The silver state. [volume] (Winnemucca, Nev.) 1909-1925, 1922-05-11
F ROM LOCOMOTIVE
CAB To CONGRESS

| locomotive cab into Congress" is
one of the most interesting and en-
Tightening characters in the national
Legislature He is Representative
John G. Cooper of the Nineteenth
Ohio district, now serving his fourth
term. Appropriately enough he is
member of the great Committee
on Interstate and Foreign Com
merce, the work Of which is so
important its members have no
other committee assignments. In
this position he has done much good
for the railroad men of the coun-
try, as well as for other workers,
and all the people.
Representative Cooper was for
seventeen years "hoghead" on
the Pennsylvania. He was the first
locomotive engineer ever elected to
Congress. He retains active men,
bership in the Brotherhood of Loco
motive Engineers, Division 565,
Newcastle, Pennsylvania. For a
short time he ran out of Ration,
New Mexico, on the Santa Fe; like
wise on the Rio Grande out of
Pueblo, Colorado. He admits, how
ever, he did not remain in the West
long enough to become acclimated.
Cooper remained on the front
end" until he had only sufficient
time to reach Washington to take
his oath of office, March a, 1914.
Now he is in fifth position on the
big committee, ranking Denison of
Illinois, the author of the bill which
recently achieved SO much adverse
criticism in Nevada. Samuel E.
Winslow of Massachusetts is chair
man of the committee.
At the incoming of the present
administration Representative Coop
er was prominently mentioned for
a position on the Interstate Com
merce Commission, but he made no
effort to secure this much coveted
job. He rather prefers the activity
of floor work in the House and his
multifarious duties on the Interstate
and Foreign Commerce committee.
This Congressman tells with some
pride that he worked in a steel mill
at Youngstown, Ohio, when he was
10 years old, for seventy cents
day. When he left the locomotive
cab he was receiving Al cents an
hour, and worked ten to twelve
hours a day. Engineers were lucky
at that time, he says, when they
made more than 1925 a month.
Workingmen everywhere are
proud of this Representative re-
cord in Congress and of the posi-
ton he has acquired in national
councils. 1t is a fact well worth
considering, as showing the trend
of modern thought, that Cooper
represents the district which sent
Garfield, Mckinley, and other ma
tional characters of Congress.
Representative Cooper is a brave
man politically. He took his poll
teal future in his hands" when he
exposed the corrupt politics and radi-
cal features involved in the great
strike, but in doing SO he assumed
a position which has since been
indicated, and which the Ameri-
can Federation of Labor has been
compelled to say was correct, al
though denouncing it before the
iniquitous causes of that strike had
become fully known.
Neither the corruptive influences
of big business and politics, nor the
passions of popular prejudice, can
touch John Cooper. He is above
the sordid. Naturally enough, a
man of such calibre is anxious
above all things to see the people
of this nation select good men and
true to attend to the business
affairs of the United States. The
following letter will be of interest
to people of Nevada:
''Hotse or Representatives,
Washington, d. c., May a, 1922.
"Hon. Samuel S. Arentz,
House of Representatives
"My dear Mr.. Arentz:-I am
writing to express the hope that the