Evening star. [volume] (Washington, D.C.) 1854-1972, 1916-06-25

at other things from the age of thir-
teen.
'I got place as an apprentice" he
told the writer lin the Carbonate
shops of the Delaware and Hudson
railway. In those days machinists were
what they claimed to be.
"a man so represented himself re-
Gently at an establishment where I am
acquainted He had worked, he said.
in large automobile factory. AT
what" he was asked. I was nut NO
ST. he answered confidently, meaning
that he screwed a certain nut to each
automobile as it passed, In the course
of it's fabrication, the spot where he
was stationed.
"In 1875. when / was twenty-six
years old, and an employe at the Cliff
locomotive works. / finished all of the
guides, rods and cross-heads, being the
part of the machinery that is visible.
three engines which were to be ex-
hibited at the centennial exposition in
Philadelphia. | gave the locomotives
what | called a dull finish, doing every
bit of the work of polishing with my
bare hands.
Il was proud of those three locomo-
tives, but l got crazy over Peter cooper
and Sam Cary, who ran for President
and Vice President on the greenback
ticket, and l didn't talk so much about
the locomotives as / did about politics.
/ pitied Rutherford b. Hayes and Sam
uel J. Tilden. because both, according
to my figures and vision, were to be de-
feated disgracefully by an awakened
electorate.
The morning after election. learned
that Cooper and Cary had polled but
four votes in my own ward. The re-
naming 396 votes had gone to Hayes
or Tilden. AS we had a greenback club
of $50 members, I concluded that the
ca ndidates of the common people had
been shamefully cheated. And such
was the fact.
The following year, 1877, I managed
the soft money and labor campaign in
Luzerne county. All of our candidates
were workingmen. We took measures
to prevent a repetition OF the infamous
frauds, as we called them, against
Peter Cooper and Sam Cary. friends OF
the people and peerless financiers.
Ballots for the different voting DIS
tricts were made into bundles at my
house. Our men distributed them IN
and out of the mountains on foot. L
walked to wilkes Barre. nineteen miles
distant One hundred of us watched
the ballot boxes day and night, after
election. and until they were opened
and the votes counted. man attempt
ed to steal them, but We caught MIN.
If it We're not for your family we told
him, you would be lynched right Off
$50 elected our ticket. The next
year was chosen mayor of Scranton. L
believed in cooperation then and 1 be-
lieve in ii now. Cooperation, however.
must be brought about gradually from
the bottom up and not from the top
down. Begun modestly and prudently
it will succeed. Labor has tried it. but
the start was too big and failure was
the result.
Everything must grow from the
ground. Capital began in that way.
The great corporations were once
small and scattered partnerships. La
Dor and capital are slowly accepting
the cooperative principle, and / look
forward to the time when our fac
tories, mills. mines and railways shall
be owned Jointly by workingmen and
the class we now call capitalists. That
would not be socialism, because it
would be safer, sounder and better
than would be the ownership OF
everything in common"
= Copyright. 1915. l.. james B. Mcrrow.)