The north Mississippi herald. (Water Valley, Yalobusha Co., Miss.) 1888-1929, 1919-08-29

secure impartial treatment for all
who work in the railway service"
WOODROW WILSON,"
The White House, August 25, 1919. /"
To Railroad Men.
The President in his statement to
the representatives of the shopmen,
said:
Il request that you lay this matter
before the men in a new light. The
vote they have taken was upon the
question of whether they should insist
upon the wage increase they were
asking or consent to the submission
OF their claims to a new tribunal, to
be constituted by new legislation
That question no longer has any life
IN it. Such legislation is not now in
contemplation. / request that you
ask the men to reconsider the whole
matter in view of the following con-
slderations, to which I ask their
thoughtful attention as Americans,
and which / hope that you will lay
before them as | here state:
A Serious Situation.
1--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 moth
ing less than bring our industries and
our labor of every kind back to
normal basis after the greatest up
heaval known to history, and the win
ter just ahead of us may bring suffer-
ing infinitely greater than the war
brought upon US if we blunder or fail
in the process. If an admirable spirit
of self sacrifice, of patriotic devotion
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 understood-and require more
Intelligence, patience and sobriety.
We mobolized our man power for the
lighting, let us now mobolize our
brain power, and our consciences for
the reconstruction. If 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 terri
bic scarcities it created, and so as
soon as possible relieve our people of
the cruel burden of high prices. The
railways are at the center of this
whole process.
After Profiteers.
"The government has taken up
with all its energy the task of bring
ing the profiteer to book, making the
stocks of necessaries in the country
available at lower prices, stimulating
production, and facilitating distritu-
ton and very favorable results are
already beginning to appear. There
IS reason to entertain the confident
hope that substantial relief will re-
suit, 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 increases would inevitably raise,
not lower, the cost of living. Manu-
facturers and producers of every sort
would have innumerable additional
pretext for increasing profits and all
efforts to discover and defeat prof.
teering would be hopelessly confused.
/ believe that the present efforts to
reduce the cost of living will be sue
cessful, if no new elements of diff
Guilty are thrown in the increases in
the cost of transportation which
would necessarily result from in
creases in the wages of railway en-
ployes, would more certainly and
more Immediately have that effect
than any enhanced wage cost. Only
by keeping the cost of production on
It's present level = by increasing pro-
duction and by rigid economy and
saving on the part of the people, we
hope for large decreases in the bur
densome cost of living which now
weights us down. The director gen
eral of railroads and / have felt that
particular responsibility rests upon
us because in determining this ques-
tion we are not studying the balance
sheets of corporations, but in effect
determining the burden of taxation
which must fall upon the people of
the country in general. We are act
ing, not for private corporations, but
in the name Of the government and
the public and must assess our re-
sponsibility accordingly. For it is
neither wise nor feasible to take care
Continued on last narel