The New York herald., 1921-10-17
Pennsylvania Official i
Said to Have Made Sug-
gestion in Chicago
Speech Friday.
BOTH SIDES ARE BLAMED
Statement Says Living Cost
Will Be Lowered, When New
Wage Reduction Could
Not Be Resented.

SpCCtul DCSpdtch 10 JHE NEW YORK HERALD
New York Herald Bureau.
Washington. ID. e., Oct. Is.
President Harding and the Inter
state Commerce Commission have
before them tonight suggestion
from the three representatives OF ths
public on the Railway Labor Board
that the railroad labor crisis be
averted by an immediate reduction
OF freight rates to correspond
with the 1919 per cent wage cut
ordered by the board last July and
which the union leaders are giving
as the reason for the threatened
nationwide strike on October 80.
The proposal then is that tho
unions drop the strike and the rail.
road officials withhold their request
for q further wage reduction. How
far the President approves of this
plan could not be learned tonight.
r. NJ. Barton. ]. w. Hanger and
J. w. Hooper, who form the public
group Of the board and who met
yesterday with President Harding
at the White House. and later with
members Of the Interstate Commerce
Commission along with the Presi.
dent, made it known tonight that
this is the solution of the. question
they have in mind
II the general public gets the tvus,t
fit of the wage cut ordered last July
in reduced freight rates it is the
hope of these members OF the labor
| board that the railroad executives
will withdraw their request for
further wage reduction OF 10 per
cent.
said to BE Attcrbury Plan.
Members of the public group said
tonight that Vice-President w. w.
Atterbury of the Pennsylvania Rail
read in speech in Chicago on Fri
day before the National Vehicle and
Implement Association had outlined
this plan and il il could be carried
out in good faith it would be the
best answer to the present difficulty.
which threatens industrial calamity
and great public hardship through
lack of food and other supplies all
over the country.
The stumbling block In the way
of this proposed solution OF the prob
lem, however, is that the railroad ex-
ecutives are insisting that the rail-
rsads cannot stand a reduction in
freight rates without further cut
in wages. They say that mere re-
duction in wages will not aid IN
bringing the country back 10 a pros
porous economical condition IL the
railroads are not allowed to retain
sufficient income to rehabilitate
themselves.
The executives proposed at their
meeting in Chicago on Friday that
If this further cut in wages was
made by the Railway Labor Board
they would be willing to cut rates to
correspond TO that reduction The
reply OF the union leaders was that
the executives must be crazy" be-
cause their men had ordered a strike
against the original 121-2 per cent
wage cut.
Statement OF Compromise.
The suggestion regarding the re-
duction of rates to correspond with
the wage cut was made public hy
the public group in the following.
statement:
UP until Friday there was but lit
tie. II any. danger OF a railroad strike.
This fact ia well known to every nan
| in close touch with tho real situation.
The railway workers would have
brought down upon their heads usi-
versal condemnation for resisting b.
force a wage cut so manifestiy ivst
and reasonable as that made in july.
It may likewise he said that IL remains
20 be seen whether tho issuance ~ a
strike order merely because petition
for n wage reduction is about TO he
filed will be sustained by public opin-
ion
The Railroad Labor Board has func-
toned for more than eighteen months.
settling hundreds OF controversies be-
tween carriers and their employees. and
ite decisions with but few exceptions
have been respected by both sidcs There
would have been a strike long ago X
the two parties had undertaken to settle
without intervention or supervision the
manifold disputes they inherited from,
the war period. There Is absolutely
nothing in existing conditions that justi-
fies the carriers and their employees
in nfllctins the ruinous results OF