The railroads throughout the country are in a fair state of prosperity.
Their service is good and their supply of cars is abundant. Their condition
would be improved and the public better served by a system of
consolidations. I recommend that the Congress authorize such consolidations
tinder the supervision of the Interstate Commerce Commission, with power to
approve or disapprove when proposed parts are excluded or new parts added.
I am informed that the railroad managers and their employees have reached a
substantial agreement as to what legislation is necessary to regulate and
improve their relationship. Whenever they bring forward such proposals,
which seem sufficient also to protect the interests of the public, they
should be enacted into law.
It is gratifying to report that both the railroad managers and railroad
employees are providing boards for the mutual adjustment of differences in
harmony with the principles of conference, conciliation, and arbitration.
The solution of their problems ought to be an example to all other
industries. Those who ask the protections of civilization should be ready
to use the methods of civilization.
A strike in modern industry has many of the aspects of war in the modern
world. It injures labor and it injures capital. If the industry involved is
a basic one, it reduces the necessary economic surplus and, increasing the
cost of living, it injures the economic welfare and general comfort of the
whole people. It also involves a deeper cost. It tends to embitter and
divide the community into warring classes and thus weakens the unity and
power of our national life.
Labor can make no permanent gains at the cost of the general welfare. All
the victories won by organized labor in the past generation have been won
through the support of public opinion. The manifest inclination of the
managers and employees of the railroads to adopt a policy of action in
harmony with these principles marks a new epoch in our industrial life.