The Salt Lake herald. [volume] (Salt Lake City [Utah]) 1870-1909, 1902-11-23
OWEN wIsTER ON KICKERs.
Emphasizes His Praise of Them With
a Trolley Car Story.

Trolley Car Story.
COwen Wister, in Saturday Evening
Post)
You know that Herbert Spencer has
said We Americans are losing our love
of liberty 1 hope that he is wrong,
but 1 know very well what he means
We suffer a host of daily routine i'm
positions rather than do what is called
make a kick We suffer these things
not at all from good nature, but from a
species of cowardice; and to cover this
cOWardice up and preserve our self-es-
TEEN we have invented the word %kiC'--
err Thank heaven a man exclain- n,
Il am not a kicker And then he goes
and pays an unjust bill rather than dis
put it. And if you ask why. he viii be
apt to say, ''Oh, let US live and let live,''
After that he feels comfortable because
he has got round the corner from his
cowardice. But il is there just the
same.
II he. had disputed his bill the next
man would do it, too and presently
bills would be correct. If everybody
did, presently mOtOrmen would be more
careful. And as for the trolley car
conductor-here we come to the rear
end Of the machine and find standing
on il all too frequently special sort
of coward, the sort who refuses TO turn
a
Of the car, and mutters by way OF de-
Tense. Hes paid his fare. and he's got
as good a right TO ride as anybody"
You have probably met this specimen
yourself He like the mOtorman, usual
iy knows that a powerful corporation
{ if not a political pull, stands behind
him, and that your sufferings and COM
plants. unless you happen TO be presi-
/ dent of the United States, viii not
/ weigh much with his employers Thus
\ are you and I, the public, ground be-
{ tween the upper and neither milestone
I of capital and labor because We ar
( afraid to be "kickers.'
One afternoon a case of this grinding
was taking place in Philadelphia. Thu
car was bound up town, and business
men and shoppir romen filled II fairl!
l well. Among [ sat a citizen. quit
dirty and quite nix. He was an Of
/ Tense TO decency public nuisance; h
had no business be there. The con
I ductor knew this. and therefore tool
( good care not 10 see the citizen. Tn
| citizen (as is frequenD had a cigar. no
4 in his mouth but in his hands, and tn
fumes of il rose and Stank in the cal
OF course smoking was expressly Tor
hidden: but YOU know this trick Of II
cigar in the hand.
You know also what we men were a
doing. We were behind our papers, o
otherwise pretending lndt AolAll1S W q
the matter. or else making smile an
A wink of it to fool our consciences-
take it we were few of US secretly a
ease. because the cigar and the drunk
enness of the man were plainly annoy
ing to two women. They, poor things
dared to make no more complaint tina
we did. and for the same reason; the
were afraid to be conspicuous the
shrank from a scene; they chose rattle
to suffer an i'll smelling invader or the
rights than be stared at FOR Iellng N
conductor TO do his duty
Thus we should have all continued
l tourney in SNUG Philadelphia tolerant
of the intolerable but for refreshin
interruption. There sat among US
: the plain clothes of labor one who va
not of ourselves. Living in Philade
pbia had not yet cured him OF his II
deDendence. He had earned his brea
! west of the Missouri, sometimes as
cowboy and sometimes as soldier, an
he now proceeded to disclose all II
svrnntonas Of his training
Conductor. said he with pleasal
t intonation (and we all came from D.
hind our papers), that man ought
have been put out some time ago.
1 The conductor went through quite
! performance of being busy with his e.
, ! change tickets.