Putnam patriot., 1919-09-05
From the Editer's Desk
The Strikers Mass Meeting


trio Company and the officials of thai
company, there probably is something
favorable to be SAID for tine men ant
the position they have adopted. i
was Benjamin Franklin who caustic
ally remarked that every stone wal
has two sides. But granting that tn,
men are in the right, and Dir. Perkins
is in the wrong, twhieh grant cannot
be made without a careful study By
unbiased parties) it must be admitted
that the representatives Of the TROLLEY
men are INDUCING in fanciful flight,
of imagination. and are making state
nents that are as absurd as preposter.
Gus while they are presenting THEN
case.
At least that is the opinion to be
formed after attending one uf their
meetings. such as was held last week
in the Empire theatre Of this city
And not only were some Of the state
ments made absurd, but so much mud
was slunR that one felt the need of a
bath the minute the meeting had ad
journed. Mr.. Perkins in particular
was the target of the speakers ora
torieal darts and the "scribes'' and
newspapers were close seconds.
When an international officer
stands before an audience and says
that the employees side Of the story Is
not printed because the papers are
subsidized" he is making statement
that is as ludicrous as it is ridiculous
But the point AT issue is that such a
statement is not true. The papers
have printed the employees side of the
discussion On the afternoon of the
day the mass meeting in Putnam was
held The Patriot came out with two
column news story, with display head,
which was started upon the first page
of the paper This story began by
announcing the mass meeting, eontin-
ued by giving a brief statement of the
employees official statement, and con
cluded with this same statement in
entirety. What is more, the same
statement appeared several days pre-
viously in another paper circulating
in this district And in the face of
this the press is charged with one
sidedness, bias, and other unwhole-
some insinuations As matter of
fact The Patriot has received but one
communication from the strikers for
publication, and this was printed
just as would be a statement from Mr.
Perkins If that should be received at
this office. The Patriot will give as
much space to one side as to the 9th
er, il either cares to contribute-pro-
vided of course that what is contribu-
ted is not of undue length. Certainly
the cause of the trolley men cannot
In any way be favored if they go
about making such preposterous ut
teranees as the particular one above
mentioned.
The union officials seem prone to
indulge in fiery talk. In one breath
they charge that the men now operat
ing the cars are doing SO for what
they get out of 1t. One speaker bold
~ said that the company did not get
many of the fares that were collected
by these "strikebreakers whose arms
are not long enough to reach the reg
lister cord" He told of seeing one of
the present operatives. who told me
he came to Norwich penniless a few
days ago" with a roll of bills las bic
as this" And the speaker indicated
circle four inches in diameter, ant
insinuated that this roll was what i,
commonly called knock down mon
ey." And yet in the very next breath
the same speaker stated that no on,
was riding in the cars bat paid EN-
ployes of the women whC
had been hired for the purpose. Tn,
two tales don't jibe. IL none but
company employees are riding then tn,
much fun dividing the spoils," L
is to be doubted from start to finish il
the man who made these statement,
can prove them-he certainly did mo-
do so at Fridays meeting And they
are hard statements. injurious state
ments to be circulating freely at pub
lie mass meetings.
If the strikers have case to pre-
sent, they ought to present it in dig
nified and convincing fashion The,
only hurt their cause-if they hav,
one-by going about singing mud
talking cheaply. and saying a lot o
things that on the face are not to b
believed
Putnam's successful Welcome HON