The Bridgeport times and evening farmer., 1919-08-26

Washington, Aug. 26.---Besides his statement to the public in connection with the Railway Shopmens' demands for higher wages, the President issued the following separate statement to the shopmen themselves:
 Gentlemen: I 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 it. Such legislation is not now in cOntempia ton.
 I request that you ask the men to reconsider the whole matter in view of the following considerations, to which l ask their thoughtful atten- | ton as Americans, and which I hope that you will lay before them as I here state them.
 1 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 bor of every kind back to a normal | known in history, and the winter just ahead of us may bring suffering in i 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- i nifty action guided and inspired us while the fighting was on. We shall | need all these now, and need them in | a haiphHooOI sF complish the first tasks of peace They are more difficult than the tasks of war---more complex, less easily un- l derstOod---and require more intelli- | gcnce, patience and sObriety.
 | We molrlized our man power for 1 the fighting, let us now mobilize our 1 brain power and our consciences for | the reconstrU ct 0n.
 | If we fail it will mean national dis
 aster. The very first step is to in E crease production and facilitate trans E portation, so as to make up for the destruction wrought by the war, the
 terrible scarcitie.5 it created, and so as soon as possible relieve our people oi the cruel burden of high prices. The railways are at the centre of this
 whole process.
 l 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, stimulating pro. ! duction and facilitating distribution ! and very favorable results are already beginning to appear. There is req son to entertain the confident hope 2 that substantial relief will result ana result in increasing measure A general increase in the levels o1 a all this at it's very beginning. Such l increas@s would inevitably raise, not lower, the cost of living. Manufac- turers and producers of every sort < would have innumerable additional < pretexts for increasing profits, and all efforts to discover and defeat { profteering would be hopelessly con- 3 fused.
 ! I believe that the present efforts tc ! reduce the costs of living will be sue 9 cessfu1, if no new elements of diff q culty are thrown in the way, and 7 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 mucf
 will undo everything the governmen l attempts.
 They are good Americans alohs l with the rest of us, and may, l an ] sure, be counted on to see the point
 It goes without saying that if oul
 efforts to bring the cost of living dowr
 should fail, after we have had t1m'
 enough to establish either success ol failure it will. of course, be necessaT!
 to accept the higher costs of living a
 a permanent basis of adjustment, anC
 railway wages should be readjusteC along with t',e 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 w
 iare trying with great confidence t
 reduce the cost of living and are abl
 to say that it is actually beginning t
 fall.
 am aware that railway employe
 have a sense of insecurity as to tn
 future of the railroads, and hay
 many nnisgivings as to whether thei
 interests will be properly safeguarde
 when the present form of Fedora
 control has come to an end. No dout
 1t Is in part this sense of uncertaint
 that prompts them to insist that thei