Grand Forks herald. [volume] (Grand Forks, N.D.) 1916-1955, 1919-07-30
THE PUBLIC BE DAMNED

THE PUBLIC BE DAMNED
Fifteen thousand street railway employees in Chicago
have struck, and the entire local transportation of the
city is tied up. Not a wheel is turning on either surface
or elevated lines. and the entire population Of that great
city is dependent upon its own individual resources in
getting from place to place. Thousands Of persons en-
ployed in all lines Of activity in Chicago live miles away
from their working places. and are absolutely dependent
upon the street cars for getting to and from their work.
The result Of the traction tie-up will be entire suspension
of business in some industries and decentralization in all.
AS in all such cases there has been a dispute over
conditions OF service, hours of labor, and wages, on which
mands of the employees were held by the employers to be
unreasonable and impossible. The conditions which the
employers at the beginning desired to continue are de-
c1ared to be oppressive. Committees representing the two
groups have been at work for some time in the endeavor
to reach a basis of adjustment, and a compromise which
the employers would accept was regarded with favor by
representatives of the employees. AT the mass meeting
Of employees at which the decision to strike was reached
the representatives who had been in conference with the
other party never had a chance to report on the nego-
tiaions or to place the suggested plans before the mem
bers. The radical element took the meeting into their
own hands, and in a tumultuous session the men who had
in the negotiations were shouted down. In answer to the
statement from one Of these representatives. that a fight
pushed to extrernities would not be a fight against the
traction companies, but against the general public Of Chi
caso. there came from the floor loud shouts of the
public be damned"
That sentence has become historic. Uttered by a
Vanderbilt as an expression of his contempt for the pub
lie and his utter lack Of conception of any duty that he
owed to 1t, it has been used time and again to describe
the attitude of great. corporations which were managed
in Indifference to public rights and public interests. So
uttered at the beginning. and SO used in the succeeding
years, it has amounted to an indictment against the great
interest whose attitude is expressed, and there has been
almost universal condemnation of the adoption Of that
attitude by any concern whatever which had business re-
lations with the general public.
That expression Of contempt is as reprehensible COM
ing from the lips of a wage-earner as it was when uttered
by the millionaire who first used it. There is no differ
ence. The multi millionaire whose corporation exists to
serve the needs of the public and the man who stands at
a bench or pulls the throttle or punches tickets in the
employ of the same corporation stands on exactly the
same basis. Both are public servants. Both owe a duty
to the public and both are to be condemned without dis
tinction or favor for a disregard of the rights and welfare
OF the public which they are supposed to serve. There are
undoubtedly features connected with the Chicago traction
trouble upon which the general public is not competent to
pass. Such cases involve a number of technicalities and
only those who are thoroughly conversant with the busi-
ness from every angle can Judge intelligently on the mer-
its of such controversies. But there is one thing upon
which every man can judge, and that is the attitude of the
individual toward the public service. Before such
troubles as that now existing in Chicago can be settled
satisfactorily the control of affairs from either end must
pass from those who say the public be damned" into
the hands Of those who are actuated by that better spirit
which expressed in the words, the public be served"