Atlanta Georgian. [volume] (Atlanta, Ga.) 1912-1939, 1913-06-25
)VERNOR IN HIS FAREWELL MESSAGE ASSALS LABOR UNON{
ASKED FOR GOOD ROADS BOAR[

the same union on other companies are
assessed to support the strikers until the
strike is ended. If this be true. the or
| ganizatton in question could assess one
tenth or one-fortieth Of the amount and
employ counsel to take the cause Of the
controversy into court and could have
justice secured without damaging any OF
! the interests of the public.
! Or, IL the strikers are not thus sup
ported by their brother members, they
could assess themselves a sum insigniti-
cant beside the gross amount Of wages
lost during the period of the strike and
could have their case adjudicated in the
courts without inflicttng damage upon
the unoffending public.
In either case they would go before
judges and juries of their fellow citi-
zens in precisely the same manner as
| every other one is required and COM
| PEELED to do. and it is impossible for all
| other classes to concede that the mem
bers of labor unions have any prefer
entail privileges suggesting, II not &C
tuatly applying the process Of anarchy
when they-the masses-are required to
submit to the process Of law
Justice Not Measured by Votes.
The mere fact that the laborers on
| a public service utility or in factory
| have more votes than the owners Of
| these properties have, has no bearing on
| the legal status of the case. Justice is
| not measured by the number of votes
| any more than by the weight of dol
| lars. Each party is under the law. Each
is entitled to the protection Of its own
| rights in court. Neither Is entitled to
| interfere with the rights Of the other
/ either in court or out of court.
II should be further borne in mind in
| this connection that ii is primarily the
| poor people who are subjected to incon-
| venience and damage by the acts of
| strikers. In Augusta for example, the
| rich could use their own conyeyances
| or hire others for the purpose of com
| ing into town and going out to their
| homes, but the poorer classes in some
| instances were compelled to walk two
| miles each way to reach their places
| Of employment and to return home
| whereas, had these striking employees
| Of the street car company abstained
| from the unlawful acts they committed
| in preventing the operation of that pub
| C utility, these laborers in the humber
ranks of life could have come from and
| returned to their homes at trifing cost
| And the poorer people at the stations
| on the Georgia Railroad were subjected
at many points, to great privations
which the rich were able to protect
| themselves against
Therefore, in such cases It is the
| striker, who. in his blind recklessness.
outs his feet in the bread tray of the
DOR man and interferes with or de
| prives him of the right to liVe-the
cardinal right of humanity.
| Public Has Rights.
Summing up the status of strike
| by employees on a public service cor
/
| here are more than two parties to such
| stTikes. There is third party, the
| public, which is subjected to unmerited
| and unnecessary inconvenience and loss.
| And above all, there is a fourth party.
| viz, the State, whose Constitution the
= strikers have ignored and whose laws
| they have trampled under foot Con-
corning this fourth, and greatest, party,
| / will add:
The criss which a strike on a public
| service corporation brings upon the
masses of the people is not only a men
| ace to their power to procure the neces-
| stiles of life. but is also a challenge
| to the very sovereignty of the State in
| that it arrogates to itself the power to
/ prevent the railroads from performing
| the special functions for which the State
| granted their charters, viz, those Of
being common carriers Of persons and
| property.
| than the power of the State herself. and
that power holds mastery over and
| gives direction to every other power
which she permits within her borders.
whenever She finds it needful to exert
| them. She eXacts allegiance and will
not divide il. She ordains one process
for all, and holds any rival process as
| rebellion. She is no respecter OF persons
| in the enforcement of her laws.
state Greater Than Man.
| II is needless then to say that the
State would not permit the manage
| menI 10 smut DOWN Lle operation OF q
street car line or q railroad. II is man
| ifest therefore, that the acts Of the en-
| ployees in preventing such operation is
| equally indefensible, equally condemna-
| BILE, and that they should be just as
| infiexbly held accountable to the laws
| of the State. No man, no combination
of men, is greater than the State and
her laws.
! / have stressed the views herein ad-
vanced because the object lessons given
by the striking employees of the street
car company in Augusta and of the
| Georgia Railroad have been a practical
service of notice by the labor union to
| the State OF Georgia that its law with
| in her borders is greater than her law;
| that the allegiance of Its members TO II
4 is more binding than the allegiance they
owe to her.
The Executive Office has not made
] this issue; the State of Georgia has not
and recklessly thrown down the gaunt-
| let. The State, therefore. can not shrink
| from her duty to her Constitution and
| her people.
Public Welfare Threatened.
| 1t is a matter Of current note that
the power of the labor union to hurt
| the general public and to terrorize
| public men anxious to retain offices of
| honor and trust has been found in the
| fact that in several communities ii votes
| sOltdly in blocks of scores or hundreds
| for those who cater to it and against
| those who refuse to bow to its demands;
but / call your attention to the fact
| that, besides multitudes in the cities
and towns whose interests are leopard
| lied by its eXactions. there are upward
| of 200 900 voters in the rural portions of
| this State whose welfare can only be
| protected by holding the members Of
| the labor union to the same non interior
| ence with the rights of others and the
| same accountability to law which they
admit as governing themselves They
| will certainly claim that the labor union
men, individually and collectively, are
| no better and have no greater rights
| than they.
l will add that it is no answer at all to
| say that labor can not get its rights
| in any other way than by a strike and
| boycott. The courts are as open to the
| labor union man as to the farmer, and
| there is not the slightest reason why the
latter should be required to settle his
difference in the States way, which in
jures no third party, and that the labor
union man be left free to damage every
body else while settling his difference
| by a strike.
He, therefore who would remain in
public life would do well to merit the
approval of those myriads of -abid-
ing and peaceloving citizens beside
whose numbers the labor unions is
trifie
Calls Il Labor Trust"
Finally, on this subject, I will observe
| that the trend of the laws Of the present
| day is to the suppression of cOmbina-
| tions generally styled trusts. organized
| for the restraint Of trade. These trusts