The Bennington evening banner. (Bennington, Vt.) 19??-1961, 1919-12-29
WOOD ALCOHOL MIXER
/ IN FEAR OF LYNCF7ZNG
leads With Officers Not to Send Him to
Connecticut

punt CdpdClly lb DOulu 10 speak
and act for the community, against
any individual or class He is bound
to take his orders from us,--from tho
general public and not from any
single man or group Of men. If that
is so, he is not at liberty to belong to
any organization that can claim a
paramount allegiance, no nor even an
equal allegiance. No man can serve
two masters.
Every man who takes the Pres'den.
tial Office feels at once that his duty
to his count supersedes his duty to
his party. He is not the pres lent of
a party. he is the president of the ma
ton. Even SO the most ins gnifcant
public officer, il he is worthy of his
badge, recognizes that his first duty
is TO the public, whose symbol he
wears. But if certain of our public
servants,-if mail carriers, iremen,
policemen and the Ike, can band to-
gether and use the positions they hold
as the means of controlling public ac-
ton, then so can all our public Sc
wants; and they can seize the oppor-
tunity to leave the service in n body.
and leave it when the public need is
greatest, or they can hold out
threat to do so, for the sake of fore
ing the public to do their WI.
Firemen can do it in the face of
conilagration. Policemen can do it
in the midst of riot. Is that right?
Can that be tolerated? Yet need
not remind you of what happened in
liverpool a short time ago when the
mob swept through the streets and
w.ecked the stores. while the police
stood by and watched 1t; nor of what
has happened more lately in Chicago.
in Montreal, in Boston
/ hope no one who hears me has
any prejudice against labor union'sm
in Itself | am sure that have none.
Any one who has studied with much
care the history of labor's struggles
in Great Britain and the United
States will cheerfully admit the vast
iamount Of good the unions have ac-
complished. They have succeeded.
and sometimes against fearful odds.
in Wrestling from the greedy hands Of
richer classes fairer portion of the
products of their toll, and more whole
scme ways of life for themselves and
for their children. We all rejoice in
that.
There was time in England when
even TO combine to raise wages was
accounted crime Men were con.
yicted and transported for such acts.
The people of this country have glad
| ly recognized the right of all who la
Dor in private enterprises TO unite in
their own interest,-tO stand together
with the whole strength of a united
front, in order to secure, by fair bar
gaining, all the employer can afford
to pay. But never until now have the
! people been asked to acknowledge
this, that their own servants, the ser.
wants Of the public. might be brought
under the dominion OF any union ex-
cept the Union of these United States.
II labor unionism has really reached
the point where It is going to demand
that 1t Is time TO call halt II Is
time to look about us and see where
We are going. and what it is that we
are called upon TO yield. If that Is
the issue it must be met, il must be
met unflnchingly, and the sooner It Is
] AAANN h4lN uNAAti- lRuA liOiH tllOSb w no
are our servants in the strictest
sense, to those who run the railroads,
whether. under government operation
or not is only STEP and that step is
not long one, 1t is no less neces-
sary that the transportation business
of the country should be done than
than that the government itself
should function.
See what we have come to! We
have recognized tn right of labor to
unite. We have recognized its right
to strike at any moment and with all
tits power. We have recogn 'zed tn s
right even in those who are doing
work on which the very life of the
public depends And labor. ayaiing
itself of this right, has organized its
workers until they can act as one per-
son, and now stand in posit on
where they can say: Hand over the
roads to us; let us fix our own wages,
or we WI leave you in the lurch. We
propose to have what We con slider is
our due or you must take the chance
Of ruin to the country and starvation
to the people" To such pass have
we been brought by treating as II they
were not publ c servants, but only en-
ployees in private business, the men
upon whose faithful loyal service the
very existence of the community de-
pends.
What is the way out? The way out
is to retrace our steps and recognize
the fact The fact is that the men
who engage in service like that are
mot private employees, but public SER
wants. To use an express sion that so
cialists admire they are Soldiers of
the Common Good. And they have
no more right to strike than any
other soldier has. That is what is
right in the moral sense; 1t must be
made the test of what Is right in the
legal sense. The law must be so
changed that when men engage in a
service of that character 1t shall be a
crime to strike.
1t shall be as fragrant a breach OF
duty as for soldiers to throw down
their arms on the lring line. but is
not that slayeiy?" YOU ask, How
can a man be compelled to stay and