The labor journal. [volume] (Everett, Wash.) 1909-1976, 1921-06-10

food from the stomachs and clothes
from the backs of the workers lam
lies the railroad officials were at
Washington demanding that exist
mo HIGH transportation charges DC
continued and in some cases III
creased. They were also demand
ing that billions Of dollars be IahIl
from the treasury to meet tho
greedy demands made upon tnc
eovernment. They insist that the
reople shall surrender clam to the
managers of thousands Of millions
If dollars advanced to the carriers
,,,bon tbev were in financial dis
tress. In short. they are DatCerlhE
at the doors Of Congress Tor con
cessions so monstrous and lhNeIeH-
sible that they would not be given
moments consideration were Vi!e
government responsive to puDNc
opinion. ,..
Addressing the Iowa state legis-
lature in March, 1919, Senator Cum
Minis. author of the Cummins- Esch
bill. declared: "In order that there
may be no misunderstanding as to
NV attitude, | desire to say IN the
beginning that look upon transpor-
tation as a governmental function.
| believe that it is just as much a
duty of the government to provide
the people with adequate highways,
adequate water supply, adequate
courts of justice, or adequate po-
lice protection 1t is clearly rec
ognized by every country in the
world that government ownership
and operation of railroads is a prop
er government activity"
What occurred after Senator Cum
Minis made his statement has pro-
voked great speculation and the an
swcl has not yet been given. All
that is known is that a few short
months after he made this declara-
ton of faith he went over bodily
to the railroads and permitted them
to hold the pen with which he wrote
a TRANSFORMATION act that has been
disappointing when it has not prov
en- disastrous in operation.
Yet the fact remains that Cum
minis spoke great truth, and it
loses none of its value because he
has recanted his faith. The giving
of transportation is a governmental
function, and until this fact is rec
ognized and incorporated into gov
eminent policy there will be con-
tinuation of existing injustices and
perversions and the industry of the
nation will languish.
Railroads are the lever with which
Big Business controls all industrial
activities. That is the principal OBJ
sacle in the way Of a just solution
of our most vexing industrial prob
lem. When this Gordian knot is cut
there will be a revolutionary change
in industry that will be beneficial
to the people But it won't be cut
while Congress is made up of rail
road attorneys and lobbyists, seek
ing not the public need, but the
maximum of the demands of as bold
a band of freebooters as ever STROBE
the good ship of commerce.
Every official act taken in con-
nection with the railroads in the last
two years has been the wrong step.
The wage cut is the limit of in
fanny. 1t is high time that the
people closed their ears to the
yawping of the politicians and the
vociferous begging of the railroads
and got down to the brasstack fun
damentals involved in the problem
Of transportation. The many mis-.
statements which have been made in
regard to the high wages of rail
road workers must be dismissed
from the calculation. The average
wage today is well below what
everybody who has no selfish inter
est to protect admits is below the
safety point. In demanding still
further reductions the railroads must
admit that they do not wish to pay
a living wage or that they cannot
pay living wage and make both
ends meet.
If anything has been proven by
all this pother about the railroads
it is that private ownership is rot
ten to the core and should be de
Gently buried before the entire in
dustrial body is infected with the
poison they are exuding. The tes-
timony railroad executives are Civ
ing is frank avowal of their in
competency. Add to that the dis
honesty that permeates the man.
agement of the carriers and a stu
alton is presented that ought to
challenge the earnest attention of
every man and women who wants
this country to get back to its
former greatness.
Washington once said that a
"highly organized community can
only be the offspring of sound
system of highways, and those high
ways must be built by the state.
since were highways built as a
speculation by private persons the
common welfare must be subordi-
mated to private profit"
That statement was prophetic.
1t correctly states what has hap
pened under the private ownership
as we know it today. The public.
the workers, must bear the burden
of keeping commerce moving. The
managers, found wanting in so many
vital particulars, are wholly unable
to meet the new problems of recon
struction unless they get concessions
that will bring almost universal
1 ruin IN nm.