Hutchinson gazette. [volume] (Hutchinson, Kan.) 1895-1902, 1898-04-14
RAILROAD EMPLOYEES.
DAVIS ANSWERS PRESIDENT
RIPLEY OF THE SANTA FEE.
President Ripley Is Angry, and 1t is Said,
whom the Gods Would Destroy
They First Mako Mad" Davis Does
Him up.
"Sure sign his cause amt strong; he
that fust gifts maids most allus wrong. I"
ROsaA RiOel0

GnaL IuhL gus Indu uOAb d1luS WEOuB'
RoseG Bigelo.
President Ripley is now "angry." He
says he is. In that respect he but i'm
iLates the master class of the South in
the days of the chattel slavery. Mad,
too at nothing that ever occurred. His
anger is the child of his imagination
l wonder that he has not learned les
son from his predecessors of the lash
and the blood hound "Whom the
gods would destroy they first make
mad" With the classic warning ring
ing in their ears, the lords of the lash
pushed their madness so vigorously
that they procured decision of the U.
s supreme court to the effect that "a
black man has no rights which white
man was bound to respect" So now,
in their insanity, the kings cs yns rail
have procured decision Of the U. s,
supreme court to the effect that the
extortions and greed of railroad cor
porations cannot be limited by law.
This amounts to bred Scott decision
on a broader scale. 1t means that the
people of America have no rights which
railway corporations are bound to re-
spect!
In the midst of this midsummer
madness of his class, the president of
the Santa Fe announces himself as per-
sonally "angry" He says: Mr.. Davis
in his article insinuates that the deaths
are caused by lack of carefulness and
negligence of the employees. Now, 1
am very anxious to be courteous to
everybody. Mr.. Davis may call me
personally as many names as he pleas
es, or he may abuse the Santa Fe com
pany or railway companies in general.
But when he accuses the railway en-
ployes as a body of being responsible
for bloodshed by their carelessness,
then he makes me angry.
The writer then launches out into an
elegant eulogy of the Santa Fe en-
ployes, as if talking for public effect. ="
AS eloquently, perhaps, though less
earnestly, as when quarrelling with
the same men over few cents on the
price OF days labor
The tribute to the worth and fidelity
of the men, however, is just, and de-
sire to emphasize and adopt every word
of it and to make them my own. l
then desire that, in my writings on
this question during period of TWEEN
ty-6Ve years here in Kansas, have
never uttered single word or syllable
to the contrary. If President Ripley
has found a single sentence of mine,
rejecting on the faithful carefulness
of railway employees, he should have
quoted the paragraph containing it.
The fact that he did not do so, in this
case of necessity which environs him,
proves that he found nothing to quote
that suited his purpose. Hence his
Misrepresentation
Possibly the following may be the
offending paragraph. 1 quote it from
one of my late articles as follows:
"There are many cases Of railway &C
cidents, among which are prominent;
~ crossings at the same grade; (2)
varieties of couplings; and (3) curva-
ture Of tracks. All of these causes are
intensified by the overwork of the
yard and train men. In fact, all other
causes of accidents in existence are in
tensified by the employment of over
worked and exhausted men. Take the
ease of an engineer after run of a
dozen or twenty hours without rest;
can he see signal with the clearness
Of a fresh man? May he not, often,
approach crossings with less careful
ness when exhausted than when rest
ed? Can he keep in his mind the exact
location and radius of the numerous
curves of the track, that he may ap-
proach them with a safe speed, when
worn out as well as when rested?"
That statement shows that there is
a limit to human endurance, but it
does not mean or insinuate that rail-
way employees are voluntarily scare
less or negligent" 1t was part of an
argument showing the greed and bar
barity of corporations in requiring
murderous overwork of their employees.
President Ripley pays a Just tribute
to the great work of railway employees;
yet these are the men whom the cor
porations goad and drive into desper-
ate strikes, that they may maintain a
rate of wages above the starvation
point. 1t is from the brain and mus
cles of these men that corporations, in
part, make their millions. In the old
slavery days no master ever became a
millionaire through the profits Of slave
labor; ut, under the presentcorpora-
ton railway system, millionaires are
almost as common as tramps The
two classes thrive from the same
causes. One is the compliment of the
otherl 1t is said that engineers engage
in lonp rms because thew are maid nv