The Indianapolis times. [volume] (Indianapolis [Ind.]) 1922-1965, 1926-07-10
WANTED-A MANI!

Certainly somewhere in this city is a man who
has the courage and the vision to lead a movement
to settle the controversy between the street car
company and "a large portion of it's workers.
There is but one issue in this matter and one
cause Of trouble.
That is the question Of wages.
Satisfied men do not strike and quit their JOBS
at the urge of organizers for unionism.
Any effort to say that the trouble was caused
by ~agitators from abroad is, on its face, false.
If these men who struck are chronic pessimists.
all wrong, all disturbers, the fact could be easily
demonstrated by an inquiry into the wage scale paid
BY the company. These men get from 81 to AZ
cents an hour.
The street car management Is wrong when II
says that it pays the wages Of these men.
The wages of these men, the wages of the men
who are now on duty, that 50 a day bonus being
given to them, come from the people who ride the
street cars
It is the people who ride these cars who
must be interested in knowing whether they entrust
their lives and safety to men who are being paid
less than a decent wage, less than it requires for
them to live in decency and responsibility.
The company merely collects the wages for the
men, along with other money that it collects for div
idends and the operation Of it's lines.
One thing alone is certain.
The men and women who ride the cars do not
~ H4As ~ A10O "AA ANHo@
have less than a decent wage.
The policy of the company to crush these men
through arrogant use of the police force is not the
right or decent way to settle this question!
Any policy of the men to terrify the people of
this city by violence, driving them from the cars
through fear, is an even worse mistake.
Turning the police force into Cossacks to terrify
the workers never settles such a question.
Bolshevism, through dynamite caps and bricks,
Is not the way to get justice.
1t might seem that in all this city there would
be one man Of such outstanding integrity and sense
Of Justice to whom both the company and these
men would trust their cause.
One man of such character could lead the senti.
ment of this city to a peaceful and a permanent set
tlemenk
One man could organize a group of public spr-
tied men to investigate all the conditions, If the pub
lie service commission refrains from action, and
tell the people who ride these cars whether they are
under the care of men who are underpaid.
Or it could tell them that they are paying a fair
wage for such service and that the protest is, with
out merit and without justice.
This strike is not a private war between the
company and these employees, despite the fact that
the company attempts to make It such by an as
sumption that the men who went on strike are no
longer its employees.
II these men were justified in their demands, it
will be but a short time until men who may replace
them will feel the same pressure.
If they were not justified, the company, through
advertisement of its fairness, will have no trouble
in securing all the competent, men it needs to run
the cars.
Where is the man who can and will organize an
impartial and fair inquiry into the real causes and
the real conditions?
Surely indianapolis has such a citizen if he will
but act.