The Birmingham age-herald. [volume] (Birmingham, Ala.) 1902-1950, 1919-08-26

the shopmen ought to be given the ad
ditional 4 cents an hour which the re-
adjustments asked for will justify.
There are certain other adjustments,
also pointed out in the report of the
director general, which ought in fair
ness to be made, and which will be
made.
Let me add also that the position
which the government must in consci-
ence take against general increases
in wage levels while the present ex-
ceptional and temporary circumstances
exist will, of course, not preclude to
any claims that may be made by other
classes of employees for readjustments
believed to be proper to secure i'm
partial treatment for all who work in
the railway service.
WOODROW WILSON.
1.-THE White House, August rs, 1919"
STATEMENT TO SHOPMEN
The President, in his statement to the
representatives of the shopmen, said:
Gentlemen L 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 insist upon the wage increase they
were asking or consent to the submits
sion of their claims to new tribunal,
to be constituted by new legislation. That
question no longer has any life in it.
Such legislation is not now in contem-
platon. 1 request that you ask the men
to reconsider the whole matter in view
of the following considerations, to which
ask their Thoughtful attention as Ameri-
cans, and which | hope that you will lay
before them as l here state them.
1--WE are face to face with a situation
which is more likely to affect the happi-
ness 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 upheaval known to history,
and the winter just ahead of us may
bring suffering infinitely greater than
the war brought upon us if we blunder
or fail in the process. An admirable
spirit of self-sacrifice, of patriotic devo-
ton and of community action guided
and inspired US while the fighting was
on. We shall need all these now and
need them in a heightened degree, if we
are to accomplish the first tasks of peace
They are more difficult than the tasks of
war-more complex, less easily under
stood-and require more intelligence, pa
tience and sobriety. We modified our
man power for the fighting, let us now
mobilize our brain power and our con-
sciences for the reconstruction. If we
fail it will mean national disaster. The
primary first step is to increase produce
ton and facilitate transportation, so as
to make up for the destruction wrought
by the war, the terrible scarcites it Gre
ated, and so as soon a possible relieve
our people of the cruel burden of high
prices. The railways are at the center
of this whole process.
RELIEF IN SIGHT
The government has taken up with all
it's energy the task of bringing the profit
eer to book, making the stocks of neces-
saries in the country available at low
cred prices, and facilitating distribution
and very favorable results are already
BEGINNING to appear. There is reason to
entertain the confident hope that SUBJ
stantial relief will result, and result in
increasing measure A general increase
in the levels of wages would check and
might defeat all this at it's very begin
ming. Such increases would inevitably
raise, not lower, the cost of living Man
ufacturers and producers of every sort
would have innumerable additional pre-
texts for increasing profits and all eff
forts to discover and defeat profiteering
would be helplessly confused. I believe
that the present efforts to reduce the
costs of living will be successful if no
new elements of difficulty are thrown in
the way; and 1 confidently count upon
the men engaged in the service of the
railways to assist not obstruct 1t is
much more in their interest to do this
than to insist upon wage increases which
VIII undo everything the government at
tempts. They are good Americans,
aloliS with the rest of us, and may, /
am sure. be counted on to see the point
1T goes without saying that if our
efforts to bring the cost of living down
should fail, after we have had time
enough to establish either success or
failure, it will of course be necessary to
accept the higher-costs of living as
permanent basis of adjustment, and rail-
way wages should be readjusted along
With the rest. All that / am now urg-
ing is that we should not be guilty of
the inexcusabie inconsistency of making
general increases in wages on the as
sumption that the present cost of living
will be permanent at the very time that
we are trying with great confidence to
reduce the cost of living and are able
to say that it is actually beginning to
fall
FULL JUSTICE PROMISED
II am aware that railway employees
have sense of insecurity as to the flu
ture of the railroads and have many
misgivings as to whether their interests
will be properly safeguarded when the
present form of federal control has come
to an end No doubt it is in part this
sense Of uncertainty that prompts them
to insist that their wage interests be
adjusted now rather than under condi-
ticns which they cannot certainly fore
see. But l do not think that their uneas-
mess is we'll grounded. anticipate
that legislation dealing with the future
of the railroads will in explicit terms af-
,1o A.