Jasper County Democrat, Volume 19, Number 104, Rensselaer, Jasper County, 28 March 1917 — "TO HELL WITH THE PEOPLE.” [ARTICLE]

"TO HELL WITH THE PEOPLE.”

; —. . We are not mincing words in this article, but .are stating facts exactly as we see them, without fear or favor. “To hell with the people” seems to be the attitude of both labor and capital. And, being of the people ourself, we , object. By the skin of our teeth we have just missed a disastrous railroad srike —missed it because the railroads themselves bowed to the demands of the brotherhoods as the country totters on the brink of actual War. The railroad executives declared they would fight to a finish befoie they would surrender to the demands of the brotherhoods. In turn the brotherhood chiefs sword they would paralyze the railroads of the country in order to- win their point.

In vain did the press and people of the country urge meditation, compromise, postponement, anything to avoid the calamity of a strike. But the pleadings of the people, the prospect of untold suffering, even the national danger itself, fell upon deaf ears. case of “to hell with' the people,’’ with both sides joining in the chorus. But when the emissaries of the President of the United States disclosed nthe national peril to the contestants, the railroad presidents threw „up their hands and granted the demands of the brotherhoods, granted them, because they knew the government would seize and operate the roads if they did not grant them. . t It will cost the roads approximately $100,000,000 a year, but this will not come out of the pockots of the railroad corporations. No, indeed! The people themselves will pay the freight in the shape of increased charges.

We are not "championing the ~ause of the railroads, j tter a»■•» wo deading the cause of the brotherhoods, but we art' asking for justice, or the people, for those who foot the $100,000,000 bill. But where that justice coming from we don’t know. Everywhere we turn it seems to be just a plain case, of ‘to hell with the people.” Capital disregards ’ them, labor disregards them, and even congress disregards them.—after the vote is cast.. ■ - __ Priees are mounting up by leaps and bounds. Living conditions are becoming intolerable, and no one seems able, to call a halt. We have a congress which is sent to Washington to make laws that will insure just and equitable treatment for all of our people—for tlm capitalist, the laborer, and for the ■people.” But congress shirks its plain duty. Apparently it does not even recognize that,a duty exists. It could regulate big business, ‘it could regulate the brotherhood? and other; organizations, It could fix maximum and minimum prices if it would. V But it don’t: It simply shoots hot air and hits nothing, and never intends to hit anything. It encourages the existing conditions by., its refusal to regulate. The favored ones win out and the people pay—as they have always done. One side or the other must give in, and since neither i 3 willing to pay the freight, the helpless people perforce must do the paying. And they do. And it will always be so until the people wake up to the fact that they are the masters and not the servants,' . W-": x