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Show H LAYING OFF THE SHOP MEN. M H The laying off of the employes of the local Southern Pacific H shops may be intended as purely a move to so curtail expenses as H to bring the shop expenditures within the limit of the March appro- H priations, as announced by the railroad officials. It is, however. H a deplorable condition that causes some of the most powerful finan- H 'cial. interests in the country to add to the depression by reducing H expenses to the minimum. H vThese extremes of employment, first a greafforce and then none H at all, tend, to instability, and the upsetting effect of this policy H may be cited at some time in the future as one very potent reason H why the government should own the railroads. H When dull periods come, the railroads are among the first big H employers of labor to add, by rigid economy, to the depression, H while, if the government were in control of the railroads, then, of H all times, would the government be expected to keep its employes H at work. H When the country is dull, the railroads do nothing but talk H retrenchment and the calling off of all improvements. If the railroads H arc not disposed to help stem tile tide of adversity, to whom must H the county look for a sustaining hand in the hour of adversity? H The Jlarriman people, by announcing their plans for double H tracking, have done well, as their resolve to do something has been H the one bright feature to an otherwise gloomy outlook, but they H might have gone further and declared their polic' to be one of help- H iug to su&tain their faithful employes, in all branches of the service, H by maintaining them at work. Of course, Brandeis might charge H them with being oxtravagant and ho might point to the policy as H one lacking efficiency, but Unpeople generally would come to look H (upon the Ilarriman people as something more than the directing Hj 'head of a cold, calculating corporation, devoid of human impulses. |