New-York tribune. [volume] (New York [N.Y.]) 1866-1924, 1919-02-16
Travelling Public Irritated

Gan the -othsx important issue in Mis-
s6St glls xaiisssds, be similarly classified?
Essentially 1t can. AS for the verdict of
the state On governmental operation, it is
thus far unquestionably thumbs down.
The railroads alone sitting back and
not worrying. The travelling public is
vexed and irritated. Rates are high, train
service has been cut, food on diners is poor
and the chief bugbear of all government
service, the Indifference of the employees, is
counting with deadly effect. This is
much larger issue here than in the East,
for in the Middle West everybody travels
and a nights run is the minimum jaunt,
about the equivalent of trip to a suburb
for dweller on Manhattan Island The
Middle West has, perhaps, been overbuilt
in respect to railroads, but the competition
has made for wonderful service, the best
of meals on dining cars, the utmost cour-
tesy by ticket agents, and so on. Now that
has been reduced to a dead level of govern
mental uniformity.
The same table d'hote meal is served on
all trains for luncheon and dinner through
out q whole week, and so, on a long jour
ney, you get it over and over There is
much told story of traveller bound east
from st. Louis, who had one of these menu
cards placed before him for luncheon. II
don't like either of these things" he said;
what else can 1 have?" Sorry, sir, but
there's nothing else" said the waiter.
"Well, won't eat any lunch-I'll wait for
dinner" Sorry, sir, but it'll be the same
for dinner" Damn it, l ought to have
waited and started tomorrow" "It's the
l..
started for Denver" otis the same there.
sir"
AS war measure the Middle West was
willing to swallow anything. But when the
government proposed to make government
operation last for five years, all the latent
opposition came to the surface. Govern
ment operation is such red rag in Mis-
souri, to-day that every one snorts at the
suggestion of Mr.. McAdoo for the Presi-
dency, or those who genuinely admire him
admit with regret that the railroad stu
alton has eliminated him. The whole labor
policy of the Administration, with its large
wage increases to special groups, seems to
have developed far more antagonism than
it has support. Perhaps Mssouri's re-
action to this gives the real answer to
those radicals who are always hoping to
unite the farms and the laborers on the
basis of their grievances. At some point
their discontents inevitably clash
Against Class Government
There is, therefore, this much of unity
running throughout the Missouri revolu-
ton 1t is, in various forms, a protest
against sectional or party or class appeal
by the Administration. The Southern
planter was coddled, and the wheat farmer
kicked. The Democratic party was upheld
as the trustee of American welfare, and
every independent voter rebelled The rail-
road employe and other special classes
of labor were favored at the expense of
the general public, and nobody was salts
fed. Opposition to the Presidents war
policies and peace policies seems relatively
uniformed in the Missouri mind as vet
Chiefly Missouri does not like sectional
or class government.
A word belongs here about the Bolshevik
menace. It's an exceptional business man
in Missouri who sees it as anything immi-
nent or grave. The general view is a
happy -go-lucky confidence in Americas
ability to handle things ~ they come
along" as one Of the largest employers of
labor west of the Mississippi put it. "Look
at Ole Hanson-that's the way" was an
other comment. sect the right man as