation as effectively as you
would break them down in strike, with
the resultant injury to the people. A
tribunal of this kind must also have the
authority and opportunity to consider
the rights OF shippers and travellers who
in the last analysis viii bear any in-
creased burden that falls on the carriage
of property or persons over the trans
portation lines
If you wanta final and just solution
Of such controversy, you are practi-
cally driven to leaving the decision TO
governmental commission that has full
and ample opportunity to investigate the
rates OF wage, the earning power Of the
transportation companies. the cost of liv-
ing, the burden that rests on the ship
ping public and to determine: First,
what is fair. just and living wage for
the men; second, how far this charge
can be placed on the capital OF the cor
poration without breaking it down, de.
stroying the value of its securities, bank
rupting its property and taking away
from the investing public fair return
for capital invested; third, how far an
increased charge for labor, interest or
supplies, can be handed down to the
public without doing injustice TO the
shipper and traveller, and without be-
coming a menace to the development Of
industry.
at il essential that the board or com
mission that is given the power to ad-
just the wage scale Of the men must
also have the power to reflect its findings
in the rates charged for the transporta-
tion of persons and property over the
railroads"
Senator Underwood said the time has
come when contests of brute force be-
tween capital and labor must cease and
that the rights of labor should be recog-
nized and protected by law, as are those
of property These conditions, he said,
ARE primitive" and collective bargain
ing, he asserted, cannet be pursued
against general public interest, Use Of
force in diminishing or increasing wages
must end, he declared, adding, however,
that he did not favor laws requiring la
Dor by compulsion.