Evening Republican, Volume 22, Number 137, Rensselaer, Jasper County, 11 June 1919 — SUBMIT PLANS OF GOVERNMENT RAIL OWNERSHIP. [ARTICLE]

SUBMIT PLANS OF GOVERNMENT RAIL OWNERSHIP.

Atlantic City, N. J., June 10.—A proposal that organized labor insist upon public ownership of the railroads of the country was submitted today to the delegate* attending the reconstruction convention of the American Federation of Labor by Glenn E. Plumb, counsel for the railroad brotherhoods. Representatives of the railroad workers received unanimous consent from the convention for Mr. Plumb to explain the plan, the salient principles of which have received their endorsement. The speaker’s statement that the ownership of the systems should be acquired ' immediately was greeted with prolonged applause. The Cheering was renewed when Mr. Plumb said that with the government substituting government tbonds for outstanding securities, the railroads would be “removed from the dictatorship of Wall street.” “Government ownership of the rail transportation system,” said the speaker, “would mean an annual saving in interest cost of from four to six hundred miMon dollars annually and probably would, permit a reduction of ten per cent in current transportation rates. The plan, as detailed by Mr. Plumb, proposes the ’'operation of the roads by a single corporation regulated and accountable to the government for all its acts and expenditures. “Such a corporation,” said the spokesman for the brotherhoods, “would require no capital.” “It should be organized under federal laws. It should be authorized to take and hold and operate these properties under the full regulatory power of the governmlent. It should be required to meet all costs of operation and fixed charges upon the capital employed, Which had been guaranteed by the government. A certain agreed percentage of the net results of operation should belong to it. The stock of this corporation should be held in trust for the benefit of the employes. J The earnings should constitute a trust fund to be declared as a dividend upon the amounts paid to the labor which it employes, every employe receiving that proportion of this trust fund which his annual wage bore to the Oittal annual compensation of all employes.