The Brattleboro daily reformer. (Brattleboro, Vt.) 1913-1955, 1922-08-24
10 Main Street

acute but the attitude of the President
is one of watchful worrying. He had
hoped that the shopmen and rail execu-
tives could be brought together through
the mediation of the brotherhood chiefs
and has been disposed to keep hands off
while the parleys proceeded. Mr.. Hard
ing has been criticized by both sides for
his own efforts at mediation and the criti-
cism for the moment has produced a
policy of cautious waiting.
If there was one strike which the Presi-
dent thought could be settled quickly and
satisfactorily it was the anthracite con-
troversy. Mr. Harding has felt that the
miners and operators really didn't want
to disagree but that the influence of the
national miners union was responsible
as it was presumably desired to have
a stronger leverage on the operators In
the soft coal fields By tieing up all coal
production.
The insistence of the anthracite owners
on arbitration has halted the negotiations
for the time being end the White House
is keenly disappointed.
May Complicate Situation.
Meanwhile psychological factor has
been thrust into the whole industrial sit
uation which may complicate rather than
| clarity it. the sudden announcement
of the United States Steel Corporation
of an increase of 20 per cent in wages at
a time when shopmen are arguing that
they have not been awarded living
wage by the United States railroad labor
boards last decision.
The whole tendency heretofore in
! wages has been downward and the adj
ministration has kept on insisting that
| reductions IN everything were necessary
in the defation process. Many poll
ticians were inclined to think any in
crease in wages would help rally labor in
the congressional campaign, they were
not unmindful of the fears of business
men that such progress as had been made
| in wage reductions might be imperilled
by the tactics of the steel corporation.
This strengthens the belief here that the
move of the steel corporation was made
without reference to any effects outside
the steel industry and that it was oeca-
stoned entirely by the desperate need of
the steel companies for labor, for Judge
Gary is the last man III the business
world to want to throw a monkey wrench
in the wheels of industrial REIMBURSEMENT.
In connection with the rise in wages in
the steel mills the increase in wages of
non-union miners given by the companies
in Pennsylvania who supply the steel
industry was regarded also as an eco
nomic necessity rather than an attempt
to break up unionism through the temp
| tatiens of higher wage scale.
Expect Other Raises.
Nevertheless, this is not dismissed as
an isolated occurrence, as wage increases
are fully expected in industries more or
less related to the coal and steel business
and it is known that at least one of the
big eastern railroads is contemplating
the payment of wages higher than that
proposed by the unions as one way of
weakening national control by the unions
and forcing regional or separate agree
| ments between companies and their men,.
Altogether the whole horizon is full of
worries and troubles for the administra-
ton. Europe is unsettled and America
keeps hands off. The rail and coal
strikes are drifting without governmental
influence being exerted and a fatigued
congress is wrestling with the tariff and
the soldier bonus, either one of which
should be sufficient TO consume the entire
thought and attention of an administra-
ton in the good old days of normalcy.