﻿T-Bone Slim Gives The Inside Story of Railroads 

Railroads are in tears because highway trucks are taking the railroad man’s job. The long trains did the same years ago and the railroads forgot to cry. When a railroad serves you by taking you from place to place, it demands and gets spot cash in advance at the ticket window. When a gandy dancer serves a railroad he has to wait for his pay three days, sometimes ten anil often never gets it. Depending to some extent upon the practice in vogue of carrying dead men on the payroll; graft, in other words. Prepayal of ticket is no doubt because of possible wreak. Deferred wage payment is not doubt parcel of a hope that gandy might die before he collects—gruesome business.
Road equipment of Milwaukee road is valued at $721,097. 511; its total assets are $782,712,718. It pays its gandy’s two bits an hour, less old age tax, less 90 cents per day for board, less 15 cents per day for all board less than 21 meals—anything over 8 and lless than 10 hours is considered a full 8-hour day (now you figure how much the gandy has coming—society boards gandys in winter lime).
When the “long trains” released railroad employes from active duty they had no place to go, so they went into truck transportation, directly or indirectly (they too must live) and an extra transportation was created (railroad greed and inefficiency and public be damned made this possible), canal transportation also took new lease on life. That milk is spilt. It is not a malady, it is result. It’s remedy is not condemnation of any these. The trouble is displacement of men by machinery and attendant dislocation of society and disruption of its economic life it’s remedy:
Steal less—or none at all.
St. Lawrence waterway is feasible and profitable only if foreign ships pay the duty (passage) of United Slates and Canadian ships—such ships to be owned and controlled by purely United States and Canadian capital and genius; for the duration of the life of capitalism. Railroad section men make a go of it by raising their own living on small farms. Railroads would trade dribble of railroad taxes for a flood of savings in truck and canal transportation. Big hearted, hey?
I’m not arguing merits of many phased transportation. I’m arguing they are necessary to provide the jobs railroads abolished—a form of boon-doggling. Labor might be brighter—three men working full time where only one-third time (minus) is necessary. Note: If two-thirds unnecessary time qualifies for pay then one-third necessary time rates full pay.
Pay toilets and pay drinking fountains seem to be a dead giveway of the condition of railroad company’s soul. “Key in the office,” is another sign that shows the deadly dread in which they hold the possibility of someone being so trustful as to desire to use it without contributing, towards the upkeep of the road. You can well imagine the horror in which they, stand at the mere thought that business would go to trucks. High hatting drove, the customers away but now, praises be, the roads are beginning to talk to the Lowells and it won’t be long till the Clancy’s, and DiBello’s can get a civil answer.
Railroads see sawdust in the public eye but cannot see bridge timber in their own. Sign at railroad stock yards: “This water not fit for drinking purposes” —Now, is that the truth? and (if so, isn’t it about time to water the cattle? Why do I say this? Oh, it goes to show what railroads think of cattle and once we know what they think of cattle we can pull out our arithmetic and figure out what they think of humans. Regardless of what they think of humans, I think they should water their stock every so often.