Evening public ledger. [volume] (Philadelphia [Pa.]) 1914-1942, 1920-04-14
RAIL BOARD OPENS
THE WAY TO PEACE
Common. Sense Strike Settlement
Becomes Possible with the Revival
Of Government at Washington

| by force. II vii, not be settled by
rhetoric or by tho people who arc hawl
ing for tho sollicry. General Woods
sahcr. ratllug in the general vicinity
"f Chicago. n return TO the utilities u(
MIR. Palmer or shouts for 'thc gun and
the strike taboo, by George will get
Us nowhere unless it bc deeper into con
fusion.
The country doesn't want it's trains
run by the army. 1t doesn't want
tanks and machine guns in the streets.
This isn't Germany and it isn't Russia
aud. what i more important, the
strikers are not Germans and they are
not Russians. They arc citizens who
have a right to fair hearing and fair
deal.
/ There are cries for the Department
of Justice. cries for the army. What
would the bcfuddlcd senator's have the
! Department Of Justice do? How should
! it be done?
Trains, even If they could be run by
! the army, would cost about n hundred
times as much as they cost now. and
whore should we be in the end? II the
time has come when peace in American
! industry has to be maintained by armed
force something is wocfully out of keller
somewhere. Tho strike itself is of
secondary interest. of secondary sig
nilcance. 1t may end as quickly as it
began. 1t may be brought to some
strained sort of settlement. Plainly,
however, there is an extraordinary state
of mind behind 1t, and it is with that
state Of mind that enlightened agencies
of government ought now to deal openly
and fairly.
1t is interesting to observe that in all
the schemes of settlement by suppress
sion so far proposed there is nothing to
suggest method by which public opin-
ion may be given n voice or an oppor-
tuuity to make its supreme power felt.
The people, who suffer most. do not yet
know what is wrong. and no one in
official authority has thought of giving
them the information that they ought
to have.
General Wood. buCkling on his sword
with a gesture of superb abnegation,
will be suspected, and suspected rightly.
of desire to steal Mr.. Palmer's stuff.
stuff has got Mr.. Palmer?
Other presidential candidates seem to
believe that the applause and tn. lau =
rels will go nowadays only to a pro
fCssional strong man. A strong man
is needed. of course. but he should have
the strength of honesty and high inten
tions and n discerning mind rather than
tho strength that is merely adequate to
carry him to questionable victory in a
riot The Woods and the Poindextprs,
with their blind trust in rules and laws
that could not have the dignity of en-
forCement unless we created conditions
unpleasantly suggestive of civil war.
ought to be kept far out Of tho present
confusion. They nre quite as dangerous
and as futile as the leaders of the rail.
way insurgents. The general ought to
go back to his stump.
\ sane and orderly way to a settle
ment of the strike is open to the federal
authorities, and the sudden activity at
Washington indicates that the Presi
dent at last has discerned it. The
nows from the eastern lines was needed
to galvani2e drifting government.
Tho course which the President
should and probably will follow is sug
gestcd in his hurried appointment of the
much discussed railway labor board
The unfortunate accident of Mr.. vii E
sous illness further confused the is
sues that lie between railway companies
and their men. The railway wage board
should have been appointed before this
But to say that delay at the White
House is the sole cause of the strike is
rank misrepresentation. The OfficiaI
labor board will be relatively powerlcs,
until the railroad companies themselves
appoint the boards Of arbitration and
I conciliation expressly provided for in
tho Esch Cummins law.
The federal board is to hc a fua
court Of appeal for the lesser board.
which have not yet been organized, II
is worth remembering, too. that in the
: railway law there il nothing to make
the establishment Of these lesser boards
compulsory; nothing, In other words
? ro compel the railways or their strikinI
employees to accept tho principle which
Mr.. Hoover, as chairman of the recent
, industrial conference, as well as his
, colleagues, viewed as an indispensable
preliminary to industrial peace
, \ duty Of tho government which Mr.
Wilson is likely to recognize is 10 dc
, maud that the preliminary boards o
p arbitration bc Immediately established
!. Ito scrutiuizo. not tho particular claims
| of the insurgcnt unions, but the cause
! 0f their insurgency.