Evening star., 1919-08-26
Statement of the President
In Reply to Rail,Uay Shopn1en

| The President in a statement to the
representatives of the railroad shop
men yesterday said:
! Gentlemen:
Il request that you lay this critical
matter before the men in a new light
The vote they have taken was upon
the question whether they should in
sist upon the wage increase they were
asking or consent to the submission
| of their claims to new tribunal. to
be constituted by new legislation
That question no longer has any life
! in il. Such legislation is not now in
contemplation request that you ask
| the men to reconsider the whole mat
ter In view of the following consid-
erations. to which ask their thought
full attention as Americans. and which
1 hope that you will lay before them
as l here state them.
I'VE are face to face with situa-
ton which is more likely to AFFECT the
happiness and prosperity, and even
the life, of our people than the, war
itself. We have now got to do nothing
less than bring our industries and our
labor OF every kind back to a normal
basis after the greatest upheaVaj
known to history, and the winter just
ahead of us may bring suffering in
finiteiy greater than the war brought
upon us if We blunder or fail in the
process An admirabl spirit of self
sacrifice, of patriotic devotion and OF
community action guided and inspired
US while the fighting w4s on. We shall
need all these now, and need them IN
a heightened degree, l. we are to ac-
complish the first taskA of peace. They
are more difficult than the tasks o.
war-Inore complex, less easily under
stood and require more Intelligence,
patience and, sobrie:y. We mobfilze1
our man power for the fighting; let u
now mobilize our brain power ana our
consciences for the reconstructlon. -
we fail, it will mean national disaster
The primary first step is to increase
production and facilitate transporta-
ton, so as to make up for the destruc-
ton wrought by the war, the terrlole
scarcities 1t created. and so as soon
as possible relieve our people OF tne
cruel burden of high prices. The rail-
ways are at the center of this whole
process.
Effort to Lower Prices.
''The government has taken up with
all it's energy the task of bringing
the profiteer to book. making the
stocks of necessaries in the country
available at lowered prices. stimulat-
ing production and facilitating dis
tribution, and very favorable results
are already beginning to appear.
There is reason to entertain the con-
fident hope that substantial relief will
result, and result in increasing meas
ure. A general increase in the levels
of wages would check and might de-
feat all this at its very beginning.
Such increase would inevitably raise,
not lower. the cost Of living. Hanu-
facturers and producers of every sort
would have innumerable additional
pretexts for increasing profits and all
efforts to discover and defeat profit
eering would be hopelessly confused.
I believe that the present efforts to
reduce the costs Of living will be sue
cessful If no new elements of diff
Guilty are thrown in the way: and
confidently count upon the men en-
gagged in tho service Of the railways
to assist, not obstruct It Is much
more in their interest to do this than
to insist upon wage increases which
will undo everything the government
attempts. They are good Americans
along with the rest Of US and may,
am sure, be counted on to see the
point.
TT goes without saying that IL our
efforts to bring the cost Of living
down should fail after we have had
time enough to establish either sue
cess or failure. 1t will. Of course. be
necessary to accept the higher costs
of living as a permanent basis of ad-
justment, and railway wages should
be readjusted along with the rest. All
that I am now urging is that we
should not be guilty Of the inexcus-
able Inconsistency of, making general
increases in wages on the assumption
that the present cost of living will be
permanent at the very time that we
are trying with great confidence to