Oklahoma Leader (Oklahoma City, Okla.), Vol. 2, No. 294, Ed. 1 Monday, July 24, 1922 Page: 6 of 6
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Editorial
Oklahoma Leader
Features
OKLAHOiMA LEADER
Published erery day eicept Sunday by Tb« Oklahoma I.ead r Co.
BEHOLD HIS POWER
Oscar Ameringer /
Dan Hogan v
lohn Hagel ••
SUBSCRIPTION RATES
By Mail:
One Year
3lx Months
Threa Months • • • • • • •; * *
17 West Third Street, Oklahoma City. Okla.
P O Box 777. Telephone Maple 7600
Entered a, second claai mall matter June 1 1918. at the Fo.tofflce
at Oklahoma City, Oklahoma, under the Act of March 3.
Editors
Bualness Manager
..54.00
. .$2.00
. .$1.00
STEAMING UP A BLIND ALLEY
You can't carry a bushel of potatoes in a peck measure.
And you can't net high dividends and interest, low freight
and passenger rates, and living wages, all at the same time, I
out of privately owned railroads. It is simply an impossibility.
In the nature of things, a privately owned public utility
keeps increasing its stock and its bonds. It never pays off
a red cent of its indebtedness—not without issuing new bonds
and more of them.
A muck-raker once announced that the formula for get-1
ting rich quick was to buy the stock of a railroad that was
flat on its back, pour another lake of water into it by issuing
additional stock and bonds, and let nature do the rest.
This formula was used many a time in the "good old
days" when the railways were rich picking, and when the |
natural growth of a community through which a road ran j
would enable it to pick up and get on its feet again when
it was flat.
Those days are nearly over, but the increasing of stock
and bonds continues. The stupendous railroad debt rises.
The amount of stock on which dividends must be paid in-
creases. The amount of bonds on which interest must be
paid likewise increases.
These tremendous sums must be got from somewhere.
From whom can they be taken except from the users of
railways, in the form of high freight and passenger rates—
and from the railway workers in the form of starvation
wages?
The workers can't live on starvation wages. When wages ■ be better off than five years ago is
go below the dead line, they have to strike. There is no other j responsible for deception of the pub-
__;,ro+A mmorahin He- A fair statement would have been
way—under private ownership. that the dttclslon leave8 the railroad
Thus the roads have run into a dead end. So long as j men with a lower purchasing power
private ownership continues, this situation must, in the Ion* ■ 1 "UI"y brol"<ht *bout by the e"rclse
ORGANIZED !
POLITICAL
CONTROL
0N6RE.55
UNORGANIZED
r
Cripples Labor's Consuming Power
TIMELY AND UNTIMELY OBSERVATIONS
By Adam C'oaldlgger, In The Illinois Miner.
Shooting Always Dangerous
The Worst of All Passions.
"No," to Henry Ford.
Welcome Ornithorhynchus
By AitTH IH UKISBAHE
AMONG US EDITORS
When I first read Brother Taft's decision 011 the Coro-
nado case I swelled up with pride for my distinguished fellow
author. Not that I like the decision itself, but as a writer I
couldn't help admiring its clean cut logic and clear literary
. . style.
Ordering troops for settlement 01
the railroad strike is delayed. That Now comes a lawyer iriend and shows me a copy of the
is encouraging. Soldiers are used to Taff-Vale decision and I'll be durned if the Coronado decision
shoot, and to shoot workers, of .
course. Owners are never within <ion t look like its twin brother .with the monocle left off.
gunshot when trouble comes. Like all great writers, I have done my share of literary
Shooting is dangerous, ror you .... J
shoot more than bullets into a crowd ipiitering. But, goodness me, 1 never dreamed that a Supreme
sometimes. You shoot class con- Judge would use shears and paste pot in laying down the
sclousness, class hatred and resolu-, r *
tion into men s minds. 1,dW to the free citizens of this great country.
Shooting Is out of date. They un-
derstand that In England and some
other countries.
There is nothing involved In these
strikes except dollars. There Is no
reason for shooting. Government can
:ramrir!Lr"sa;m'Un™i°n:.s; bears the following leegnd in bold black type
on being shot, if they feel that they
re yetting fair. Judicial treatment.
Firm government'
sided.
Yes, but not lop-
Of all the pnssions that Inhabit,
disturb and twist tit human minds,
the wort Is jealousy. It burns like
fire, as the Dlble says, generating in
tensity of hatred that nothing else
can produce, and a poison that burns
into the brain.
Beware of the person, bitterly jeal
However, a fellow shouldn't be too hard on Brother Taft
since Brother Searles has made the momentous and exclusive
discovery that the Coronado decision is in favor of Labor.
On top of page three of the issue of June 15, the Journal
UNITED
STATES SUPREME COURT DECIDES THE CORONADO
CASE IN FAVOR OF UNITED MINE WORKERS OF
AMERICA."
Whoever is responsible for the
statement that after the new reduc-
tions in wages railway employes will
passed over their outspoken protest, the confidence and co-operatiou of
After it had become law, the labor ! the men could be made. The only
board was not even created until the possible plea is that a strike might
wage Issue had become so acute that j not be successful and even thin I ear
widespread "outlaw" strikes forced will diminish with the approach of :i
In all the history of crime there
is nothing more awful than the story
that comes from Los Angeles.
the government to offer relief to the
men.
Labor's Status Declines.
Since this initial action, so obvi-
for certain classes of maintenance
workers, thus bringing about a prac-
tical nullification of the eight-hour
day. Such decisions against labor
have been promptly put into effect
by the managements. But decisions
in which the board sought to main-
tain the previous status of the men
run, grow worse. The very nature of private ownership makes
this inevitable.
For the first few years, public ownership, when achieved,
will not be one long sweet song. The colossal burden that
will be dumped upon the public—inherited from private own-
ership—can only be thrown off gradually, not all at once.
From the beginning, however, the debt can be reduced.
Each passing year will see an improvement. And when at
last the terriffic effects of the inefficiency of private owner-
ship shall have been completely discarded, good wages and __ , , ,,. ...
H ... l hi u i many treacherous difficulties Invol- have been largely evaded. Roads
ridiculously low freight and passenger rates will be simul- ved In attempting to justify wage re under federal receivers have obtaln-
taneous ductlons on the basU of statistical ed legal Immunity from the authority
c • 1 comparisons with th-i movement of [ nf the board.
retail prices. What base ought o be
WICKED NORTH DAKOTA. X. wl'i
. marked the beginning of the great
It had been conservatively estimated that if the entire and'in'the'calie bMhe^aT,™.!
wheat crop of North Dakota could be converted into flour by workers, as of many iherr. the pur-
chasing power of wages was lowor
then than in previous years. Au-
thoritative statistical studivs snow
that real wages if both railroad and
industrial employes reached their
of the economic power of organized
of 15)17. In 1917 prices of food and i labor, the status of railway employes
other necessities were soaring, while has become steadily worse under the j Present strike^ called,
wages had not yet gone far on their regime of the transportation act and * ' ~ ' *
arduous climb. It Is the worst pos- the labor board. Wages hatfe been
slble base that could be chosen, from reduced twice. Punitive overtime
the point of view of the men If one after eight hours has been abolished
tak^s account not only of wage rates
but also of the volume of employ-
ment, which was high in 1917 and is
now low. It is doubtful whether the
railroad men were much worse off
even in 1917.
Heal Wages Never High T.nougli.
TJiis is an example of one of tho
many treacherous difficulties invol
shortage and of the season for the
movement of crops.
Government Must Act.
There is just one heroic measure
which might avert lie trouble, al-
though it is now probably ♦oo late
(This article was wr.tten before ths
Editor
Leader.) even for this to be effective.
The wage reduction Is"not by any
means the largest cause of dissatis-
faction; it furnishes merely the last
of a long series of grievances. If the
government could exercise its influ-
ence—or even possibly .ts authority
—to induce recalcitrant railroad
managements to accept in good faith
and to carry out dec U Iona ot the rail-
road labor board in matters of work-
ing conditions, and IC it could restore
the 8-hour day, the workers might be
sufficiently placated to lay aside th«
only weapon which in the past they
have found effective. One thinp is
certain—unless the government does
The Pennsylvania railroad has by j take action, any attempt on its part
federal injunction prevented the , to use influence or authority in sup
board from censuring It for disooey- 1 port of the labor board's wage de-
ing an important ruling. Roads hav<- cision will be Justly laughed to scorn.
I confess this revelation almost staggered me—almost as
badly as the Coronado decision itself. But everybody to his
own taste as the hired girl said when she kissed the cow.
And if Brother Taft is the friend of labor Brother Searles
w. Baisu. i j makes him out to be, and as he ought to be seeing that he is a
ous, whose hatred is turned toward
i member of the Steam Shoveler's Union, then I hope he'll find
you. Beware doubly when tnat per- a few more good decisions like that while sojourning in the
i is a woman. ^ , jo
mother country.
No doubt there are quite a number of laws tucked away
,*n British museum, which were enacted in the time of
married women was jealous of a 22-. King Arthur and which would help Brother Taft in writing
year-old widow. She took a friend j future decisions.
with her, called on the young widow, _ '
took her driving in the widow's car. j 1 ne English have no more use for them, anyhow, and by
n a quiet spot she asked her to stop j brushing them up a little they could easily be made to fit in
'in,'' l.?lk | with contemporary American labor legislation.
"Did my husband give you that j •
wrist watch? Did he buy those new i
tires on your car?"
The answer was not heard. The
angry wife drew a hammer from un-
the groun'^Vractured**her' skull* t \ f /he Chicago Journal of Commerce is clamoring for a
half a dozen places with repeated state police, patterned after the cossack army of New York
blows of the hammer. When the and Pennsylvania. As an inducement it points out that the
friend she had brought along ran , , , . .
away she saw the infuriated woman ' constabulary o. these two happy commonwealth has
kneeling by her victim, pounding the made over 22,000 arrests in 1917, 92 per cent of which were
I railroad
the state the saving to the producers of wheat and the con-
sumers of flour would be not less than $60,000,000 annually.
With the laudable purpose of saving this money, which
had been going in profits to the grading thieves, the specu- peak in 1896. and uave shown >• do
lators and the milling trust, they set about the business of ^othfr'^ononHe 'stjdles indlcat
buving grain and manufacturing flour by establishing the State reu| wanes uavo never been high i|r"cticed w|th impunity. Noithc- tho
Mill J L<I . r- Tn. u j .1 enough to meet a family budget government nor the ; ubllc '—which
Mill and ^levator Company. They began modestly. whlrj; „,p united atftes department 's «PP*rently another name for the
The state purchased a seventy-five barrel a day mill at of labor describe as the "minimum °' ''J * ®,ed 1'!'!1"' v7"l
hi , . . | Q(| . ... ,i . * i * u of health and decency." They .jhow i ers bas made any noticeable piotest
Drake which made 83 per cent profit on the total purchase thnt whlle ren| i,aVf been de against such destruction of the uu-
price in the first 111 days of its operation. Then the industrial clinlng. the productivity per man of 1 hority of the board.
• . „ . .. 4 ~ i u: i 4 railroads and manufacturing e.stab- These developments have been
commission distributed the profits by paying higher prices to UahmentB has been increasing. Thus pricking the railroad workeis into a
the farmers for wheat and making lower prices to the con- while the total income to be Jtstri-, rising frenzy of resentmeni for the
i? j rr>\ -j ,buted has been growing, in part as past two years. Close observers be-
sumers of flour. hey paid, on an average, cents more a a consequence of the efforts of these lieve not only that the returns on tho
bushel for wheat than other mills, and (lour was sold from workers, their share of that total strike ballots will show an overwhel-
has been diminishing. It is difficult tnin*; majority in favor of authoriz-
farmed out shop work to non-union
econtractors who did not maintain
conditions prescribed by the board,
and although the board has denounc-
ed this practice, there ..ems to be no
way to prevent it.
No Check on Kailroads.
Numerous other evasions of tho
transportation act In the Interest ; countr}.. „e htta lntroduced a bill.
nag«mei>ts have been . '
—The New Republic.
RKWARI) PROFITEERS.
Senator Elklns of West Virginia
has introduced in the senate one of
themost boldfaced assaults on the
treasury ever attempted by political
highwaymen in the history of the
WANTS A STATE CONSTABULARY
f.llowed by convictions.
Well, what about it?
50 cents to $1 per barrel less than other mills charged. The lndeeU to eip,llln lh, wagfc roJm.-|inB dire* action, bu- also that the
bran and shorts were sold for $7.50 per ton less than the tlons on any principle to which tho i feeling behind the voi«- will be cko in
price charged by private concerns.
term "justice" can be applied. tense that the officials will nor. be
Complicated economic argument, able to disregard it without enaan
Opponents of the Nonpartisans have stressed the fact win not induce men 10 accept wage Bering both their own prestige and
cuts cheerfully when they know b> , the very existence of the orgaulza-
experience they have not enough to tion. If the official^ do not sanction
live on. People who want the i all - « walkout the men aie likely to pro-
road men to accept these reductions ceed without official support. It is
are not really moveJ by tre argil- j difficult to imagine Wiiat a leader
ments they advance. They art rc- could say in this situation if he were
a strikf an ]
pense of a serious stoppage of ' wisned to prevent it. I here does not
transportation. They really believt seem to be a single valid argumen
either that reductions of
rates are politically evpedient or (hat
they will assist .1 business recovery.
But these people do not wish "at**
adjustments to be nv.de at tlu ex-
pense of the capital ir vested in the
railroads. For such .. resu't inigh*
lead to railroad bankruptcy and ail-
ad bankruptcy would be fatal to
nitrship and oper-
on the basis of which an appeal t
that an audit of one year's operation of the mill showed a
loss of $17,000. But every other flour mill in the state showed
losses from the same cause, to-wit: the sudden drop in the
price of wheat caused by the memorable deflation brought
about by the federal reserve banks. Moreover, the state mill a"y afraid of the Inconvenience and jncerely opposed m
v,,r expense of a serious stoppaaeof wished to prevent it. .
was not operated for profit, ami for this reason did not have
a reserve or surplus: but nothing occurred to prevent con-
tinued operation, and this loss is being absorbed and will
finally be entirely wiped out.
Indeed, the experiment with the small Drake mill was
so satisfactory that work on the big :i,000-barrel-a-day mill
at Grand Forks has been pushed to completion, and will be
ready to take care of a large portion of the 1922 crop, and this '"ivll'e railroad
work is being done in spite of the stubborn opposition of the Knvor N.tlonallird Heads.
milling trust. Eventually the whole of the wheat crop of """ ''ut,"tl011 ls- wtn ,he men
...;n u ,. . , . ,, . . themselves be moved by the same
North Dakota will be manufactured in that state and the considerations, and is it reasonable
enormous profits of the wheat buyers and millers, amounting ,0 the™ o t>; he moved? They
to $60,000,000 per year, will be transferred, in savings, from
the pockets of the plunderers to the growers of wheat and
the consumers of flou:\
This, in the estimation of the Daily Oklahoman, and
Messrs. Wilson and Owen, is very bad. It is bad for every-
body except the people of North Dakota, all of whom eat
known as senate file 2193, directing
the secretary of the treasury to re-
fund upon application the amounts
paid as fines to persons, partner-
ships and corporations convicted of
violation of the Lever act, which
prohibited monopoly control and
profiteering in necessities during the
war.
The next step of the Old Guard
should be to grant congressional
medals of honor to all 1,000 per cent
aar profiteers. Senator Klkins be-
longs to that large group of con-
gressmen who ought to be elected
dead woman's head with a huge
stone.
That is a picture from the stone Well, what about it? Suppose they arrested and con-
aue, a picture of jealousy. It has victed twice or ten times that number of evil doers. The only
not changed In a hundred thousand:. '
years. [important question is: Does a state constabulary reduce crime?-
—— I Are life and property safer in states where there is such a
Henry Ford's offer to purchase _rti- ^ ,, . . . , , , , „
Muscle Shoals and use the power to! P0lIce than ln states where no such force exists ?
make cheap fertiliser for farmers is! If the "Journal" can prove that a smaller per cent of
coSueeVaVtenoaf,eD uf^eHhe,' People murd"ed or robbed in New York and Pennsylvania
senate nor administration wanted than in IllinomB, for instance, this would constitute a strong
Ford to have that plant. Fertilizer argument in favor of a state police.
makers didn't want him to have it. , u „
Various other interests didn't want However, the Journal modestly retrains from producing
him to have it. and apparently he; comparative crime statistics. If it did, these would show that
WONT have it tjle s^e constabularies of New York and Pennsylvania did
All is for the best, doubtless, not reduce crime.
This decision by the senate will put
Henry Ford into politics with a ven-
geance, and make some republican
senators and others do a good deal
of thinking around election time. It
is desirable that all citizens should
be deeply Interested in their govern-
ment.
New York's zoo now possesses a
living ornithorhychus paradoxus,
sometimes called a duck-billed platy-
pus.
This creature, a link connecting
birds and mammals, has a bill like
a duck, four legs and a body like a
beaver. It lays eggs, and after they
are hatched, it suckles its young like
any other mammal.
As a matter of fact, the percentage of crime has risen
since the establishment of the state constabulary in these
states.
Thero is but one function in which a state police force
excels and that is «s a strike breaking agency. And that, of
course, is the only reason why the Journal is advocating their
establishment in Illinois.
WHY THE DIFFERENCE?
It Is an Intensely nervous animal.
WHEN DEATH COMES"
are, of course, members of the gen-
eral community, and anything which
affects the welfare of the community
affects their welfare. They are, like
the railroad manager.* i.nd owuera
subject to the transportation act, and
the wage cut was made in the course
of (he normal procedure established
by the law. If the men believed that
private owne
, i, j At . ' tl,e railroads were in the general in-
objected to the law ^hat compelled them to grade the grain terest. if they santioned tr •nsp'-rta-
the farmers grew, honestly and fairly. That was an undue I !,on HCt- and Jf th<>> fc,t thHt 11 hiu1
• i c -ii av • - I in , , l,een we" and Justly administered
interference with their privilege, and the Oklahoman and they might be expected as loyal citi-
zens to accept the sacrifice now ask-
| ed of them without resorting to a
strike, although they have an appar-
ent legal right to stop work.
reason is that it will compel the friends of that paper and .lul'triai'plm'e'^however' thecal!™".
these candidates to quit robbing the people, which is also why Inen believe none of these things
every honest man and woman in the state should support, vig- 't'iey
orously and enthusiastically, Mr. Walton and his associates , utterly opposed the return of the
on the League ticket. to "'elr. •>rlv""' "w"ers after
« the war. The transportation act was
Messrs. Wilson and Owen are pretending to object to tho
Farmer-Labor Reconstruction League and its program be-
cause they say it is socialistic, but the real and the actual
By RALPH CHAPLIN
(For The Federated Press)
IfeButy and joy. I've had too much of both
To grovel now for life's last meager crumbs,
Cringing and bent.
I want to face death boldly when she comes,
With all my powers flaming and unspent;
Still fertile with the seeds of future growth
And discontent.
I would not have my heart beat overlong
And Mutter weakly to its final rest.
Withered and cold;
I want to feel it beat within my breast,
A wild, clean thing unsullied and unsold,
I'ulsing with ecstacies of unborn song
As it did of old.
When death comes I would greet her as a bride
And read the strange enigma of her glance
, And understand—
Still young enough to smile and take a chance,
I want to bring her gifts—to hold her hand:
Thrilling with dreams.—and saunter at her side
Into a <|uiet land.
A Kansas City press dispatch announces:
T. Huntington and Thomas Hlllery, president and secretary-
treasurer respectively of Local 11 of the Federated Shops Crafts
were arrested at Topeka, Kansas. Saturday for violation of the anti-
strike provision of the Kansas Industrial Court Law. This is the
same clause under which Alexander Howat, August Dorchy and
other Kansas mine workers are now imprisoned.
Huntington and Hlllery both signed the call for the shopmen
to go out In the Santa Fe shops at Topeka. The court obtained
copies of the call signed by the men and there is no doubt that they
will serve jail sentences for the part they played In the strike un-
less labor ln Kansas uses direct action to smash the Industrial
Court I-i'.v. Sentiment is growing daily for a complete stoppage of
work in Kansas until the law Is repealed. In case one strike should
not win there are plans to call a series of intermittent strikes ;ind
also to appeal to workers outside Kansas to Inaugurate a boycott
against Kansas products.
In view of the above, let us ask the pertinent question,:
or a professional's game. John Black, l\Vhy are the provisional ofticers of District 14 not molested?
short legged, plainly dressed Scotch
carpenter from California, holds the How does it come that the law is only enforced against
low score in the bl^ Skokie tourna- ^Qjyjg people?
ment as this is written. His trado . .
and the wonderful climate ot ("alitor- Or can it be that the provisional government has earned
nia have both helped him. He made immunity from the law by assisting the coal operators and
the first 18 holes in 71. the second ' ° ^
18 holes In 71. He can do the s«mn Governor Allen in getting rid of Alex Howat?
thine overuid over ir exactly the |
to stay at home. Locomotive Engl- i an(j wm cxhlbted only one hour
neers Journal. ; (jay jt js no more nervous than
' " w. J. Bryan will be after he looks
STKA1NKI) >11 Sir. ;lt it for a little while, and revises
The organist at Gloucester cathed- his views on evolution.
ral declares that the present vogue Here's an animal, greatly admired j
of wearing hair "over the ears is re- by Darwin, a mammal at both ends, I
sponsible for a lot of poor singing. ' and a bird in the middle where its j
His opinion is open to criticism, but eggs are manufactured. Explain that j
it is generally admitted that it would if you can, Mr. Dryan.
be better if some singers wore the
hair over their mouths instead.—Eve Golf isn't exclusively a rich man's
(Iiondon.)
same way. that is tbe secret of golf.
It's a good game, because it com-
pels you to control yourself physi-
cally A better fame 'vouid compel
you to control yourst.f mentally but
nobody has Invented tnat.
(iOOI) NEWS
"You can bet your life we use gas," said Admiral Sims in
a recent interview with a representative of the Associated
thefS?oTchTrWn° ef(™mhcal.fo!nCla: 11ress" "Ga8'" hc declartd. "is n(,t the inhuman method of war-
plays golf, read this complete de- fare that it generally is believed to be. The general impres-
tMni'Tole'3°4TyariTrnn ^U^rov'r !sio" that the use of 15118 was so '"human was caused by Allied
into a hunker. Then with , mashii ; propaganda when the Germans used it," he said.
m o!i 11°Uihe hi'll'n"^ hThahr«lgol°fUt' Well, that's cheering, for we understand that a consider-
The strange part is thnt uiaci. able amount of gas bombs have been manufactured and are
plays It In long "pants." witnoui jstored away for use in labor troubles.
fancy golt stockings. . . , .
And most ot us have an ambition to make nice looking
corpses.
EVERYBODY GONE
A Jewish telegraphic agency
a shocking story from VHna.
mounted men invading th«* Jewish j
quarter, driving Jews Into the vna-
gngue, where they \> re iwvcil ssl>
beaten, then plundering tin r. houtei
From Palestine -onus a disturbini A Springfield paper says "All our best people have eone
report of Arab Agitation, lac report ., ,, r * ® "
describes the Arabs as "worked up to to thp summer resorts.
a pitch of frenzy" i« their 'eslie t.. Yes, and while our "best" people have gone fishimr our
attack the Jews. Tiio have ti ec tare* I «, , ., .....
a general strike ng .mst the Pales- worst People are paving the streets ol Springfield.
tine mandate, only the Bilf'sh sol Wonder who wjuld do the paving if the "worst" people
I had gone fishing, too?
rs held them
♦hp ton
they intuum-
. > * '
•i -r '^
\ V V - '/
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Ameringer, Oscar & Hogan, Dan. Oklahoma Leader (Oklahoma City, Okla.), Vol. 2, No. 294, Ed. 1 Monday, July 24, 1922, newspaper, July 24, 1922; Oklahoma City, Oklahoma. (https://gateway.okhistory.org/ark:/67531/metadc100081/m1/6/: accessed March 19, 2024), The Gateway to Oklahoma History, https://gateway.okhistory.org; crediting Oklahoma Historical Society.