The Bridgeport times and evening farmer., 1921-11-25

promised: usually they ought to be compromised But differences over elemental principles cannot be com promised.
 ''The u1timatus delivered to the government by labor despots was obeyed and :he Adamson law enacted in the exact form ordered and at the exact time ordered. It was the most shameful and humiliating event in the American history. From it have come many of the industrial plaques with which, since then. the nation has been and is afflicted.
 ''The next blow at the nations transportation system was dealt by the government itself. We went to war shamefully unprepared; and, in a storm of confusion. excitement and panic, the railways gravely weakened financially, but with operating forces still regimented although restive. were taken from their harassed and distracted owners and run by the na- tional administration.
 Then followed that saturnalia of mtsmanagement which left those properties bound and gagged by agreements, regulations and working rules
 Immediate action is vital. Most rates must come down, and especially and farthest those on basic necesst- ties like fuel and foodstuffs; and, therefore, since wages and rates are tnsperarable, wages must also come down.
 "Our whole economic system has been inflated to the bursting point and general dehation was and is indispen- sable. The farmers have def1ated, business men have def1ated. most other labor has def1ated or Is defiat- ing; and railroad labor must undergo that common, universal and neces- sary process-indeed labor imitation in the production of the absolute feces- sities of human life such as coal, hous- ing, food and transportation. Is one of the principal elements in the high cost of living; and normal wages in such industries is indispensable to normal prices.
 "The Adamson law must be repeal ed. The wartime labor claSsif1ca- tionsy regulations and So-calledt Ma tional Agreement must be abolished That curious contriver of makeshifts, the so-called Labor Board, that tells the railway owners how much they must spend, must be connected with that other organ of our bureaucracy, the Interstate Commerce Commission, which tells the railway owners how much they may receive. If railways are to continue to suffer straight jacket regulation, at least let there be coordination between outlay and in come.
 'sThe contract made by the gov ernment with the railway owners when the lines were taken by the administration must be carried out, the indebtedness of the roads to the government for improvements funded and that of the government to the roads paid-all is provided in the agreement. Thus railway insolvency will be averted, hundreds of millions expended on equipment and better ments, scores of thousands of now idle waorkingmen employed, and all indus try vitalized.
 "In short the railway bill passed by the House months ago, and held up in the Senate, must be speedily en- acted into law. without mutilation or fundamental change. Sound busi- ness requires and honor demands it.
 "No neel fear revival of railway autocracy; a new industrial factor, the will moderate railway earnings. Auto trucks and motor busses are already making heavy re- 1uctions in short haul freight and