The Barre daily times. (Barre, Vt.) 1897-1959, 1919-05-15
RAILROAD MEN
ARE LOYAL
Have No Sympathy With
Doctrines Recently
Expounded
ARE 100 PER CENT
AMERICAN CITIZENS
Declares w. G. Lee, Presi-
dent Of Brotherhood
To-day

Brotherhood of Railroad Trainmen has
'no part or sympathy in any Of the plans
that pretend the hope of the world i
only to be found in its destruction" that
the organization il 200 per cent Amer.
| ican," and that it does not subscribe tc
any theory that proposes to throw every.
body into one common slough of de.
spondency for the purpose Of expert.
menting in the hope that out of this gen.
eral mental and physical misery an aver
age may come that viii bring about a
general better condition of affairs for a
majority Of the people" is the railroad
mems attitude toward government as ex.
| pressed by w G. Lee, president Of the
Brotherhood of Railroad Trainmen, in
! his address before the convention here
| to-day.
| I'VE stand for no such doctrine of de.
| struetion and ruin; we believe in the
government Of our representative nations
i and stand as 100 per cent Americans
ready to defend our principles and our
| faith he declared
/ As proof of the brotherhood's loyalty
and Americanism. he said 10000 mem.
bers Of the organization took their places
| willingly in the ranks of armies and
almost 200 of them "are sleeping in the
soil Of France in proof Of their loyalty
and devotion to the land they called their
Fown."
In referring to the brotherhood, Mr.
Lee at all times included the member
ship in Canada as we'll as in the United
| States.
There are labor organizations" Mr..
| Lee continued, that seek refuge under
the banner Of labor unionism that prop
/ erly have no right to claim aifiliation
with labor organizations, and in proof
Of this is their readiness to raise the red
| flag Of anarchy and declare for the revo-
luton Of every opportunity. | want to
| assure you that the Brotherhood of Rail
road Trainmen has neither part nor pur-
/ pose in any scheme that proposes to de-
! stroy this government or take from any
citizen either privilege or property that
| properly belongs to him; we have no
| sympathy with any plan that finds its
/ basic purpose in the destruction of gov
eminent or the organized forms of law
and order; we do not subscribe to any
propaganda tha@proposes policy of de-
struction TO find in common basis OF
misery its expected hopes for reeonstruc-
| ton.
I'VE have not lost faith in our govern
ment nor in our fellowmen; we know
| that we have in our keeping the contin-
uity OF our government, the perpetuation
| of our common welfare and we believe
/ that 1t is not necessary TO transplant
anarchy, or an autoeratic government by
/ a few selfseleeted rulers to preside over
| the destinies of a free.born American
/ people.
The very assumption of power or au-
| tocracy established by those who have
superseded former governments gives
truth to the assertion that in whatever
changes Of this kind have been made, one
autocraey has succeeded in which the
last condition of the people was worse
than the first, and the very fact that a
| few assume to control the welfare and
the destiHies of the man sets at naught
all of their pretenses to common rule,
by the common people, for the common
people"
Mr. Lee said the organization purposes
to continue along the same lines as in
the past and added;
Eve believe in our government. we be-
lieve in the expressions Of our president
and all the other authorities of the gov
eminent who have declared emphatically
their belief that the American workman
is entitled to a wage that will insure a
reasonably decent standard of living
We propose to direct our energies toward
getting that decent standard Of living
and we propose TO do it along orderly
and legal lines, wholly within our rights
as American citizens and in keeping with
our belief that the workman is worthy
of his hire"
Mr. Lee discussed the insurance plan
Of the organization, saying S35,000,0d0 in
death and disability claims have been
paid to $4,000 in the past IS years. Dur
ing the last year, he said, S3,000000 had
been paid due to demands oceasioned by
the war and pestilenee He declared the
organization, which comprises $4,000
members, has been largely responsible
for many of the labor laws enacted by
the federal and state governments.