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Show PRESIDENT IN HIS i TALK TOSHMEN Urges Workers Not to Add to Difficulty of Solving High Cost of Living. WASHINGTON, Auc 26 "We OUght to postpone questions of this sort until un-til we have ihe opportunit for certain calculation as to the relation- i)- twe 'i wages and the cost of living ' the pres. Idenl declared In i staternent to the publl . explaining his decision as to wages. "it is the duty of every eitizen to Insist upon a truce Id bucd contests until tntellieent settlement! ran be made and made by peace and effective common counsel. I appeal to my fellow fel-low citizens of every employment to co operate In insisting upon and maintaining main-taining such a truce." Mr. Wilson's statement was issued in connection with the decision of himself him-self and Director General Hines on demands by railroad shopmen for a iwenty-five per cent advance in wages, but the general policy pronounced covers also the wage demands of other hundreds oi thousands of railroad workers, which are pendlne before the( director general or about to be presented pre-sented li Is to be expected that oth-t oth-t unions trying to obtain more pa will be asked, as the shopmen, to do heir part with other citizens In reducing re-ducing the cost of living i foregoing n temporary advantage which would i add to transportation costs. "The decision of the president anil the director general was announced 10 1 n committee of one hundred, representing repre-senting the shopmen. In reply to t h ir demands for a twenty-five per cent Increase, In-crease, the shopmen were asked to ar- j cept an adjustment of their pay to lhe basts of ten hours pay for eight hours work, which they contended was pii n other employes and denied them when the Adamson law became effective, 1 hi means an advance of the basic pay from Sixty eight cents to seventy two cents an hour, whereas an increase in-crease of seventeen cents to eighty -five cents an hour was demanded. Acting President Jewell of the railway rail-way employes department ot the American Pedeartlon of Labor, and his; advisers said they would communicate the decision to the union locals for acceptance ur rejection. A strik vote completed yesterday, but not yet tabulated, tab-ulated, was on the question whether; the men should quit work to enforce consideration of their demands by the railroad administration instead of by a eongresslonal commission as first suk i Rested. As this plan was abandoned,' ihe vote, whatever the result, is non-1 effective and the shopmen now hae an entire!) new question before them This question they were asked by President Wilson through their com mittee, to consider "In a new light. " "Wa are face to face with a situation." situa-tion." the president said, "which is more likely to affect the happiness and prosperity and even the life of I our people than the war itself." He thereupon outlined the covern- j ment's efforts to reduce prices and the need for assistinc these efforts by Stimulating production and maintain-! ing transportation. "A general Increase in the level oi wages might defeat this at Its very beginning," the president raid. "I believe be-lieve that the present efforts to reduce the costs of living will be successlul.i !" no new elements ot difficulty .-re, 'Lrown in the way. I confidently count upon the men engaged in the service) of the railways to assist, not obstruct ! They are good Americans, along withl the rest of us and may. I am sure, be counted on to see the point "It goes without saying that In our efforts to bring the cost ot living down Ii will be of course necessary to accept ac-cept the higher eostb as a permanent course of adjustment, and railway Wages should bo adjusted with the rest," Mr Hines1 re. ommendatlons to the president showed that the average increase in-crease in shopmen's earnings was in excess of the total increase in the . ., of living from July 1, 1915, and AUgUSl l. 1919. due to the fact that standardization standard-ization adopted al the request of the i employes had given thousands a higher high-er classification and higher pay ihm they previously enjoyed. Wages paid for similar work in ship yards, which workers the shopmen hav cited as higher paid, Mr. Iline said, were higher because the work ; was temporary and carried on und r greater pressure, and also the workmen work-men were forced to live in congested districts where living may seem high, j while railroad shopmen generally have the advantage of small or semi-populated communities. in addition to the four cents an hour increase to most of the shopmen, the director-general ordered that all freight car repairmen receive 67 cents an hour instead of C3 cents for steel car repairers and 58 cents for wood car repairers and that car inspectors j should receive 67 cents Instead of 58 I cents, with the exception in both: classes that the increase for men em I ployed at outlying points where the work Ir not continuous, shall be four cents an houi. President's Talk The president in his statement to the representatives of the shopmen j said : "Gentlemen: I request that you lay I this critical matter before the men in) ja new light. The vote they hae taken' was upon the question whether they should insist upon the wage increase they were asklnq or consent io the submission of their claims to a new tribunal, to be constituted by new leg Islatlon, That question no longer ha, any life in it. Sm h legislation is not now in Contemplation. I request that you ask the men to reconsider the whole matter in view of the following considerations, to whicb i ask their thoughtful attention as Americans, and which 1 hope ihitt you will lay before t hem as I here state them. "We are face to face with a situation situa-tion which is more likely to affect .h happiness and prosperit md i en the life of our people than the war itself. We have now ot to do nothinp le;s than brtnee our Industries and our labor of every kind back to B normal basis after the greatest upheaval known In history and the winter Jusl ahead of us may brins sui"f rine infinitely greater great-er than Ihe war brought upon un if We blunder or fail In the process. n admirable spirit of self-sacrifice, of patriotic devotion and oi community aetion guided and inspired us while ihe flchting was on. We shall need all these now, and nerd them in a heightened degree, '.( we arc to accomplish accom-plish the first tasks of peace. The are more difficult than the tasks of war more complex, less easily understood under-stood -and require more Intelligence, patience and sobriety, w- mobilised our manpower for the fighting, let us now mobilize our brain power and our consciences for the reconstruction. II we tall it will mean nntional disasti r. The primaiN lust slop Is to inepase production and facilitate transportation so as to make up for the destruction wrought by the war the terrible scarcities scar-cities i' created, and so as soon as possible relieve our people of the cruel burden of high prices. The railways are ai the center of this whole process. "The country has taken up1 with all Its energy the task of bringing the profileer to book, making the stocks of necessaries in the country available at lowered prices, stimulating production produc-tion and facilitating distribution anil very favorable results arc already be-Kinnnig be-Kinnnig to appear There is reason to enterlain the confident hop.' thai sub slant la relief will result and result in increasing measure. A general increase in-crease in the levels of wages would check and might defeat all this at Its very beginning. But ih increases would inevitably raise, not lower, the cost of living. Manufacturers and producers of every sort would have innumerable additional pretexts for increasing prof its and all efforts to discover and de leat profiteering would be hopelessly confused. I believe that the present efforts ro reduce the costs of living will be successful If no new elements ot difficulty are thrown In the way; and I confidently count .upon the men engaged in the service of the railways to assist, not obstruct. It Is much more In their Interest to do this than to Insists upon wage Increases which will undo everything ihe government attempts. They are good Americans along with the rest of us. and may, am sure, be counted on to see the point. "It goes without saying that if our efforts to bring the cost ot living down should fail, after we have had time enough to establish either success or failure, it will of course be necessary to accept the higher costs of livlnj, as a permanent basis oi adjustment, anu railway wages should be readjusted along with the rest. All that I am now urging is, that we should not be guilty of the inexcusable Inconsistency of making Keneral increases in wages on the permanent at the very time tha we are trying with great confidence to reduce the cost of living and are ;.ble to say that it actually is beg nnlng to fall. "I am aware that railroad employes have a sense of insecurity as to .ho lulure of the roads and have many misgivings mis-givings as to whether their interests will be properly safeguarded when t he-present he-present form of federal control has come to an end. No doubt it Is In par this sense of Insecurity that prompts them to insists that their wage inter ests be adjusted now rather than under un-der conditions which they cannot cer talnly foresee. But 1 do not thinu that i heir uneasiness is well grt unded. I anticipate that leglsla'.ion dealing with the future of the railroads will in j explicit terms afford adequate pr tei tion for the interests oi the employes if the railroads, but. quit, apart from that, it la rle.tr that no legislation car. I make the railways other lhan vhat they are, a great public interest, ?nu ! it is not likely thai the president of the Tr.ited States, whether in poi i sion and control of the railroads or not, J ariU lack opportunity or persuaslv I force to Influence the decision of quts tlons arising between the managers of the railroads and the railway employes. em-ployes. The , nipluyes uia rest assured that, during my term of office, whethei I am in actual possess on of the railroads rail-roads or not, I shall not fall to azert the full influence of the executive to see thai justice is done them. "I believe, therefore, that they may be Justified in the coufideuce that hearts hear-ts co-operation with ihe government now In Its efforts to reduce the cost; of Ihing will by no means be prejudi cial to their own interests, but will, on tne contrary, prepare ihe way for uioii i favorable and 'satisfactory relations in j the future. "I confidently count on their ( o-op eratidp In this time of national tes! and crisis." no |