Daily Kennebec journal. [microfilm reel] (Augusta, Me.) 1870-1975, 1923-01-20
LEADS BACK TO sAvAGERY

LEADS BACK TO SAVAGERY
The lynchng of striker from the
Missouri & North Arkansas railroad
in Arkansas, Tuesday, is reminder
OF what may logically be expected
when a clique of citizens set out to
terrorize white folks possessed of
backbone. A series Of disorders and
outrages have been inflicted on that
part of the state during the past two
years owing to the strike of the shop
men; bridges have been dynamited
and emery dust has been used to de
stroy locomotives.
The railroad which was subjected
to this disturbance is over $50 miles
long running from the Joplin lead
mines down to the Mississippi river.
winding through a beautiful but not
very productive country of which it
is the only rail outlet The road did
not prosper and was in the hands of
receivers from 1912 to 1921. In 1920
wages were reduced under the L. S.
Railroad Labor Boards scale, fol-
INV IIE aiS SUI INV w
struction of railroad property, burn
ing of bridges and it was not safe
f. L anyone daring to work for the
road What little business there was
came to n standstill and at times
there was suffering on account Of lack
OF food. In 1922 some venturesome
parties bought the road and the
trouble was intensified. Then it was
the people took the law into their
own hands and made up n Com
mittee of One Thousand" This COM
mttee didn't conceal itself with
masks and sheets, but worked out in
the open, with swift. direct assault
on the trouble makers.
The committee searched this
strikers home and, it is said, dis
covered a large quantity of dynamite
and emery dust and concluded he
was a ringleadcr of the disturbers.
AS they We're trying 20 take him he
shot one of their number. He will
shoot no more.
The number of those among labor
who resort to terrorism is small. If
all organized labor were engaged in 1t
they would number a small proper
ton of the number affected. People
usually bear patiently the inconveni-
cnce of this industrial warfare. All
over the country today people are
suffering from cold because of the
war in the coal mining industry. in
which both parties to the conflict APP
pear to have been at fault. We hope
there may never be occasion for them
to assert themselves as they appear
to have done in Arkansas. Such up
risings are bad for all concern a.
they usually are involved in unjust
reprisals; often the innocent are
made to suffer with the guilty. They
generate hate and lead back the long
trail we have come. back to savascry.
To say that there can come no
settlement of the European problems
without this country entering into
full membership of the League of
Nations, is to make an assertion diff
ficult to prove. To assert, however,
that the settlement of the debt con-
troversy between this country and
England is the necessary beginning
of stablizing the economic situa-
| ton throughout the world is suscept-
| ible of comparatively easy demon
| stration. The success of the at
| tempt now being made to arrive at
| that settlement is something of
(which the world stands in great need.
"Wallie" Reed, the popular man of
| filmdom is dead at 81, after terrible
struggle to overcome the morphine
| habit. In weakness from ill health
he turned to the drug for relief and
it broke him, as it always does. No
failures to destroy are found on the
| morphine record. What are the peo-
pies of the world thinking about
| that they don't unite in effort to pre-
vent the preparation of the drug
| except under strict government con-
troll?
A Connecticut family has been in
| corporated so as to pay a corpora
ton in preference to a family income
y