Grand Forks herald. [volume] (Grand Forks, N.D.) 1916-1955, 1922-08-15

Ordinarily a man works that he may make a
living. He chooses, as nearly as may be, the occu-
patton which is most c%ongenial to him, and in it he
demands at least reasonable compensation and rea-
sonably attractive working conditions. Failing
these, he looks for something else. Under certain
extreme conditions be may not stay upon the order
of his going, but may go at once. But except in the
face of pressing necessity the decent man will finish
the particular job which he has tackled, and even at
the risk of his own life he will see to it that human
beings who are entrusted to his care are brought
safely through whatever emergency %confronts then,
before he quits and calls it a day.
Jim Bludsoe "held her nozzle against the bank
until the last galoot was ashore John Maynard
ssstuck at the wheel of the burning Lady Elgin" on
Lake Erie until her passengers were safe. Jack
Binns pounded his wireless key while his ship was
being engulfed by the waters of the Atlantic. Thou
sands of railway men whose names have never hg-
ured in song or story have risked' their own lives in
the performance of what they accepted as a simple
through storm and stress. Wherever such deeds
are known the men who performed them are hon
ored. = y
North Dakota has for some days been in the
center of a super-heated district. The thermometer
has registered around the 100 mark, and the people
of the state have been reminded forcibly of what
ftorrid weather can Be. In and around their homes
they have taken such comfort as they could, but
even with the opportunity to be at ease, it was sui
try comfort at best. -
Down in an Arizona desert, where such tenn
.peratures as have made US gasp are commonplace,
passenger trains loaded with men, women and chill
dren, have been stalled. with the desert wind bear
ing hot blasts from the fields Of sand, with passen-
ger coaches like ovens, and with scant supplies of
fuel and water. These people were reduced to such
straits, not through any CONFUSION of nature, and
not through any combination of unavoidable cir
cumstances, but because the engine and trainmen in
charge of their trains chose to quit their jobs with
their work half done. Two reasons are alleged for
this act. The deserters objected to the presence on
and around railway property of guards stationed to
protect property from violence and to protect men
in their right to work if they chose to do so. They
say further that the condition of the engines and
was such as to make it unsafe to operate.
For these reasons. as alleged, these men were
willing to abandon trains, with their loads of pass
engers, to the mercy of an August desert.
These are merely frivolous excuses for deser-
ton in action. Those men. whoever they are. have
violated the splendid traditions of railway service.
and have slapped in the face every decent railway
man whose hair has grown gray in a service in
which his first consideration has been that of full
filling the simple obligations Of manhood. Those
deserters ought to be expelled from the service
which they have d~isgraced and drumrned out Of
every labor union to which they belong. There, is
no room for them anywhere in a society Of decent
people.