The Brattleboro daily reformer. (Brattleboro, Vt.) 1913-1955, 1922-08-10
Rv DAVID LAWRENCE.

may not respond as rapidly TO PRESIDENT
Harding's request for legislation to pre-
vent strikes and lockOuts if the coal and
rail situations are cleared up as would
be the case if the crisis continues indeti-
nitely.
Already railroad representatives whose
business it is to see that congress does
nothing that can be harmful TO their in
terests are on the job anxious to corral
their supporters in both houses so that
undesirable moves may be blocked if not
defeated Labor, too, which successfully
fought the inclusion of an anti-strke pro
vision in the present transportation act,
i getting ready to wage another battle in
the legislative halls of the national CAPT
tai
With the autumn election staring con-
gress in the face, the prospect of any
legislation unfav0rable to labor interests
of the country is far from likely. Con
gress baek-tracked on the anti-strike pro
vision once before because of n fear OF
the voting power of railroad employees
for in legislating there would be no spe-
cifc cure for the shopmen which would
not apply equally to engineers, trainmen,
conductors and all other classes of work
Although the labor vote Is a doubtful
quantity and politicians claim it never
supports any one party with sufficient
strength to change the result, closer
approximation of the truth is that labor
never votes sOlidly unless concrete issue
affecting them is up for consideration.
Even the Republican politicians who
were unable to agree on the real cause OF
the Hughes defeat in 1916 admitted that
the railroad men contributed no small
number of votes in appreciation of the
| Wilson effort on the eight-hour law,
! known as the Adamson act.
Hard to Arouse Congress.
! Only an acute emergency viii get
| legislation through congress and in this
alone lies the danger to both railroad and
| labor management. Mr.. Harding has not
| vet used his chief weapon-publicity and
/ an appeal to the nation. He has not
| talked in alarming phrases publicly as he
| is known to have done in private. The
country would probably be aroused if 1t
! read Mr.. Harding's pen picture of the
| grave conditions which lie ahead of the
American people if the industrial crisis
| IS not brought to an end now. ..s-.
The President is mostly concerned over
! the coal situation. He thinks the country
will suffer grievously next winter and he
/ doesn't dare to say what the damage will
| be to the already slowly improved bust
ness conditions which have done so much
to cure unemployment and bring the ma
tion back to normally. He feels that at
/ one fell swoop much of what has been
accomplished to overcome the business
| depression which started two years ago
| may be lost unless the nation is ade-
quately supplied with fuel.
Must Get Fuel to Industry.
The nub of the situation is, of course,
| f,,al for iudrctrips HARDING :
to the railroad executives as they point
out that train service is not interrupted
and that conditions approaching normal
are being every day brought nearer, but
he answers all that by pointing to the
lack of cars to carry coal from the fields
now being operated. It's bad enough.
reasons Mr.. Harding, not to be able to
get coal from the union fields, but it is
even worse to have cars lacking to carry
fuel from the non-uniOn mines. That's
the basis for drastic action when the
time comes for Mr. Harding to act
That's his conception of a national emer-
gency in which he believes the executive
has unlimited power even if congress is
slow to act.
Il The President, therefore. in turning
to congress for help. is not sure to get
action soon enough to bring the dispu-
tants in the present strikes under pen
atty of new laws, but what is more likely
able as they see the demand for legisla-
tion accelerated by a presidential mes
sage and supporting public opinion.
Mr.. Harding knows, of course, that talk
OF remedial legislation frequently brings
a remedy without actually bringing a
bill to vote. No one can tell, on the
other hand. what will be the mood of
congress if the coal famine is unrelieved
and the transportation is impaired. All
sorts of proposals and suggestions will no
doubt be made when congress reconveneS
Mr.. Harding will follow the recommen-
datlonS of his message to congress last
December when he stressed the necessity
of code of principles which would EN-
phaSlze the legal liability of unions and
their leaders on a parity with corpora
tons and their managers. Decisions of
the federal courts have since proclaimed
the principle that labor unions could be
sued Just as corporations can be sued
and 1t is along the line of establishing
culpa bility for concerted action that the
executive viii undoubtedly work. Mr..
Harding, when member of the senate
voted for the anti-Strike provision, which
was passed by the senate but eliminated
from the EscL-CumminS act when it was
IN final conference between the house and
senate.
Danger of Politics.
The threat Of political reprisals caused
the elimination. 1t was just before the
/ congressional elections. The same polit-
zeal threats are being made TODAY, but
4 there is a crisis pending whichs.uiU not
make it Sc easy for congress to dodge its;
responsibilities. The President has shoul-
dered them alone for the last month and
now win ask congress TO aid. If the
Presidents political fortunes are to be
affected, so viii be those of members of
congress
The truth is, congress would be de-
lighted if the strikers and employers
would only make peace and save mem