Harrisburg telegraph. [volume] (Harrisburg, Pa.) 1879-1948, 1916-08-05
Thorpe Wants Mayor to
Lock Up Officials Till
Settlement Is Reached

NHen the Commlttee OF trolleynen
headed by Vice. President ]. ]. Thorpe
called upon Mayor E. S. Meals this
morning to present the gigantic jitney
petition Mr.. Thorpe said he asked the
city's executive to lock up the off,
Gals of the traction company and
the committee from the strikers
union together and keep them locked
up until the controversy was settled"
But" said Thorpe, the Mayor
said such a thing couldn't be done in
Pennsylvania. 1t has been done in
Pittsburgh, however, anu 1t has been
done in Chicago, in several towns IN
South Carolina and in other places.
we got little encouragement from
the Mayor on the jitney proposition"
continued Mr.. Thorpe He said that
petition meant little, that one could
get petition to hang man. We asked
him to use his eorts to bring about
an amicable settlement of this con-
troversy and showed that the same
request had been signeo py thousands
of Harrisburg folks, including many
businessmen. If he couldn't use his
good offices toward effecting a settle
ment we asked him-as the petition
set forth-not to restrict the jitneys.
But as said we got little encour-
agement.
Furthermore" continued the labor
leader, I'VE asked the Mayor to give
Alderman James 3. Deshong a vaca-
ton. We think he has been too dras-
tic with the working man and we
asked that inaSmuch as his month
had expired and that he is TO be given
another month because of his attitude
toward the laboring man, that some
one else be put in his place. The
Mayor told us that it didn't matter
who was put in, that he would listen
to the District Attorney" Then, l
said, declared Mr.. Thorpe, - the Dis
trict Attorneys Office evidently die
tates the Police Department opera
tions.
In further statement dealing with
THE Railways Company's yarns" Mr..
Thorpe issued the following:
The funny stuff the Harrisburg
the papers is highly amusing to any
one with half a thought in his or her
head.
He announces the fact that the
men now employed on the cars are
Harrisburg citizens and not strike
brea kers. The fact is, the imported
the strike of the carmen, is not a bit
more despisable than the fellows who
remained on the job as company
suckers to broak the strike that came
about because of the bad treatment to
them as well as to the strikers, And
more despisable still are the men who,
after throwing down the gauge OF bat
tie to the company, slipped back to
work like the thief in the night. Not
withstanding all the arguments of Mr..
Musser, a strike breaker is a strike
breaker, and, consequently, dis
reputable character, whether he be a
Harrisburg citizen or a citizen of New
York, or New Jersey. 1t is the act
that stigmatizes the man and not the
locality from which he comes.
I'VE are given the same old story
about the man from afar belonging TO
an allen organization who came to
Harrisburg to disturb the peace of the
company that regards its employees as
less than human, treats them with
insolence and cruelty. OF course, the
New Jersey strike breakers are not
men from an allen organization. No,
no. They are gentlemen, so long as
they do the dirty work of the COM
pany by trying to starve citizens of
| Harrisburg into subjection to a COM
| bination of profit-hunting employers,
who care neither for public accommo-
dation nor justice so long as pockets
can be filled by the neglect of both.
The best evidence of the unpopularity
of the company and its stockholders
is seen in the empty cars patrolling
our streets like lost souls on the way
to damnation.
I'VE are not told of the intolerable
treatment extended to Harrisburg citi-
zens' before the strike. Not a word
about bringing disease on the men for
lack of comfort stations, so rapidly
supplied when public attention was
called to the negligence of the COM
pany in this respect. Not word about
suspending a man from employment
because he stayed off day, beside the
| bedside of a sick wife, by the doctor S
orders. Oh. no! This is all to be for
gotten now. Not a word about the
| devilish slave driving practices that
have prevailed. The company is now
| a paragon of virtue, its cars now being
operated by Harrisburg strike break
ers' What a glorious boast! Harris
burg citizens as Harrisburg strike
breakers! Milk and honey for them,
| to-day. When the strike is over the
company will bring them, too. down
| to the same miserable conditions as
prevailed before the strike.
Just now tho incompetent Musser
is managerially sick and we all re-
member that
'"When the devil was sick, the devil a
monk would be,
When the devil was we'll, the devil q
Enonk was he's"