The Barre daily times. (Barre, Vt.) 1897-1959, 1922-08-18

President Recommends Ac-
ton to Make Railroad
Labor Boards Decisions
Enforceable and Effec-
tive Against Carriers and
Employees Alike. = Her
rim Crime 'Butchery of
Human Beings Wrought
in Madness"


Associated Press President Harding
to-day told Congress and the nation
that he was resolved ito use all the
power Of the government to maintain
transportation and sustain the right Of
men to work
The president in his address to Con-
gress, in which he recommended spe-
cifc legislation designed to cure the ma
tion's industrial ills declared with en-
phasis that the right of employers and
employees alike to establish their meth
ods of conducting business, to choose
their, employment and to determine re-
lations with each other must be rec
ognized.
Government "by law must and will
be sustained the president said, mo
matter what clouds may gather, no
matter what storms may ensuS; no
matter what hardships may attend Or
what sacrifice may be necessary
He declared that the right of en-
ployes and employers alike TO conduct
their business must be recognized and
he also deplored what he termed war
fare on the unions of labor
The president declared national in
yestigation for constructive recommen-
dations as to the conduct of the coal
industry to be imperative, and recon-
mended government commission to
advise as to fair wages and conditions.
Immediate legislation to establish
temporarily national coal agency"
with necessary capital to purchase, sell
and distribute coal also was urged by
the executive.
Stating that the Esch -Cummins act
in establishing the railroad labor board,
was inadequate, being with little or no
power to enforce its decisions, the pres |
ident recommended action TO make the
boards decisions enforceable and ef
fectiye against carriers and employees
alike"
Other executive recommenda tions
were for better protection of aliens
and enforcement Of their treaty rights
a measure to give federal courts juris-
diction in protecting aliens.
In discussing the coal situation the
president referred to what he termed
the shocking crime at Herrin, ILL.,,
which so recently shamed and horri-
fed the country" and added the Incl
dent was ''butchery Of human beings
wrought in madness"
Other than the amendment of the
Esch -Cummins law to make the rail
road labor boards decisions enforceable,
the president did not recommend any /
legislation TO deal Immediately with
the railroad strike.
In asking for coal legislation the
president said that the administration
had sought earnestly "to restrain prof
iteering and TO secure the rightful dis
fributionr of coal but was without le-
gal power 10 control prices. Stating
that sympathetic railroad strikes had
developed and impaired interstate COM
merce seriously, the president said. that
trains deserted in the western desert
had revealed the cruelty and con-
tempt for law on the part Of some rail
way employees who have conspired to
paralyze transportation"
Asserting that the striking unions
in some instances had not held their
forces to law observance, Mr.. Harding
said. ~there is a state Of lswlessness
shocking to Every conception Of Amer
Jean law and order and announced his
intention 90 invoke laws, civil and
criminal. forbidding conspiracies hinder
ing interstate commerce and requiring
safety IN railway service.
Tn declaring positively for the right
Of men TO work the president said that
in both the coal and railroad strikes
this right had been denied by assault
md violence. and IN some Gases vinked
rt by Local suthoritiess- he sdded:
1T is fair to ssy that the great
mass Of orgfnized workmen do nos sp-
prove hut they seem helpless 10 hinder
These conditions cannot remain m FREE
Arerics-
Surely the threatening conditions
must impress the Congress and the
country the president vent On. that
no bcdy cf uen. whether Emifcd IN