EDITORIALS
Growing LA FOLLETTE'S was founded nearly two years ago in the belief that there was need for a fearless, uncompromising magazine, free at all times to tell the plain facts about men and measures....
...A number of railway employees organizations throughout the country, or their representatives, have already petitioned the Interstate Commerce Commission in favor of this rate advance...
...Did I say gone...
...We are glad because of the opportunity this will afford us to give our readers a bigger and better magazine than ever before...
...H. R. Fuller (than whom they will never have a better or a truer) upon the passage of the railway employers' liability law in 1906: "During my eight years' experience as Legislative Representative at Washington I have never passed through such a contest...
...Surveying our national life, past and present, Dr...
...B. F. Shambaugh, superintendent of the Historical Society of Iowa, and professsr of political science at the University of Iowa...
...A certain measure of apparent success has attended the efforts of the railroads in this direction...
...Never was the call for pioneers more urgent than in this field of civic righteousness...
...This issue, therefore, marks the beginning of a new era for La Follette's...
...Addressing the Wisconsin St^te Historical Society the other day, he said it was the frontier which made men really democratic...
...The Frontier THE STURDY SPIRIT of the pioneer is finding a new field of endeavor and a new form of expression in the present political renaissance...
...The so-called Railway Employers' and Investors' Union was organized by railroad managers over a year ago as a part of this program...
...Given these, and the day of control by the Interests is over.—Farm, Stock and Home...
...Eight pages have been added, so as to accomodate advertisers without injustice to readers...
...Let us face the problems and fight the battles of the frontier of civic righteousness with the manly courage and integrity of the pioneers...
...The initiative, referendum and recall is the next step toward political freedom...
...Behold the new-born west, the west of social and political progress and reformation...
...Let us rejoice in this rebirth of American democracy...
...Do they wish to enter an alliance with the interests which ha-ye oppressed them in the past and, judging by the past, will deny them justice in the future—an alliance against the public, whose support must be in the future as it has been in the past their only effective support in their hour of need...
...The frontier vitalized the three-fold ideal of equality which was the essence of American democracy in the nineteenth century, namely, equality before the law, equality in the law, and equality in the making of the law...
...Congress after Congress, legislation in accord with this public demand has been defeated or ignored at the behest of powerful railroad interests...
...They have sought to invoke in support of their demands the influence and political pressure of every allied interest which they could control and of every prejudice which they could bring to bear...
...We shall not give or offer to any public officer, directly or indirectly, any consideration which shall tend to influence him in the performance of his public duty," Again we are reminded that "the old order changeth...
...And because they are, we have found it necessary to enlarge this issue...
...The great railroad systems of the country contested every inch of the ground...
...Then as children of this new-found west let us cherish the memory of our pioneer fathers and forefathers of the old-time west...
...In the present forward political movement, which had its origin and received its impetus in the newer common wealths, is reflected that spirit of the west which the speaker declared is synonomous with America...
...Mellen...
...The same men who in public life have championed the cause of the whole people for effective rate regulation have been the friends and advocates who have secured the passage of the laws to improve conditions of railroad employment...
...Never was the frontier more inviting...
...Their authorized representatives have been cooling their heels about the corridors of the national capitol and praying vainly for a fair hearing in behalf of humane laws for the protection of life and limb in American railroad service...
...And this evidence that La Follette's has grown into the "national" class will, we are sure, give real pleasure to the rapidly-growing family of readers who look to it for independent, unbiased information...
...Are they quite certain that they are not, after all, merely ! engaged upon a thankless business of pulling the chestnuts out I of the fire for the other fellow...
...Renunciation PRESIDENT MELLEN of the Boston and Maine railroad, in an address the other day before the Wono-lancent Club of Concord, N. H., said his railroad will henceforth keep out of politics...
...Sham-baugh said: "For the west in history is gone and the frontier is a place no more...
...Business men are.coming to recognize the exceptional value of La Follette's as an advertising medium...
...Through all these years this same powerful railroad interest has built up barriers against the fair consideration and passage of these just laws demanded in the interest of humanity and the decent treatment of the men who hazard life and limb on the "iron trail...
...Let us keep the faith...
...Today the country is witnessing a great contest in which the railroads seek to defend wholesale advances of freight rates...
...Until very recently the railroads fought successfully every step of progress in this legislation...
...The same public opinion that demands reasonable rates and services from common carriers has been the effective support of the just claims of the railroad men...
...The west is a state of mind, the frontier a condition, pioneering an attitude toward life...
...Have the railroad men received any new assurances that the i attitude of the railroads will be different in the future...
...Are they prepared to forget that the very railroad managers and their attorney, with whom they new make common cause, swarmed committee rooms at Washington to defeat their just demands for protection in legislation...
...This is the view of Dr...
...and other laws to promote the safety of railway employees by restricting the excessive hours of labor imposed upon train operatives by their employers and by requiring the company to furnish trains with a reasonable complement of operatives to insure safety of operation...
...And never was there greater need for the bold and daring enterprise, the rugged honesty, and courageous frankness, the serious-minded integrity of the pioneer, than at this very hour...
...It was only when-they were overwhelmed by a righteous public opinion, by the great American nation's demand for a "square deal," that it was possible to pass even the imperfect laws we now have, giving the American railway employee today a less measure of protection than is secured by laws a generation old to the railroad employees of enlightened Europe...
...Are they ready to forfeit the confidence and support of that fair public sentiment to which ultimately they will have to appeal in their case against the injustices of their employers...
...We will not interfere in any way with the election of members of the legislature or of other public officers," said Mr...
...They pointed the way...
...It is necessary to carry advertisements...
...Let them ponder these words from the official report of their national legislative representative, Mr...
...That belief was well-founded...
...Their campaign has included an attempt to organize the great body of railway employees in behalf of higher freight rates—by petitions and otherwise to influence the Interstate Commerce Commission and the public to a "snap judgment" in favor of the railroads...
...Subscriptions alone will not pay the cost of getting out the magazine...
...Gone...
...It means remembrance of simple pioneer virtues, sincerity of purpose, mutual helpfulness and common honesty between man and man...
...This spirit still lives...
...To the railroad employees of the country we would suggest a word of caution...
...For the west is neither an area, nor the frontier a geographical line...
...Never were the opportunities of the west more alluring...
...The railroads have preferred to make only a partial disclosure of necessary facts in their possession and to place obstacles in the way rather than to promote that fullness of investigation necessary to develop the whole truth in the premises...
...laws to give to railroad employees injured and to the widows and orphans and dependants of those killed through direct and indirect negligence of employers a right to fair compensation for their loss of support according to accepted modem ideas of justice...
...A One-Sided "Alliance" FOR A GENERATION of time the people have been struggling vainly to set up some agency of national government which would efficiently protect and conserve the vast public interest in just and reasonable transportation charges...
...laws to require the corporation employers to equip their trains with reasonable safety appliances...
...For years, railroad employees have been knocking vainly upon the doors of Congressional committee rooms...
...The public interest requires that the issues in this contest should be decided upon the fullest investigation and upon ascertained fact...
...The subscription Hit is climbing upwards steadily, week by week...
...Readers have come to us from coast to coast...
Vol. 2 • October 1910 • No. 43
