Omaha daily bee., 1919-08-26
Il. c. |. HOLDS UP
LABOR DEMANDS
FOR MORE WAGES
President Tells Railroad En-.
pIoyes' Representatives Of
New Policy to Govern
Administration.

(COntlnueQ from fh8e Ohe.)
his advisers said they would COM
municate the decision to the union
locals for acceptance or rejection.
A strike vote completed yesterday,
but not yet tabulated, was on the
question whether the men should
quit work to enforce consideration
of their demands by the railroad ad-
rrainistration instead of by a con-
gressional commission as first sug-
gested. AS this plan was aban-
doned the vote, whatever the re-
suit, is non-effective and the shop
men now have an entirely new
question before them.
This question they were asked by
President Wilson, through their
committee, to consider I'm a new
light"
Facing Situation.
1--WE are face to face with sit
uation," the president said, which
is more likely to affect the kappi-
ness and prosperity and even the
life of our people than the war it
self"
He thereupon outlined the gov
ernment's efforts to reduce prices
and the need for assisting these ef-
forts by stimulating production and
maintaining transportation.
"A general increase in the levels
of wages might defeat this at its
very beginning" the president said.
81 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.
l confidently count upon the men
engaged in the service of the rail-
ways to assist, not obstruct. They
are good Americans, along 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, it will be,
of course, necessary to accept the
higher costs as a permanent basis
of adjustment and railway wages
should be adjusted with the rest"
Increases Above H. c. L.
Mr.. Hines recommendations to
the president showed that the aver
age increase in earnings was in ex-
cess of the total increase in the
cost of living from July /, 1915, and
August l, 1919, due to the fact that
standar dization adopted at the re-
quest of the employees had given
thousands higher classification and
higher pay than they previously en-
joyed.
wages paid for similar work in
shipyards, which workers the shop
men have cited as higher paid, Mr..
Hines said, were higher because
the work was temporary and car
ried on under greater pressure and
also the workmen were forced to
live in congested districts where
living was extremely high, while
railroad shopmen have the advan-
tage of small or semi-rural COM
munities. Private industries, the di-
rector general found were paying
about 3 cents an hour more than
the railroad administration, which
difference will be equalized under
the Accent advance.
In addition to the 4 cents an hour
increase for most of the shopmen,
the director general ordered that
all freight car repairmen receive 76
cents an hour instead of 63 for steel
car repairers and So cents for wood
car repairers and that car inspectors
should receive 81 cents instead of
SO cents, with the exception in both
classes that the increase for men
employed at outlying points, where
the work is not continuous, shall be
4 cents an how.
Statement to Shopmen.
The president in his statement to
the representatives OF the shopmen
said:
Gentlemen:
81 request that you lay this crit
ical matter before the men in 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
submission of their claims to new
tribunal to be constituted by new
legislation. That question no longei
has any life in it. Such legislation
is not now in contemplation. | re-
quest that you ask the men to re-
consider the whole matter in view
of the following considerations, to
which I ask their thoughtful atten-
ton as Americans and which | hope
that you will lay before them as l
here state them.
We are face to face with a 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 in
dustries and our labor of every kind
back to a normal basis after the
greatest upheaval known in 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-sacr;fice
of patriotic devotion and Of COM
munity 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 understood-and require
more intelligence, patience and So
briefly. We modified our man
power for the fighting, let us now
mobilize our brain power and our
consciences for the reconstruction.
If we fail it will mean national dis
aster. The primary first step is to
increase production land facilitate