The Rock Island Argus and daily union. (Rock Island, Ill.) 1920-1923, 1922-11-07

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viting injury to itself It ressnts
with normal occupa-
tons and mostly It resents being
Of necessities Of life.
IL the leaders OF trade unions
could have realized In advance the
psychological effect which the rail
and coal strikes would have on the
cause Of unionism as q whole they
might have hesitated to permit
either Of the big strikes to 60 as
far as they did. Dozens Of disin-
terested men who tried to weigh
impartially the merits Of both
strikes told the writer they be-
lieved the leaders Of the strikes
had overplayed their hands-car-
ried their tight to the extremes.
Another for Capital.
And II labor was the victim of
bungling leadership. the same
might be said Of the other side.
Any one who travels from one end
of the country to the other on a
Swing around the circle" must
journey on dozens of different rail-
roads and cannot help observing
the conditions of the roads, the
morale of the workers and the gen.
eral, feeling of the pubic about
! train service. The situation today
resembles closely the conditions
Just before the war ended. Trains
are late, schedules are curtailed,
mails are necessarily delayed,
freight is badly congested in GER
! tain regions where perishable
goods must be moved and the
! transportation middle is SO big
that the wonder Of it all Is how the
public bears the strain.
For one thing the people are cal
lloused-they had their experiences
with war time railroading and gave
vent to their feelings in the 1915
election. Today they realize thai
the strikes of last summer have
left deeper wounds in the rail
road systems of the country. Bui
they will not stand it indefinitely
there are symptoms OF revolt. Here
and there the people are beginning
to say perhaps government con
troll would be better after all. TIT
farmers are by no means appeaset
on the subject of freight rates. La
Dor is sullen. The sentiment fol
government control could easily b.
reused in many parts of the coun
try and made an issue in the mex
election. 1t all depends on wha
the railroads can do toward givin,
efficient service in the next i
!, months.
Railroad Morale Gone.
II individual impressions coun
for anything. the morale of tn
, railroad workers-trainmen, con
. ductors, engineers and firemel
|, never was at a lower ebb. Til
workers are bitter against thei
, employers. They give the appear
!. ance, at any rate, of not carin
when they bring trains into term
:, inals. Again and again on my jour
!. ney, engineers were ready at tn
,. start OF trains. Cars were con
= stantly being put on trains whic
should never. have been carried
! One night in the west a defectv
y car was attached to a fast train.
> caused delay of four hours. In
. Quiry developed the fact that til
> same car was carried on anothe
train the previous night and shout
have been put in the shops but
; wasn't.
Many of the striking shopme
have found jobs in other industrie:
= Labor is scarce in the automobil
industry and in the mechanics
trades. Many shopmen who kno,
how to repair engines will never b
persuaded to return to the raj
roads. The latter will have to &c
along with the inexperienced strike
breakers for many months to com,
Improvement in railroad .servic
must necessarily be slow.
Trimmer Openly Hostile.
The openness with which train
men show their hostility to th
railroads is surprising. They dis
cuss these strikes frankly with pei
feet strangers and point at tn
strlkebreaKers with contempt Sta
! tistics have been published show
ing the immense cost to the raj
roads in their fight against til
shopmen. 1t was a victory {
e doubtful value. II the railroads bt
, l.eye the workers have been COW
ed, they are much mistaken. The
have been embittered. Their spir
+ OF hostility will cost the roads mi
lions Of dollars more while the e,
y feet on the public in dollars an
a cents is as yet incalculable.
r So trade unionism lost prestig
o the railroads lost efficiency, tt
o public is paying huge bill of cost
u and nobody can claim victory. An
n it's all because no tribunal exisi
e with sufficient authority or prestie
to settle disputes without war. I'll
United States labor board has To-
d ground. 1t is criticized because
= is composed Of three groups-ou
g representing labor, one represen
b ing the public and one represen
h ing the railroads. The publ
o group really decides things and tt
n other two are merely partisan
b Whatever machinery is set u
should be wholly representative
y the public interest with opport,
q nifty for both sides to present ev
!: dence and argument on their r.
q spective cases-that's the sent
ment which is growing strong,
y today than ever before.
d C.., p-,s.,.. G..