Mr. Roosevelt's Triumph
The announcement that the American railway strike has been called off is a triumphant vindication of President Roosevelt's resolute action in taking the railways over. The threat of a stomp was a danger to the security of the nation. It came not long after a, costly strike in the coal-mines and immediately after a crisis in the steel industry in which a stoppage was narrowly averted. But a hold-up on the railways at the very moment when the transport of war materials is the prime necessity of war-making would have been a disaster immediate in its consequences, and was not to be tolerated by a war Administration. President Rookvelt was abundantly justified in the eyes of the great majority of his countrymen in taking over the railways and empowering the Army to operate them. At the same time, it was made clear that the sole object of the Government's action was to keep the trains running. To those unions which accepted his arbitration the President had made awards for increased wages which went some way towards recognising the claims of the men.
his swift action he has saved the situation; but that it should ever have arisen is evidence of the deep conflict of interests, with one extreme ready to exploit discontents and the other parading pro- vocative anti-strike measures in Congress against the wishes of the President and pouring oil on the flames. From neither side has the President had anything but obstruction in his efforts to keep inflation at bay.
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