ABSTRACT
When President Wilson announced his railroad program at the end of August and asked Congress for the Adamson act, he opened a new era of intervention by the government. A law for compulsory investigation before a railroad strike is the kind of law which expresses a good intention though it ignores the facts. It is intended to prevent the calling of a sudden strike or a lockout, in order to gain time for public opinion to crystallize. But a national railroad strike is never ordered without warning, and could not be. The crisis of August was foreseen months and months ahead, and the public had all the time it needed to form an opinion. Neither arbitration nor investigation recognizes the truth that it is as impractical to determine wages and hours by spasmodic investigation as it was to determine rates by that method.
