Norwich bulletin., 1922-08-09
CIRCULATION WEEK ENDING AUG. 5th, 1ez2 /
 11,723
SENIORITY AGAIN.

Something of surrender on both sides is invited by President Harding's new plan for the settlement of the railroad shopmen's strike and 1t is already indi- cated that neither side looks with ae- csptance upon what he now proposes. The hitch is again over the question of seniority. which was the dividing point before. To get the shopmen back at work Is the first essential for the benefit of the general public and of business conditions SO that the president Is right in making his first point that the shop men return 10 work and the roads agree to put them back at work To this he adds that the whole question of sen io-ity. whether it is to be sustained or forfeited by the returning workers, shah be submitted for decision to the railway labor board whose authority in an other matters both railway heads and shopmen have already agreed to recognize and abide by.
 The presidents former suggestions contained the now well known phrase, win seniority rights unimpaired." Nat rrally enough the shopmen readily agreed te thls. for 1t would put them back in their employment just as if no strike had ever been declared and car ried out They may not be so willing now to submit this question to the haz- ard of a decision by the railway labor board. Public opinion pretty generally has been that this would be an unjust settlement for the old men and for the new men who had come into employ ment of the railroads on the promise -.H- pardlzed by ehs return of strikers. Hay lng heard the voice of public opinion so expressed, it Is reasonable to assume that the railway labor board cannot be entirely deaf to the opinions that 1t has heard sxuress4d.
 Since the railway heads have so gem srally had the support of public opin- Ion in their stand upon their moral ob- tgation to keep their promises to their hon-strilzing employees and to their new men. it is not so apparent now why they should refuse to submit this question to he railway labor board. In one of its hrst utterances at the beginning of the ETike the labor board, through its chairman committed itself to the state nent that the strikers had abandoned all the rights they possessed under their  Agreements and under the decisions of Inc board. in-luding their seniority. Men who remained in the service and Those who are now entering it will have rights of seniority that the board could not ignore" By formal resolution the board also declared that the men who did not go on strike, and the men who entered the service in place of the strik- ers, should "be accorded the application and benefit of the outstanding wage and rule decisions of the board. . and that they are entitled 10 the protection of every department and branch of the government, state and national" Is il to be expected that the board will be forgetful Of what 1t has already de. clared to be It's understanding of the status Of the striking shopmen?
 As the president has said "restora. ton of normal operations in transporta ton and "the establishment of the full authority of the railway labor board are two important ends to be gained But it IS of at least equal importance tC have a just settlement made and on, that will discourage or lessen the dan ger of similar further strikes-as in deed only a just settlement can do.