Shoshone journal. [volume] (Shoshone, Idaho) 1884-1931, 1922-08-18

At the present TIM with pros
poets for As heavy crops ~ vs have
ever had there il now the poorest
prospect ws have ever had Tor
freight transportation The rail-
road strike may Be broken at any
time, the men may go back to work,
but The prospects are that the re-
pairing of railroad equipment and
keeping II In working order will
depend on their finding new men to
put ON the task
At this time the trains are run
ming on schedule, but at sacrifice
that the public does not very well
understand The auditors and man
ayers and clerks leave their own
work and are doing work or the
yard and IN the shops to keep the
4. trains running, but this cannot last
very long. When the heavy ship
F., ments g. grain and potatoes begin
next month and in September these
5 men win be needed at their desks
and large numbers Of men will be
! needed to do the yard work, the car
work and the shop work.
The present railroad strike is diff
ferent from most of the strikes we
have been accustomed to. In most
cases the men were asking for high
er wages because they were not
getting enough OF they were asking
to have existing wage scales main
tanned. In this case the strikers are
asking that the reduced prices Of
things shall be borne by other peo-
pie but not themselves. They are
unwilling to share in the great re-
duction of prices and they are IN
willing TO leave their work and let
anybody else step in and fill the
places. President Harding has is
sued proclamation on the matter
in which he says that it is the priv
ilege Of every railroad employee to
leave his job, but it is not his priv
ilege to prevent anybody else fron-
stepping into it. It is the right Of
the employee to decline to work at
the wages offered, It is the right
of every other man who is willing
to accept such wages to step In and
do the work without being rlo-os-od.
The present strike is not strike
against the railroad company, but
against the government and the
people Of the United States.
A very large percentage OF the
men who are going on strike on this
occasion, are people of foreign birth
who took advantage Of this eondi-
ton growing out of the war so that
while our men were leaving to go
overseas to fight the battles in those
old countries where these people
came from and to save civilization
which the old countries were wreck
ing. Many jobs were made vacant
by enlistment and the heavy traffic
on the railroads made it necessary
for railroad companies to find men
and put them to work almost disre-
garding their fitness for the posi-
tons. In this emergency lasting
two or three years large numbers Of
foreigners got into the railroad jobs
and promptly organized snd tied up
the railroad companies in labor con
tracts binding them to what they
call seniority rules making 1t impos-
sible for the railroad companies to
discharge men without the consent
of the union and even the ex-service
men on returning from the battle
fields Of Europe, expecting to take
up their cid jobs, could not get in
because they were barred by these
new rules, and even to they are
much more efficient and capable
than the men now holding the jobs.
the foreigners hold forth and our