Newspaper Page Text
Page Ten
GOVERNOR JOSEPH M, BROWN
ANSWERS LABOR LEADERS
Replies to Attacks _;\Z;&e Upon Him and
Promises to Follow
Up the Fight.
Governor Joseph M. Brown has
made a caustic reply to the attacks
on him by the Georgia Federation of
Labor at its meeting in Macon. In
part it follows:
To the People of Georgia: Who
shall control the utilities, the labor
unions or the State?
Which exacts supreme allegiance
the union label or the great seal of
the state?
During the latter part of the sum
mer of 1912, the union label organ
ization of Georgia brought about a
strike on the street car lines of Au
gusta, which was so characterized by
disturbance of the peace and threats
of destruction of property, etc., that
the mayor of the city called upon me
as governor to furnish millitary aid
to protect life ana property. This in
obedience to the law 1 did. During
the process of that strike, two of the
new employees of the street car com
pany, who had taken places of the
labor union members who had refus
ed to work longer were murdered. To
this day the labor federation has
neither directly nor iadirectly made
the slightest attempt to aid the
state’s officers in apprehending the
murderers,
Later in October, 1912, about 250
labor union trainmen on the Georgia
railroad struck, and for twelve days
paralyzed that public utility from
power to serve the people as the state
in granting its charter and in her
subsequent laws had unequivocally
ordered it to do. The counties reached
or traversed by the Georgia railroad
had by the census of 1910 an aggre
gate population of 182,182 souls.
In a speech delivered by me Oct.
29, 1912, I condemned the labor un
ions for putting their orders in oppo
sition to the laws of the state and
thereby holding up the commerce and
SATURDAY, APRIL 25
A'l' MARIETTA, GA
- - ; ’ l_ # .
FREEK == FREE
, VA4I Y e e i
Everybody invited to come and see Mr. A. C. Beech, of
Chicago one of the most daring airship flyers in the world
fly his aeroplane over Maietta.
The Exhibition Will Be Free
Come and bring the family and spend the Day and see the most mar
velous sensation of the age
A R e (e oo ®
Marietta, Saturday, April 25th.
No costto you. The fiight is paid for by the merchants and business men of Ma
rictte. COME AND ENIOY IT FREE.
mails and otherwise bringing great'
inconvenience and damage to the;
public some of the latter being bru-|
tally assaulted and some being mur
dered while endeavoring to operate
these utilities for the public use. ,
The labor union leaders in utter-,
ance through the newspapers de-fi
nounced my speech as “infamous.” 1
In June, 1913, in my retiring mes
sage to the legislature of Georgia l‘
called the attention of that body to
the above referred to course of the‘
labor unions in issuing orders with
their union label upon them to their.
members to prevent public utilities
from serving the public as the state
had ordered in their charters and her
general laws and upon which orders
she had her great seal. g
To my speech and to my official
message the Georgia Federation of
Labor made an official reply. f
This reply consisted almost entire
R T T R R T e N
B (R &O Y R %7 e 147
S 4 SHOE WALUESE 7
03, . 1 ; , R e o Let
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N OUR NEW PATENT “£asy-oOpeninc-Box” I~ 192 10
it W RS e = G
THE MARIETTA JOURNAL AND COURIER.
1y of sneers and personal ridicule
pome of both being childishly flip
pant with here and there the virtual
claim that the members of the labor
unions had the right to ignore the
laws of the state and to adjust their
differences with their employers in |
their own way no matter whom elsz= |
they hurt, no matter what the laws}
command. In this latter category!
were the following questions: ‘
“Does not Governor Brown know%
that the executive officers of railway{
and other labor organizations as a
generl rule only recognize strikes as'
costly things not only to the railroads:
but to their members. And that
they recognize also that general pub
lic at times involved is made to suffer
in conveniences and damage.” ;
Yes, Governor Brown certainlyv
knows that the ‘‘general public is
made to suffer inconvenience anqd
damage” when the executive offi
cers of railway and other labor or
ganizations place their union label
on an order that their members nul-l
lify mandate upon which the state of}
Georgia has placed her great seal.
But here we have the open declara
tion by the labor unions that their
“executive officers recognize’’ that
such will be the result of their order,.
After I retired from office last
“June I went to my home and later to
my farm endeavoring in the quier
ude there found to bufld the Impair
ed health of a member of my family. l
This 1 believe is practically accom—l
plished. As the public knows, I
have made no utterance on public
affairs except when the state execu-"
tive committee of the Democratic‘
party at its recent session had before
it the proposition to abrogate in part
the county unit plan in making state
wide nominations. As that had been
one of the main issues upon which
[ was elected governor in 1908 |1
felt it my duty to give my earnest
advice against the committees tak
ing a step radically at variance witn
the expressed will of the electorate
of Georgia.
However, the Georgia Federation
of Labor at its annual meeting at
Macon on April 16, has seen fit to
officially attack me by name for my
course in condemning its lawless acts
1912, and in its open convention dis
‘cussion its leaders have seen fit to
‘indulge it vituperative abuse of me
‘almost beyond the license to print.
’ In next Sunday’s public press
!erefore I shall give to the public
isome information concerning the la
bor federation which I am sure is
'not generally known. I shall show
lthat it has entered upon a course
"calculated to undermine the social
fabriec upon which our civilization
ie built,
Later I shall show that not only its
policies are foreign but that also un
doubtedly the majority of its mem
bers in the United States are
foreign born or are sons of foreign
born parents. These are the people |
who are making assaults upon Am-~r
ican property, American lives, and
American laws.
Later I shall show that it has ac
cumulated by assessments of its mem- |
bers an enormous fund to be used'
when it sees fit in maintaining its'
war upon American society and
American laws. l
This fund can be used in support
ing its members on strike and sub—l
sidizing newspapers and public ora
tors in corrupting voters at the polls, ‘
etc. Whether its leaders so use it
or not we can guess when we hold
in mind the fact that through it acts
whether in the United States, Europe,
South Africa, New Zealand or else
where there runs one thread and that
thread is lawlessness.
- Permit me to state here that I have
‘no more interest in this matter than
has any other law-loving citizen of
;Georgia. In fact T have not nearly
-so much interest as have all employ
é{ers of union labor. But in as much
. as the Georgia Federation of Labor
iwhich claims to have 12,000 mem-
Friday, April 24, 19]4
bers has seen Tit to publicly and o¢/;_
cially single me out by nap. and
scurrilously attack me because | in
sisted that it should desist from itg
process of lawlessness, I sha give
the other 360,000 or more white p,.,
in the state some reasons for forcing
this insignificant minority to o, .
the same laws in the same manner 4
the state requires all other persons 1,
obey them some reasons for maki,,
it clear that the labor federations
union label shall not exact greater
allegiance in Georgia than does her
great seal of state.
JOSEPH M. BROWN.
Marietta, Ga., April 18, 1914,
WE WANT
AT ONCE, LOAN APPLICATIONS
FOR $5OO TO $2500 ON EITHER
CITY OR FARM REAL ESTATE
SECURITY. WE HAVE TFINE
!I.ISTS OF REAL ESTATE FOR
;SALE. .CALL BY AND SEE
US. WILLIAM TATE HOLLAND,
'SUCCESSOR TO R. N. HOLLAND
' AND SON, No. 1 REYNOLDS
| BUILDING, MARIETTA, GA.
