Throughout this maneuver it was apparent that the
unions were very confident, but whether because of a prearranged
pact, or because of a full treasury, or because of a feeling that
the public was with them, or because of the opposite belief that
the public feared them, must be left to individual conjecture.
None the less, the public realized that the principle of
arbitration had given way to the principle of coercion.
Soon after the United States had entered the Great War, the
Government, under authority of an act of Congress, took over the
management of all the interstate railroads, and the nation was
launched upon a vast experiment destined to test the capacities
of all the parties concerned. The dispute over wages that had
been temporarily quieted by the Adamson Law broke out afresh
until settled by the famous Order No. 27, issued by William G.
McAdoo, the Director General of Railroads, and providing a
substantial readjustment of wages and hours. In the spring of
1919 another large wage increase was granted to the men by
Director General Hines, who succeeded McAdoo. Meanwhile the
Brotherhoods, through their counsel, laid before the
congressional committee a plan for the government ownership and
joint operation of the roads, known as the Plumb plan, and the
American people are now face to face with an issue which will
bring to a head the paramount question of the relation of
employees on government works to the Government and to the
general public.
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