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Show HINES AUTHORIZED TO DEAL WITH RAIL OPERA TIVES' DEMANDS, PRESIDENT SA YS; Wilson Declares Railway Workers Have Complicated Compli-cated Matter; Remedial Agencies at Standstill. 450,000 Employees to Ballot on Walkout; Freight Situation Serious; Se-rious; Tieup Probable. WASHINGTON", Aug. 7. President "Ilson toniplu notiticd Director ticmral Ilities that he was authorized to take ul the demands of railroad shop employees for higher wases and decide thcin on their merits. The' president said that the loiter sent htm by Senator Cummins, eliairman of tho committee on interstate commerce, "had set me free to deal as I tlilnlt best with the difficult question of the wages of certain classes of the railroad employees," em-ployees," but added: "The chief obstacle to a decision has, been created by the men themselves. They have gone out on a strike and repudiated- the authority of their ofllccr.l at the very moment when they were urging action in regard to their Interests." Inter-ests." The president's decision was announced tonight from the White House In the form of a letter sent by him to Mr. I lines. The president said that "until Die employees em-ployees return to work and again recognize recog-nize the authority of their organization, the whole mutter must bo al a slaud-still." slaud-still." TEXT OK LETTER TO RAIL DIRECTOR HINES. The president's letter follows: "My Dear Mr. Director General: "I am just in receipt uf the loiter from Senator Albert li. Cummins, chair man of the senate committee on in t erst a I e commerce, which set mc free to deal an I think best with tho difficult qu-stion of the wages of certain elates ul" railway rail-way employees, and I lake advantage of tho occasion to write you this leller. in order that 1 may bulb in the public interest and in the interests' of the railroad rail-road employees thems'M ve.s, ma ke the present situation as clear and definite as possible. "1 thought it my duty to lay the question ques-tion in its present pressing form In-Core, the committee of the seiiMti-, he-ause J. t'n ought I should not act upon I his matter within the brief int'r ;i 1 of government gov-ernment control remaining, without I heir acfmiescenee, and approval. Sena tor Cuminins'w IcUer, which speaks llto unanimous judgment of the cmnni 1 1 1 ee, leaves nie free and indeed imposes upon me the duly to ad, "The question of the ;iy-y, of railroad shopmen was sul.niii.ted, yuu will n-m'-ni-ber, to the board ot railroad wages and ( working conditions of the rail road administration ad-ministration last February, but was m,i reported upon by the board until July 1 j. The delay was una voidable, I reran so tho board was cont inuously engaged in dealing with several wage ma Iters affecting af-fecting classes of employees who had not previously received consider;.! ion. CLEARLY DUTY TO TAKE QUICK ACTION. "The boar;! now having apprised us of its inab.hl y, at any rat for' t he time being, to agree upon recommend a -tion. it is e!ea iiy our i uf y to" proceed with the matter in the hope of disposing of ti. "Von are therefore authorized to f-ay to the raiboa'j shop employees (hat t h'-i questi'Mi of wages they have raised viil he tai.' n up am' be considered cm its merits by the director general in con-j con-j I'crcjire wit h t he;i- duly an edit ed rep- r'-.-t-n t at i ves. J hope that, you will 1 1 1 a k it ce;jr to the men concerned ibat I in, j ra i 1 roa d ad rn i n i st ra t ion i a nnot deal w j l h proi efn s of t ti is sort or with any rh -'ems affeeting the men. except through t lie duly chosen 1 1 1 1 e rna t i ma I officers of t tin r- giJarly const it u I ed organization and their aut hoii.ed eon i n 1 1 1 1 ceS. "Mailers of m various a nature and affecting so many men cannot be ilea. It with excei,t in this way. Any action, which brni gs 1 he a ut horit y of the a u-thonzed u-thonzed repr-s'-ntatives of the organization organ-ization into question or discredits it must fContiuueu ou Pace 2, Column 2.) (HAIL SHOP WORKERS 10 VOU OH STRIKE (Continued from Pase One.) interfere with, if not prevent, action altogether. al-together. "The chief obstacle to a decision has been created by tho men themselves. They have gone out on strike and repudiated re-pudiated the authority of their officers at the very moment when they wore urging action in regard to various interests. in-terests. "You will remember that a conference he t ween yourself and the authorized representatives of the men was ar-! ar-! ranged at the instance of these repre-! repre-! sentatives for J uly 2S to discuss the wage, question arid the question of a na- tional agreement, but before this confer-i confer-i ence took place, or could take place, J lota! bodies of railway shopmen took ac-J ac-J tion looking toward a strike on August 1. As a result of 'his action, various strikes 1 actually took place before there whs an j opportunity to act in a satisfactory or i conclusive way w ith respect to the wages. In the presence of these strikes and the i repudiation of the authority of tho rep-I rep-I resen tat ives of the organization con-I con-I cerned, there can be no consideration of ! the matter in controversy. Until the cm-j cm-j ployees return to work and again rec-! rec-! ognize the authority of their own or- gauization, the whole matter must be i at a standstill. I DECLARES STRIKERS MUST j RETURN TO THEIR POSTS. "When federal control of the railroads ; beg;tn. the railroad administration ac-: ac-: cepted existing agreements between the shopmen's organization and the several railroad companies, and by agreement t machinery was created for handling tho grievances of tho shopmen's organ iza- tion of all the railways, whether they had heretofore had the benefits of definite defi-nite agreements or not. There can be no question, therefore, of the readiness of the government to' deal in a spirit of fairness and by regular methods with any matters the men may briny to their attention. "Concerned and very careful considera- : tion is being given by the entire government gov-ernment to the question of reducing the high cost of dving. I need hardly point out how intimately and directly this ! matter affects every individual in the ! nation, and if transportation is inter- : rupted it will be impossible to solve it. ! This is a time when every employee of the railroads should help to make the! processes of transportation more easy and economical rather than less, and employees who are on strikes are deliberately delib-erately delaying a settlement of their wage problems and of their standard of iivmg. They should promptly return to work, and I hone that you will urge upon their representatives the immediate necessity ne-cessity for their doing so. "Cordially and sincerelv yours. AVOODROW W1L.SOX." HINES SENDS WORD TO RAIL UNIONS. I director General Hines notified the i unions immediately that the railroAd ad- ministration wad ready to take up the , o.uestion "as soon as the employees re-! re-! turn to work." In a letter to B. M. Jewell, acting president of the railway employees' department of the American Federation of Labor, Mr. Hines said: "I inclose a letter which I have just ( received from the president re.ative to the wage matter. It is obvious that it is of the highest importance, not only in the interest of the public, but in the interest f o: the employees themselves that t.iev j shall immediately return to work. The situation having been clarified by the definite indication mat congress does rot wish to take action in the premises, the railroad administration standH ready to take up the wage question on its merits with tiie duly accredited international officers of-ficers and their authorized commute as soon as the employees return to work." The effect of the president's decision. it was believed, wouli be to put a sudden j end to sporadic strikes thro'Jghou; the j rountry, denounced as illf-zal t' union of-i of-i ficials, but involving pernapg 0,0(''t mtn. j It was taken for granted, also, that the I menace of a penerai strike to compel I higher wages to meet increased Mvinj? costs likewise was removed by the president's presi-dent's action. Must Appropriate Funds. j If Director General Hine'S orders an In j crease in wages, sinre the railroad admin-j admin-j if ration now in oje rating at a los.-i, either an advance in rates or a cor.tfrfs-sional cor.tfrfs-sional appropriation wl.l be necjfiary 'o I provide the money. The fourteen principal princi-pal railroad unions in a joint communication communica-tion to the director general have aug- geste.-I th" latter. F'recedini; the maklr.? public of the j president's letter by only a few hmjrs was ! a n announcement by J. J. Kor-fR'er. j president of the Urot her hood ot Clerks, ! Preijrbt, Kxprss and Kteamphip Em-; Em-; ployees, that the 4"0.0i0 mm of the union ! would bein hahotinK tomorrow n to wi. -jt her they should strike Immediately or await farther ernmen'al a -.ia. 'ai:e demands were nufimiited by the .".noM-ij shopmen la .-it pf-hru-iry, but other prt-A'int: rriv it erf before th- bar of v.-iL-es and work in k copdtt;onfl. a:fectlr:i employers who had not previously re-I re-I reived considera t. on, delayed a dr-clfllnn until July 11. and then thi; board divided, I !ree holdlnir : hat th" inrrfairs flhould i not he granted and three holding that j additional pay was justified. Men Precipitate Matters. ! The amount aMkf d was 25 per cent. Co,, fercnees between the sluiprren's fif-: fif-: :h'-crs and t'ae dire'-tor gt-nerai were ar-' ar-' ranged, but een before th"v could be ' h-'ld men betran to on .strike, which ! 1-fl the pre.-idfiit to dvote a f on- ider;itte i portion of hi. i letter to rondernriinti their ! na sty action, w hl' h violated all aatri-e-! merits. ! 'j;iirr nnionp a'so put In demands for! i more pay, with lb'- exemption of the en- ; irineera, who said thny preferred a redue-' redue-' t:o;i in tnf- cfnt of livin;;. 'ihh;re was no indication tonight a to h'iw Mr. Tllnes would proec-d to the pot. : tifmr-nt of the wage demands. In vlw.v of the wag boarl's previous connldering of tiK- qu-s;Pn. it w;i jfii'-vf-d t ha a new tribunal would be con-tltute-d for the p m r-.rM-, with equai rt pr'-'-ntation for labor, the railroadH and the public. |