The labor world. [volume] (Duluth, Minn.) 1896-current, 1921-04-16
HUNTING A SOLUTION.

HUNTING A soLUTIoN.
While politicians are running round
in circles hunting a solution of tho in
creasingly difficult and tremendously
important railroad problem, which has
during the past three months reached
an acute stage, owners Of railroad Sc"
curities have gone to the source from
which the only practicable, workable
and abiding remedy has emanated-
the workers.
President Harding, too, has evidently
Wearied of the selfish and intellectual
advice that has been 50 freely offered
by railway managers, gamblers, specu.
laters and their professional lobbyists,
for he also is calling in representatives
Of the workers and giving respectful
hearing to what they have to offer
toward composing situation that is
more critical than many Americans yet
xealize.
It must be perfectly clear to security
owners, as it will eventually be- to
President Harding, that the workers,
in their advocacy Of democratized
transportation system, have no axes to
grind. Naturally, they seek stable and
satisfactory working conditions, which
they know are not attainable under the
existing system, but in securing them
they are equally anxious that the pub,
Tic interest, which they recognize as
coming first in the determination Of all
domestic problems, shall be adequately
safeguarded.
Organized railroad workers have
been insisting for more than two years
that private management Of the rail.
roads has outlived whatever of useful
ness it may once have possessed. They
realized, perhaps little more poig-
nantly than other groups Of Americans,
the inherent defects of a system that
gave first and greatest consideration
to the selfish ambitions Of the banker
spectators who have employed trans,
portation as an instrument Of oppYes,
sion and extortion, not only Of the
workers, but of all the people.
In tho face Of much abuse and mis-.
representation railroad employees have
offered a solution that was rooted in a
correct conception Of the relation the
railroads should maintain toward the
public. They have contended that
transportation exists solely to supply
p public need, and that when this fact
was recognized all other questions
would be resolved automatically and
enthusiastically. It is because congress
;and the railway managers have disre,
bgarded the public welfare that the car.
ifiers are today facing bankruptcy and
1.-The nation ruin.
i The most monstroua law ever foisted
3upon an unwilling people was the Cum.
Trims Esch bill. It sought to guarantee
Ahs profits of railroads without any re-
LIZARD to the effect Of this provision
Upon those who were called upon to
ERay these profits. The immediate re-
bult OF this law was to impoverish
Etmillions Of farmers, manufacturers and
business men, without in the slightest
EAeSree yielding to the railroads any of
1.-THE things they expected to secure
Through a measure written by their
kpwn experts.
+ There may be some Americans so
sHn3leless as to still believe that private
arrangement can be patched up and
l5nade operative, but their number is
decreasing with each new revelation Of
t3ncompetency, waste and graft, and
fhose who blithely declared q few
fnonths ago that they wanted anything
Ebut government ownership arc now
!biuging a different tune. For it must
|be patent to every honest thinker, a
Eft is patent to security owners, that
the only i'll that afflicts the railroads
is inefficient and crooked MANAGEMENT.
and that it can be removed only bv
destroying the system under which it
aeveloped.
h ENDANGERS IIRERTY.