A TRUCE

Evening Star, Issue 18052, 21 August 1922, Page 4

A TRUCE

IN AMERICAN LABOR WAR. TENTATIVE RAILWAY SETTLEMENT. NEW YORK, August 18. Following an all-day session of the Railway Executives and tho big Brotherhood Unions, it was indicated that a compromise settlement had been reached. Tho conference adjourned till next week. Tho Brotherhoods will in the meantime submit their views to tho shopmen. It is learned in New York that the'-Rail-way Conference compromise that seniority will be restored to tho strikers, without affecting tho rights of the new employees who were hired for the strikers’ places,—A. and ,N.Z. Cable, COAL SITUATION OBSCURE. NEW YORK. August 18. At Philadelphia the conference of the anthracite operators and the strike leadens adjourned without a decision being reached. Tho conference will resume on Saturday. —A. and N.Z. Cable. WASHINGTON, August 19. The Indian mine operators signed at Cleveland an agreement with the owners to produce 3,000,000 tons of coal annually. -A. and N.Z. Cable. INVESTIGATING HERRIN AFFAIR, NEW YORK, August 18. At Marion (Illinois) the grand jury has been summoned for August 28 to hear evidence regarding the Herrin massacre.—A. and N.Z. Cable. PRESIDENT HARDING’S REVIEW. FEDERAL GOVERNMENT’S IMPOTENCE. COAL COMMISSION URGED. RAILWAY BOARD NEEDS MORE POWER. WASHINGTON, August 18. President Harding, in an address to Congress, outlined the Administration’s efforts to settle the coal and railway strikes. He declared that he would use all the power of tho Government to maintain transportation and to sustain the right of men to work. The President recommended the immediate provision of a temporary national coal agency, with tho required capital, to purchase, sell, and distribute coal. He suggested that tho Railway Labor Board 1 should bo given power to enforce its decrees against both Labor and Capital. Ho did not intend to ask Congress to change' the, laws at present. No hasty action would contribute towards a solution of the critical situation. Tho existing laws were sufficient to end tho prevailing disputes, and that they would bo invoked against all offenders 'alike. He emphatically disapproved of the . apparent move on the part of some classes of industry to destroy the Labor unions, asserting that it was in the public interest to preserve and profit by the good in Labor union. ‘The President bitterly denounced! the butchery at Herrin and other outbreaks of violence, declaring that whatever sacrifice was necessary, government by law must bo sustained. Ho asked for the speedy enactment of a law giving the Federal Government, power to deal with situations like tho Herrin massacre ; also, of a Bill for the better protection of aliens and for tho enforcement of their treaty rights. Ho said: “My renewal of this oft-made recommendation is impelled by a pitiable sense of the Federal Government’s impotence to deal with the shocking crime of Herrin, which shamed and horrified the country. In that butchery human beings were wTonght in madness. It is alleged that two aliens were murdered. This act adds to the outraged sense of American justice the humiliation which lies on tho Federal Government in its lack of authority to punish that unutterable crime.”

Referring to tho coal situation, President Harding said the simple but significant truth was that except for such coal as came from districts which were worked by non-organised miners, tho country was at tho mercy of the united mine workers. The President requested authority to create a Coal Commission to investigate tho whole industry, with authority to reveal every phase of coal production, sale, and distribution. This would be necessary if another strike next April was to bo avoided. —A. and N.Z. Cable.