Bluefield evening leader. [volume] (Bluefield, W. Va.) 1906-1911, 1908-10-30
THE VOTE OF RAILROAD MEN

The Baltimore sun. a newspaper
which after a half century OF Dem
ociaey has joined the Republican
ranks, comes out in a most remark
able appeal to tho Baltimore and
Ohio railway men to vote the Re-
publican ticket. Here is what il
says in part:
In the month D July, August
september, 1908. the expense, OF
conducting the BaltinJ'o and ONO
Railroad company fell of s3,521,-
$50. or at the rate of $14.OOC,OOO
year. This means that men who
lad received a great part or this in
wages are out OF employment or
working at reduced pay or on short
hours. This reduct' on OF expenses
ha been caused mainly by educ
ton OF fire GIT hauled amounting
ror the year ended June 80, 1908,
to over 100000 tons and by the
passage OF laws reducing passenger
rates. The earth was producing
abundan-ly when the troubles be-
gan and has continued to produce
abLndantly during the entire period
Of depression, The reason why the
business OF the road decreased. and
why the adverse laws were passed
and why laborers had to be dis
charged. was due largely and excess
sive to undiscriminat,ng agitation.
That agitation made II popular for
| every leg stature to begin anti-rail-
money to lend were afraid to lend
Il to the companies. Therefore, the
railroads had to stop improvements.
They could not borrow money to
ay for extension or betterments
and thousands of laborers were dis
charged. The usual amount OF
rails could not be ordered. That
pu. the men in the steel mills out
OF job. 1t put out of bus ness the
men who dig the iron ore to be con-
verted into steel rails. 1t put out of
business the men who dig coal for
tn steel furnaces and the men who
made the locomotives to haul It,
the cars to carry 1t, and the men en-
gagged in transportation. The rail-
road men, the miners, the steel
workers by the thousands being out
of work, were unable to buy their
usual supply of manufactured goods
OF clothing, of shoes, of hats. OF car
pets and house hold articles. Thou
sands Of men, therefore, engaged in
the manufacture of these things
lost their jobs. IL was an endless
chain of depression and distress
earnings in all kinds of business de-
creased. and the loss fell most heav-
'ly upon the unfortunate laboring
man.
No one will dispute the foregoing
facts; but the ridiculous part rests
in the negative conclusion that Mr.
Bryan is in some mysterious man
ner associated with the state OF af-
fairs, and is responsible for them.
do the laboring men, do the unem-
ployed railroad men desire to con-
tinue the agitation by putting into
the White House the greatest agi-
tator in American" meaning of
course, Mr.. Bryan.
The whole long Est of defaults
and misdoings with which his coun-
try has been beset for a decade; all
of the fruits Of the Republican pol
icy of extravaganza; all of the i'll
consequences flowing from the an
tics of the Mad Man in the White
House; all of these have been di-
rectly laid at the feet of one private
citizen of the United States. a citi-
zen who had no control whatever of
the affairs OF this nation beyond
the right of suffrage, but this is the
frs intimation that this private IN
the ranks OF a party out OF power
was responsible for the present eX-
sting panic.
The greatest agitator in Amer
lea" In common decency and JUS
tice, so influential an organ, endow-
ed OF a conscience that is so delicate
OF political perception that after
fifty years of espousing the cause
of Democracy it discovers the error
Of it's way and forthwith changes
it's affiliatlon, might at least have
appended the reasonable qualifica-
ton. "the present incumbent of the
White House excepted"
THE greatest agitator in Ameri-
ca" When? And what? And
where? Mr. Bryan has been con-
stantly campaigning for weeks, max
ing a dozen or more addresses each
day. Every thought that he has ex-
pressed has been strictly analysed
and we defy the learned Sun or any
other Republican newspaper TO pro-
duce any assertion of Mr.. Bryan
that will support any such charge.
Who but Theodore Roosevelt is
responsible for this panic-the most
disastrous in the history of panics?
IF Mr.. Taft is elected there will be
industrial peace. with a fair and
honest enforcement of the law"
Our learned contemporary Is GER
tainly banking upon an extended
visit of Mr. Roosevelt to the wilds
OF Africa. We will accept this state
ment about Industrial peace" If
we can be assured that the most
radical and erratic man who ever
sat in a presidential chair will be
indefinitely detained i'm Africa or
will submit to deportation TO the
North Pole. Otherw Sc, every mes
sage to congress must bear the en-
jorsation, 90. X. r. r." the mi
tial step having been taken when
Mr.. Taft found IT necessary TO tray
81 all the way from the Hot SPRING.
% oyster Bay to obtain the cher
shed eDdorsation.
Our learned contemporary goes
80 L. 80