Great Falls tribune. [volume] (Great Falls, Mont.) 1921-current, 1922-08-05
terests of the public demanded re

eponsibiiity tor the reputation
! should not have been placed IN the
railroads, but upon the labor board,
on whose Instructions, wise or un-
wise, the roads gave their pledge.
As matters nov stand, we do not
see how the members of the labor
board can continue to hold office.
The board can no longer hope for
the confidence or the respect of
either the employees or the railroad
executives. 1t is a body with but
a flickering shadow of authority.
The men can never be certain in
conforming their actions to the de-
cree of the board that they will
not be called upon by the president
to go back on their promises and
certainly the railroad executives
after this experience will walk with
their fingers crossed. If the labor
board is to have a status above that
of a mere preliminary meddler, the
president must stand back of the
board irrespective of whether the
board DEGREES favor the railroads
or the employees. If executives
authority is to nullify, expand OF
curtail the decisions of the board,
the board can have no respect from
the public, the employees or the
railroad executives. And lacking
this. it should be permitted to fade
into oblivion with such vestiges of
dignity as are yet left to it."
The St. Paul Dispatch, another
republican newspaper contains this
editorial comment:
Zone of the conditions upon
which the national administration
demands that the railway shop
mems strike be settled is this:
Unreserved acceptance by both
sides of the status quo as of i'm
mediately prior to the strikes 60
ing into effect or July l.. including
as concerns railroads concessions,
the restoration to the strikers of
all rights and privileges held by
them when they went out. If this
indeed be the attitude of the adj
ministration then what the country
is about to see is another Adamson
act settlement. A settlement des-
tined to be just as full of evil
portent as that historic backdown.
1t will be we'll for the American
people to keep clearly in mind at
this juncture the facts in the pres
ent situation. They are these:
The United States railway labor
board, a government body. issued
an order reducing the wages of the
shopmen. These men went on
strike, not it will be observed
against the railroads, but against
the order of a government board.
1t was pointed out to them both
by the railroads and by the labor
board that in thus striking they
would forfeit their seniority rights,
but never the less they persisted.
With the strike in effect it became
the obvious duty of the railroads to
do everything possible to maintain
transportation not merely on their
own account, but in the fulfillment
of their duty to the public, which
would suffer by its breakdown.
They could only maintain this
service by employing other work
men to take the places left vacant
by the strikers and this they did
after repeatedly advising the men
on strike that unless they should
return to work their positions and
seniority rights would be forfeited.
Now it is proposed and by the very
same government whose orders
these strikers flouted, that the
strikers shall be restored to their
old positions with all their rights
and privileges unimpaired. This
means that the workmen who took
the places left vacant by the strik-
ers and who have been loyal to the
railroads, the government, and the
public, must be turned out of their
positions in favor Of nen who dis
obeyed the order of the govern
ment board and treated both the
government and the public with
contempt.
mo more unjust and shameful
compromise was ever proposed in
the name Of the government of the
United States. The railroad ex-
ecutives have rejected this propos-
al. They could not have done 9TH
erwise and looked their fellow citi-
zens in the face. They have in the
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