WILL MAUPIN'S WEEKLY
THE WAGEWORKER
WILL M. MAUPIN, Editor
Published Weekly at Lincoln, Nebraska, by The
Wageworker Published Company.
"Entered at second-clax matter February 3, 191 1, at the post
office at Lincoln, Nebraska, under the Act of March 3, 1879."
POLITICAL ANNOUNCEMENTS.
For Exciseman.
I hereby announce myself as a candidate
for the nomination for member of the ex
cise board, subject to the decision of the
republican primaries. FRED KIND.
For Water Commissioner.
I hereby announce myself as a candidate
for the nomination for water and light com
missioner, subject to the decision of the re
publican primaries. O. M. RUDY.
SHORT ARM JOLTS
Ballinger says he resigned. In fact he
was shoved.
Bailey the Baby. Texas ought to be proud
of him not.
Fifty votes against county option, forty
eight for it, and two "drys" absent. Gee,
but that was a close shave for somebody.
Really Police Judge Risser, Chief of
Police Malone and Mr. Poulson ought to get
together and collaborate on those drunk
figures.
As a "sticker" Sheehan of New York is
in Class A. But he isn't of the right class
to represent New York in the senate of the
United States.
The senators who retired to private life
on March 4 realize fully that their only
chance ever to get back is to defeat popular
election of senators.
Now if a lot of our outside friends will
just keep their hands off and let us of Lin
coln settle the excise question for ourselves,
we'll be much obliged.
Roosevelt is going to. make another tour
of the west. Knowledge of this given in
advance may have induced Buffalo Bill's
resolution not to again tour the country.
A Kansas man has just been sentenced to
twenty years in the penitentiary for steal
ing $130. If he had stolen a couple of mil
lions he probably would have received a big
bonus.
We'd feel better over the joke played
upon the coal man during the winter just
past if we were net afraid of the joke the
ice men may play on us during the coming
summer.
If Chris Gruenther has the proof that the
railroads and special interests succeeded in
having that 5 per cent referendum provision
injected into the initiative and referendum
bill, he ought to come across with it right
away.
What's this! Charges that certain sen
ators received handsome fees for espousing
the cause of the unspeakable Lorimer. It
can not be true! We believe a lot. of the
stories toldabout some of ou'r senators, bu't
lhat's going a bit too far.- They may have
stood by Lorimer because they were afraid
of having something brought home to them
by the same route, but to sell out like that !
Surely not.
The truly good W. C. T. U. women who
propose a boycott against the business men
who oppose a "dry" policy should take a
second thought. That's a sort of boycott
that will cut both ways, and cut mighty
deep.
Strange that Lincoln retail merchants ,
have never awakened to the fact that mov
ing the university to the state farm would
be about the hardest business blow Lincoln
could receive. It doubtless would be a good
thing for the university, but it would spell
trouble for Lincoln retailers.
The Double Shift System
The firemen are the only workers we know
of who are' compelled to work twenty-four
hours a day for. a wage that the skilled me- ,
chanic would scorn to accept for an eight
hour day. There is neither justice nor rea
son in demanding of the firemen a twenty
four hour day. Both justice and reason,
and humanity as well, demand that they be
given the double shift system they are ask
ing, for. People who see the men sitting
around the fire barns, playing checkers or
reading the magazines, are apt to jump at
the conclusion that the firemen's life is a
mighty easy one. But let those same peo
ple undergo just once the dangers and the
rigors of one stiff fire, and they will realize
that the firemen earn in one day all they
get in a month. ' The double shift asked for ,
will cost Lincoln about $1,000 a month
more than the present system does and ,
that amounts to 25 cents per capita per
year. The increased efficiency of the de
partment will more than offset the increased
cost. But what .figure should a few paltry
dollars cut when humanity and common
decency are at stake? The idea of asking
men to be on duty twenty-four hours a day
in a civilized Christian community ! The city
that does it ought to be ashamed of itself.
Stockyards Legislation
The "Union Stock Yards and packing
plants at South Omaha have made cattle
raising more profitable in Nebraska today
than ever before. Do not lose sight of this
fact. If the stockyards company did give
Armour a bonus of stock to locate a big
packing plant in South Omaha, and if
charges are so based as to provide a return
on that stock, is it not true that the cattle
raiser has been benefited vastly by the in
creased demand thus created for his cattle?
Will Maupin's Weekly is just as desirous
of protecting the farmer against unjust dis
crimination as any other newspaper or in
dividual in Nebraska, but it is growing just
a bit tired of having the attention of the
legislature diverted wholly to the consid
eration of legislation for the farmer to the
exclusion of all consideration for the great
er number who are entitled to fully as much
consideration. We would hail with pleas
ure any legislation "that would benefit the
farmer, but we insist that the health and
life and limb of the'200,000 wage-earners in
Nebraska is quite as important as saving the
farmer a quarter of -a dollar a head on the
cattle be ships to the Souh Omaha mar
ket: We insist that the sanitation of mills
and, factories ia' quit's &s important as the
prevention of hog cholera. We insist that
tuberculosis in the human animal is quite as
important a subject as that of tuberculosis
in cattle. And we insist that the wage-
earners of Nebraska are quite as much en
titled to the protection of an employers' lia
bility law as the farmer is to the kindly
guardianship of the state when he enters
the open market with his cattle, his sheep
and his hogs. If the Union Stock Yards
Company of South Omaha is gouging' the
Nebraska cattlemen, let them do what they
did before there was any cattle market, at
South Omaha. Will Maupin's Weekly ven
tures the humble opinion that if the; stock
yards company is a proper subject for state
regulation, then the state should regulate1
wholesale houses, fix the price of sugar sold'
by the retailer, and penalize the farmer who
holds his wheat for a better price when hun
dreds of thousands in this and other coun
tries are crying vainly for bread. Of course
we may be mistaken which would not be at'
all unusual, for we are not possessed of in
fallibility such as has been vouchsafed to
some of our lawmakers. Realizing our falli
bility we are open to conviction on this or
any other matter, but we are forced to con
fess, frankly and freely, that to date we have
not seen anything calculated to change that
opinion, and we read and study almost as
much as the average advocate of stock yards
regulation. i . . ;
County Option-Biff!
The county option proposition received
its quietus in the house last Tuesday, a
result that was foregone before the legis
lature met. The senate has already buried
tne proposition, nence it is as aeaa as a
doornail for this session. The only organi-;
zation that has prohted . by the county op
tion fight is the republican party. Trust
that organization to seize its every : oppor
tunity. And, contrawise.trust the demo
cratic party to seize every possible oppor
tunity to justify the wisdom of the man-
who selected the donkey as its emblem.
The county option fight made the legis
lature democratic, but grave everv other.
department of the state to the republicans.
This makes democracy blamable for every-
publican party with the good. Thrusting
this purely moral question into the domain
of politics gave Nebraska a republican ad
ministration, when every indication pointed
to the election of the whole democratic
ticket headed by Shallenberger. It gave the
republicans the opportunity to nominate the
democratic candidate and they nominated
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ernor of Nebraska' than a pig may be taught"
to talk L,atin. It divided democracy hope
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those democrats who forced this situation?
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the democratic party made its campaign on
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moral scnemes axiti isms, its icaucrs were
concerned more about economic principles
than they were about questions of morals
that must, in the last analysis, be decided
every man for himself. The sooner democ
racy returns to that position, and it has a
cessation of all attempts to make it-a Sun
day school organization, the 'sooner it .will
get back to its old time position :'6f corri-:
mandifig power in this natiom