EDITORIAL PRINTA TRADES UNION THE RAILWAY CONDUCTOR, PUBLISHED MONTHLY AND ENTERED AS SECOND CLASS MATTER AT THE POST E. E. CLARK AND W. J. MAXWELL, Managers, Cedar Rapids, Iowa. E. E. CLARK, EDITOR. THANKSGIVING. Thankful Be thankful; 'tis better so. for our country, for our freedom, our homes, our loved ones, the sunshine, the showers, our pleasures, our work, our pains, our joys—yea, and our sorrows. Each phase and condition of life has its lessons and in none of them is there entire lack of reasons to be thankful. A spirit of thankfulness grows even as does a spirit of discontent; hard it is to think of a misfortune which might not have been worse. It is not best to forget our blessings and dwell continually on our adversities. Looking back at our mistakes and blunders is a good occupation if we do it in a spirit calculated to fortify us against a recurrence of them in the future; but if we look back only to regret, it would probably be better to be building air-castles for the future. If opportunity knocks at your door and you do not recognize the knock but let it pass by, do not think it has gone forever. Nay, nay, it will come again; perhaps not in the same guise, but in some guise it will surely come. Only wait and watch and work, depending not upon fate, but push. They who "Give every flying minute Something to keep in store-" need not fall back upon that spirit of discontent which makes "Opportunity" say, having once passed, "I answer not, and I return no more!" As a nation we should be thankful. We are at peace with the whole world. Our position in the family of nations is certainly one which should be gratifying to us all. Without egotism we may take to ourselves the feeling that the example of self-government which we are showing to the world is silently, surely, irresistibly penetrating the whole earth. The love of peace is spreading among all the nations of the earth and our President is looked upon as the great peacemaker. The general business prospects of the country were probably never better. For those who wish it, work was never more plentiful. We see gigantic frauds and a lamentable lack of commercial morality and civic virtue in many parts. of the country; but thankful we are that in those same localities there are men whose rugged honesty and superb mental endowments will clear out the rottenness and hold the malefactors up to public scorn. We are thankful that the cause of organized labor is making progress all over this country and other countries-thankful because it is right. Thankful that our own Order is making progress, a bulwark of right and strength in our field of action. Let us be thankful. IS THERE A WHOLESOME PUBLIC CONSCIENCE? So much is being said and written about graft, bribery and corruption of every kind, that really there is danger of it becoming so common that the general public will lose sight of the enormity of the crimes being committed against the present and future generations. It is entirely unnecessary to start to point out particular towns, cities or states, the same general symptoms are to be seen in all-symptoms of an awful deadening of the consciences of an alarming number of people all over the country. It is idle to say that the conditions being unearthed throughout the country are the result of some sudden change in the temperament, condition or thought of the people; such a condition must have been the slow insinuating creep of insidious evils to meet conditions which a more or less lax public scrutiny had allowed to become opportune. Generally A man speaking, people do not get good or bad almost seemed, in the last few years, that there was a feeling abroad in some of the big cities, where boodling was the rule rather than the exception, which almost amounted to a boast that their boodlers were the biggest, brassiest, freeest and most unique of any in the whole country. Indeed, such salutations as, "Hello, Bill! Have you bought any delegates today?" or, "What did the votes on that franchise cost you per?” “Were you in on that loop deal?" "What did it cost that big brewing company to get that street vacated by the city fathers?" "What did that manufacturing plant pay to get that spur track laid along that street up to their buildings?" would seem to indicate a general and constant pushing back of the “still, small voice." Or, as was said of one large city, "They are corrupt and satisfied." Such a condition could only be brought about by pitiful inefficiency in thought and work by the heads of the city government and petty graft and corruption in the ranks of those holding subordinate positions. This state of vulgar and low morality with its deteriorating influences has undoubtedly, in large measure, been transferred to private life to the end that many cities have come to a standstill in their progress and upbuilding. We know there are men, but they have been hard to find, who will tackle the difficulties of breaking with these conditions and supplying a zeal and honesty and a patriotism that has been sadly wanting. The thing hard to bring about, hard to make men see, is that the business of the public demands the same careful, watchful attention that a man would give to his own business. Surely there is no reason why this same spirit should not be demanded in all public service. Certain it is that the responsibility of poor public service rests primarily upon the people; nevertheless it is evident that the executor of such a trust or service may help or retard progress immensely and he owes it to himself and the future of the service to rise above all that is mean and sordid and apply himself to his great task with a feeling of thankfulness for the exceptional chance which has come to him to place his fellow citizens under lasting obligations and to satisfy himself with the consciousness of a duty well done. There is a wholesome public conscience in this country, but oftentimes it is hard to get it sufficiently aroused to suppress a growing evil. Quite recently Governor Folk of Missouri addressed the citizens of Philadelphia and we clip the following words from it which have a worldwide application and significance: "The most conspicuous fact of municipal governments in the United States today is that they are governments by the few and not by the people. There is more aggressive rottenness and less aggressive patriotism in our large cities than anywhere else. If the patriotism can be made as aggressive as the rottenness, the problem of good government would be solved by the people taking the government into their own hands. If corruption exists in Philadelphia the people are to blame; if corruption is to be eradicated the people alone can do it. "The fight you are making here is a battle which will be felt by every town, city and state in the land. The benefit of a victory for good government will be universal, and the evil effects of a defeat will demoralize those who believe in good government by the people. The average man does not appreciate the solemn duty he owes his city, his state and his country. "The moral revolution now sweeping over the land means the patriotism that comes from the heart, not from the head. Many men would be willing, if need be, to give up their lives for their city or state if they are needed sometimes, and this kind of patriotism cannot be too highly commended; but the man who is willing to live for his city and state every day is the man that is needed just now. There may be as much patriotism in giving one's time to the betterment of civic conditions and the election of good men to office and in purifying the ballot as in baring one's breast to the bullets of an enemy. There never was a time when the need for patriotic men in public affairs was greater than now. We need more men actuated alone by the public good and fewer of those who are in politics merely for revenue. "The strength of the lawless element is great, but it is as nothing when it comes in contact with a public conscience thoroughly aroused. The people can overthrow civic evil whenever they want to, and get just as good government as they deserve or as bad as they permit it to become. The law-abiding people are in the majority, and there is hardly a community in this country of which this cannot be said. They are usually quiet, however, while the lawless are so vociferous as to deceive many as to their number. They may bluff and bulldoze, but they are cowards, and if resolutely fought they can be overcome. They are always active, however, while the average good citizen becomes active only occasionally. The moral revolution that is now sweeping over the land is a revival of the rule of the people. Four years ago the laws against bribery in all of the states were considered as practically dead letters. Not because the offense was uncommon, but because it was uncommon for officials to be prosecuted for it. When the prosecutions were commenced in St. Louis, members of the house of delegates claimed that this bribery had been going on so long they were entitled to notice to quit before being prosecuted. Some of them argued that members of the house of delegates, having been taking bribes from time immemorial, had acquired a right to do so, and it was just as proper for them to sell their votes as for the merchant to sell his wares. Here was a crime worse than any other, for their offense violated the law, while bribery strikes at the foundation of all laws. Yet the law denouncing it was not enforced; bribery became the usual and expected thing all over the land; corrupt men feasted and fattened at public expense; laws became merchandise on the market, and all this time the public conscience was asleep. When the revelation came the people saw how they had been plundered, they saw the offense in all of its enormity, and from one end of the land to the other there was a civic awakening. "Any special privilege is a graft. Monopoly, even law-protected privileges are grafts, and should be hateful to every fair-minded citizen. Unless the spirit of civic righteousness now abroad in the land dies out, and there is no likelihood of that, we will pass from the sordid age of commercial into the age of high ideals. "A political party has no right to ask for support because it is that party, but because it stands for the right. If a political party cannot get votes on the ground of patriotism it has no right to ask for votes on the ground of partisanship. Under our form of government political parties are necessary, for it is through them they can come to agree ments on public questions and announce their principles and intentions, but political parties should be the servants of the people, not their masters. "I have spoken of corruption, bribery and grafting, using the terms as they are commonly used, synonymously. While the effect on the public may be as injurious from grafting as from boodling, there is a distinction between them. The boodler sells his vote and prostitutes his trust for bribe money contrary to law, but the grafter is not always a boodler. When those on the inside of any great financial concern divert the trust funds for their profit, that is a graft against the law; when a class of men have special privileges whereby they can prey upon the rest of the people, that is a graft that may not be against the law, and may even be protected by the law." ༢༦ THE CHICAGO RATE CONVENTION (S). If there is one characteristic of the American people which is more pronounced than another, it is the love of fair play a square deal-sympathy for the under dog. It does not make any particular difference whether this trait is to be expressed over a dog fight, a convention to nominate a mayor of a city, a governor of a state, a president of the United States, or the call for a rate convention-if each one gets a square deal the voice of the convention is usually taken to be about right and the different factions come into harmony. The invitation or notice sent out requesting delegates to assemble in Chicago to talk over rate revision contained no intimation that when the delegates assembled they would be required to bind themselves by a cast-iron agreement to do or not to do a certain thing, but upon getting to the convention hall they were told they would have to sign a statement pledging themselves favor the empowering of the Interstate Commerce Commission or some other federal body to fix railroad rates. A to large majority of the delegates objected to committing themselves without first having had a frank discussion of the questions involved. Now, that does not seem like an unreasonable feeling or demand-the ward politician sometimes shuts off opposition by declaring the question carried without hearing the negative side; but we submit that in a matter of so vital importance to the whole country, the proceeding was without justice, fairness or precedent. Indeed, this appears all the more glaring from the fact that the delegates who were shut out could by no stretch of the imagination be charged with being representatives of the railways; as a matter of fact, so far as we have seen, they were mostly representatives of business organizations. And further than this, there seems small doubt but what many of them held views on the question of rate regulation identical with those composing the Bacon convention, and still others held views with perhaps only shades of difference; so it seems that if a spirit of absolute fairness had pre vailed there would not have arisen the split in the delegates and two conventions. For our own part, it appears to us that the result of the rate convention is an unfavorable impression in the minds of the general public toward the Bacon convention, the one which stands unqualifiedly for the President's idea of placing rate regulation in the hands of the Interstate Commerce Commission or some other federal body. While the other convention declared just as unqualifiedly against conferring upon any administrative agency "the power to prescribe rates" in any case whatever, they are just as positive in their resolutions against other abuses practiced by the railroads as any one could wish. "They demand the rigid enforcement of present laws and the enactment of new ones if these be insufficient against all forms of discrimination, however effected, and they recognize the evils connected with industrial and private lines, arbitrary manipulation of classifications, unequal distribution of equipment, and so on. They call for changes in procedure and machinery calculated to do away with delays that defeat justice, and thus by implication repudiate the ridiculous assertion of overzealous railway advocates that the resources of American jurisprudence have already been exhausted for the benefit of shippers and producers." In our opinion it is not right or fair to impute undue haste, selfishness, egotism, bias or worse, to the members of either convention. That large numbers of men, regardless of occupation, may honestly disbelieve it to be a feasible, practicable thing to put into the hands of the Interstate Commerce Commission or any other political body the power to make railway rates and enforce them, is practically giving utterance of a truism. Those who have watched the exercise of power with which the Interstate Commerce Commission is already clothed; those who know with what deliberation and unsatisfactoriness government work is done compared with the same work done by private parties; those who see the very life-blood of the tremendous arteries of commerce menaced by any commission of political creation, have a right to voice their feelings and their fears on the subject; have a right, a duty, to warn their government of the disastrous and farreaching injury such an experiment would prove to this country. As a general proposition we do not believe that railroad rates in this country are too high-in fact, we know they are lower than any other country in the world; but that there exist manifold instances of inequalities in rates there can be no doubt, and that there exists a general feeling throughout the country that some tribunal ought to have power to regulate and adjust these inequalities is also certain. Looking at it in that light, the friends of rate regulation regard it as a measure making for commercial morality, for a square deal in transportation and consequently in trade. Indeed, it may be regarded as inevitable that some sort of governmental regulation will ultimately have to be exercised over all large aggregations of capital. Nor does this savor in the slightest degree of Government ownership, because we are heartily in accord with President Roosevelt when he says that he does not believe in Government ownership of anything which can with propriety be left in private hands, and in particular he says he should most strenuously object to Government ownership of railroads. "But I believe with equal firmness," he says, "that it is out of the question for the Government not to exercise a supervisory and regulatory right over the railroads; for it is vital to the well-being of the public that they should be managed in a spirit of fairness and justice toward all the public. Actual experience has shown that it is not possible to leave the railroads uncontrolled. Such a system, or rather such a lack of system, is fertile in abuses of every kind, and puts a premium upon unscrupulous and ruthless cunning in railroad management; for there are some big shippers and some railroad managers who are always willing to take unfair advantage of their weaker competitors, and they thereby force other big shippers and big railroad men who would like to do decently into similar acts of wrong and injustice, under |