The Topeka state journal. [volume] (Topeka, Kansas) 1892-1980, 1922-09-08
LET Us SUPPOSE.

SIf1ke leaders urge the Shopmen to
continue the strike. Samuel Com
pers would have them go to the ex-
tent of standing in the trenches"
Many OF the strikers believe that if
they fail to win the strike, they can at
least force the roads into the hands of
the government.
The Chicago Tribune has drawn a
picture of what might reasonably hap
pen in the event the strike be con-
tinued, as follows:
Suppose the railroad strike contin-
ues. Suppose it spreads. Suppose the
brotherhoods go out. Suppose train
movement stops. All steam rail trans
portation stops. Motor transport is
extemporized. 1t does considerable.
Milk is moved. Vegetables are
brought in. Actual starvation is
avoided, but there is discomfort, want,
or insufficiency.
AS time goes on the motor trans
port may get better or may get worse.
Probably it will show a growing insult
ficiency. If it did not it would prove
that railroads were not needed. The
pinch will be greater. The govern
ment will take the roads. 1t will be
compelled to do SO.
1t will deal with whom? Not with
the railroad executives 1helf places
can be taken by government ap-
pointees. 1t will deal with the men.
The government can do the executive
work, but it cannot do the engine
work. The men go back under gov
eminent rule. They probably go back
under terms satisfactory to them.
The return is to the status quo ante.
1t has been proved then in certain
emergencies that private operation,
better, we think, than government OPP
GRAFTON, will not work. To avoid such
emergencies, such breakdowns which
destroy society, we take government
operation with all of the elements
which are its faults.
What happens to the men whose
controversy compelled this? The rail-
road executives are out of work or, If
they have work, they will take the
government scale of pay, which will
cause them to sell two or three cars,
rent the house and go into a flat
where a maid of all work will fill the
bill. They should look at a few inn
portant government salaries and con-
slider whether selling shoe laces is
not more profitable.
What about the men? They think
they want naturalization. At least
some of them do. They had dealings
! with Mr.. McAdoo when he was a two
: minute egg, running for president and
very soft. He was easy. Let them
ask their mail carrier or any govern
ment employee they may know what
he thinks of Uncle Sam as a pay
master. He will say that Mr.. Sam is
piece of flint. He is hard. He
has two nickels in his pocket when
he faces his workers, and he keeps
one of them.
There will BE- no strikes for better
conditions if the U. S. A. takes the
roads. The railroad executives will
be riding in Fords, and glad to get
them. The men will be fired If they
send representatives, as the postal
clerks did, to Washington to say that
they think they are entitled to better
treatment.
If they want rough stuff let them
face a bureaucrat. Strike, and out
comes the army. Politics pays no at
tention to any such groups as the rail-
road men constitute. They are a neg
ligible part of the general mass Pork
pays in politics, but politics never
counts wages as pork. Observe city
police and firemen. When they try
to get a wage increase they are
laughed at. Experts can get the
dough, but public employees cannot.
The public may say that an as
sured transport service on a lower
level of efficiency is better than a bet
ter service broken down by private
wars at times. but our guess is that
both executives and workers will look
back at a bad day IL they force the
government to run the railroads. That
is a wise word in stubborn ears.