The producers news. [volume] (Plentywood, Mont.) 1918-1937, 1919-07-25

and Serious Economic Plight if
Lines are Given Back to Stockhold-
ers.-Workers Have Practicable
Plan for COntrol-Congress Con-
siders Bill to License Big Packers
and Prevent Food Monopcly-La-
Dor Unions of Southern State As
sail Burleson.
Washington, D. C.-Activity being
shown by railroad workers in clos
ing up their organized ranks is SYM
ptomatic of the approaching crisis
in the transportation world. The pri-
vate railroad corporations are bank
rupt That is no longer a secret at
Washington. To pull them out of
the bog means either that they must
be subsidized out of the public treas
ury, or that the employees and trav-
cling public must be fearfully -ex-
plotted during the next generation.
The railroad workers are deter
mined to resist exploitation. They
will not tolerate reduction in wages
at least while the cost Of living re-
mains at its present inflated level
and there is no reasonable prospect
that the price Of necessities will come
down soon. There is the deepest sig
niefcance in the coming amalgama-
ton of the brotherhoods with the
American Federation of Labor. All
intelligent men and women among
the workers can see the storm COM
ing and are making ready to meet it.
A conservative United States sena-
tor, whose name has long been asso-
ciated with. railroad legislation, sums
up the outlook when he declares, in
private conversation:
"The railroads are overloaded with
water and waste. They must raise
their traffic rates with ever-increas-
ing frequency in order to pay their
honest bills and their dishonest divi-
dends. And when they increase their
rates they boost the cost of living on
the one hand and diminish their vol
ume of trade on the other. Within
a few months their finances are just
where they were before, while the
public has been driven farther along
the road of discomfort by the in
creased cost of living. l am despond-
ent about the outlook; and even if we
manage to save the railroads, all the
other basic industries are almost az
bad off. The coming year may FIND
America in the same economic ano
industrial plight that already prevails
in Europe"
Perhaps this senator is unduly pes
simistic; but it is hard to think sc
here in Washington, where the pri-
vate conversation of men is so dit.
ferent from the general air Of public
confidence in our postwar condition
and outlook.
WORKERS HAVE PLAN
The railroad brotherhoods are no
among the pessimists. They are to-
busy to be gloomy. They have gen
timely constructive plan for solving
the transportation problem-the onl.
constructive plan that has appeared
1t need not be described again a
length. The idea is that the govern
ment shall first squeeze the water on
oil railroad valuation, purchase tn
line by a bond issue, and then ente
into contract with the organize
workers to operate the roads. Glen
Z. Plumb has worked out the lega
details of the scheme and is bus
pushing it from his headquarters /
washington.
Members of congress who are stl
too timid to commit themselves o
the question confess that the Plum
plan is the sanest that has been pre-
~
the workers to apply common sens
to situation which has been chal
acterized for half a century by puoh
neglect and private cupidity. 1t aim
to roll a burden off the peoples bac
and establish the railroads permar
entity on a basis of service. Ever
alternative plan entails either a dlre'
increase in the cost of llvlng-Whlc
the organized workers declare the
will not tolerate-or a direct cut
wages which they will resent eve
quicker. 1t is typical of the so-calle
public" that it remains inert al
voiceless even now when a Crisis
upon the country.
This week witnessed a conferen'
in Washington of the spokesman
some Is smaller organizations
railroad workers, whose amblrlo'
aim is to effect an amalgamatlon
all railroad employees within sing
organization. This phase of the e
fort originated in May when the Y
der of Railway Station Agents M
herc and authorized their presldesII
Earl H. Morton to confer with u
other bodies. The present meeting
the Continental hotel was meant to
entirely private, and Mr.. Morton e
pressed to your correspondent his
gret that publicity had been given
the movement before any DENIM
progress could be reported. Preslde
Morton is one of those who sees Tn
the whole railroad issue will either
adjusted along the lines indicated
organized labor or permitted 10 or
into a fatal muddle.
PACKERS BILL UP
Senator Kenyon and Represen'
tive Anderson have introduced w
measures for the control OF the pae
ing industry for which support Is )
licited from workers in that maj
try particularly, and from the C C
Stunning public generally. Inc %
=. axvofu dealer