Twin city review. [volume] (Champaign, Ill.) 19??-1929, 1922-03-03

now is infinitely worae of fthan he
was at the beginning Of the present
century.
So declares Robert M. LaFollette
OF Wisconsin. who recently delivered
IN the senate perhaps the most sem
sational deliverance yet made on the
condition Of the working people.
In terms of what money will buy.
the track laborer ON the railroads 10.
day Is receiving In exchange for his
toll only $Sii year. Senator iaFol-
That means that these men. hun
dreds Of thousands OF them, have been
reduced to a level of 81 day
which shows that they have got
back TO norfnalcy with vengeance.
Not satisfied with thrustinR them
below the level Of subsistence, rail-
road manayegs are today before the
level of subsistence, railroad mana
gers are today before the United
States Railroad Labor Board demand
ing still further wage cuts.
The railroads ask the Labor Board
TO make the daily wage Of laborera
$l.50 for a ten-hour day. Measured
by the purchasing power OF 1900, thia
viii be equivalent TO only fifty cents.
"This," said Senator LaFolletie,
"would be less than Chinese coolies
were paid In the days when the Pa
cific railroads were permitted To i'm.
port them freely and exploit them
numerically"
Senator LaFollette directed the at.
tention of the senate TO IA great con-
spiracy that has been hatched by tho
masters Of American finance and
business" TO destroy labor unions,
which alone stand between workers
and serfdom. Labor is being crushed,
he said, by the processes Of unem-
ployment and wage cutting.
To-day, there are five or six mil
lions of toilers in the United States
who are out of work. continued Sen
ator LaFollette, "and their families
are hungry, 10 the end that their
spirit may be crushed and new gen
Grafton OF serfs may be bred"
This evil combination against the
workers is made more formidable and
terrifying because IL has enlisted the
active support and cooperation of the
national administration and the
courts.
Ht OIlhtu GAatfh BuUIFtIft 1DbiA
and the lower courts" Senator La
Toilette charged. "are depriving the
workers Of their weapons Of defense
one by one and seeking to bind them
with chains, so that their masters
may with impunity scourge them In
TO submission"
No such combination has ever been
arrayed together for an evil purpose
In the history of the country Besides
II, the slave power pales into insig-
nifcanee by the record that Is being
made by the federal courts at this
time.
"This effort to crush labor" says
Senator LaFolette, "and reduce free
born Americans TO the condition Of
Russian serfs, may succeed, although
still have such faith in the courage
and integrity of the American peo-
ode that | believe they will finally
achieve a glorious victory as over
whelmingly as that which crushed
the slave power in 1865, But, In any
event, success can be achieved By
these sinister forces only after a per
iod Of strife and chaos which Is too
horrible TO contemplate, and their
success, however and whenever ac-
complished, will mark the downfall
Of all the American republic"
Any attempt 10 further depress
wages, the senator said, would be dis
astrous. He contended that the work
er today is living below the level Of
decent subsistence. The worker dur
ing the war did not profiteer, con
trary TO popular belief, but, like
Alice In Wonderland, was compelled
to run twice as fast to keep In the
same place. The calumnies uttered
against labor, Senator LaFollette
said, were shameless, wanton and
wicked. While prcfitering was rife
in business and finance, labor con
tributed Loyalty and generously to the
winning Of the war, and is getting its
in treatment that is so brutal, so un-
Just, that decent opinion must stand
appalled, at its mere contemplation.