The Salt Lake herald. [volume] (Salt Lake City [Utah]) 1870-1909, 1896-09-28
INTIMIDATION OF RAILROAD EN-
PLOXEES.

Salt Lake City, Sept. u, 1896.
To the Editor of The Herald:
Sir-I enclose circulars which have
been sent to all employees of the U. P.
railway and l presume employees of
all other railroads throughout the
United States. I desire that you should
make it known through The Herald
that as far as Utah is concerned they
may save themselves the expense of
trying to convert railway men here
to the conclusion that the gold
standard is the best for us. We
know better. For twenty years
wages have kept tumbling down, until
now we are receiving but two-thirds
the pay, or SO 1-3 less than we had
then. This applies to nearly all
branches of railroading, with few ex-
ceptions You will see by a glance at
these circulars that it is not the wage
earners they are trying to protect. No;
they have had no protection, and If
ever they get protected it will be by
their ballot and by voting for an in
crease in the volume of money. A
greater aggregation of "balderdash"
cannot be found in The same number of
lines than is to be found in these cir
culars; their sopaistry is so apparent
that even the typo who had the print
ing of them should feel ashamed of
himself. When any man, or corpora
ton, tells you that 1t Is to your advan-
tage for them to get ricn and you to
keep getting poorer. then we may be
sure there is % niger in the wood
pile" The Railway Age, in one of its
circulars, says. Call on US for litera-
ture and for help" The literature we
want is Coins Financial School," re-
print of w. J. Bryan's speeches etc.
circulated amongst the "goldbugs"
L, 49, L.. to H.
cause the editor and staff are owned
body and soul by railroad corporations
RAILROADER.
This letter from "Railroader'' ex-
plains itself 1t makes it perfectly
plain that an attempt is being made to
intimidate the railroad employees to
whom those circulars are being sent
into supporting Mckinley and the gold
standard.
How do the employees receive them?
They receive them directly from the
foremen of various departments, which
is evidence that the higher officials OF
the road are interested and engaged
in 'persuading' the employees to sup
port Mckinley and the gold standard.
w
way employees vote? They have as
much right to their political views as
the general officials.
These Railway Age circulars (there
are four of them) are handed to the
men in large manila envelopes, in the
left hand corner of which is printed,
The Railway Age, Chicago" The en-
velopes have no stamps or postage
marks upon them. Now, how do they,
with the circulars in them. get all the
way from Chicago to Utah without
stamps? Are they part of the 'legit-
in ate railway business carried by the
roads and not in the mails over which
the postoffice department has had
recent and rather bitter controversy
with the railroads?
Perhaps the officials of the road
would disclaim any intention of CO.
ercing or intimidating the employees in
their votes. but why are they so per-
n:ciously active in distributing this
goldhug 'hterature?" Nor will people
believe that they are unconscious of the
effect of the distribution of this Liter
ature'' upon the employees. They well
know that it will have a quiescent eff
feet upon the employees and will be
taken by them as warning.
Upon the employees the distributing
of these Railway Age circulars by the
foremen has the effect of intimidation.
The employee by whom we were given
these circulars requested that his name
be not used in The Herald or divulged
to any Of the officials of the road, as