New-York tribune., 1921-02-05
President.Will
Reply To-day
To Rail Unions
Wilson Is Working ON His
Answer to the Request
That Wage Adjustment
Pleas Be Investigated
Congress May Act Soon
Controversy With Execu.
tives Will Be Aired i'm
Both Senate and House

WASHINGTON. Feb, President
Wilson will reply tomorrow to the re-
Gently communicated request Of seven
large railroad labor unions that he in
'vestigate the railroad executives claims
before the Railroad Labor Board in
Chicago that the railroads must re-
adjust wages or face bankruptcy. s
The President, it was said at the
White House tonight, passed part
of the day drafting his reply to the
unions and hopes to complete and dis
patch it tomorrow. The nature of
the reply was not indicated. but was
understood to have been based on rec
concentrations submitted by Secretary
of the Interior Payne, who still acts
as director general of the railroad
administration.
kilograms Exchanged
The reply, it was suggested at the
White House. would take upa poi ifttfssai
raised in both Of che kilograms sent
to the President this week by the
railroad workers through B. NJ. Jewell, !
president of the Railway Employees
Department OF the American Fedora
tion of Labor. The railroad unions, in
their first message, received at the
White House Tuesday, asked the
President to investigate the statement
before the Railroad Labor Board by w.
w. Atterbury, Weep president of the
Pennsylvania lines, that the carriers
must be allowed to readjust wages or
face the danger of bankruptcy, and if
to place The matter before Congress
and ask im:..edate enactment of
remedial legislation.
The second telegram from the
unions, received yesterday was in the
nature of asreply to q telegram sent to
the President by Thomas Dewitt Guy
Ter. chairman cf the Association of
Railway Executives, who charged that
the first telegram sent by the unions
was Plumb plan league propaganda"
This charge the unions denied in their
message and declared there was no
economic justification for wage read
justments.
Secretary Payne returned the tele-
grams with his recommendation to the
White House to-day.
- -IonSresS May Act Soon +.
With the railroad wage controversy
threatening to result in head-on col
lislen between the employees and the
executives, there were distinct signs
to-day that the subject will soon be
aired in Congress. In fact, it may
come up in the Senate any day for
discussion, and unless the Railway
Labor Board is able soon to compose
the trouble the prospects are for an
investigation by the Senate Interstate
Commerce Committee. Members Of the
House Interstate Commerce Committee,
too,. are following the developments
closely.
Not only is this true, but the Inter.
state Commerce Commission through q
questionnaire is seeking to find out the
facts about railway management. This
questionnaire has gone to the different
roads, and it's purpose is to ascertain
whether the roads are being economi
cally or wastefully managed. The
commission is looking into the facts
primarily because they have a direct
bearing on rates. Inasmuch as the
railroad brotherhoods have raised the
charge that the roads would not need
to consider wage reductions if they
were efficiently managed, the results Of
the inquiry by the commission will
also have bearing on the wage con-
troversy.e
Pending in the Senate now is the
bin which has already passed the House
providing for partial payments to the
tcensinusd en- page threel