New-York tribune., 1922-08-14
Executives Leave Capital;
Make Public Proposal
to Reinstate Strikers and
Refer Seniority to Board
Eager for Harding
To Keep Hands OF
''Big A. Mediation Fails,
but Chiefs Remain Till
Reopening of Congress
By Carter Field

tion of the railroad strike seems
just as far off tonight as it did
before the President made his last
proposal. This is in spite of the
long conferences at the White House
yesterday and to-day, when the rail-
road executives conferred again with
the President and Secretary Hoover.
At the conclusion of to-day's
meeting the executives made public
the texts Of their counter proposals
to the Presidents last program, but
the shopmen and brotherhood repre-
sentatives, acting in their behalf,
declined to make their own replies
public, saying that they did not
want to do anything which would
make settlement more difficult.
Executives Criticize Harding
The executives show plainly that
they are nettled at the various pro-
posals the President has made to
settle the strike, believing as they
do that they could effect a solution
of the problem much more quickly
If the President would stop making
proposals which they say encourage
the striking shopnen.
Another reason for the publication
of the executives answer was that they
regard che statements published yes
terday morning as slightly inaccurate,
and they want the public, and particu-
larly the individual strikers, to see
plainly what they have proposed.
Briefly, their proposal is that GER
tain number Of railroads will take back
all the strikers, leaving the question
of seniority to the Railroad Labor
Board. If the particular Jobs Of any
strikers have been filled then these
lines will find "employment Of the same
class" for them. The only men who
will not be taken back are those
against whom violence to the en-
ployees or property Of the railroads
can be proved.
The remainder Of the railroads offer
the same agreement, except that they
guarantee work only TO the strikers
for whom there are places open and
make no promises about providing
employment of the same class"
How Roads Are Divided
The roads which have agreed to give
work to all the men on strike are the
Santa Fe, Baltimore Ohio, Chesa-
peake g. Ohio, Chicago G. Northwest
ern, Chicago, Burlington & Quincy,
Chicago, Milwaukee & st. Paul, Chi
cago, Rock Island G. Pacific, Erie, Great
Northern, Illinois Central, New York
Central, Norfolk G. Western, Northern
Pacific, Philadelphia & Reading, St.
Louis-San Francisco, Southern Pacific
resent total mileage of 151,S24 miles
The roads which would guarantee
only as many places as they still have
vacancies are the Atlantic Coast Line,
ell of the New England lines, the
Delaware g. Hudson, the Central Rail-
road Of New Jersey, the Lackawanna,
the Lehigh Valley, the Long Island the
Louisville G. Nashville, the Missouri,
Kansas & Texas, the Missouri Pacific,
the Pennsylvania, the Nashville,
Chattanooga & st. Louis, the Pere
Marquette, the Richmond, FrederlcKS-
burg & Potomac, the Texas s. Pacific
and the Wabash. Their total mileage
is 57,222 miles.
The discouraging phase Of the stu
alton, which convinces most observers
here that the railroads are determined
to fight to finish and break the strike,
is that Jewell and other leaders Of the
shipments strike would be branded as
having made one of the worst failures
in the history of union labor if they
accepted the proposal as made.
Blow to Union Prestige
A leader who fails even to get all
his strikers back to work-which would
be true on all the New England roads,
the Pennsylvania and others men
toned in the minority group just
stated-could scarcely expect to remain
at the head of his union. Incidentally
the union men point out, this settle
ment would make the shopmen's union
joke on the roads in the Pennsyl-
vania system and New England group
SO far as all future fights are con-
cerned, and would make national ac-
tion by the shopmen's union very
nearly futile.
The statement issued by T. Dewitt
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