Crossville chronicle. [volume] (Crossville, Tenn.) 1894-current, 1919-08-20
REVOLUTION BY ULTIMATUM.
The Destructive Altitude Of the Railroad
Brootherhoods Most Unjust.

The plan of the railroad brother
hoods for taking over the railroad pro-
perty of the country is straihgtout
adventure into Soviet economies. 1t
contemplates collective ownership, but
class operation and control, which IS
at the foundation of the Soviet system.
The American people, through their
Government, are to buy the raHroads
fro the private owners and turn
these properties over to the RAILROAD
employees to ma mage and operate. In
consideration of an investment OF ap-
proximately $40, 900, 900, 900 the Gov
eminent Is to appoint one-thlrd of the
directors, and the public is to share In
such savings in the cost of operation as
NAV remain after the employees have
paid themselves what they think their
services ought to be worth. The
spirit in which the programme Is put
forth NAV be inferred from state
ment made by b. nj. Jewell, Acting
President of the Railroad Employees
Department of TIE American Fedora
ton of Labor, in which he said that II
President Wilson's suggestion to Con-
cress was carried out 1--WE will tie up
the railroads so tight that they Will
never run again if that legislation is
passed." 1t might have been Trotzky
himself speaking to bourgeolsle that
had offered mild and academic obJec-
tlons to being despoiled.
Before any railroad plan can be
worked out, one highly essential fact
must be established-namely, whether
the sovereign power of the United
States is vested in government and the
American people or whether 1t IS
vested in the the railroad brother
hoods.
For three years now the brother
hoods have assumed that the sovereign
power was vested in them, and Con-
gress has provided them with excellent
reasons for that assumption. When
the railroad employees in the critical
period of the summer Of 1916 demanded
an eight-hour day and threatened q
general strike, President wilson sent
a message to Congress in which ne
urged that the eight-hour day be made
the basis of work and wages, but ne
made four other proposals. one OF
which called for
San amendment to the existing Fed
eral statute which provides Tor tue
mediation, Cancellation and arbitration
of such controversies as the present by
adding to it provision that IN case the
methods of accommodation now proVl-
ded for should fail, full public inves-
tigation of the merits Of every sucn
disuute should be instituted and com
pleted before strike or lockout may
be lawfully attempted.
Congress refused to enact this legls-
lation because the labor leaders OBJ
iected to 1t, and now we have sltua-
ton in which labor leader can threat
ell to "tie up the railroads SO tight
that they will never run again II
Congress presumes to pass an act TO
which the brotherhood autocracy o.
iects as unequal to its imperative de-
mands.
The railroad brotherhoods have en-
parked upon a policy that even the
most conservative of them must admit
is economically revolutionary. If ther
scheme of naturalization under class
control is to be carried out IN respect
to rairods, nobody can draw the line
where 1t shall stop until all industry is
under Soviet direction. Yet they are
not putting their programme out as a
matter to be discussed and deliberate
Iy considered by the American people.
They are trying to force the issue ana
bring about revolution by ultimatum.
In the last three years the railroad
employees have received hundreds OF
millions of dollars in wage increase for
which the general public is paying
As rewardd for its generosity the
country is to be taken by the throat
and choked into submission If the most
COMPLICATED economic issues that have
ever confronted it are not settled
forthwith If there is any difference
between that kind of arrogance and the
arrogance of the German General Stait
in July, 1914, we should like to know
what it IS.
The legislative branch of the United
States Goverenmvnt long ago degen-
Grated into Congress of towards. 1t