The Dillon herald. [volume] (Dillon, S.C.) 1894-????, 1919-08-14
HEARS RUMBL|NG OF
INDUSTRIAL STORM
STRAWS SHOWING DIRECTION
OF WIND, SAYS GARRETSON.
Labor Not Seeking to Overthrow Gov
ernment, Demands Government
Act.

hCt.
Washington, Aug. 11-Nine-tenths
of the energies of labor leaders are
given to the job of sitting on the lid,
Austin B. Garrison, former head of
the Order of Railway Conductors, tes-
titled today before the House inter-
state commerce committee, which is
seeking to solve the problem of how
best to handle the railroads after the
war time period of federal control.
Sporadic strikes throughout the
country, Garretson said with great
earnestness, merely are straws which
show how the wind is blowing over
the sea of industrial unrest. Rum
blings heard in many quarters do not
mean he said, that laboring people
want to overthrow the government,
but indicate a demand that the gov
ernment function.
1t is largely in the power of Con-
gress, the witness declared, to allay
the feeling.
Action Necessary.
"But it can not be done by mac
tion," he shouted. Somehow the
American people are not prone always
to do today what may be done tomor-
row, unless an emergency forces us
to act, and then we break all rec
ords."
Describing himself as man who
had been pilloried by the press from
the Atlantic to the Pacific, Garretson
told the committee he had travelled a
long way to speak in behalf of the
Plumb plan which would give labor a
voice in the management Of railroads
the people would own. But he did not
regard the Plumb plan, he said, as
more than one factor in stilling the
spirit of the present day unrest, nor
did he think it would change human
nature or other things that can be
eliminated"
Unusual Attention.
II am not dreamer of dreams,'
he told the committee, which gave
unusual attention to his testimony,
for his appearance on the stand put
a new breath of life in the railroad
hearing, now approaching its second
month. The usual method of dealing
with witnesses was abandoned, large
ly at Garretson'5s request. He had
no statement in written form, when
he started to speak, as he expressed
it, he did not know where he would
stop, and for two hours he was SUBJ
jected to rapid. cross fire of ques-
tions from a dozen members and for
each of which he had a quick reply.
Mr.. Garretson, who had been wait
ing since early last week to be heard,
was called to the stand after Glenn
E. Plumb, the man who framed Or
ganized labor's bill, had concluded his
testimony.
Plumb Plan Limits.
There was no desire he said, to eX
tend the Plumb plan beyond those in
dustries in which men worked with
their hands. He wanted the men who
run the railroads to have voice in
their management; he wanted poll
tics eliminated and in the general dis
cussion of this last subject the wit
ness declared that there was no poll
tics in the action of the American
Federation of Labor in seeking to
have the Postmaster General remov-
ed, because, this view, he said, was
expressed by Republicans and Demo-
Gratis alike.
Admitting that the four great rail
way brotherhoods supported Presi-
dent Wilson in 1916, and smiling
throwing in the added information
that with all of my Republican af-
filliations am guilty, too, Mr.. Gar
rison insisted that was purely an act
of citizenship"
Wants Denial Recorded.
After the question of presidential
politics had been raised Mr.. Garrett
son said this might be his final ap-
pearance before congress, and for that
reason he wanted the record to carry
denial from him of reports, long cur
rent, that the brotherhoods with
gun in one hand and a stop watch in
the other" had held up Congress and
forced through the enactment of the
Adamson eight hour law.
There was no coercion Of Senators
or Representatives by the brother
hoods,' he shouted, pounding the Ia
BILE to emphasize the denial, "and l
challenge anybody to prove other
WISE"
Mr.. Garretson testified that he be-
lieved the interstate commerce COM
was free from politics and
that while the brotherhoods had an
other candidate for the office of direc-
or general, he doobted If their own
man would have gone as far as d.
rector General Hines in efforts to OBJ
tain successful operation of the prop
critics.