[Small Group of Protest and Promotional Ephemera from Depression-Era Texas Railroad Employees Association]

Big Spring, Tx: Jordan's Print, 1931. Very good.. Four small bifolia and one broadside, measuring 14.5 x 5.5 inches. Broadside folded; one short closed at lower edge of one pamphlet. One contemporary, pencil ownership inscription. Otherwise, minor dust soiling and light toning. An interesting assortment of protest and promotional literature promulgated by the employee's association of the Texas & Pacific and Abilene & Southern Railroads. Most of the material protests the perceived subsidies and other advantages given to trucking transportation and highway building by the state and federal governments. According the statements herein, the unequal competition fostered by the situation will lead to the destruction of the railroads and the loss of the livelihoods of its employees. Among the titles here are "Taxation Without Equity Is Tyranny," "Give Us Fair Competition," and "Are Motor Buses and Large Trucks Subsidized?" Also present is a statement unanimously adopted at the 1931 annual meeting of the association that lengthily protests, "This one-sided competitive content now exist[ing] between the railroads on the one hand and the trucks and busses on the other." One final pamphlet promotes the charity of the railroads in North and West Texas to the ranchers and farmers of these regions that in 1930 were beginning to feel the effects of the Dust Bowl.