The Railroad Telegrapher from Peoria, Illinois • Page 11

THE RAILROAD TELEGRAPHER Such employers recognize no obligation that human beings are deserving of a higher consideration than the material their skillful hands and brains shape into articles of merchantable value. From Mr. Wickes' standpoint, the men who work in the shops of Pullman are simply intelligent animals placed on earth for the use and benefit of a chosen few. If they do not care to work in Pullman, they can go somewhere else. If they do not like the way they are treated, they can leave the little dukedom.

If they are too poor to leave, it is their own misfortune. Mr. Wickes wants their labor at his price and Mr. Wickes does not care a rap whether the wages he offers is sufficient or insufficient to house, clothe and feed such labor. It is oulr opinion that should such men as he and the humblest workman in the Pullman shops be placed on a block and auctioned off by the Angel Gabriel, the workman would bring the highest price.

Mr. Wickes' theory about the labor of man being material will hardly be accepted by those members of the human family who have a conscience. The human family derived its existence from but one source, and each member has a certain responsibility resting upon Mm. It is the welfare of the whole family. It is wise for all of us to halt now and then in our mad race for wealth and fame and recollect that this world is merely a sort of preparatory school for the human family.

We are certainly expected to be benefited by this life on earth. If so, it is suicidal for us to be assuming the nature of the prairie wolf or the barnyard hog. That is not advancement; it is retrogation. Men who regard their fellow beings as "material" are the real anarchists of this age. They are far more dangerous to the peace and prosperity of our nation than any loud mouthed orator who advocates the use of the bomb and firebrand.

A Jasf Decision. Judge Jenkins' famous strike injunction has been overruled by the United States Circuit Court of Appeals at Chicago. The circumstances surrounding this case are of such recent occurrence that it is not necessary to enter into details further than to state that in December last the receivers of the Northern Pacific Eailroad gave notice of a reduction of wages all along the line, and when the men threatened to strike, Judge Jenkins issued an injunction, on December 19, preventing a strike. Two days later, he amended the injunction, making it more stringent. The first injunction restrained the men from striking under penalty of contempt o2 court.

The second injunction made it contempt for any person to aid or assist them should they strike. Then.