Fitzgerald leader. (Fitzgerald, Ga.) 1921-1921, 1921-03-19
CORDELE WANTS OUR
RAILROAD SHOPS Our

worked up over an effort to pull
the Atlanta, Birmingham and At
lantic shops away from Fitzger-
aid. They consider that Fitz-
gerald favoritism or at least its
neutrality in regard to the strik-
ers will fill Col. Bugg and his
brother officials with an over
whelming desire to spite Fitzger-
aid and gain revenge for its fail
ure to assist the road in beating
down its employees wages.
Gro to it Cordele. You will lose
lot of sleep and waste lot of
hot air but you won't move the
Atlanta, Birmingham and Allan
tic shops any further than our
brother editor on the Cordele Dis
patch could throw a switch en-
CINE with one hand. The ques-
ton of which was the best town
for the shops was settled long
time ago and settled permanently.
Lest some of the more dismal
minded of our business men get
down hearted, the Leader offers
this suggestion: the valuation of
the unmovable physical property
comprised in the railroad shops
here exceeds a million dollars.
The cost of removing the shops
and duplicating them elsewhere
would run well over million
dollars. Cordele in its enthus-
lasm has suggested that it might
offer the road dollar for dollar for
all the cost of such removal. The
property valuation of Cordele is
about six million dollars. When
that city raises a million dol
lars to give anybody for anything
cows will fly and newspaper edi-
tors will all be rich.
Something more, public opinion
in Fitzgerald in regard to the
strike is to a great extent the O.
pinion of the strikers themselves,
because they form so large a part
of the public of Fitzgerald. The
railroad population of Fitzgerald
is from one-fourth to one-third of
its entire population. Wherever
the shops went, if they were
moved, would go that amount of
public opinion. The present pop
ulace of Cordele could not keep
itself uninfluenced by railroad
thought unless the railroad men
and their families were segrega-
ted in one section and kept inside
of barbed wire fence. In what
ever small city a b,g industry is
located, the employees of that in
dustry will have a great effect
on public opinion mot by coer-
clon nor organized demand but
SIMPLY by perso,uii contact and
the forming of friendships with
people of other pursuits. Col.
Bugg and his board of directors
know that and are not going to
get all "spited up against Fitz-
gerald because Fitzgerald people
favor themselves and favor their
personal friends. Any other town
in which the shops were located
would take the same attitude in
a similar situation.
Another contributing factor to
the general influence that will
keep the railroad shops here is
that some hundred or more rail-
road families own their houses
and own other property here.
Their investment is probably less
than half million dollars in un-
movable property here but it is
considerable. 1t took these peo-
pie years of saving and industry
to acquire these homes and other
property. Its ownership makes
them not only more substantial
citizens but more reliable and
more dependable workmen.
Any large employer of men
would rather have home-owners
working for him than renters or
others who are not more or less
tied to their jobs by other inter-
ests. Should the shops be moved,
this property could not be sold for
anything like its purchase price,
these people could not. become
home owners in the new location
of the shops, and one of the big
gest contributing factors to the
high efficiency of the railroad
workers would have been thrown
away. Col. Bugg and his direc-
tors appreciate this fact. 81
The Leader has it on good
authority that if the employees win
in this controversy. among the
terms they will require will be