I ill- proposal was accepted by the employees, but the railroad executives, holding out for arbitration, took it under advisement, and the negotiations made little progress for several days. The President summoned to Washington about forty more executive heads of railroads, and when the matter reached final stages there were more than sixty in Washington. The railroad executives considered the President's plan of settlement for a week, and then notified him they could not consider endorsement of the eight-hour day with ten hours' pay. They offered a countersuggestion that a question of wages such as the commission should be arbitrated, and that pending a decision by an arbitration board the railroad would keep a fund under supervision of the Interstate Commerce Commission. The increase wage, upon which the decision went against them and the "eight-hour day" was approved. The men would not agree to the wage and sent out their strike rate. Then the President put in a statement of the wage scale. 