Evening public ledger. [volume] (Philadelphia [Pa.]) 1914-1942, 1919-08-26
Decline to accept
Presidents Offer
Ccrttnusd From Pase One
The conductors and fremen will be
heard from soon.
Demand the Impossible

hcsrd from soon.
Demand the Impossible
Tho leaders Of the engineers and
trainmen have said that they would be
satisfied with a reduction in the cost
of living instead Of increased wages.
But II they mean a substantial reduc-
tion In the cost Of living they have de-
manded the impossible.
No one can change the current OF
prices for the better in time to afford
much relief. What the course Of these
leaders and their men will be in case
the shopmen begin a strike, no one can
say. -,
The fact that behind them stand all
o,her classes Of railroad labor, making
or about to make similar demands, will
probably embolden the shopmen, or at
least encourage their more radical
leaders.
Wilson Had No Choice
1t is this same fact which has given
the President the courage to take the
stand he has. Mr.. Wilson will receive
great praise for not yielding to the
tnOpmen, Uut III Nlhth ho >'N'N NV ~
otherwise than he has done.
To have granted the demands OF the
shopmen would have been to grant sim
liar demands from all the classes of
railroad labor. Moreover, it would
have been to give sort of government
sanction TO similar demands by labor
in all other branches of industry
throughout the country.
The President is pressed by the need
of reducing the cost of living or at least
checking its advance. His administra'
ton, his party is threatened by public
discomfort. More than that, the whole
social fabric in America is endangered
by the upward movement Of commodity
prices.
Quiet Revolution Seen
In effect a quiet revolution is taking
plnce as a result of the breakdown of
all our habitual ideas Of prices and all
our customary commodity demands. No
one can foresee whittier it is leading
NOR where 1t will stop.
Whole classes in society see the
ground breaking under their feet.
Equally other classes see no limit to the
possibilities opening before them.
There is great public discomfort on
the part Of those who find themselves
menaced. And equal discomfort on the
part Of those who will not see them
selves denied.
Advisers Enlighten President
President Wilson has had to elect
sides in this issue. As a result of the
visit of Chairman Cummings. Senator
Hitchcock and others to him he has, at
least temporarily. chosen his side. His
visitors found him ignorant of what was
going on. They succeeded in enlighten-
ing him on its possibilities.
At present he is enlisted In an effort
to check the upward movement Of prices
and wages with their social overtures.
He is attempting to stabilize production
and consumption and social changes.
At best it is a huge enterprise and his
means so far hurriedly extemporized, are
hardly adequate. At the 4homent of his
beginning, the forces in opposition to
him come forward with demand that
he sanction a new advance in wages, an
advance which would give the signal
to other advances in wages not only in
the railroad industry but in all in
dustries.
Situation Is Critical
To have approved this demand would
have been to undo with his left hand
what he was only feebly commencing to
do with his right. The President had
no choice. He had to refuse the shop
men or make nonsense of all his pro-
fessions about reducing the cost of liv-
ing.
The situation is critical. The issue is
tremendous. The President is fighting
these vast forces which the war let loose.
Behind the curtain which will be raised
when it is determined whether these
forces can be arrested at the point they
have reached today lies the future.
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