THE DAY BOOK
At D. COCHRAN
EDITOR AND PUBLISHER.
500 SO. PEORIA ST. CHICAGO, I LI.
rj- , . Editorial, Monroe S5S
telephones Circulation, Ucnroo 3828
SUBSCRIPTION By Carrier in Chicago.
30 oents a Month. By Mall, United
States and Canada. $3.00 a Year.
Entered as second-class matter April
21, 1914. at the postofflce at Chicago,
111., under the Act of March 3, 1879.
A LETTER TO LAWSON
Victor F. Lawson, Publisher Daily
News:
My Dear Vic I thought I would sit
down and write you a few lines about
a piece I read in your paper Wednes
day evening. Being a newspaper
man myself I like to set my brother
publishers right when I see their trol
ley's off, and having noticed that
your batting average has been low.
lately, I thought perhaps I might help
you get your eye on the ball.
What caught my attention was this
paragraph in a very able editorial,
which I assume you wrote yourself:
"The ordinance vetoed, by the
mayor on Monday evening was that
intended to utilize the power of the
city government to help the street
car strikers win their strike against
employing corporations that stood
ready to arbitrate all differences with
the strikers. It forbade the employ
1 ment as conductors and motormen of
any persons who had not had a cer
tain period of instruction by the men
on the strike. Mayor Thompson made
it known that the corporation coun
sel held the ordinance in question to
be in violation of both the federal and
state constitutions. Even if valid a
measure of that kind should not be
passed without full consideration of
its probable effects."
Now, to readers who don't think,
that would appear to be a very wise
observation. But if jthey really did
stop to think, Vic, they would realize
that Aid. Kennedy's ordinance would
not have amounted to shucks unless
passed the very Monday night it was
intrqduced.
The strike was on. Thieves, thugs
and gunmen were then in Chicago or
on their way to operate the cars. If
council had gone to sleep and thought. .
deeply over that measure for even one
short week hundreds of people might
have been killed or injured.
Waiting a week would have been
about as wise as calling a1 council of
doctors from the next county before
using a pulmotor on a drowning:
man.
The ordinance may have been
faultily drawn. It may have been.'
unconstituttional. BUT IT HELPED '
DO THE WORK. And that was the
important thing. I think it made it
much easier for Mayor Thompson to
bring Blair, Busby and Budd to their
knees.
I'm no lawyer, Vic, but I think I.
could draw up an ordinance, or show
a lawyer how to draw one, that would:
stand the constitutional test. I think
you can do a whole lot of things to
preserve life and health under the
health and police laws. And certain-'
ly if the city can regulate chauffeurs
or drivers of vehicles in order to pro-,
tect life and limb, the same authority
can protect the people by requiring:
efficiency examinations of men who?
are to run streetcars through the.
public streets.
And I think council should still passi
an ordinance that would have the
permanent effect that the Kennedy:
ordinance was intended to have. It is
a mighty good way to prevent Rocke-.
feller tactics in Chicago.
Only I would make it even broader,
than Kennedy made it I would maker
it broad enough to prevent newspaper
publishers as well as street railway
managers from hiring thieves,
crooks, thugs and gunmen and swear
ing them in as deputy polilcemen to
make war on locked-out workingmen
Now, honesUyj JVjc, donJ XQJ2
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