The Denison review. [volume] (Denison, Iowa) 1867-current, 1919-08-27

the railroads do. Whenever the men
belonging to the railroad brotherhoods
want more money or shorter hours
they tell the railroad heads. If they
|don't get what they want they have
what is called a strike. That is, they
all refuse to work until they get what
they are asking for. Sometimes men
from the heads of the railroads and
|men from the railroad brotherhoods
get together and make plan that
suits everybody and then the men go
back to work.
Daddy says these railroad heads
didn't have much to say during the
war;" interrupted Jack. ...s ~
mo, during the war the government
ran the railroads and will continue to
run them for some time or until the
president says otherwise. When the
government first started running the
the roads President Wilson put Mr..
IMcAdoo, who was secretary OF the
treasury, at the head Of all the rail-
roads of the country. That is one
reason there is trouble now. You see,
during the war we had to move our
soldiers and food just as fast as pos
sfble. President Wilson thought the
best way was to have the government
do it. Mr.. McAdoo had SO much to do
already that he couldn't worry much
about the railroads. Whenever the
railroad workers wanted more money
he let them have it without any ques-
ton. He didn't want any strikes be-
cause it would look bad for him. But
because he let them have their way
during the war, whether it was right
or wrong, these men now want the
government to buy the railroads for
them so they can get all they want
and just kick the railroad heads out
without asking them whether they
want to go or not" F,7-t II
81 dom think that's nice,' said Ruth
4 ''Not very, replied Uncel Ted. ''Now
here's what the railroad men want our
congress in Washington to do. They
want law passed that was written by
one of their own men, a man named
eileen E. Plumb, that would cause a
new company to be formed to run all
the railroads in the United States. It
is called the Plumb plan because Mr..
Plumb wrote it. They want the gov
eminent to buy the railroads and then
turn them over to the railroad men to
run. They say that half of the money
made by running the roads under this
new plan would go into the treasury
at Washington, which means it would
go to the people of the country and
the other half woulc go to the railroad
men themselves. Just think Of that!
There are 100,000,000 people in the
United States and if such a law were
passed one-half Of the profits from the
railroads would have to be divided
among 100y000,0OO people while the
other half would go to the railroad
men, and there are only about 5,0OO,-
G0U OF them, even when you count each
railroad man as representing family
of five people"
. "You mean," said Jack, "that the
railroad men would run the railroads
with government money and that they
would get half of the money made and
that all the people of the country
whose money would help buy the
roads would have to divide up the 9TH
er half" -.
That's exactly it. And because
there are one hundred million people
In the United States and only five
million railroad people you see how
unfair the plan is Why, if such plan
we're allowed to exist each man be-
longing to the railroad brotherhoods
would get twenty times more of the
net earnings than any other citizen be-
sides getting his share as one Of the
Loo, 200, 600 citizens. The railroad men
might have some excuse for such a
plan if they were paying for the roads
but they demand that the government
buy them at once and let each one of
them make twenty times more money
but of them than any. other citizen.