People's Pilot, Volume 4, Number 42, Rensselaer, Jasper County, 6 April 1895 — Oh, for Men With Backbones. [ARTICLE]

Oh, for Men With Backbones.

The railway managers are hastening government ownership of railways as rapidly as almost any other influence by their cruel and heartless blacklisting system, and their arbitrary methods of dealing with the public. Aa a sample of methods it is stated that the Great Northern railway requires applicants for position* on that line to fill out *

history of ’ffiefr past lives, stating when and where they have worked for several years previous, why they left their positions, and giving their height, weight, age, color of hair, eyes and eyebrows, distinctive marks, etc. In addition to this other roads require proof that the applicant is not a member of any labor union. You would not have thought a system of this kind possible a quarter of a century ago, and It was not thus, but it has gradually developed—crawled steadily upon the people as the snake crawls upon its victim, until to-day labor seems powerless to shake it oft. Why are you, railroad employe and other laboring men, in such toils, and why do you submit to such tyranny? Are you powerless? Certainly, unless you conclude to be m4n and not cringing serviles. You have permitted yourselves to be voted into present conditions and aided it by your votes, and now if you will not rise to the dignity of independent manhood, to the position of freemen, and undo the wrongs you are suffering by an intelligent use of the ballot you deserve to suffer, and you will suffer more than you are now undergoing. Oh, that men would think as they never have before. As you care for your wives and your children, in God’s name, and In the name of humanity, rise to the dignity of true manhood and assert your rights and cease to be slaves. Relief from galling oppression is at hand if men will only be men. Have we become a nation of men without backbones? It would seem so.