New-York tribune., 1922-08-10
Senate Chiefs
Back Harding's
Rail Program
Underwood Pledges Aid of
Democrats in Speeding
Emergency Legislation to
Get Coal Moving Again
Operators Move Awaited
President Hopeful Meeting
in Cleveland Will Avert
Need for Drastic Action
By Carter Field


tremendously cheered at the prospects
of an agreement between some of the
soft coal operators and the miners at
Cleveland President Harding to-day be-
gan conferences with leaders on Capitol
Hill with view to the legislation he
will ask on the return of the House Of
Representatives next Tuesday.
The President has been in close
touch with Republican members of the
Senate Interstate Commerce Committee,
particularly Senator'S Cummins, Wat
son and Kellogg, through the entire
strike. To-day he called in Senator
Underwood, of Alabama, Democratic
leader Of the Senate and a member OF
the committee.
Details of what passed at the White
House were not revealed, but it is un-
derstood that Senator Underwood as.
sured the President, after going over
the railroad and coal situations at
length, that the Dem ocrats in the Sem
ate would support the President If
emergency legislation on either coal
or railroads should become necessary.
Waits for Operators to Act
No legislation to settle the present
situation will be necessary, the Presi-
dent believes, II the movement at Cleve-
land should be followed by agree
ments with other operators-for exam
pie, the move already begun in the
Illinois field, 1t has been his convic-
tion all along that with coal being
| mined to capacity there will not re-
main sufficient Of an emergency in
the railroad situation to justify any
such drastic step as government seiz-
ure and operation of the railroads.
Some surprise was occasioned here
to-day by report that Alfred P. Thorn,
Railway Executives, was about to rec
cmmend to the executives that they
accept the Presidents proposal of
Monday. The surprise was because of
the emphatic denunciation of the pro-
posals by several prominent railroad
presidents. When asked about the re-
port Judge Thorn dictated the follow
ing statement:
"I have not been asked to give any
advice in this matter and I will not
give any unless I am asked. If I am
asked l will want to hear the sub
ject discussed from every aspect be-
fore l can determine what advice is
wise to give"
Shop Leaders to Meet To-day
The shopcrafts union chiefs now in
Washington with President Harding's
latest proposal for referring the
seniority question to the Railroad La
Dor Board in their pockets marked time
| to-day awaiting the arrival of the
eighteen union officials summoned to
consider the plan. Most of them were
expected by this afternoon and their
failure to arrive caused a postpone
ment of the preliminary discussion of
crafts council, which had been sched-
uled for to-day. 1t will be held to-
morrow.
shopmen, said that / was extremely
| doubtful whether a reply would be
made to the President before early
rext week. He denied that the delay
was due to desire to let the road ex-
ecutives get in their answer first. The
general meeting of all the railway
labor leaders, including the train serv-
ice men, probably will be held on Fri
day at the headquarters of the Inter
national Association of Machinists. The
gathering is expected to discuss the
Harding proposal for most of the day
and then name q committee to draw ur
the formal reply.
Letters and kilograms received to.
day by Mr.. Jewell were even more EN-.
phatic than earlier ones in their de.
nunciation of the suggestion that the
seniority question be turned over to
the Railroad Labor Board for6decsion
This leads Mr.. Jewell and his associ.
ates to believe that the meeting will
make short work of the proposal.
The shopcrafts men declined to dis
cuss the reports that brotherhood mem.
bers have refused to take out trains
on several roads because the equip.
ment was defective.
F. r. r. Workers Protest
A delegation of workers of the
Pennsylvania Railroad who remained or
their jobs, headed by T. H. Davis, gen
eral chairman of the shop crafts Of
that system, and including one repre-
sentative for each of the six crafts
called upon President Harding thi!
morning and urged him not to allow s
penalizing of their followers through
| loss OF the seniority rights they OBJ
tained by remaining at work
Mr.. Davis told the President that be-
tween 65 and 10 per cent of the shop
men on the Pennsylvania remained or
the pay roll when the strike was called
and that there are now about 7s pc,
Ger cent of the original forces a,
work. Only % per cent of the unior
men are out, and their places have
been 50 largely filled, he said, that the
output of repair work is at normal.
Further charges that the railroads
are attempting to deceive the people
and lull them into sense of security
regardless of the situation" which was
described as endangering thousands OF
lives daily, were made by Mr.. Jewell
He issued This formal statement:
According to reports issued by the
American Railway Association, there
were on July 5o,o03 serviceable loco.
motives, while on July Is there were
only 1889, or a decrease of 1854.
| THE railroads turned out of shor
during. the period June Is to July i
II ,349 locomotives, while for the period
July / to July Is they turned out
only 6,543, or decrease of 1906.
CON July there were stored serv-
iceable 6,332 locomotives. while on July