Montana labor news., 1938-11-03
MONTANA LABOR SUPPORTS 0'(0NNELL
AND ASSURES HIM OF THEIR SUPPORT
Resents Action of Railway Exec
utives Association of America
in Retracting O'Connell En-
d0rsement.

Prominent labor leaders and sub
scribers to Labor" in western Mon
tana are inflamed by the article
appearing in a current issue of that
magazine, which attempts to re-
pudiate former endorsements of
O'Connell by the different individ-
ual Railroad Brotherhoods. These
leaders, and many out of the rank
and file of labor, are expressing
their indignation at such tactics by
canceling their subscriptions to
'Labor"-and rightly so. These eff
forts r attempts to foist undeserv-
ing endorsements on a mar who is
unproven and has never done any
thing for the labor movement, by
executives of the Railroad Brother
hood, who base their stand upon the
fact that O'Connell voted against the
present Railroad Retirement Act as
passed by the last Congress. O'Con-
nell was not against the Railroad
Retirement idea; but he wanted,
when Congress was considering the
passage of such an act, to have it
pass n that would be of real merit
to the working man. He knows that
on any occasion many of our legis-
lators will vote for any compromise
measure that will temporarily dis
pose of hot labor questions" and
as a result Labor finds that it has
been merely kidded along once
more. O'Connell realized that this
bill was not adequate, was full of
technicalities and was not as salts
factory a bill as its real Labor sup
porters desired. For example, under
the present Retirement Act, there
are cases where men who have put
in thirty years of service now find
themselves unable to obtain pen
sions, due largely to "if' and
whereas" clauses and other techni-
c~alities which were Incorporated into
the present act as it was finally
passed. More power, then, to Jerry
O'Connell when he voted against
this bill, which as passed is a mere
sop thrown to Labor, and our rail
road men are just beginning to
realize that they did not receive
what they thought they were getting.
However, Montana Labor has been
completely satisfied with O'Connells
record, as legislator, railroad com
missioner, and congressman. There
is no need to constantly wire O'Con-
nell as to the stand labor desires
him to take. He already knows and
has always been right. Insidious
and treacherous actions within the
Labor movement, such as the action
of the Railway Executives Associa-
ton of America in attempting to re-
pudiate the O'Connell endorsements
already given, require no serious
thought to determine their source
or inspiration. Undoubtedly, the
forces of reaction, who are opposing
O'Connell, because of his strong pro-
gressive and labor record, have
found some way of influencing the
Railway Executives Association into
doing their bidding.
Nevertheless, some honest and
God-fearing labor officials are not
going to permit these traitors to have
everything their W way. James j.
Flynn, of Deer Lodge, a railroad
man, and chairman of the Railroad
Brotherhoods, told Congressman
O'Connell that "the rail unions in
Montana were solidly behind him
in his campaign for Congress, not
w~ithstanding reports to the con-
trary."
And under date of October IA,
1888, the following letter was sent
out over the signature of Mr.. A.. F.
Whitney, president of the Grand
Lodge, Brotherhood of Railroad
Trainmen, and it has eve been
retracted:
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