Audubon Republican. [volume] (Audubon, Iowa) 1894-1925, 1920-12-16
TWO DEMANDS ARE MADE
Railroad Men Tell Congress That
There is Possibility of Trouble
Unless Demands Are Met.

/ There is Possibility of Trouble
Unless Demands Are Met.
On Monday of last week Mr.. War
rem S. Stone, head of the Brother
hood of Locomotive Engineers,
warned the country that unless
some plan is found for the adjust
ment of differences between rail-
roads and their employees, the "ul-
ira conservative" leaders of the rail-
road brotherhoods-Mr. Stone being
among the ultra conservatives"-
would cease their efforts to "hold
, the men in check"
| On Tuesday of the same week Mr.
Atterbury, vice-president in charge
of the Pennsylvania Railroad Oper-
ations department, warned the pub
lie that the objective of the railroad
labor union leaders was the nation
alization of all railroad operation,
the installation of the Plumb plan"
of purchasing the railroads with
public moneys and then handing
them over to the employees, togeth-
er with ultimate naturalization OF
all basic industries under the Soviet
administration of lone Big Union"
/ Mr.. Stones warning was served
on the United States Railway Board.
Mr.. Atterbury's was embodied in a
! statement submitted by the Penn
sylvania Railroad Company to the
National Industrial Conference
Board.
The attitude of Mr.. Stone and the
other labor leaders in their demand
on the United States Railway Labor
Board was precisely the same atti-
tude these same leaders took when
they served their time-limit ulti-
matum on the United States Con-
gress which resulted in abject leg
islative submission and the passage
of the Adamson law. Then, as now,
these leaders said they were power
less ''to hold the men any longer in
check" The Alternative of failure to
enact the law the labor unions then
demanded, was utter paralysis OF
the entire transportation system of
the country. Incidentally, of course,
there would have >ensued general
cessation of all industries, starva-
ton of great communities, hundreds
of thousands of people thrown out
of employment, with all the wide
spread misery, death even, which
necessarily would follow as collat-
eral incidents in case Congress elect
ed to pass laws on their merits in
stead of under the threat of delib-
erately precipitating anarchy.
The labor union leaders formal
notice of inability Ito hold the men
! in check any longer" means now ex-
actly what it meant when the stop
| watch time-limit order was served
on the American Congress. If it
means anything, ii means that I'M
! less the Railway Labor Board does
as the labor union leaders order it
! to do, the appalling disaster which
the cringing obedience of Congress
averted will be precipitated upon the
| country.
Now the demand which must be
| granted to save the country from
| this calamity, as Mr.. Atterbury sets
forth, is nothing more nor less than
a demand for the Capitalization of
railroad management discipline as it
was centralized during the wasteful
orgy of government railroad opera
| ton. 1t is simply an entering
wedge for permanent government
railroad ownership. From that
point of vantage to the Inauguration
of Plumb Plan Socialism, would be
but one more move along the down
slope toward Bolshevik chaos.
This latest demand is the logical
| outcome of the failure of the Ander-
son amendment to the Esch-Cum-
Minis law. under which precisely this
| centralized disciplinary board was
proposed The Plumb plan was too
preposterous for serious congress
| ional consideration. The Anderson
amendment was disposed of with
equal promptness. Now comes this
yelled threat of a general railroad
strike unless the substance of the
Anderson amendment is granted,
even though the Railway Board has
not a vestige of authority to yield
to such a demand.
On its face, the situation is dis
concerning. Mr.. Stone notifies us
that he sis through" trying to hold
the men in check. after having
been classed for seventeen years as
an tra-conservatiye, he continues,
81 am through making excuses to
the men,"
If Mr.. Stone is now acting as IAN
ltra-conservative," 1t would be in
teresting to know just what red
radical labor leader would be doing
in the premises. Mr. Stone is the
kind of "ultra-conservative to force
the Adamson law down the throat of
Congress under threat of nation
wide ruin. He is the kind of ultra
conservative" to make the senten-
tious announcement that "the rail-
roads would never be returned to
private control" He is the kind of
ultra-conservative" that makes
him the enthusiastic president of the
Plumb Plan League. He is the kind
of a-conservative" who would
deny the right of the American wage
Garner to work for living unless
some organization head gave him
Brindell "permit-to-labor" card. He
is the kind of "ultra-conservative'
whom labor unions at this particular
time would do well TO relegate to
rear seats in their counsels.