The oasis., 1894-08-16
THE RAILROAD SIDE.

appears lillS Ncch very CiCdi dhu
 able statement of the railroad side of
 the questions involved in the recent
 strike from the pen of MT. w. H. Mills
 of the Southern Pacific company,
 which will be read with great interest
 by the entire public as the production
 of one of the most popular of the off,
 cials of that great corporation whose
 repeated public utterances have
 stamped him as a man in close sym
 pathy with the people. Not only will
 the article be read with interest from
 this fact, but also from the, fact that
 it is the dearest and most comprehen-
 sive view of all the points involved in
 the case as presented from the stand
 point of those operating the railroads
 of the country.
 AS MT. Mills clearly states the case,
 the companies were suddenly confront
 ed by the refusal of their men to
 handle Pullman cars, without notice
 that any such action was contemplat- ed. The article farther states that
 the mail contracts between the gov ernment and the railroads are that
 the mails shall be carried on regular passenger trains, and the Pullman cars are part of the equipment Of all such trains. Further the compensa- tion for carrying the mails is regulat- ed to a great extent by the very fact that there is other revenue for the trains in the passenger traffic without which, the trains would run at a loss, and that by cutting of the passenger traffic the strikers subjected the com panies to such loss. Consequently the companies were justified in refusing to run trains at all unless they could run their full equipment; which the strk- CTS would not permit. Herein lies the only weak point in MT, Mills entire paper. Unless there is an unwarrant- ed difference in the contracts the rail- road companies are subjected to the same condition of all other carriers of mails-and that is that the mails must start out at all hazards, and go through If possible, regardless of the passen- ger trafic. A stage line is compensat- ed for carrying the mails much by the same rule as the railroads. But for the passenger traffic the pay for car rying the mails would be much higher. Yet the mails must be carried. If coach cannot go blackboard takes the sacks; if the roads are impossible for a blackboard they are sent on the backs of horses. They don't call on the gov ernment to make the roads passable. and make the public wait for mails until they are.
 The objection to the procedure Of the railroad companies, which MT. Mills has overlooked, is that they fore ed an issue to overcome an obstruc- bion of part of their traffic which | they could have overcome by legal | means, without putting the country to the great loss and damage it has by the total suspension of Ill traffic. It is an undisguised fact .hat at the beginning the strikers were willing that all trains should leaving Pullman cars only. That could have been readily done, md every train would have moved on lime. Then writs of mandamus could lave issued from the courts, com the coupling Of Pullman cars 'n trains where they were wanted. Failure to comply with such writs would have brought the heavy hand f the law down upon the offenders without drawing in all the other em- 'loyes of the companies. Had that F1I ,l (