The Brunswick news. [volume] (Brunswick, Ga.) 1906-2016, 1922-07-28
IF THE PRESIDENT SPOKE HIS
MIND!

The railroad managers who are re
sisting the efforts OF the Administra
ton to settle the strike of the shop
men on any terms less than uncondi
itional surrender can point to the Re
publican national platform of 1920 az
complete justification for theii
course. They are carrying ont the
policies that the Republican Conven
tlos defined at Chicago when it said:
We are opposed to government.
ownership and operation or EN-
ployee operation of the railroads.
This plank was inserted in the plat
form to please the railroad managers
the railroad bankers and the railroad
stockholders. All these elements sub
scribed literally to the Harding cam
paign fund and naturally they insist
that the terms of the bargain must be
kept.
President Harding is now asking
them to submit to employee operation
OF the railroads by restoring the SEN
lorlty rights of the strikers in case
they return wotrk. The roads re-
fuse. They will surrender nothing
mat was awarded to them in the. Re
publican national platform and they
demand that the Administration in
turn use all it's authority to sustain
the decision of the Labor Board.
Even the Attorney Generals opinion
that the President has power to seize
the railroads leaves them undisturb-
ed. Here again they not only have
the pledge of the Republican party
back of them but they have the impres-
slVe record of the party in its savage
attacks on Mr.. Wilson and the war.
time operation of the railroads by the
PRESIDENT Harding is trying to re-
pudlate what Thomas C. Plat referred
TO as the moral obligation because of
the pressure of public opinion on the
ADMINISTRATION; yet in this matter it is
the railroad managers who represent
the clearly expressed principles of Mr..
t1afding's party. They are the 100
percent, red-bloOded herman Renublj.
2ans who are ready to be consistent
at any cost, regardless of the conse.
quences.
PRESIDENT Harding used to think
1hat government, after all, is a very
simple matter He has discovered
IN the last year that it is ANYTHING Int
O. simple matter and that it cannot be
administered at all on the basis of the
Platform pledges and the campaign
promises of his party. What is very
simple matter is not government but
the organization of demagogic and par
tlsan attacks on the administration of
government. That is what deceived
Mr.. Harding in 1920. 1t seemed so
easy then to ignore actual conditions
and assail President Wilson that he
took it for granted that nothing was
necessary except to avoid doing anv-
thing that Presidest Wilson had done
Then government would be verv sim.
pie and everything would be for the
best in the best possible of worlds.
The Republicans found no difficuItv
IN carrying an election by stirring IN
popular discomfort against President
Wilson at the end of war that had
destroyed the economic equilibrium Of
the world, bvt they are finding it i'm
possible to administer government On
the basis ~ their own record, and tha+
is what all the trouble is about in
Washington 1t would be interesting
to know that Warren G. Harding in
the light of his own personal expert
ence, thinks about it. Could the Re
publican majority in Congress survive
a public expressios of the President
secret thoughts?