The Whitefish pilot. [volume] (Whitefish, Mont.) 1904-current, 1908-08-28
A NEW MOVE
UNION MEN FORT PROTECTIVE
ORGANIZATIONS
MAY HAVE A CLUB HERE
Wage-Earners Regard Attacks on
Railroads as an Injury to
Themsel yes and to the
Country, and Act
Accordingly

lHc HlONcIINIt WHICH, WIS StdTtcu Ill
the east several weeks ago by labor
unions to organize clubs for the purpose
of heading off freak and ill-advised rail-
road legislation, is rapidly spreading over
the country, and it is more than prob
able that before the campaign is much
older club of this nature will be started
in Whitefish.
That the country has suffered from
the CROSSROADS brand of craftsmanship
which has been responsible for much of
the senseless agitation and legislation di-
rected against the railroads the people
are now beginning to realize, hence this
movement among the union men of the
country, especially those in the railroad
service. They have learned that unjust
anti-railroad legislation is boomerang
which hits not only the income of the
railroads, but that of most other people
as well.
The Minnesota Union Advocate, Off
cial organ of the Minnesota State Feder-
alton Of Labor and the st. Paul Trades
and Labor assembly, states that after
fully thirty years of political activity in
the various states directed against the
railroads and eliminating in the adop-
ton of laws in pretty nearly all the states
of the west intended to hamper the oper-
alton of the roads and reduce their earn
ings to a minimum, the people show
signs OF waking up to their true inter
ests. They are beginning to sce-bccause
they have had the truth borne in Oh
them in their occupations and in their
incomcs-that railroad batting, as an
activity of crossroads craftsmanship, is
two-edged sword.
The surcSt barometer of industrial con-
ditions is tl.c railroad. When the rail
road is busy the average man of bust
ness and the average union mechanic is
busy; when it is in trouble we are all in
trouble.
1t is, beyond all doubt, because the
people are thinking thoughts like these,
and because they have been having the
truth brought home to their very hearth
stones i'll the past year of business de-
preston, that the men of the railroad
organizations arc waking up to the ac-
tual stuation; that in Nebraska they
have formed a protective association
among themselves, and that in Mime
sofa they are getting ready for action
in the same direction.
Some time ago James j. Hill was
quoted in the daily papers as saying that
in the crisis which has been brought on
the country, and by which the railroads
are most seriously affected, any action
that had to be taken should under nc
circumstances result in any reduction in
the wages of working people.
In condcmning the plan to reduce
wages as means of making up for the
present reduced volume of railroad busi.
ness, Mr.. Hill said at that time some
thing like this: "Workmen need good
wages to live properly. Cutting wage.
will not reduce the cost of living"
If the common people have been wax
ing up to their true interests in connec
ton with the operation of railroads ant
other great industrial enterprises, it il
quite plain, too, that the real leaders 0
industrial production, like Mr.. Hill, have
also been waking up. They are realizing
today that full and complete justice mus
be done to the wage-earning element o
industrial society, and that the fullest co
operation must be encouraged between
the two great elements-the one tina
takes the leadership and the responsible
ties of management, and the other tina
takes the burden of the physical toll in
volved.
Union people have never had any rea
sympathy with the sentiment which ha
produced the statesman from the coun
try who regards his only mission at tn
state capitol to be the one of "givin
hell to the railroads. They are not fool
enough not to have foresecn, at least in
half indistinct way, the approach of tn
time when they themselves would b
obliged to share with the railroads tn
fate which the bucolic statesman seeks t.
intiict on the railrOads-the fate of littl
work, reduced treasury and lcssene
earning capacity.