Jasper County Democrat, Volume 11, Number 31, Rensselaer, Jasper County, 19 September 1908 — SARGEANT ON TAFT. [ARTICLE]

SARGEANT ON TAFT.

He Declared that Judge Taft Remanded Workingmen to a Servitude as Degrading as the Spartans Imposed Upon Their Helots.

Last week Mr. Frank P. Sargeant died. In 1893 he was Grand Master of the Brotherhood of Locomotive Firemen when Judge Taft “reduced railroad trainmen to machines to do the bidding of a master.” Here are some extracts from an article written by Mr. Sargeant about the decision by Judge Taft that was a grievous wrong:

“If a judge of the United States court [he was discussing Judge Taft’s decision] may abolish this right of an employe, he remands him, unequivocally, to a servitude as degrading as the Spartans imposed upon their helots, and it is this phase of the strike which has aroused such intense concern and alarm. “It will not be expected that I should enter upon a discussion of the legal points involved; at best I can only voice the sentiments of a body of law-abiding men who have been trained by their organizations to respect laws and the decisions of courts, and who find themselves suddenly reduced to the condition of peonage by tiie decision of a United States judge.”

“It is asserted that railroads beeo*ue common carriers, but are unable to perform their obligations without men. They must have men. and It -should be stated they must have engines, fuel, water, steam, etc. The locomotives and equipments ca* be purchased and become the property of the road, but they are useless without men, and these, once seevred, the general manager, speaking as if by authority, intimates that they become fixtures, because, without them, as without engines, the obligations of the railroads cannot be performed: such is the newfangled logic relied upon to reduce railroad trainmen to machines, to do the "bidding of masters with authority conferred by a United States judge. In at least one notable instance a United States Judge has shown his utter contempt for a sovereign state and the laws made in conformity with the constitution, and has sent county officials to prison because they would not disregard their oaths and obey his mandate —and it will readily be conceded, If snch a high-handed outrage can be periietrated and the judge remain unimpeached, that a judge may, with equal impunity, subject railroad employes to autocratic indignities.”

“But it so happens that while men debate such propositions, embodying self-evident truths, the court, with an iron grip, holds freemen in bondage, and the victims are as powerless as when, under another exhibition of power, men were sold at the auction block.”