The Connecticut labor press., 1919-09-20

What would be left a workingnan,
 under the provisions of the Cunmins bill, above quoted? The final clause of the provision is an empty promise If | two or more men quit work under any
 excuse, it could be held that they were
 interfering with interstate commerce. l The provision simply means that under
 1t men i'll the railroad employ would no
 longer be free to quit their jobs; they would work in economic serfdom sub l ject to the conditions imposed by the adjustment boards5 or, if two or more | of them quit, they would be criminals, and the police and the troops, the courts and the jails, can be used against them. - "A law such as this would spell the end of labor organizations in America l Is this the intent of the provision? Does Congress, at the behest of the a1ormed business system, propose to try to break lip the organizations of labor through out the country? Is it decided that the ! time has come to make this final fight :? These are questions which demand an ! answer. Every workingrnan i'll the land IS asking them as he reads the news papers. In his heart he knows that to enact this law would spell more than the death of trade unionism. It would spell the birth of revolution.
 This is not threat, but merely statement of obvious fact The real threat comes from the other side against labor, to remove from it's hands the only weapon by means of which it has built up and maintained it's organ izations, and against the public, to throw the country into a state of confusion and violence, Labor alone, i'll this rail road crisis, has been thinking of the :o 1oL 21o holds the public interest to be primary been dictated by selfish motives This final proposal is cynica11y disregardfu1 of the public welfare.
 ''As representative of the IA organ nations comprising the organized rail way employees of America, we beg Congress most earnestly to consider this situation on the basis of its true values. We feel it to be our duty as American citizens to lay before the people still another phase of the question, which may have escaped the attention of Con- gress in the pressure of its 1abors but which, nevertheless, is of the utmost importance from the standpoint of the men concerned.
 '"Let us speak directly from this standpoint. The American workingrnan IS d1I 1llUCpCIIuSlll SlllZSll O4 d 1lC 1C- public. He believes in the Constitution of the United States, and in our present representative form of government. He believes that this government is the servant of the people. He knows that it will not produce justice auto r1a a.'cal1y but only through the eternal vigilance of its citizenry. He believes in the con sent of the governed in industry as well as i'll politics.
 Over two million men of this stamp have advanced in Congress a plan for the solution of the railroad problem. Their plan is comprehensive and con- structive. They have engaged able counsel to represent them. They have resolved to avail themselves of every possible channel of the government to further their plan and to win hearing for it before the bar of public opinion. They have proposed no extra-constitu- tional methods. They want the people to know the facts, and to vote upon the issue. They believe that our present institution of government offers every necessary means to this end"