OCR Text |
Show ADAMSOVS THREAT. Representative Adain-on s threat to '"pauk" hoth parties to the railroad i i-ontriversy grates har.-hly upon the ar. The outburst is duo to the fact that tho manarrs of the great systems and the brotherhood chiefs have held a conference at whieh the whole situation situa-tion was gone over and it was pra;-tieally pra;-tieally agreed to settle their differences out of court and withdraw the test suit. Chairman Adarnsou, probably taking tak-ing his cue from the president, will not consent to the repeal of the law pa,.sed on the eve of election and the substi-tulion substi-tulion of a working agreement between em rdovcrs and employees. Hence the th roat of "spa nkiug. ' ' Mr. Hughes made the charge upon the stump during the campaign that the labor element had been handed a "gold brick" in the parage of the Adamson law. Now tho brotherhood chiefs and tho federation leaders appear to have arri ved at the same conclusion and a tremendous effort will be made to prevent pre-vent completion of the presidential programme, pro-gramme, which is held by Mr. Gom-pors Gom-pors and others to involve compulsory arbitration. Perhaps Mr. Wilson, having hav-ing been re-elected, is not so deeply interested in the matter as he was at the time t he A damson law was rushed through and may not be so keen for government regulation of the pay and hours of labor of tho employees of the railroads. An agreement between the disputants leaves him high and dry, and whether he will be able to secure passage pas-sage of the proposed supplementary laws becomes u matter of doubt. But whether notion is secured or not, one cannot help but reflect that had the railroad managers and the brotherhood brother-hood chiefs reached an agreement in the first place Woodrow Wilson would have been defeated and the present con-1 con-1 roversy would not have arisen. If laws are finally enacted which neither side wants they will have themselves to blame for whatever ills they may have to suffer in consequence. They gave one of tho master politicians of the ago an opportunity to uso their dispute dis-pute for his own purposes at a time when the odds were all against him. Their agreement may come too late to do any good. |