Pine Bluff daily graphic., 1920-09-14
HARDING MAKES CHARGES AGAINST
 RAILROAD POLICY
G. o. P. Nominee Says Demo- crats Intended Roads to
 Become U. s. Controlled

Marion, Ohio, Sept. Reaffirm. ing his support of the Cummins- Escf act restoring railways to their own. CTS, Senator Harding charged in g speech to delegation of railwa, workers late today, that by assuming control of the roads the Wilson ad ministration had sought to promote policy based on permanent govern. ment operation.
 Had the experiment proved sue, cess, the republican nominee declar. ed, the administration would have favored retention of the transporta. tion lines and other public utilities under government control.
 The Senator also assailed as "So. cialistia' and revolutionary" the plan supported by some labor leader, to put the railways at the disposal oi railway workers. The Cummins- Esck bill, he said, was the best measure congress could work out in the tim, allotted.
 Several hundred union men com posing the Harding and Coolidge rail. way club of Marion were in the dele. gation and they cheered the nominee as he hit at class rule and lauded labor provisions of the act.
 Conceding that the act was not per. feet Senator Harding characterized it as "thc most considerate piece o1 legislation ever enacted in the pro lection of any group of workmen ir the United States"
 "When the world war came on," hs continued, Eve had gone 50 far 1T restriction and regulation that tht governments response to much ol the railway batting made it difficult for the railway management to keer pace with the expanding requirements of the country. The country was ap prehcnsive and we were all deepl, concerned in putting everything that we possessed at the command of ths government for the winning of tn, war.
 Country Behind Move
 "With such feeling manifes throughout the country the railroad. were taken over. There was back ot the movement the insistent forces iY our country who believe in govern mont ownership of railways. Whei congress voted to grant authority ts take over the telephone and telegraph lines, it was expressly stipulated that no such seizures would be made un. less the exigencies of war required 1t but without new exigency and with. out a single new condition of peril tho telephone and telegraph linei were seized because an administra tiop was in power which was disposed to take advantage of the anxietics ol people, while involved in war to com pletely revolutionize our government policy in dealing with these public utilities.
 "I must emphasize of the grosi misunderstanding relating to tn. Cummins- Esch law. It did not pro vide for . permanent government guarantee of dividends on railwa, capital. On the contrary it placed | limit on these dividends. It did pro vide for a maintenance of rates for | period of six months which would guarantee a sufficient railway earn ing to make possible the financing of necessary railway improvements.
 "If we had returned the railroadi without this temporary guarantee il ell probability, the great American system would have been broken dowI and we would have found ourselvei in state of railway paralysis. "We also stipulated that ther' should be no reduction of American railway wages during that same pc riod. We gave the railway workman the same guarantee that we gave thu American owners and in neither cas- was this done with sole thought Q. owners or workmen. but congress was thinking of the welfare of al l the American people. This eve must be the thought in mind in deal ;n0 with any imnnrfank nuhlie nues