The Washington herald., 1922-08-07

csted in labor only in so far as labor Affects re-
turns on capital The editors of the paper nat
uralys have regard for railroad brotherhoods
organizations which somehow or other have got
the idea that wages should be considered before
dividends and. the lives of men and women before
the bank accounts Of stockholders.
Consequently in repfntng the following edi-
toria which deals with the Strike situation in mas
terly fashion, we must call attention the natural
prejudice against labor organizations and urge that
il be discounted for the sake of the main idea
With this We are in accord. The only way to run
railroads. shoe-shne parlors. Sabbath schools armies
or empires successfully is to have the right sort OF
at the head of them
Mr. Percy R. Todd, president of the Bangor and
Aroostook Railroad it seems, has been successful
in handling the strike situation. We assume that
gentleman is everything the Wall Street Journal
gives him credit for being That leaves room for
the suggestion to the editors that, if all railroad
presidents the same sort of men Mr.. Todd
there would be no railroad brotherhoods. They
would go out OF existence because sthere would be
need for them. These organizations exist only
because railroad presidents sometimes have been
tyrants and scoundres against whom their under
lings forced to combine for self-proteetion
1t would be excellent if all strikes could be
settled as Mr.. Todd is credited with settling that
the Bangor and Aroostook. The only element
lacking is Mr.. Todd in every railroad organiza-
ton, and when this is secured the millennium will
have come in American industry Until that time
there will be strikes of workmen and graft
among officials.
Says the Wall Street Journal:
Everybody knows how to run a newspaper,
as letters to the editor sufficiently prove.
large number of people find difficulty in
running the Presidency of the United States
But not many people know how to
railroad, and the politician only knows how to
run it into the ground Up in Aroostook
County, Maine, there is a railroad man who
knows how to run railroad especially in
times OF labor crisis Here is the record OF the
Bangor and Aroostook less than 1000 miles
of road, whose president is Percy R. Todd.
Nine years ago he had fight with his en-
gineers and hremen They were backed by all
tne power OF the big railroad unions, the four
brotherhoods and those others which form
part OF the American Federation of Labor He
fought them to standstill and licked them
handsomely. And since that time he has rim
his road with nonunion engineers He does no,
pay standard wages, except when he was COM
PEELED to do so by the McAdoo administration
during the war Even that demonstration of
supreme foly failed to wreck his policy and
his road His relations with his men are ner-
sonal and direct, and they are standing by him
now.
In the present crisis about SS per cent of
lodds shopmen on the Bangor and Aroostook
when called upon to strike went out But 50
successful has the management Of the road been
III replacing these men that on July 25 it had
o2 per cent Of normal force at work Re-
member that this is an agricultural territory
famous chiefly for its seed potatoes. the best in
America, where surplus shop mechanics are
scarce. But why Todds men standing by
MIN IN this crisis? 1t is because they know he
Is man OF his word. Workers are coming to
him from all over the country His nonunion
engineers are saying to them: you can trust
the management of this road We came here
nine years ago when other men struck and we
are here yet"
This is what the repentant and the new
shopmen tell Todd. They know they are secure
in their jobs. All the power of the brother
hoods could not break Todd nine years ago.
and all the dishonest dickering in the vital mat
ter OF seniority will not break Todd now He
is the most modest of men, but he was the ad-
ministrator for the New England roads during
the war; although only the president of the
smallest of them. His judgment among the
railroad executives has weight than that
OF dozen or so whom it would be more polite
not to name
This is the way to face this strickland
any 'other strike. This is the way to run a
railroad, or anything else. In what other roads
regard as crisis Todd has workmen in the
shops and out of it, who will stand by him to
the distant but hoped-for day when the poll
tcians have talked themselves to DEATH
There it is in nutshell. We must have rail-
road officials who of their words Then
there will be more strikes and the brotherhoods
will disorganize because they no longer will have
an excuse for being
Until that time comes fear this would be a
sad world with no organizations of workmen