The Glenwood post., 1920-03-20
uac'e Tets Bed Tine Steties
Current Events For the Children
and 0rown-ups. Too
THE RAILROADS GO
BACK TO THEIR OWNERS

they had coaxed him to tell them an
other story, "you remember that
about month before last Christmas
told you about the Cummins Rail
road bill"
"Oh, I remember said Jack.
"Not long before that You told Ms
about the Plumb plan and how the
railroad men wanted the people to buy
the railroads and then run them their
own way"
Eyes, Jack, you have a good men,
ory, so I am not going back and ex-
plain what the original Cummins Bill,
said. Since that time there wa. an
other railroad bill written by mem
ber of the House of Representatives,
called the Esch bill. These two bills
were put together and, after lot of
discussing of the various thing, in
them, an agreement was reached and
the combined bill was passed. The re-
suit has been that at 1901 O'Clock OH
the morning of March ], the railroads
passed from the control of the govern
ment and were turned back to their
various owners, as they were before
the war. What I want to tell YOU
now, are some of the things which
those who voted for this bill believe
to be right and which 1 too believe to
be right.
"We should all be very happy that
the railroads are back in the hands
/ of their owners. For more than two
years these roads were all run by the
government under the direction of
what was known us the Railroad Ad-
ministratlon. That experience has had
one good effect, even though it has
been very, very expensive. 1t has
shown that government ownership or
control of the railroads is bad thing
and will not work. Mr. Gompers, pres
ldent of the American Federation OF
Labor, and other labor leaders made
an announcement through the papers
Just before congress voted on the bill
that those members who didn t vote
the way they wanted would be defeat
ed for re election. That is, they did
not want this bill passed But that
didn t worry the majority of the mem
berS of congress who voted for the
bill because they believed that the
welfare of their districts, their states
and the country could best be served
by the railroads under private owner
ship.''
Our teacher said today that tho
government owes the railroads lot of
money! said Ruth.
Eyes, Ruth" continued Uncle Ted,
Director General Lines, OF the Fail
road Administration has said that the
government owes the various rail
roads, S63G,000,000, which will have to
be paid this year out of the United
States treasury. This figure shows us
that during the two years or more
that the government has run the roads
|
100000 for the use Of the Rallroad
Administration. The poor management
hy the government and the waste and
extravaganza during this time makes
it all the harder to bear this bage
expenditure
''The labor men say that this BIZ is
4 Co., Al
true?''
"No, Jack, ] don t think Il is. /
know i couldn't agree with any bill
that was not fair to the railroad men
Some of my best friends and some of
the finest men ] know are working
for the railroads. j don't like to dis
agree with them, but l can t see a
thing i'll this law that is unfair to
them. One of the things they object
to is the fact that the public is repre-
sented on the labor board which is
created by this law. The parts of the
law which refer to labor are quite
plain and fair to me. 1t authorizes
railroads and their employees to cre-
ate adjustment boards where they can
settle disputes and disagreements. A
labor board is created with nine mem
bers to be appointed by the president
and confirmed, As are other appoint
ments by the senate, each member to
receive a salary Of 10000 year.
How will these men be selected y"
asked Jack.
'Three Of the members viii repre-
srni labor. These three are to be Sc
lotcd from list of six fur :. .het. by
the lnhur organizations. Three will