Abbeville progress. (Abbeville, Vermilion Parish, La.) 1913-1944, 1920-03-06
GOVERNMENT ENDS
RAILROAD CONTROL
REIMBURSEMENT of Govern
ment of Carriers. at Mid
night Sunday.

Uae bir otOn President NllHoH
eignod the railroad bill Saturday on
the eve of the return Of the roads 10
their owners and to private operation
In a proclamation issued at the tlme
the bill was signed, Mr.. Wilson VeS'eu
in Walked d. Hines, director genera
~ railroads, Virtually all powers coz
ferred upon the executive by the DILL
Mr. Hines will also continue to eNer'
else the duties of director general uh-
til May /.
The White House also made Pubic
the text of the presidents reply 10
recent request of representatives ol
the railroad brotherhoOds that he APP
point a commission composed eQuaIly
Of EMPLOYERS and employees delegates
IN consider wage demands made by
the brotherhOods.
In his letter Mr.. Wilson said the
passage of the railroad bill, made II
evident that ! could not act on your
suggestions until it should have Deen
determined whether the bill would be-
come law OF HOl
eft was manifest" the letter con-
tinued. that if the bill should become
a law the negotiations and consldera
ton OF the wage matter ought to pro
coed in harmony herewith
THE bill having now become law.
the way is open for immediate action
on the wage matter in accordance with
the terms of the bill. Section 3Ol OF
the bill evidently contemplates that
the carriers and employees should, as
suggested by you, select representa-
tives. who will thus constitute BIZ
partisan board for the purpose OF at
tempting by conference to agree upon
a solution of this wage problem.
'In accordance with the assurance
| gave last August, and repeated In
substance in my letter of the 18th in
slant, shall at once request the car
riers and the employees to join In this
action. | believe such step will go
! far toward clarifying and maturing the
| subject for final disposition. In fact.
| the sort of board thus contemplated
by section 301 appears to be an appro-
| pirate substitute for the committee or
experts which heretofore suggested.
While all arrangements for formal
restoration of the carriers to their own
ers were completed Saturday by Mr..
Hines, instructions went out Sunday
to operating representatives of the
railroad administration informing them
that they would report to the proper
officials of the corporations which re-
sumo control at 1901 a. m, March L.
OF the gigantic organization created
by former Director General McAdoo as
a wartime expedient, only small part
will remain. Regional officials, fed.
eral managers and treasurers and
many high officials comprising the di
rector generals staff ceased to func
| ton as such at the designated hour
Some of these have gone back to their
/ former places as officials of the cor
porations, while others have entered
into new lines of endeavor.
! Mr.. Hines will continue in his pres
ent capacity until about May /. AL
though without any railroads to direct
he still faces the settlement of liter
ally thousands of claims, contracts and
grievances. Only 147 of the 23O com
pensation contracts with the corpora
lions actually were signed during the
government control, and the remain
der will continue to be the subject oil
negotiations. Damages claims have
arisen, of which many are still pend
ing. Labor has several thousand cases
before the government wage boards
and Mr.. Hines has assured the labor
spokesman that these will be con
cluded.