Should There be a
General Welfare League?
The American people are confronted, in connection with the
Plumb Railroad Plan, by a remarkable and dangerous situation. It is claimed by
the author and supporters of this plan that it has the unqualified backing of 6
million members of American Labor organizations, and there is every reason to
believe that this claim is substantially accurate. Unquestionably the plan is the boldest and
strongest effort that has ever been put forth in this country to secure the
enactment of legislation for the special benefit of a particular class of our
citizens with but little regard for the interests of the general putlib. This
plan is so revolutionary and comes so clearly under the category of unfair
class legislation, that ordinarly it would be rejected forthwith by Congress.
However, owing to the fact that it is being urged and practically demanded by a
powerfully organized body of 6 million of our people, many of whom are employed
in the big vital industries of the country, Congress is compelled to give the
measure immediate and careful attention, and may be forced—unless the whole
county is quickly aroused and organized for the protection of its interests in
the matter—to enact the plan in its present or some slightly modified form.
If such should be the result it will be because there is no
general organization through which the vast majority of our people can act in
defense of their interests in such matters. Under the circumstances it would
seem that there might well be formed, thru out the country, a general welfare
league or other similar organization by means of which the great body of our
people (who are not connected with any labor organizations, who are interested
in the welfare of the country as a whole, and who do not favor the promotion of
the interests of any particular class at the expense of the whole) can exercise
and protect their rights, and thus prevent any minority, however well organized
it may be, from forcing the enactment of unfair and dangerous class legislation
like the proposed Plumb Plan.
We do not undertake to say, at this time, whether or not the
Government should permanently acquire and operate the railroads, but we do
maintain most emphatically that, if the railroads are to be purchased by the
Government they should be purchased for the benefit of the whole people and not
for the special benefit of any particular class.
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