Fitzgerald leader. (Fitzgerald, Ga.) 1921-1921, 1921-03-10
COL. BUGG'S TALK
TO THE LIONS

Col Is. l.. Bugg, eX-preS1dent and
Receiver of the Atlanta, Birmingham
and Atlantic railroad made talk to
the Lions Club in Atlanta in which
he made three bad errors: he erred
in tact, he erred in fact and he erred
in judgment.
He erred in tact when he deliber-
ately and brutally classed laborers
as commodity. Labor is commod-
ity when labor is defined as the prod
uct of human effort not considered
in connection with the other ingred-
ients-raw material and capitol-that
go into finished article, whether
that go into a finished article, wheth-
that article be a bale of cotton or
traversing unit of distance by a
freight train. The men who create
this commodity are not commodities,
not in this blessed year of 1921 A
laborer was commodity in Georgia
in 1862 before Abe Lincoln set the
negroes free. Col. Bugg, if correctly
quoted by the Atlanta Constitution,
considers the price" of laborers, as
fixed in wages, subject only to the
action of the laws of supply and de-
mand, just as coal and iron and horses
and cows. Such thought is horrible
We hope Col. Bugg did not mean to
say what the news story seemed to
say he meant
Col. Bugg erred in fact when he
said that the employees sought under
the Cummins-Esch law to have a
scale of wages fixed the same for all
sections and climates without regard
to local conditions. The Cummins.
Esch law, better known as the Trans
portation Act, specifics seven differ.
ent things which are to be taken ir
consideration iii fixing wages and ha.
not been construed to contemplate
anything Of the sort Col. Bugg said
The men are standing for the observ
ance of the Transportation act.
Col. Bugg erred in judgment wher
he tried to draw parallel of tn,
present case here with the situation
in Russia. From the supposed fac
OF the Russian debacle, Col. Bugs
deduced that it was the fault of labor
in demanding more than its employer.
could pay. Others as wise as Col
Bugg have deduced from the sam,
bunch of facts that the fault was II
the employers who had absolute swa,
over their employees and so oppressed
them by refusing to consider wha
was fair and just in pay that the,
finally rebelled against their employ.
ers, convicted them of oppression o.
their people, and killed them. TIL,
fault, these reasoners deduced, lay
In the employers who oppressed theil
men beyond endurance. AS matter
OF fact, no one who has all the avail
able data on both sides of the Russian
situation and the railroad situation
would consider that there was a par.
allel or even a remote analogy be
tween them In that Col Bugg made
second error in Judgment.
The untruth, fostored both in tn,
news columns and editorially b,
some newspapers, that the presen
strike was called" at the order o.
on the initiative of national Officials
of the Brotherhoods in order to pro
tect national union interests, shoulc
also be nailed in passing. TIL
men themselves have engineered ne
gotiations in this controversy. The,
walked out by agreement and not OF
orders. Not until they had wake,
out were the national executives o
the unions given executive authorit
in the matter. The men themselve
voted to walk out Shoold certai
situation develope. Such a situation
developed and the men walked out.