Newark leader. ([Newark, Ohio]) 1917-1946, 1921-07-15
WORKERS WILL STAND PAT ON
RULES

American Federation of Labor, has
warned the railroad managers that the
men would not stand for notifications
of agreements tending to deprive
shopmen and other railway workers
of decent working conditions and be-
hind the warning is story.
The propaganda of misstatements,
lies and suppression carried on by
railroad managements during the past
two years has tended to make the
public believe that the national agree
ment was a concoction of the devil
forced upon the poor, unoffensive
managers by the bold, bad, vicious,
debasing and debased railroad admin
istration controlling the roads during
government control.
When pinned down <and forced to
tell the truth before the Senate COM
mittee investigating the railroad
situation, executives of the roads and
their lawyers grudgingly admitted
that the rules contained in the ma
tional agreement had been in force
on many roads before the period of
federal control. They further ad-
mitted that many rules had been
agreed to in conference between act
ual operating officials and represen-
tatives of employees and were the
result of years of thought and effort
Let it be known that the conditions
surrounding a man at work mean
more in many instances to that man
than does the wages he receives. The
rules under which he works makes
all the difference in the world and
fixes his status as man or beast.
Also do those rules affect his pay
and, therefore, his lifes1and that of
his wife and children.
He has seen day after day and
month after month during the last
few years the most utterly preposter-
Gus and ridiculous statements regard
ing the wages he received and the
way he worked given prominence in
the press and he is at a loss to under
stand the mentality of those who will
believe such nonsense. He has had
forced on him the opinion that there
is no believeing any railroad official
and that the power for harm and to
do him injury possessed by those of
ticials is so great that they can easily
prevent him telling his side of the
story.
He is fully convinced that the cam
paign of abuse has been conducted to
intiame public opinion against him, so
that under cover thereof all the rights
he has won through years of strug-
gle could be taken away from him.
He has been stigmatized as a wild
beast intent on destroying the pros
perity of the nation and as responsible
for the outrageous rise in freight and
passenger rates, while all during the
war he worked for less wages than
did men of like trades and calling
worked for wages much less than
paid in shipyards, factories and shops.
Let it be remembered that he has
kept his temper and been reasonable
through it all, thinking that the truth
would overtake the lie and that Jus
tice would finally be rendered him.
But his patience is getting to the
breaking point and he will not sub
NIT to work under un-American con-
ditions and without rules that protect
his manhood.
Whatever happens he knows he is
not responsible: That the managers
have deliberately sought to create a
situation in which they could set aside
agreements and revert to autocratic
control of the lives, fortunes and hap
piness Of the railroad worker, his
loved ones and those dependent upon
him.
The managers have created the
situation now existing, cynically and
brutally Indifferent to the rights of
the public and the necessity for trans
portation, and they will be solely re-
sponsible for any stoppage of work
if they refuse to renew agreements.