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Show I PRESIDENT'S ADDRESS. It did not require any great length of time for President Wilson to unburden un-burden his mind iu the presence of the assembled senators and representa tives. The address was short, very short. Yet it contains suggestions enough to bring about the discharges of whole packs of verbal artillery and j bring all the newspapers and maga- 1 zines of the country into immediate action. The featuro of the address is , : the proposed settlement of the esist- ' , I ing difficulties between the railroads of the country and their locomotive engineers, firemen and trainmen. In the closing hours of the last session congress adopted the president 's recommendations rec-ommendations for the establishment of an eight-hour day as the legal basis of work and wages in train service and for the appointment of a commission to observe and report upon the practical prac-tical results. The railroads! of the country have taken the eight-hour law into the courts without waiting for the completion of the presidential programme. pro-gramme. The commission has been appointed ap-pointed and is ready to act. The recommendations now before congress aro made for the purpose of furnishing the railroads with additional addition-al rovonue with -which to pay the increase in-crease in the wages of their employees : if the A damson law is declared consti tutional and preventing the tying up of the railroads of the country in the future whenever the employers and employees fail to agree. Upon these points tho address reads as follows: Fourth, explicit approval by the congress of the consideration by the interstate commerce commission com-mission of an increase of freight rates to meet such additional expenditures ex-penditures by the railroads as may have beeu rendered necessary neces-sary by tho adoption of the eight-hour day mid which have not been offset by administrative readjustments and economies should the facts disclosed justify the increase. Fifth, an amendment to the existing ex-isting federal statute which provides pro-vides for the mediation, conciliation, concilia-tion, and arbitration of such controversies con-troversies as the present by adding add-ing to it a provision that, in ease the methods of accommodation now provided for should fail, a full public investigation of the merits of every such dispute shall be instituted and completed before a strike, or lockout may lawfully be attempted. President Wilson does not argue the merits of the increase of freight rates proposition, believing that the power of the interstate commerce commission to grant such increase is indisputably clear. In the matter of amending the existing federal statute which provides for the mediation, conciliation and arbitration ar-bitration of such controversies as the railroad dispute, lie takes the ground that "there is nothing arbitrary or unjust un-just in it unless it be arbitrarily aJid unjustly done," and he proceeds to declare de-clare "it can and should be done with a full and scrupulous regard for the interests and liberties of all concerned, as well as for the permanent interests of society itself. ' ' The remainder of the - address is taken up with another plea for the enlargement en-largement and administrative reorganization reorgan-ization of the interstate commerce commission along the lines embodied in the bill recently passed by the house of representative? ; the lodgement in the hands of the executive of the power, in case of military necessity, to take control of such portions and such rolling stock of the railways of the country as may be required for military mili-tary use and to operate theiu for military mili-tary purposes, with authority to draft into the military service of the United Stales such train crews and administrative adminis-trative officials as the circumstances require for their safe and efficient use; the p;i?s:ige of the bill am'Tidii:, the present ornic law of Porto Rico, and the enac tn.ent into l;.w of the corrupt practices act. Pome atter.t ion is also paid to the u f building of our foreign trade, the president suggesting that nil legal obstacles ob-stacles be fie fired away ;md those engaged en-gaged in th. enterprise be allowed a freer hand in the matter of com bin- and concerted ctfurt. There will be few, if any, objections to the immediate immedi-ate carrying out of this part of the programme, and we expect the Webb : bill will be put through in reasonably ' quirk time. The interstate commerce commission may also be enlarged and reorganized, and favorable action secured se-cured upon most of the other recommendations. recom-mendations. But there is sure to be a fight, long- d rawn out and bitter, over everything in connection with the Ad-amson Ad-amson law, now before the supreme court of tin; United States to undergo the acid test as to its constitutionality. |