Republican farmer., 1919-08-29
If Living Cost Is To Increase ShOpmen
 To Get Higher Pay
WILSON ASKS MEN TO RECONSIDER BE- CAUSE OF GRAVE SITUATION-TO PAY MORE NOW WOULD MAKE LIVING
 HIGHER

IoASA lO Ll4G puDAAt III NOlA44VOAAbLA with the Railway shopmens' demands for higher wages, the President issued the following separate statement to the shopmen themselves:
 | Gentlemen:
 | l request that you lay this. critical matter before the men in a new light lThe vote they have taken was upon the question whether they should in lsist upon the wage increase they were iasking. or consent to the submission of their claims to a new tribunal, to lbe constituted by new legislation.
 That question no longer has any life in it. Such legislation is not now in Contemplation.
 I request that you ask the men to reconsider the whole matter in view of the following considerations, to which I ask their thoughtful atten- tion as Americans, and which I hope that you will lay before them as l here. state them.
 We are face to face with a situation which is more likely to affect the hap piness 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 la Dor 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 in finitely greater than the war brought upon us if we blunder or fail in the process.
 An admirable spirit of self-sacrifice, , of patriotic devotion and of commu-
 nifty 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 ac- COmnliSh a first Of i They are more difficult than the tasks
 of war---more complex, less easily un- derStood---and require more intelli- gence, patience and sobriety.
 We mobilized 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 very first step is to in : crease production and facilitate trans portation, so as to make up for the destruction wrought by the war, the z terrible scarcities it created, and so as : soon as possible relieve our people of the cruel burden of high prices. The
 railways at the centre of this i whole process.
 The Government has taken up with . all its energy the task of bringing tht ', profiteer to book, making the stocks :. of necessaries in the country, available : | at lowered prices. stimulating pro.
 duction and facilitating distribution
 and very favorable results are already |. beginning to appear. There is req
 son to entertain the confident hope II that substantial relief will result and
 result in increasing measure
 A general increase in the levels ot . wages would check and might defeat l. ,r,,l . increases would inevitably raise, not # lower, the cost of living. Manufac-
 turers and producers of every sor would have innumerable additiona , pretexts for increasing profits, and i all efforts to discover. and defea Q proffteering would be hopelessly con .s fused.
 I believe that the present efforts tC !, reduce the costs of living will be sue "a cessful if no new elements of ditti
 culty are thrown in the way, and
 confidently count upon the men en |, gagged in the service of the railways ', to assist, ot obstruct. It is mucf |. more in their interest to do this thar =. to assist not obstruct. It is mucl " will undo everything the goverRmen "a attempts
 They are good Americans aIonl | with the rest OI us. anu may. all sure, be counted on to see the point " It goes without saying that if ou1 ,- efforts to bring the cost of living dowI 5 shouE1 fail, after we have had tirn'
 enough to establish either success o1 failure 1t will, of course, be necessar! = to accept the higher costs of living a! = a permanent basis of adjustment. ana 'i railway wages should be readjusteC along with the rest.
 All that I am now urging is that w
 should not be guilty of the inexcus
 able inconsistency of making genera
 increases in wages on the assumption
 that the present cost of living will b' permanent at the very time that WI
 are trying with great confidence tt
 reduce the cost of living and are abl N to say that it is actually beginning tt fall.
 am aware that railway employe
 have a sense of insecurity as to tn
 future of the railroads, and hay is many misgivings as to whether thei 70 interests will be properly safeguarde Tt when the present form of Fedora e- control has come to an end. No doub -e | ii is In part this sense of uncertaint le that prompts them to insist that thei e- wage interests be adjusted now rath L. CT than under conditions which the
 cannot certainly foresee. le But I do not think that their un a easiness is well grounded. I antici T. pate that legislation dealing with tn 1t future of the railroads will, in ex n, plicIt terms, afford adequate protec r. tion for the interests of the employe l. of the roads.
 l- But. quite apart from that, it in clear that no legislation can mak le the railways other than what the
 are. a great public interest, and it n not likely that the President of tn B. United States. whether in possessio
 and control of the railroads. or no
 will lack opportunity or persuasiv
 force to influence the decision C
 questions arising between the man
 agers of the railroads and the rail ~ way employees.
 D He Promises Justice.
 The employees may rest assure n, that. during my term of offic' a whether I am in actual possession C ,g the railroads or not. I shall not ia l. to exert the full influence of the e1 " ecutive to see that justice is don .t them.
 h. I believe therefore. that they ma