Twin city review. [volume] (Champaign, Ill.) 19??-1929, 1922-09-22
Continued from Las Week.


Farmers Insist Labor Re Heard
/ had an interesting experience
short time ago. vent 70 N0ntrose
Colorado. ana delivered an Address
before a thousand farmers. AoulrOSe
Colorado. is over the Divide, beyond
Sahda, beyond III. Aura1. Nontrose
Is not a railroad town; Il is in . Ners
ine fertile valley. Fruit growers ans
rauebers live there. When | reached
Aontr0Se. arriving there az 80 \, m
en- the = Of February Il reached
there on a narrow gaugel I found SIX
special railroad cars parked there
from SIX different railroads. Those
special ears came TN on the standard
gauge from Grand Junction. | Won
dered Why al this Why 50 much
interest in the farmers 80 Il did mol
take me leng 10 find cat after ny
arrival These farmers CAME - me
and told me that Big Business die net
intend To permit Labor 10 talk there.
| said, We'll. it is up l. YOU" The
Vice President of the Farmers Or
ganiEaton-and BY the way his name
Is Stone--a nephew Of Warren ),
Stone. Grand Chief Of the h. Of |. T.,
reading IN his life but he knew some
thing about cur side of the story. He
went TO those VINO had the entertain
ment in charge and said. Labor will
be heard or we will withdraw the
farmers. hire hall and there the
farmers will listen 10 the workers
story There was nothing left TO ne
done but let Labor speak.
AT 1920 on the morning Of the Srd
in the Congregational Church in Mon
trose a thousand farmers and rail-
road officials were in attendance and
| managed to get the floor. started
speaking al 1920 with the under
standing that | would not talk longer
than 80 minutes. but | forgot to lock
at my watch and | talked for an hour.
tLaughter) That gave me an oppor-
tunity to tell the farmer what |
thought about the situation. Before
| went on the platform 10 talk, the
farmers said 10 me Several of theml /:
I'VE understand that you railroad
men are running the country with your
high wages. The freight rates are
high because your wages are so high
and consequently the shipping rates
on our products from the farm to the
market are practically prohibltive.
We understand that engineers and
likewise Of course fire
men and krakemen, do not try to get
over the road, that they are actually
eating up the contents of the treas
ury of the railroad companies in over.
time" said, Anything more %
"Yes; we understand that men in
freight train service will not work
longer than eight hours" Anything
else ," "Yes, we have been told that
men in freight train service get over.
time after eight hours well" /
said, somebody's got their wires
crossed. If our freight train men
stop at eight hours, how in the name
of common sense can they get over
time when they do not work more
than eight hours ?" | said, Anything
mo. nothing more that We
can think of" "Then outside Of that
we are all right?" YES" "Well |
will take care of that when | take the
platform"
When | took the platform | said to
the farmers, Our nation will be lac
years old on the 4th day Of next July
and never in the history of our coun-
try was the farmer in a worse finan-
cial and unorganized condition than
he is today. How long are you farm
ers going to put up with this? They
have got you down TO your b. Y. Dis
now, and they would take that too
and leave you to walk the streets
naked, if il were not for the law.
Yes: they would take the last rag Off
your backs. Get together. Come with
the railroad boys and We will go to
the ballot box together, for surely We
cannot make a worse mess OF the adj
of our government than
is being done today if we were paid
for doing it," (Applause.)
| said, another thing; they say our
engineers and conductors, trainmen
and firemen steal overtime. | want
you farmers to know''-this now,
mind you, what | am telling you oc-
CURED at Montrose, but it is praeti-
cally what is going on from one end
of the United States to the other to-
day. want you farmers to know"
| said that our train service men do
not go out on the main line without
orders; If they do, they never 20
again. Our train service men work
under the direction of a train dis
patcher. Listen; the dispatcher sits
in his office, but he has the train sheet
before him and there he can see the
trains coming in and going out as 1t
were on his Division. He knows every
engineer; he knows every conductor
as though they were all his own fam
lily; and will say to you that if that
train dispatcher permitted anything
of that kind he would quickly find
himself hunting a new job.
As Regards Overtime.
''The facts in the case are these:
For every engineer and every conduc-
tor that may be called up to answer
because they have been slow whether
they could help it or not, there are
engineers and ninety-nine
conductors who have been called upon
the carpet to answer why they had
exceeded the speed limit, and you men
know that. Then again, the railroad
companies are tonnage hogs, loading
trains down with the last ton Of
freight which makes it almost impos-
sible to get over the road without
overtime"
Last winter, one train pulled out OF
East st. Louis to the South with five
L A.