The wageworker., 1910-04-29

the old school. 1t is said that his
inherited evangelism. A bribe Of
$4,000 was once offered Pratt by the
alleged agent of traction company.
He accepted the money with eight Of
his friends looking on through holes
bored in the walls. Then he deposit
ed the money in a Cleveland bank to-
the credit of the union. Through the
newspapers Pratt offered to give the
money back to the street car COM
pany any time they called for it, but
the company declared it did not be-
long to them. No one has attempted
to bribe Pratt or to buy off his strikes
since that incident.
Honesty may not carry far In th1s
world, but when it is combined with
a genius for diplomacy it wins. Pratt
organizes a strike as carefully as old
Won Moltke planned a battle. He
goes into a town and looks the whole
municipal association over. He finds
out who the bosses are, and he learns
as much as he can Of local issues.
Then he meets the men. He finds out
if any of them have been soldiers, and
if so, these men are set TO drilling
others in marching. Pratt believes
in marching, and the more soldierly
the parades are, he declares, the
more public approval the strikers
meet. He finds out the men who
drink, and has committees appointed
to keep them away from the saloons.
He seeks out the men of family AMI
tells them to carry their children IN
their arms as they march. He is
well aware of the appeal home and
children carry, as many of the bali
ners displayed by the strikers tes-
tify.
The most diplomatic thing Pratt
does. the method he takes to nonplus
the companies, is to forbid violence
on the part of his men. And they
obey him, too. Much as the compan-
les would like to see their properly
destroyed by Pratt's strikeN' they arc
denied that sight To be sure. tho
hoodlum element always present dur
ing labor troubles, men and boys
mostly boys-who never had anything
to do with the union, furnishes
enough trouble to give the newspa-
ers riot" copy.
Pratts orders to his men are sim
pie. During the cessation OF work
do not enter saloon, and try to dis
suade your friends from all drinking.
Avoid all acts of violence or unlaw-
full acts Of any kind. A silent and
orderly protest succeeds where vio-
lence fails.
Personally Pratt is gentle, lovable
sort of an individual. The reporters.
and the policemen all like him, and
his men look upon him as soldiers Of
ten regard a great general, with love
and reverence. Forty-two years old.
in perfect health, energetic, vivacious.
eloquent, persuasive, this describes
Pratt the Strike Leader. To him the
labor union is the symbol of justice
and peace He believes in industriai
Justice for the good not only OF the
workingman, but of the community.
''This country needs union condi-
tions,' he declares. For it's good il
needs them Take motormen, for iI'-
stance. They are not the same un-
skilled men the companies used to
employ to drive horse cars. Any kind
of a truckman served then. Now a
motorman on city line needs to be
almost as highly skilled as a 1ocomo-
tive engineer
The union and living wages for
workingmen is as far as Pratt's phil
osophy reaches, as yet. He Is not
Socialist, he has no dream of forr.-
ing labor party, or evea OF occupy
ing high office in the American Fec
Grafton of Labor. He wants to orga-
nize and he wants to get better con-
ditions for street car employees. "No
town in the country is safe from
me-" he has said, unless the car
men are paid twenty-five cents an
hour for nine-hour day" The aver
age wage today is considerably less
than twenty cents an hour.