The Alliance-independent. (Lincoln, Nebraska) 1892-1894, October 13, 1892, Page 7, Image 7
THE ALLIANCE -INDEPENDENT. HUM mm. The Bailroadi Seek to Combine Their Employees Against the People's Party. A Circular With Comments Thcieon An Appeal to Railway Employees. The following is a copy of a circular that is being sent to railway employees in all parts of Nebraska: Omaha, Neb , August 23, '92. Dear Sir and Brother: The text of the enclosed documents is "Protec tion to the Interests of Railway Em ployees and Investments," and we are proud to record, that there is not a man in the service today who cannot intelligently grasp the situation as it is here presented. How to act together In this matter is briefly told in the enclosed outline of the Railway Employees' Club and its work in Nebraska. Every employee owe3 it to his family, to work with the club in the inerc3t of his order. Can you not be counted upon for one? L?cal ciub3, wi h a total membership in excess of 4,000, have been organized at the following points: Ashland, Alliance, Aurora, Blairj Beatrice, Chadron. Columbus, Emer son, Fremont, Gibbon, Grand Island, Holdege, Hastings, Kearney, Lincoln (2), Long Pine, McCook, North Platte, Norfolk, Nebraska City. Omaha, Ox ford, Piattsmouth, Red Cloud, Raven na, Sidney, Schuyler, Seneca, South Omaha. Valparaiso, Wahoo, Wjmore, York. To join the club simp'y fill up the blank space on the stub of enclosed folder, detach it, and send by U. S mail to the "Secretary Railway Em ployees' Club" at the po'nt nearest your voting district, with such dues as you may feel able and willing to pay at five centa per month, or if preferred, same can dq mailed to general secretary, who will assign you to proper club, and attend to enrollment and issuing of membership card. If unable to attend the meetings of the club, you will be kept advised by the local secretary bf any action taken by it. Only by organ:zing as railway em ployees and working and voting together for men and measures that ofter us protection, can we hope td maintain even the present standard of railroad ing, and wages. You will be surprised to fini how much your influence can accomplish if you will but lend it. If you doubt this, make the effort and be convinced. In a cause like ours, those with means help those without; do not, therefore, stay out becau3e you cannot afford to pay any dues. Your vote and influence are what we desire most money is secondary, although very acceptable in paying expanses. Our chief aim is to combine th! employees in each county, so that they may be a power in county as well as state elections this year. There was never a better opportunity for railway and express employees to make their power felt than in the com ing elections, and if their interests fail to receive proper recognition at the hands of office-seekers, the fault will be largely with themselves. If already a member, please hand to some employee who is not, and en deavor to enroll him as a member. Yours fraternally, O. E. Coombs, Gen'l Sec'y. W. W. Conk Li NT, President. COMMENTS. For nearly two years men working in the interest of the corporations have been at work in the northwestern stages trying to organize the railway employees into clubs for political pur poses. The chief object set forth by the promoters has been stated to be the defeat of "granger legislation." The men are approached with the specious plea that if the freight rates are reduced by legislative action the profits of the "roads will be cut down and their . wages will have to suffer. The whole argument is based on the idea that when a man hires to work ; for a corporation ho should serve that corporation on election day as well as every other day; in other words the railway employee should cease to be an independent citizen, and become a po litical slave. Railway employees ought to have learned by experience long ago that the corporations pay no more wages than they can help, nor do they give any better treatment than they are forced to give. The wages paid to the men are not governed by the profit the corporation secure?. Dj corporations which are raakiog big profits pay any better than others that make small profits? As a matter of fact does not the B. & M. which is part of the bast paying system in the west, pay the poorest wages and require the hardest service? Isn't it a very sup'cious circumstance for railroad men to encourage organi zation among their employees? Have they ever done it before? The B. & M. especially has been the deadly enemy of organized labr. Remember the great Burlington strike of 1887? Were not Pinkertons imported into Nebraska to shoot down organized men, and crush one of the greatest organizations of railway employees? This is an attempt to array the labor ing men of tho cities against the pro ducers of the country. ,The farmers are the true friends of every class of city laborers. They have shown this in every possible way. They are fighting to secure justice and protection to laboring men. They favor the use of coupling appliances that will save the railroad hand from danger to life and limb. Thev favor ultimately govern ment ownership of roads. Under this system, every emp oyee would gee gooa wages, fair treatment, and a pension if injured, or his family would get one in naaa he lost his life. How is it now? If an accident occurs, the matter is speedily hushed up, and if possible the whole blame is thrown on to tho em- rjlovees. Suppose an employee is killed or crippled for life Can any adequato damasres be secured? What has the crippled employve, or the wife of the man who dies crushed and mangled by hia engine to hope for in a legal contest with a giant corpora tion? Litt'e indeed. In such cases the road usua'lv sends one of its legal tools around to compromise the matter for a few Daltrv dollars. No, it is not the aim of the people's party to injure any class or laoorers, but to make all labor more profitable. Tne laws they propose to pass, will not lower tne wages oi railway empiujees, unless hired attorneys, and lobbyists, and officers who draw princely salaries are set down a? employees. These reforms will help the railway employees by making greater openings for em ployment. By Increasing the produc tion of wealth they will increase the business to be done by tho roads. By opening up other avenues of employ ment they will create a demand for labor in other directions, and thus en able men in all trades to demand better wages. The railway employees of Nebraska should think well over these matters. There is a crisis approaching in this country. The great battle between or ganized labor and organized capital is on. They must take their stand on one side or the other. The two old parties are controlled in the interests of organized capital. The people's party stands for the laboring man and the producer. Is it possible that the railway employees of Nebraska will cast their votes in the interest of or ganized capital at the coming election? Laboring men of Nebraska, your em ployers can no longer march you to the polls and vo'e you on peril of losing your jobs. You have the Australian ballot. You are free when you stand in the voting booth. You can vote for yourself, your wife and babies, and none but yourself and your God need ever know how you voted. Will you doit? No Debate at Crete. The third of the joint debates be tween Dech and Hainer which was ad vertised for Crete, Oct. 6th, was put off. It was to be at the fair grounds and the management would not consent to stop the racing, so the debate was put off. It will occur at Wilber the 17th. SIcKeighan and Andrews In the WoolyWfst. Venango, Neb., Oct. 5, 1892. Editor Alliance-Independent: I want to tell you something about the woolly west. On the 4th inst there was a political joint debate in our thriving little villege of Grant be tween our congrosjman W. A. Mc Keighan and that other want to be congressman, Prof. Andrews. Now I want to ask, does the g. o. p's. take us for cattle out here? If they do they will be badly mistaken on the 8th of next November. Now we went there to hear a joint debate but McKeighan had the joint and Andrews was diving for the bait. He got it too, in the neck. If a man was a half judgo of human nature and watched " the countenances of tho two men, ho could not help pro nouncing Andrews argument a fraud from beginng to end. Why, the con founded rascal had the audacity to pro duce to us glassware and plate ware that was (or said to be) manufactured in the United States. If ho is a com mercial traveler representing some firm of th's kind, why id'nt Andrews show us that English brand under that paper when requested? Oh no, that would have been a dead give away. Should I have gone home from that grand jollification and told my children that Ardrews told the truth, I would want to bo blown up with dynamite. Now that honest cool Jheaded McKei ghan sat there like a roan whlU ndrews threw mud and slush in all directions. I want to tell you he had no platform to base his arguments on. He had no platform to stand on for when a half dozen of those 200 imported yelpera got on the stand to yell for him, she broke down and likewise did the glass ware break. Oh well, we were all in dependents in this county but 29 and McKeighan got 25 of them, and the other four ar) going out west, so wo are all right. Hurrah for McKeighan, toll the Professor to go back in Posey county and talk to the boys. I have seen many campaigns , but I don't think I ever heard a speech made that caused more enthusiasm than the one McKeighan made here. I think the boys abused him. They come near shaking his hands off then they carri ed him on their shoulders for half a mile. Well, William you do as well by us again down in the capital as you did before and when you come to old Per kins again we will do you the same way. Andrews told us he was going to Washington next winter, but wo didn't half believe that unless he was going to follow McKeighan down. There is one thing I do denounce and that is the disgrace that was brought upon the fair name of cur county by the "-importing of about 200 yelping coyotes to disturb a public meeting. If you fellows have mothers that you have any respect for, for God's sake the next time stay at home. Jones paid the freight on you. Andrews lost 25 votes, and you knocked the bottom out of the republican platform and broke the Professor's wares but hurrah for Mc Keighan. Little John. Tell the Truth. Book Walter, Neb., Sept. 2e, '92. Editor Alliance-Independent: I am a reader of The Alliance-Independent and am delighted with the course you take in the people's cause. Give the people true facts and nothing else. Do not exaggerate even to the smallest item, as the papers of the two wings of the old party do. For the last twelve years I have been in the same nosition (Doliticallv) as Thomas Jeffer son was: I conld not stand with the republicans neither could 1 stand with the democrats. But I stood in the middle of the road and my stand is there to stay until labor receives just compensation and dominates over capital. I had the honor once of voting for James B. Weaver, and I expect to vote once more for him if I live until the 8th of next November. Yours as a true worker,' J. P. Weidner. mm Our "Songt of the People" Have Created Tor Themselves a Nation-Wid 9 Demand Which Enables Us Now to Reduce the Price. We have all along contemplated reducing1 the price of our songs Just M soon as we pos sibly could do io, and we are exceedingly glad to announce that prices will be way down from this time forward. Tbo flnt coat of sheet musio is heavy, and wo bave been forced to eel! hitherto at nearly ordinary prices. We shall now tell our new, popular, splendid, unequalled songs at rates within the reach of all. Chairman Tsuboneck says: "Tour songs aie the very best that bave been prepared for our people , Hope you will do all In your power to push the work. It Is badly needed in every state." ... The Arena says: "The songs just Issued for the Industrial millions will, it we mistake not, add tens of thousands of votes to the ranks of the people's farty." President Loucks, of the National Farmers' Alliance, says: "Thei are admirably adiptod for campaign songs.' The Journal of the Knights of Labor says: "They should be la the hands of all lovers of liberty." The New Forum sate: "The sentiment of these songs is grand." These words of unsolicited pralne Indicate the enthusiastic reception they are .meeting with everywhere. Do you want songs that will bring down the house? We have two that are regular swivel guns, loaded with fun and. thunder, and each worth more In making votes than a hundred dry orators. Tneyare: "We Have the Tariff Yet," and "The Taxpayers Sett.e the Dills." "Get Off tho Earth," Is equally popular. Mrs. Mary Baird Finch, our Nebrask pool, saya: "If I culd write any thing as good as 'Oct Off the Earth,' 1 sheuld consider my name and fame permanently established." "The Workers' Battle Hymn -of Freedom." istbenewMarseilalsehymnset to the won derously thrilling French air. Nothing could be more moving and insplr.ng. "dons of America" is a now tune like the Marseillaise, and we believe equally stirring and tine. . "The Alarm Beat." is our trumpet call to actiou. It is one of our best quartette cam palgn songs and arouses much enthusiasm. "The Flag of Liberty" is tub patrlotto song of the people's party. It will quicken the pulses of all who love their oountry and hato oppression. The Farm Field and Stockman seleoted it from all our list to present to their readers this week. ' "God Bave the People" is another son that will Jive long. It touches a popular chord. You are hearing a gocd deal about "An Honest Dollar." We have a song on that subject (ready next week) which can't be bear. Send for It at ence. "Truth's ApproacbiDg Triumph" is a song of the "tho isaud Tears." the reign of right eousness for which we are lighting. It is a beautiful, inspiring composition, refreshing as a song of the angels to those who have be come weary waiting. Tne Weakest Must Go to the Wall" gets in some tremendous blows again Ht the mony land and transportation monopolists. 4 Lossi s and Lies" shows up where prone come from and how obtained. It is red hot. '-The Millennium Army" is Mrs. Lease's favorite and she has reason to thiiik it our best. . Space lacks to tell the merit of the others. NOW NOTICR: Any one of these songs heretofore sold at 35 cents sow can be had for 20 cents. Three songs your cboioe, ftr 6J cents. Seven songs for SI. 00. The entire series, sixteen ia number, for f 1.50. Order at once and get ready for t'ae great est, grandest, most tnthuslastlo campaign tne country has known. The following is a list of the songs: The Workers' Battle Hymn of Freedom. . Right Shall Reign. The Weakest Must Go to the Wall. The Taxpayers settle the Bills. Sons of America. Get off the Earth. The Flag of Liberty. The Coal Baron's Song. Truth's Approaching Triumph, God Save the People. We have the Tariff Yet. The Alarm Beat. The Millennium Army. That "Uonest Dollar. , .' Tj-mttpa anrl T,1ah Tourists Trips. Round trips to to the Pacific Coast. Short trips to "the Mountain Resorts of Colorado. The Great Salt Lake. - .Yellowstone National Park the most wonderful spot on this continent. Puget Sound, the Mediterranean of the Pacific coast. .. - And all reached via the Union Pacific System. For detailed information call on or address, ; J. T. Mastin, C. T. A., 1044 O St., E. B. SLOSSOtfGen. Agt.. Lincoln, Neb.