Evening Republican, Volume 20, Number 255, Rensselaer, Jasper County, 24 October 1916 — ADAMSON LAW CONDEMNED BY RAILROAD MAN [ARTICLE]

ADAMSON LAW CONDEMNED BY RAILROAD MAN

Ryan Dissects Adamson Act and Realizns Wilson Has Retarded Labor Movement. RESENTS WOODROW’S ACTION Organizes Republican Club After Having Waked Up to Real Facta In Connection With Adamson Legislation. Princeton, Ind.—One hupdred and thirty Princeton railroad And shop men, within a few minutes pledged themselves to Hughes and a protective taj-iff when, at a big meeting of Southern railroad employes In Haen’s hall here, a railroad men's Republican club was organized, with L. P. Salomon as president. Many others will join. The meeting was a revelation to those who believed the so-called eighthour law had drawn all railroad men’s support to President Wilson. The leatura of the big meeting-was-an address by James D. Ryan, secre-tary-treasurer of the local Order of Railway Conductors and one of the oldest organizers of the order in the country in point of service. Mr. Ryan, until two weeks ago, was for Wilson; he had expressed the belief that he felt must support him. Mr. Ryan told why he was against Wilson and could not support him, and why he believed he deserved the condemnation of every brotherhood man.

Telia of Hit Long Service. In assuring his audience that he was no political worker, Mr. Ryan told of his long service with railroads in the Bouth and later in the north. He was one of those who led the organizing of the brakemen and conductors on the Gulf & Ship Island road in 1899; he was one of the members of the first brotherhood federation in the United States and formerly a general chairman of the conductors. He helped form the eastern association, lir. Ryan declared the eight-hour law and time and a half for overtime was nothing new, as many seemed to believe. The older organization men had been working for those conditions eighteen years. Gradually they had struggled and worked and sacrificed up to the point where the demand was to be made for the long dreamed of time when they could have an eighthour day. A referendum was ordered and 95 per cent of the 400,000 brotherhood men voted to go out, and before Aug. 1 was to be the time. The whole country knew this referendum was being taken, and its result. Wilson knew it. The 400,000 men sent their delegates to New York; they expected the strike to be called when the terms had been refused. They wished the eight-hour day and the time and a half overtime as a penalty to see that the short day was observed in fact as well as in theory. No One Invited Wilson.

"I did not vote for those representatives to carry the matter back and forth from New York to Washington,’’ said Ryan, “but to strike ‘while the Iron was hot.’ But President Wilson took a hand-. If he had stayed out — no one invited him into the controversy—that strike would have come by August and it would have been won, the reward of eighteen years of work for a short day would have come. Success was within our grasp. “As a little child builds its playhouse of cardboards and is-just ready to lay on the last card and Is beholding the creation of its hands with joy, when a selfish big brother wantonly kicks It over, so we brotherhood men saw our hopes jerked from us by Woodrow Wilson—and today we lisve nothing but a ‘note’! We haven’t got our eight-hour law and we’re not going to get It! “Mr. Adamson himself declared In congress it was only a measure of expediency—to stave off a strike for a while. There is little doubt that it will he declared unconstitutional—l have not talked with a lawyer yet, except a few Democrats, who thought It would stand. What will be the result? When it goes into effect in 1917 the railroads will appeal from It, and each local of the brotherhoods will have to employ counsel to flght for It In the supreme court, with the result that eventually It will likely come back ’busted’ and with an assessment on each member to cover the costs —another Danbury hatters’ case. Fruits of Eighteen Years’ Work Gone. “Where will be the fruits of the eighteen years’ work for the eighthour/ day? Gone! Our system ot •collective bargaining' will have lost Its hold to a large extent if the law fails, and wholly If it is uphold. Woodrow Wilson has Jsnatched victory from ju as it was all’hut in our grasp, for that strike Would have been , won if nailed before Aug. 1, as It surely would hare been but for his meddling. The

men in congress didn't care for as or our eight-hour law —they didn't cars how long we worked under sixteen hours, or whether we have a protective tariff. They cared only for temporarily sidetracking obr strike. “If you ask me if I was opposed to arbitration of this case, I*say yes. I am not opposed to arbitration as a principle, but I was and am opposed to it as long as Wilson appoints the arbitrators. I have not forgotten the appointment of Nagel as an arbitrator In deciding the western railroad case —a man who owns large holdings In railroad stocks. When arbitration shall mean the appointing of one member from the railroad men, one from the railroad companies and one from the government, I am for It, as, as a fair proposition, but not otherwise. Why He Changed His Views.

"Why was I for Wilson immediately after the ‘eight-hour settlement,' and against him now? Well, I’m ashamed to tell It, but I‘m going to. I knew If the strike was called promptly following the 'poll' and before Aug. 1 we would win it. But first one delay and then another came. And then President Wilson 'asked' the brotherhood representatives to call on him. The president’s requests are to be regarded as commands. They went. The delays grew. The 400,000 men were on tenderhooks of anxiety over the outcome, which meant so much to them. The soldiers at the front or in the trenches is brave as he prepares to leap to the attack. But restrain him—hold him back a day, two days, and the strain gets on his nerves; his ginger begins to evaporate. That’s Just what happened to me, and to others in this strike matter —the delays caused a whole lot of ginger to evaporate; the strike that might have been won before Aug. 1 was doubtful when it had been delayed to Sept. 4, and I confess when-the president finally put that measure through I felt a great big relief from the strain, and my heart beat with gratitude toward Woodrow Wilson. Will Vote For Hughes.

"But gradually I began to wake up and to feel ashamed of my weakness, when after some hard thinking I came to the full realization of all that had been taken from us by Wilson; that we had been robbed of the powerful leverage of our ‘collective bargaining’ and had been forced into the necessity of becoming a political machind to take our demands each time before congress, if the law shall stand. Thereupon, I decided that I would vote for Charles Evans Hughes, and that It is my duty to try to urge his support by. brotherhood men who value all they have labored for so many years, and for a protective tariff that will insure good business conditions for the country and for them.”