Americus times-recorder. [volume] (Americus, Ga.) 1891-current, 1913-06-26
Compulsory Arbitration Necessary.


Cured a strike by the employees of
the street car company in Augusta,
and another strike by certain en-
| ployes of the Georgia railroad, which
for number of days prevented the
public from having the benefit of the
operation of these common carriers.
By the census of 1910 the city of
Augusta had a population of 41,04O
! people and the counties served by the
Georgia railroad had an aggregate OF
5S2,1S2. These figures give an idea
of the widespread wrongswhich these
striking employees committed.
These two corporations were char
tered by the state for the purpose OF
conducting commerce and the carriage
of passengers. The primary object OF
their charters was service to the pub
lic. Consequently, when the charters
were granted and these roads were
built, a contract was virtually entered
into by the owners of these properties
and the state whereby the iorme
bound themselves to perform the d"
ties of common carriers for the pa
lie and the latter bound herself to
u! pue IemIoN e!5Io9D eq4 pus JoV,
protect them in the peaceable per
Torrance of those duties. Not che
word was sa in those charters 6 v
ing the owners the right to suspend
the operation of the roads to the detrl-
ment of public convenience, or giving
the employees the same right. So long,
therefore, as either of those COM
panies attempts to perform the duty it
assumed, the state is under Obligation
to use extreme force, if necessary, to
protect it in thus serving the public
Hence it necessarily follows that
any person or combination of persons
who obstructs, intimidates or other
wise prevents the operation of the
common carriers strikes blow at the
interests of the public and puts his or
their will in conflict with the man
date of the sovereign.
There is no escape, therefore, from
the conclusion that those employees of
the street car company in Augusta
and of the Georgia railroad put them
selves in a state of open rebellion to
the laws of Georgia. They ignored the
cardinal tent of republican govern
ment-viz: There shall be equal
rights to all, special Yiieges to
none"-and arrogated tok3hemselves
the exercise of special privileges for
settling their quarrels with their re-
spective arrangements at the expense
and serious inconvenience of the pub
lie, and in a manner which embodied
defiance of the law which requires all
dwellers in the state having differ
ences which they cannot peaceably adj
Just to submit them to the states
courts.
In considering the status of the pub
lie service corporations and their en-
ployes, there is one factor which can
not be ignored. This is embodied in
the following words found in the last
annual report of the railroad commits
sion of Georgia:
an 1908 the railroads operating in
Georgia employed in Georgia 34,8O9
persons; in 1912 they employed 49,
691.
1.-THE wages paid these 1851 en-
ployes in 1912 exceeded the wages
paid the 34,809 employees in 1908
! $5,771 ,10493 more than in 1908. This,
however, was to a larger number of
employees. The individual wage scales
show that, had the number of en-
ployes for 1912 been kept the same as
IN 1908, they are being paid $685.
725.21 more than in 1908.
an other words, the 34,809 en-
ployes in 1908 received 1868, 1881
more in 1912, which is an average in
crease to each railroad employee in
Georgia in 1912 over 1908 of more
ttan $105.00 per annum.
"The commission has taken ten
trunk line roads in the state-to-wit:
the Southern, the Seaboard, the At
lantic Coast Line, the Louisville &
Nashville, the Georgia Southern &
Florida, the Georgia railroad, the At
lanta & West Point, the Atlanta, Bir-
mingham & Atlantic, the Central of
Georgia and the Western & Atlantic
and their wage accounts show that
they paid in 1912 to the same num-
Der of employees as in 1908, in wages,
$2,604, 794.90 more than in 1908.
1.-THE individual wage scale further
shows that by far the largest increase
in wages has been paid to employees
belonging to labor unions, such as en-
gineers, firemen, conductors, train
hands, ETC."
In other words, while the average
increase to each of the 34,SO9 EN-
ployes in 1912 over 1908 was $105.OO
per annum, the average increase to
each member of labor union was
larger by far, in some instances,
doubtless, approximating $4,000 or
more.
Hence we are brought face to face
:, with the fact that these unions or
combinations of employees, not only
on public service corporations, but, as
is generally known, on practically all