New Britain herald., 1919-08-09
RAILROAD MEN ARE
 NOT BLUFFING NOW
Railway Age Magazine Says Men Are Ready for General Strike

That the leaders of the railroad la
 Dor brotherhoods "arc fully prepared
 to call a general railroad strike for the
 purpose of forcing government oWner-
 ship and employees management of
 the railroads upon the American peO-
 ple,' is the opinion expressed by the
 Railway Age in an editorial in it's cur
 rent issue. ""The railroad labor lead-
 CTS are plainly trying to create labor
 situation which will convince the pub
 He and congress that a return to pr-
 Vate operation on January 1, as an- s nounced by the president is imprac- tlcal' the Railway Age says, and 1t s IS beyond serious question that they !, are prepared to take the same steps to 5g force congress to adopt the Plumb plan of government ownership that ! they took to force congress to pass the ! Adamson act
 There have been sinister rumors Tor several weeks that the leaders of the labor brOtherhOOdS were quietly
 preparing, first. to prevent the return
 or the railroads to private operation,
 and then to force government OWner- ship and employees management. The
 shop crafts and Brotherhood of Rail
 way Trainmen already have given mo-
 uce that they will strike unless de- i. mands which they have presented to
 tic railroad administration are favor
 ably acted upon, and several serious
 strikes of shop employees already have
 occurred. Among the most ominous
 signs are statements which are being
 made by labor leaders. W. G. Lee,
 president of the Brotherhood of Rail-
 way Trainmen, said before the board
 of railway wages and working condi-
 tions in Washington last week: The war is over, but peace is not before us,
 or am poor prophet. We are near
 CT war today, ] believe, than when the ;. kaiser threw down the gauntlet. l..
 E. Shepard, acting head of the Order
 of Railway Conductors, also said:
 They tell us that the railroads are go-
 ing back in January, but mark this
 prediction: While I am not a prophet
 or a son of a prophet, they will not go back January l. Warren $. Stone,
 grand chief of the Brotherhood of To-
 comotive Engineers, was quoted in a
 newspaper interview as having said
 regarding the agitation for the em-
 ployes plan of government ownership:
 We vii! go far enough to win, and we are going to win He was asked:
 What if the roads are turned back to 5 their oWnerS?' He replied: If they should be, they wouldn't stay there long, and it is not absolutely sure that they will be turned back by next Jan uary.'
 Three years ago the country was given an example of what MT. Stone and his associates mean when they say We will go far enough to win Declining to submit their basic eight , hour day demand to arbitration Tn any form, the Big Four brotherhoods frightened congress into passing the Adamson law by issuing an order for ! a tie-up of all the railroads of the < United States and refusing to with s draw it until congress passed the legis- s lation that they wanted. The man 5 who doubts that the nation is going, \ within the next few months, to be 7 brought face to face with a similar , crisis is blind.
 Do the 110, 0,0O0,0O0 people of the United States, of whom at least 80 { per cent are opposed to government ownership and favor a return of the . railroads to operation by the com { panies, intend to let the labor leaders, @ by threatening or calling strikes, force the tax paying public to buy the rail- roads and assume complete responsi- . bility for their financial results, and . IuSHs aIOFCe the puD1C to turn the railroads over to the employees to manage? If the public doesn't intend to submit to this, it must begin very soon to manifest it's purpose to the president and the congress of the 1 United States and to demand that | they adopt effective measures for the public's protection. Tt is easy to sympathize with the complaint of the employees that the 1 benefit of the billion-dollar a year 1 advance in wages which has been l given them under government opera l tion has been nullif1ed by the increase 1 in the cost of living. The real ques- l ton, however is whether the railway l employees are better entitled to fur ! ther advances in wages than the pub l lie is to immunity from the increase in taxes or in freight and passenger | rates which a further advance in | wages would make necessary. The l claim made for the employees plan 1 of government ownership and en- 1 pIoyes' management that 1t would l stop increases in the general cost of |