, 1921-05-10
Home Rule" for Railroads

Enthusiastically the h.e-. encouraging domestic news
of the year" to the Richmond News Leader CDem) is
the decision of the railroad labor board abrognting
national agreements and laying down. certain princi-
pies as the basis Of negotiations for new working con-
tracts between the individual roads and their en-
pioyes. Practically the entire press takes the same
view, and agrees with the New York Herald lind
that "a very important milestone in postwar Amer
lean history" has been safely passed. There is some
difference Of opinion as to where the victory lies, but
agreement is general that 'the basic principles
adopted are sound and eninently fair Evans
vile Journal, Rep.), and while much depends on the
spirit in which both sides enter the coming confer
ences, the press feels, with the Charleston News and
Courier (Dem.) that IAN honest effort to formulate
working rules under these principles can hardly fail
OF success" At any rate, the Baltimore News (Ind.)
thinks I'VE may now hope to see something accom-
plished toward a solution of the railroad problem"
Official snnction of the principle that each road
should make its own working agreements constitutes
"a substantial victory for the executives" in the
opinion of the Baltimore Evening Sun (Ind. Dem.).
In this it is supported by a considerable number of
papers, among them the Pittsburgh Chronicle Tele-
graph Rep), the New Orleans Times icayune lind.
Dem.) and the Winston-Salem IN. c. Journal
(Dem), which calls it n triumph for home rule in
industry" But since, as the New York Evening Post
Cnd) points out, ''the decision makes concess ions to
both Sides" the Chicago Journal CDem.) views it
rather as "a victory for the railroad industry" And
the astonishing fact" that both the employees and
the operators are more or less satisfied with the de-
cision' leads the Hartford Courant tRepJ to the
conclusion that "the public" also will have a substan-
tial shsre in The victory.
However. the Lynchburg News tDem.) expresses
paw "A~a ~ NNAa4t hhes AC oSOPG
of the victory" of the operators sis perceptibly mar
rowed by some of the sixteen principles laid down as
a basis for the agreements hereafter to be arrived
at" These principles, according to the Philadelphia
Public Ledger CInd.) are ''the old, basic labor con-
t%entions"; they uphold the ~eight-hour day, the prin-
ciple of collective bargaining. the right of organiza-
ton and Of naming representatives" and promul-
gated by governmental body they will make in
dustr.ai history" In this connection the Topeka
Capital (Rep.) makes the interesting observation that
these sixteen principles include substantially every
thing that Samuel Gompers stood for in President
Wilson's first industrial conference which Judge Gary
prevented from adoption" The Minneapolis Journal
lind. Rep) halls them as "a Magma Charta for de-
t%ermining future relations between arrangements and
men" which .f honestly observed" would result in
mo more railroad troubles. and no serious injustice
on either side. At least they constitute notice, says
the Richmond Times Dispatch (Dem) "that certain
contentious have passed beyond the realm of agita.
TONS" The significant feature to the Fort Worth
Star-Telegram Qnd- Dem) is that:
This body of principles was drawn up by the
member of the labor board representing the public,
and was concurred in by all the other members of the
board. 1t reflects a unanimous judgment, therefore,
and as the beginning of a body of industrial law
laid down by q national tribunal, that circumstance is
Of very great Importance"