Our Chicago streetcar motorman is forbidden to speak to passengers. Motorman E. J. Johnson, an employee of the South Side Streetcar Company, has learned that the letter rules in preference to the spirit of the rule; evidently as far as a Swede is concerned.

Last week he was called on the carpet by Superintendent Folds, who secretly rebuked Johnson for daring to speak to a lady while he was running the car. Folds expected Johnson to humble himself, asking that his mistake be overlooked.

Johnson refused to eat crow as the lady he talked to was his wife, to whom he claims that he has the privilege of speaking whether he is working or not. This attitude aroused the ire of the man with a little authority and he 2discharged Johnson in spite of the fact that the latter held a faultless record during the six years he had worked for the company. Other authorities will take up the Johnson case, forcing his reinstatement.