The Birmingham age-herald., 1920-04-17
PALMER WRONG IN
 !. BLAMING RADICALS, STATES MORRISON
RailwayLabor Board Meets, Elects Officers and Will Begin Work on Wage
 Question Today
Ry Assoelated Press

A
 Washington, April l6-Attorney Gen Eeral Palrner's conclusions that "the out law railway strike was traceable to ac- tivities of radicals and reyolutionlsts was sharply challenged tonight in statement issued by Frank Morrison, secretary of the American Federation of Labor. An independent investigation of strike causes by the railway executives, the statement said, revealed just a plain, ordinary strike for more pay.i
 If there were enough revolutionary power in the United States to create such an outbreak as this,'' MT. Morrison said, the condition would be serious in- deed. But there is no such power. The absolute failure of the Attorney General to graps the true situation is amazing.
 The Department of Justice had no ad- ditonal annolIncements to make tonight to support it's conclusions The only de- velopment of the day affecting the gov- ernment's connection with the strike sit uation was the organization meeting of the railway board, which met with seven of it's nine members present. elected officers and determined to take tip, beginning tomorrow, the whole ques- tion of railway wages at the point where the bipartisan discussion between men and employers dropped it some days ago, unable to reach conclusion.
 While tactics of the rail strikers were
  bor, Mir. Morrison's statement said, this should not prevent an honest undw.S standing of the facts. His own view point as to causes of the strike, he added, was based on reports gathered by employers representatives not in sympathy with the strikers.
 s'I point to these reports and the evil dence they contain as an evidence of governmental stupidity n dealing with the situation,' MT. Morrison continued, ssWhile the government, through the Att torney General is contemplating repres- sion and punishment, treating the strike as a crime, the real employers know that the strike is an outbreak against economic conditions.
 JUST A PLAIN STRIKE
 After reading the digest of these re- ports. the conclusion is inevitable that whatever the merits of the strike, it IS chiefly just a plain, ordinary strike for more pay
 New York and New England investi- gators reported they had found strike sentiment 1strongest among the intelli- gent and conservative men, MT Morri- son said Many of the strikers have served for long periods on one railroad, he said and never before were known as agitators. Other observers found no virus of dsloyalty or Eevolution in the ranks Of the disaffected workers excrct
 
 are riding the strike as sometimes hap nens to be the case
 MT Morrison declared the railroad ex- ecutives were fully informed" as to the character of the strike, and they know that the outbreak is under no revolu- tionary direction"
 t'According to data gathered by the em- Y1oyers from. their representatives in close touch with the strikers through k out the country" the statement added, 'sthe yardmen's walkout is not of revo- lutionary character or origin. The fif- teen men who made the report on which this conclusion is based are in close failv touch with these men and are in then. confidence. The association which gathered the reports comes in intimate official contact with railway matters and is national in scope. It is not at all in sympathy with the strikers or their point of view.
 "A digest of these reports show that in all localities the reasons advanced by the strikers for their action are startlingly alike. Everyone of our in- vestigators, the digest says, is firmly convinced that so far as his territory is concerned, the strike is ail-American and entirely devoid of bolshevism or I. w. w.. and that up to the end of last week the radical element was not in evidence at all.'