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Newspaper Page Text
SH ffflSflNSmmfSf LETTERS WRITTEN TO THE DAY BOOK Editor Day Book: I read your - article in The Day Book of today, in regdrd to the scoring the California railway commission gave the Pull- man Company, with a great deal of interest. It makes little difference what the commission said to the rep resentatives of this company. They deserved all they got. I quote from another publication where it takes from the commission's report; "If it be found that its rates ' are generous and that the company is not poor, but merely mean, and that the American public is dealing not only justly but generously with this institution, which in its turn deals unjustly and niggardly with its em ployes, then the American public cer tainly would be justified in at least dispensing with generosity and limit ing this company, conducting itself as it is, to the barest amount that the cold considerations of justice war rant it in securing." The Pullman Company may think they have reason to feel peeved at the commission for talking this way to them, they are not used, to it I know, but it is well known that the company is not "poor," that it is very rich, and that it is very mean, this you will hear on all sides, but it is not so well known how mean and tyrannical they are in dealing with their employes. '$27.50 per month is all that porter gets on a "standard" or first-class car and as that will not buy his meals for the month he has to get it some other way. A conductor starts in service on the princely sti pend of $70 per month and if he lives long enough and has the misfortune to not be discharged he finally gets up to $95 per month, and should he stay for twenty years he is pensioned after the manner of a joke. This pension is a new thing and is to be handled according to. the notions of the officials, and maybe you do and maybe you don't, is the way it is to be interpretated. We are organizing the men, we hope to be able to put them in a class where they will be respected as are the members oSf the railroad orders. We want them to help themselves, to get a good living wage, a wage commensurate with the service they give. There will be no trouble in proving that the men are not prop erly paid and that they have unusual ly long hours on duty and that they get no consideration when in trifling trouble. Let the commissions in all of the states hand it to them, they deservq it, we are anxious to help. We trust that the Pullman car service employe will be treated as other men in rail road service are treated in the near future. R. W. Bell, Secretary of Pullman Con ductors of America. DEFENDS THE HERO Day Book Editor: I have just read an artiele by JVliss H. F. L. in to night's Day Book and ask your per mission to give my opinion of the same. It seems as if the above writer wants to know why all this "slushy" sentiment, as she calls it, has been displayed at our hero's funeral, also mentioning that he did not deserve it. It also seems as if it's his past life that is bothering her. No matter what his past life may have been, don't you think he has "squared" himself by giving his life for his country? Why those disgust ing and untrue remarks of our hero's past? Has any one proved them? Where was the heroism, do you ask? Don't you think it is heroism to shoulder a gun and go to the front? It is just those that wouldn't have the nerve to do likewise that are cry ing about how unworthy he was of such a funeral. It certainly is a comfort that our jj-kfcSAMifaaig. &.iijg-jdg!iJLLL;