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Show THE CITIZEN 7 RAILWA YS AND REVOLUTION who will make the laws of if I may but write its said an astute propagandist LET songs' . of a slow-goin-g age. Were the gentleman alie today he probably would strike out the last three won and present the epigram thus Let who will make the laws of a country if I may but control its railroads. Now that the railways have gone back to private management under limited federal control a menace which was suspended over us like the fabled sword of Damocles has been removed at least temporarily. In France( where the government owns the railways, the menace still exists. Many sincere men who believe firm-- t ly in our form of government and have no use for soviet tyrannies no doubt still favor federal ownership or even the Plumb plan by which the roads would be nationalized a la Bolshevik!. The extreme radicals they who seek the overthrow of our repre- sentative government and the supremacy of Leninism are for federal or nationalized control to a man. Why? Because the forces of revolution can g control the destiny of a nation by . con-trolin- the railroads. Had the government handed the railways back to an extreme private ownership and control such as prevailed thirty years ago the railroad men stockholders, managers and employes would be able to form a bloc irresistible in politics. But in transferring the roads from government to private management our lawmakers have sought to balance the control as between the public, the employers and employes in such a manner as to protect the rights of all. That it is an experiment, everyone will admit. nowadays begins the seizure of railways, as in Russia, or a nationwide and railway strike as in England France. Railways and revolution are insep-- . arably linked. The reasons are not far to seek. In the days when a trip from Paris to Strassburg required more than a week revolutions were won by writing a song such as the Marseillaise and by dominating the situation in Paris. Today revolutionists must begin by dominating the railways and letting the song writers bring up the rear. Our own radicals have been just as keen to see the necessity of controlling the railroads. Twice or thrice in the last few years they have almost succeeded in launching revolution through the medium of a nationwide strike on the railroads. A revolution of the old style could not triumph unless the majority of the people were in favor of it. Even the domination of Paris did not mean a successful revolution, for that domination lasted only until the rest of the country awoke, however slowly, REVOLUTION new barricades were erected, new songs were sung and a new government went into power. A revolution of the new style begins by commandeering the railways because the railways" are the means by which food, fuel and raiment are distributed. The blockade is just as important as it ever was in the strategy and tactics of war. The distinctive difference is one of degree. In the olden times armies and navies blockade cities; now they blockade nations. have several million railway WEemployes in this country and perhaps a majority of them are rather taken with the Plumb plan and have not the slightest suspicion that, at the heart of it, is revolution. But the radicals are not deceived. They see in it a means of making the employes in railway affairs. The employers and the public, if such a measure is enacted into law, will be at the mercy of a minority faction. We must not lightly take it for granted that the Plumb plan is of the past. The radicals will continue their revolutionary propaganda. Every mistake of the railway managers, even grievance of the employes will be magnified and capitalized for the purposes of revolution. all-powerf- ul American people should take and see to it that the present plan of railway administration is given a square deal. It is only necessary to recall a little of railway history to realize that the warning is needed. The public it THE By F. P. Gallagher self was always hostile to those who controlled the railways and toward the last days of private control would not concede living freight and passenger rates. The cry always was that rates were too high. Railways went into politics as a matter of self-defen- se EVENTUALLY the country every- where grew up to the railways, so to speak. Unfortunately the new and the result was some of the most shameful chapters in the history of our politics. Neither side was willing to grant a square deal and as a consequence futile years were squandered in the battle between the railways on the one side and the public on the other. The wrecking of railroads was not due solely to corrupt management, to watered stocks, to interference in politics. Our country was so vast that its speedy development depended on the extension of the railroads into barren territory. A railroad came to be a kind of magnificent benevolence conducted at a loss until the region in which it was built could live up to, it. That happy condition did not always prevail until the road had been in. and out of the hands of a receiver perhaps two or three times. Tne public blamed the railroads and the railroads blamed the public. Both were right and both were wrong. The railway magnates capitalized the railways far beyond their value. They mortgaged the future in an effort to keep the roads running in the present. They sold watered stocks by the millions and even then were not able to keep the roads out of receiverships. And some of them did not want to. They pocketed as much as they could and left the roads to shift for themselves. . communities and commonwealths, remembering old wrongs, antagonised the railways and were antagonised by them. Each side elected to fight it out. It reminds one of the ancient fable of the members of the body rebelling against one another. The railway was as necessary to the community as the community was to the railway, but both sides stubbornly determined to live together in discord. If the railways wanted something the communities did not want them to have it and if the communities wanted something the railways did not want them to have it If the new administration is to succeed there must be a square deal for the owners, the employes and the public. If any faction gains an unfair advantage there will be disruption. From this point of view we can see how important it is that the new law shall triumph. It is an experiment in which not merely the prosperity of the railway employers and employes and not merely the welfare of the public, but our ability to apply our representative self government successfully to new problems is at stake. the day that the railways were ONturned back to their owners Franklin K. Lane, retiring as secretary of the interior, made a characteristically original report in which he strove to explain what has been the matter with the government adminis- (Continued on Page 18.) Turn On The Light Let The People Know MAJOR J. REUBEN CLARK, JR. Subject Some Phases of Our Mexican Policy Republican Mass Meeting SALT LAKE THEATRE SATURDAY EVENING. MARCH 6, AT 8 OCLOCK EVERYBODY INVITED ADMISSION FREE i Auspices Lincoln Club |