The producers news. [volume] (Plentywood, Mont.) 1918-1937, 1929-09-06
Friday, September E, 1929
A TWENTY BILLION GIFT FOR
THE RAILROADS


We herewith publish resolution passed NV th
End annual convention of the Montana State FED
ration of Labor recently held in Billings condemn
lg the Saint Louis-Fallon decision, offspring o
he Esch- Cummins Bill, which inflated the valu
+ railroads to the tune of $2O,OOOOOO,O OO The in
1uitous Esch- Cummins Bill was supported an
oteof Tor by Senator T. j. Walsh of Montana, tn
friend of the people," The reso
ution was submitted by James Anderson who rer
esented the Helena Trades and Labor Council a
he convention. The inevitable consequence of thi
nflation will be a kting of railroad rates and a
sual the burden will have to be borne by tn
PRODUCERS, the workers in the factories and tn
illers of the soil.
Whereas, experience has clearly de-
monstrated that public officials, locally
and nationally, charged with the duty of
regulating rates and character of SER
vice of public utility proprietors are SER
wants of such proprietors and not of the
people, and,
Whereas, laxity in the enforcement of
regulatory laws, applicable to railroads,
hydro-electric power, telephone and other
public utilities, operate materially to the
detrlment of the great mass of American
people, while laxity in the enforcement of
prohibition laws affect comparatively only
few in number, and,
Whereas, publicity agents have success
fully obscured violations of antitrust
laws, by their principals, the trusts and
mOnopClists, through method of devot-
ing countless columns and pages to the
liquor question, to sports, divorce, MUIR
der and screen; to editorializing both
news and fiction by Interpolation of decep-
tive jOkers, and generally to subject mat
ter that misleads the unsuspecting reader
who might otherwise display a degree of
intelligence, when expressing an opinion
III matters of everyday concern, and,
Whereas, the greater the ability of pub
fishers to obscure data of economic import
ance, the greater will be the struggle of
organized labor, and,
Whereas, the Importance of the Esch-
Cummins Bill and its off-springs, the re-
cent Saint Louis-OFallen decision, and
the scheme of railroad consolidation, are
and have been, designedly, obscured by
the press, and,
Whereas, the Saint Louis O'Fallon deci-
sion, the most radical of all radical de-
partures, has created from nothing, an in
crease of railroad valuation equal to
twenty billion dollars, and,
Whereas, the said twenty billions of
dollars, to be added to an already inflat-
ed valuation, did not represent one dollar
of investment on the part of the railroad
owners; nor was the employment of a
working man, for single day, required,
and,
Whereas, to compensate the said twenty
billions ($2O,OOO,OOO,OOO) of initiation all
railroad rates must, at least be doubled,
and will be as traffic is found able to
bear the increase, and,
Whereas, the sufferers of increased
railroad rates must of necessity, be the
masses of the American people, the work
ing people, and in particular, all members
of organized labor, and,
Whereas, the application of the Great
Northern and Northern Pacific permitting
consolidation of these roads has not vet
been granted, be it
RESOLVED: That this convention again
assert its opposition to mergers, and. on
behalf of organized labor there be given
expression of disapproval of all procedure
that eliminated in the ultra-radical. in
lquitous, unfair and unjust Saint Louis
O'Fallon decision, and be it
RESOLVED: That effort be made TO
give this resolution the widest possible
publicity.