Palatka daily news. [volume] (Palatka, Fla.) 1919-1994, 1921-09-10

THE FITZGERALD
INDICTMENTS.

The - men presented by the gran,
jury of Ben Hill county, Georgia, OF
the charge of interfering with EN-.
ployees of the Atlanta, Birmingham
& Atlantic railroad, are not indicted
for striking or for belonging to rail
road brotherhoods.
Men have the right to join the
unions and to quit work, so long as
they do not violate their contracts,
and the grand jury of Ben Hill coun-
ty is not concerning itself with the
legitimate acts of the 10 men. If
they be proved guilty of interfering
violently with other men engaged in
operating the railroad, they ought to
be found guilty and duly punished
If the evidence be sufficient they
probably will be found guilty. The
farmers of Ben Hill county are not
likely to submit to the destruction
of a railroad trsetle and the dyna-
hitting of freight cars if it causes
their peaches, watermelons or other
produce to rot on the ground before
it can be sent to market, thereby
bringing poverty to their wives and
children.
SO the merchants, the lumbermen,
the carpenters, the brickmasons and
all the other people, whether they
are organized or not, will refuse in
the long run to allow industry and
trade to be paralyzed by the violence
of strikers or their sympathizers.
That is what would come to pass if
the people stood by and permitted
the railroads and railroad operation
to be destroyed.
Suppose that Smith invested $4,000
in a gasoline truck and engaged in
hauling freight between Fitzgerald
and the next town, driving the truck
himself? In that case Smith would
be laborer and capitalist. He would
be his own employer and his own
worker"
Suppose That Jones also invested
$4,000 in truck and engaged in
the same business, and that Jones
came to the conclusion that the peo-
pie along the road were not paying
enough to him for the hauling of
their freight. If he should strike, t
which he would have a right to do, {
it would be a strike of capital as {
well as labor-the $4,000 invested in
the truck as well as his hands would
be idle. If Smith, on the other hand,
persevered in hauling freight at the
ow price, not consenting to a sug-
gestion by Jones to lock his truck
n the shed, would Jones be iusti-
liable in digging a ditch across the
Dad between Fitzgerald and the next
own? Undoubtedly he would be, if t,
abroad operatives are justifable in e
y idLlIIlHS IlCSlle. h
The railroad companies are not al c;
owed to strike. We're the Atlanta, q
birmingham & Atlantic railroads T
wners to suspend its operation, 7,
hey would forfeit their charter.
he public, doubtless, would take q
yer the road and operate it, if no ?
rivate individual or company would al
ave it-presuming that the railroad II
) public necessity. Then the pub CT
c would conduct tie railroad in its I'll
wn way and would not make a pres Of
Mt of it to any set or group of oper- in
tives, however skilled or organized.
The public has the same rights in
elation to the operation Of railroads
5 it has in the operation of the 4
her highways. The circumstance ci-
lat the railroads are under pri- n,
ate ownership does not annul and co
no way affects the public's right in
enjoy the use of them. The public on
,mpels the owners of railroads to ad
,erate them on pain of surrender Fl
e their ownership if they neglect tn
do so. If they quit, the public Fl
i'll no more yield its right to or a
of railroad workers than sit
owners. In
Moreover, the public will always his
ID operatives-there is no such 20,
ing as a key industry" and never
II be. Any group of men under Df
king to tie up the country by re-
IT to violence will swiftly discover his
Fir mistake. We're every railroad 70
N in the United States to leave his to
tomorrow, the roads would be lde
slow and waste has
ly perhaps at frst-but they ph'
uld be operated. ihui