Goodwin's weekly : a thinking paper for thinking people. [volume], May 03, 1913, Image 1

About Goodwin's weekly : a thinking paper for thinking people. [volume] (Salt Lake City, Utah) 1902-1919

Image provided by: University of Utah, Marriott Library

                
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ii VOL. XXII. Twelft'i Year SALT LAKE CITY, UTAH, MAY 3, 1913 5 Cents, the Copy No. 3 M
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X LeROX ARMSTRONG - Editor
i JL
A MOVABLE COMMANDMENT.
If they have movable feasts, why not have a
i movable commandment?
I notice that a loarnod and upright Judge in
Portland has handod down a decision to the effect
I that some two million acres of lond that the South
ern Pacific Railroad company has hold titlo to,
end. somo of which It has sold, and much of which
It has improvod, Is really not the property of the
& .Southern Pacific at all, but that the title will be
I lesumed by the government, which many years
I ago willingly and for valuable consideration grant-
. ed that land to tho railroad.
J Some of my othor frionds, gentlemen of the I.
3 W. W.i weie haled before the Ogdon police oourt a
few -dayB ago, charged with troBpasn. They had
ridden Into town as deadhead paesengers on trains
from Portland. One of them elocted himbelf
spokesman, and stated to the cqurt that he con
sidered he had a right to steal anything he wanted
from a railroad company. Tho railroad company
was running a train to tho state which he wished
f lo visit, and ho took the liberty to steal a ride, lie
1 seemed surprised that any one, judgo or othor,
II could hold to tho opinion that ho had violatod any
law which humanity had a right to respect.
Tho trouble about tho caso Is that much tho
same sontlmont seems to support tho decision of
tho Portland judgo. It was different In tho Ogdon
onse, for thoio the court gavo tho trespassers a
moderate sentence of imprisonment as punishment
for their trespass. Ho couldn't very -veil fino them
the amount of money value they had stolon from
the railroad company; but If ho had moved on tho
lines of tho Portland judge, he would have found
I no ahar?e at all against tho trespassers.
i- There is far too much of a notion that it is right
"' to steal from a railroad company. "Thou shalt
not steal" doesn't seem to apply to tho man who
, has a chance to stoal from the railroad. That is
tho commandment which people without con
f .aelancos want to have made movable. They want
The Peril of the Underpaid Employe I
Three members of the city commission Morris, Korns and Lawrence I
voted against increasing the pay of the city firemen on the ground that the city is
in a poor financial condition and the treasury cannot stand the increased expense,
The firemen every man ill the department with the exception of the chief I
responded to the refusal of salary increase by resigning, striking not for higher V
wages so much as against a system which compels them to work at a less-than-
living wage.
"The city has to make too many improvements," say the commissioners
who refused the wage increase of firemen, "and cannot spend any more money for H
salaries." H
Under the present management no one expects that the city will improve its H
financial condition. H
The reactionaries in control of the city administration demand that men shall H
risk their lives in the protection of the city from fire and refuse to pay a living
wage for this service, H
The fire department is a most vital part of the city government upon its ef-
ficiency depend great fortunes; upon the skill of its men often depend the lives of H
many persons and property worti millions. The refusal of the reactionary com- H
missioners to pay firemen enougi to meet the cost of living means one of two
things: The firemen must be dishonest in order to support themselves or their
families; or the fire department must be divested of skilled, efficient men, and
filled with a lot of riff-raff that can't distinguish between a bunch of firehose
and a dish of spaghetti, H
If the reactionary commissioners would investigate the home life of firemen I
they would be startlecl at the conditions revealed,
And if the city commission had the intelligence it is paid for having its mem- J I
bers could very easily lop off a few hundred dollars each month from the amount ,
of money paid for legal advice, rendered regularly and religiously to keep the
aforesaid commissioners out of trouble, I
It's about time Salt Lake shook off this two-by-four, hand to mouth method I
of running the city. I
U to apply to every one who trios to steal from
them, but held as Inoperative and void in tho mat
ter of property of tho railroad companies which
any ono olse may happen to want.
For mysolf, I can soo no good reason to draw
tho lino. Railroad companies have as mueh right
to their own proporty as the rest of us have to ours.
And the man who takes dishonestly from a rall
voad is as much of a thief as ho who steals from a
private citizen. In tho caso in point, as ww lawyers
say, the government gavo that land to the railroad
company a groat many years ago, and for some
thing in tho way of valuable consideration which
tho government .the people, of the United States
very much wanted, and considered worth at least
th value of tho land conveyed. Tho railroad com
pnny paid the prico specified, and then proceeded
to make tho land valuable. It never had boon
valuablo before the iilroud got busy, and It never
would have been valuable If they had not got busy.
They made tho land valuablo by their services, m
by their improvements, by their investments and M
their enterprises. They encouraged men to miiko
homes on that land, and so built cities. Thoy paid H
taxes with which tly) people of regions affected H
by the land built their roads and constructed their H
bridges. They aidod business men who opened H
stores in tho towns that grow up bocauso tho rail- M
load companies developed the resources of 'hut M
land. M
And after two or three generations the govern- H
nent comes along and notes that tho land has a
market value, and immediately institutes suit for j
tho recovery of tho land. Tho country has forgot- H
ten the price paid, has forgotten the conditions ua- H
dor which the original transfer was made, has for- H
gotten the sacrifices and the investment made by H
the railroad cpmpany, and simply looks at the value H
cf the improved land, and considers it has grounds H
to vacate tho title. So tho titlo is vacated. H
It is not creditable to the government to realize H