stubbornness, they will not recognize a
labor union or a labor organization.
"Labor has just the same right to or
ganize highly as does capital. Capital of
recent years has affected a combination
and an organization in power and import
ance never dreamed of and it has used
this power and this influence together for
illegitimate purposes in many instances.
"It has a right to organize for the pur
pose of facilitating operations and mini
mizing expenditures, but does not have
any right to use this power to place laws
upon our statutes which are in the inter
ests of the few as against the interests of
many. It has no. right to place a man in
congress or upon the federal bench or
in the gubernatorial chair. These things
and these things alone belong to the peo
ple under our scheme of government. And
so I say again that this is the position
that labor and labor organizations should
take with respect to their rights."
This is, in part, what the governor said
on this occasion. The substance of his
address was that labor should organize
for the purposes of self-protection, gener
al piomotion of the general welfare of
themselves and their families, but that
this organization never should be used
for. unlawful purposes. Organization
must solve their problems, but that organi
zation if successful,- must solve their
problems by the method of this law en
forcement. "Labor organizations have a right to
participate in politics, for it is through
the machinery of politics that laws are
made and conditions imposed and they
should see to it that their efforts are est
on the side of right, for better laws and
better conditions.
"When they do tV:s, tney will become
a power and factor in American politics."
WILL GET SMALL C 031 FORT.
Taft's veto of the wool bill, particular
ly, shows that he even preferred to leave
an "indefensible" schedule stand, and the
people suffer, rather than to sign the La
Follette bill and seem to stand wTith the
progressives. It was the standpatters who
urged him to veto it, and he chose to make
his bed with them. It was his right, but
lie can look for little comfort or sympathy
from the great progressive west. Blair
Pilot.
GEORGE W. NEALLY.
Mr. George W. Neally, the well known
. electrician of this city, is now general
foreman of construction for the Colum
bia Fixture, Motor & Power Co., located
at 142-144 North Fourteenth street. Mr.
Neally has been connected with several
important concerns and is well and favor
a' ly known in Lincoln.
At any rate, while the Lincoln city
council is wrangling and indulging in
personalities it is not enacting any fool
ish legislation.
GO SLOW,
We believe that the shopmen on any
railroad system have a perfect right to
federate.
We believe that the shopmen have, a
right to delegate the management of their
affairs to a committee of one man or a
dozen men.
We believe the shop men have a right
to strike if there is no other course left
to them.
But we submit in all candor that this
is not the time to strike; that this is not
the time to plunge the country int an in
dustrial war. Nor is this the time for
the new federation system to be "tried
out."
It is our candid belief that the system
federation is the right and proper thing
on the part of the employes. The only
fault Ave have to find is that the railway
shopmen did not thus organize long ago.
But the federation system is young,
winter is close at hand, industrial condi
tions are not at their best. Here are three
almighty good reasons for not plunging
into a strike at this time. The editor of
this paper knows something about the
strike game. He has been through more
than one, and today, being well along to
wards "middle age" he will stand a great
deal more than he would have stood twen
ty years ago without striking. Not be
cause we are any less independent, but
because experience has taught us a few
things. If the men who go out on strike
were the only ones to suffer we wouldn't
have much to say. But the ones who suf
fer are the wives and babies. It is the
wife who makes most of the sacrifices.
The babies, with faces pinched by hunger
and little bodies exposed to the elements
what have these done that men should
act hastily and thus compel the little ones
to suffer?
Injustice ! Of course ! There always will
be injustice until men are built like the
angels. But the ability to resent injus
tice is not the sudden growth of a night.
A strike of any magnitude can not be
won without public sentiment behind.
This is axiomatic. Once public sympathy
is alienated a strike is lost. With public
sentiment behind the strikers only crim
inal mismanagement can lose it. A strike
of railroad shopmen at this time would
not have public sentiment behind it,
therefore it could not win. The public has
not yet been educated up to the point of
believing that the system federation plan
is a good one. Nor has the public yet
learned that men can be so cruelly mis
treated, so shamefully abused and so
ruthlessly sacrificed as is wont in the
great transportation circles. The system
federation's first duty is not to strike for
higher wages but to plan an 1 prosecute
a campaign of education education, of
the rank and file of its own membership
as well as education of the general pub
lic. Its duty is, also, to solidjfy its
COMRADES!
forces. A union may be organized in a day
it takes "months, "sometimes years, to
make it an efficient fighting force against
oppression.
It may be said that right now is the best
time to clash with the railroads over rec
ognition and wages. Perhaps. That de
pends upon the point of view. But with
winter at hand which side can stand the
fight the longest, the railroads with their
millions or the workers who have usually,
less than a week's wages between them
and destitution. If the public begins to
suffer by reason of a failure of the fuel
supply, who will get the blame? The strik
ers, to be sure, for the public usually
guesses wrong when it guesses impul
sively. Don't do it now, comrades ! Take your
time. Better suffer injustice a little while
longer and then go into a fight with the
chances all in your favor, than to go into
the fight unprepared.
Strikes are bad things. at their best.
There is nothing more heroic in modern
industrial life than men making a justi- '
fiable strike. But there is a foolish hero
ism that seldom gets the hero anywhere.
There is another sort of heroism that
makes victims by the score for every one
it saves. To honorably get away from
a strike is far better than to honorably
strike and win. - "
If the railway shopmen strike now al
though their strike be justifiable it will .
be their wives and babies, not the wives
and babies of the railway managers, who
will suffer the rigors of winter. It will be
the strikers who walk through the snow,
not the railway managers. !
Wait! Possess your souls in patience!
In a few months your forces will be more
firmly united; your comrades in other
lines of industry will be better able to as
sist you in your struggle; a greater and
a more thoroughly solidified army will be
behind you, holding up your hands and
seeing to it that the wives and little ones
do not suffer while husband and father
is fighting for justice.
IF YOU SEE IT
in
Will Maupin's
Weekly
YOU CAN BET ON IT!
DOLLAR THE YEAR