Evening star., 1937-04-07

atiVe negOtiatorS Tor the nlneIS-
something which the employers OF Ia
Dor had been standing against very
tenaciously. They would negotiate
with their own men, but not with the
representatives of organized labor.
THAT came out very plainly. The
bones OF it struck you in the eye for
any one who had been in litigation Of
that description. The course out was
statement that while they remained
unwilling to make an agreement on the
existing situation with people not rep
resentative of the workers, they were
perfectly willing to submit the existing
situation to impartial adjudication. 1t
was damned lie, but 1t looked fair on
paper"
1t was very simple plan, not differ
ing greatly in essence from the previ-
ous proposal by Mitchell, but it needed
Roots shrewdness and knowledge OF
the psychology Of the men involved to
put 1t in palatable pill. He and
Morgan drove in cab from the dock
to the Union League Club, where the
operators were waiting. Morgan went
In with the memorandum and Root
went back to Washington.
Labor Did Not Like Root.
But organized labor did not like
Root; to them he personified Wall
Street. While, in the coal strike, Root
cared little about the rights Of the
union, he cared just as little about
the desires Of the operators. Labor
also suspected him, as Secretary Of
War, OF. redistributing Federal troops
In order to have them near big in
dustrial centers where they could be
used to overawe labor; the redistribu-
ton was actually based on old tactical
recommendations which considered
the military situation only. Samuel
Gompers attacked Roots policies In
the Philippines, partly because he
thought 1t an excuse to keep a large
standing Army to tyrannize the people.
Labor had not forgotten President
Clevelands use of Federal troops in
the Pullman strike of 1894 When
Root took over the War Department
from Secretary Alger in the Summer
Of 1899 Federal troops were in control
in the Occur dAlene mining district
OF Idaho. There were cries that the
troops had been lent to the companies
to break the unions. Root objected
to the continued use of the troops
there and brought about their with
drawal.
In 1903, while Root was visiting
West Point, the Governor OF Arizona
asked President Roosevelt for troops
and they were sent by order of the
President: they were soon withdrawn.
A little later in the same year Root
checked the sending Of troops to Colo
RADIO in answer to the Governors
appeal. To Col Ensign, in Colorado
City, Root wrote: The true purpose
OF an army is to fight with the people
Of other nations, and the less our
own people are subjected to military
control and coercion, the better"
Labor opposed Roots appointment
by President Wilson to head the Amer
lean mission to Russia in 1917. But
Root was appointed and became the
many of them emanating from Ger
many, such as the story that the
United States was not republic at
ala story proved by quoting Ameri-
can newspaper references to Root as
a leader of the Empire State! 1t
was partly labor opposition which
made Wilson unwilling to appoint
Root to the Peace Commission at
Versailles.
Arbitral Award Accepted.
Yet, at the age of 80, his was the
only name on list of over 100 sug-
gested by William Green upon which
the Bricklayers' and Plasterers' Unions
could agree as the impartial arbitrator
Of their quarrel, which, in 1927. was
tying up hundreds Of millions Of
dollars worth of construction. Roots
arbitral award was fully accepted, be-
cause, as the plasterers' trade paper