The Brattleboro daily reformer. (Brattleboro, Vt.) 1913-1955, 1920-02-04
FAVORS
ANTLSTR|KE PLAN
Compulsory Arbitration
Feature of Cummins Bill
Must Be Retained
GOVERNMENT
CONTROLS ROADS
Should Control Railroad Labor Same as
Railroad Property-If Society Can
not Survive Railroad Strike It Ism t
Worth Saving.

with kSostA6.
BOSTON, Feb. 4.-''If the passage
of the Cummins railroad bill means
railroad strike, with or without SYM
pathetic strikes, let it come If society
cannot survive that contest it is not
worth preserving.
With these words, Charles A. Prouty
director of valuation of the Interstate
Commerce Commission, and formerly
member of that commission, closed a
discussion of the Cummins bill before
the Associated Industries of Massachu-
sets at Hotel Somerset Monday night
"You will perfectly understand that
the private property which is invested
in our railroads is not controlled by
its owners but by the government. The
government determines, or may deter
mine, how railroad should be con-
structed and equipped. upon what
schedule its trains shall be operated.
and above all the amount which it NAV
charge for its service All this is for
the reason that the railroad is perform
ing service of immediate Importance
to the entire community that the public
must in this manner protect itself.
What is true of the money invested
in these railroads is true of the labor
which operates them. The government
cannot say 20 a dollar of private cap
ital YOU shall invest in a railroad, nor
can it say to an individual. you shall
work for railroad. but it can say and
should say both the man and to the
dollar that when once embarked in
railroad service it shall so. conduct it
self as not to infict injury upon the
public which it serves.
Consider for moment what this
situation is. The railroad labor of this
country is so organized that it can at
any given moment stop operation by
rail in any section of this land, or
throughout the country as a whole And
what does "a strike of. that character
mean? What would it mean to you
here in Boston? 1t would mean death
from cold and starvation. 1t would
mean riot and bloodshed and whatever
else goes with the letting loose of fam
ished humanity
So long as that is possible, and
so long as the government has no power
to protect itself against the possibility
| there is no government. If one class
| IN this community can saw to every
other class, pay us so much for our ser.
vices or you shall starve, there is nc
| longer democratic form of govern.
| ment
And such a possibility is no mere
fancy. Within so days responsible
labor leaders have declared that a gen,
eral strike should come unless their de-
mands were complied with. The Pres
ident said the coal strike was unthink.
| able, but it came.
The Cummins bill deals with this
situation by prohibiting strikes upor
| the part of the men and lockouts upor
the part of the employer A tribunal i.
provided to which the claims of both
parties may be presented and the de
cision of that tribunal is final The
right of the individual to quit work i.
not interfered with but the conspiracy
to quit by concerted action is made
unlawful and prohibited.
1t has been said that railroad Ia
| Dor would not permit the passage OF
| such legislation, that it would prevent
1t by a general strike. The provision
is right. That or its equivalent must
be enacted if we are to live under q
government of law and not of force
FOR my own part | do not believe that
the railroad labor of this country would
decline to obey such an act although il
would earnestly oppose its passage.
cannot believe that the railroad en-
pioyes of my own little state. Vermont
probably the best paid and most intel
igent of any class of labor in that
state, would willingly defy a statut,
OF the United States even though called
| upon to do so by radical labor Rnt i
| am wrong, if the enactment of thi.
legislation means railroad strike wifi
or without sympathetic strikes. let Il
come. We can meet it now better than
we can later on. If society cannot sur.
serving pie