Loup City Northwestern
J. W. BURLEIGH, Publisher.
LOUP CITY, - - NEBRASKA.
Rain tniy keep people away from
ihurch sometimes, but from the cir
cus—never.
The California orange trust Is about
to dissolve. What good does that do
at this time of year?
Speaking of fish, there must be
some redeeming feature about the
German carp. What is It?
‘ The man that beta on the races is
an idiot,” says Charles T. Yerkes. Mr.
Yerkes seems to be a hard loser.
Just to satisfy plain curiosity, will
somebody kindly report how work is
progressing on The Hague palace oi
peace?
The discovery that the empress
crown jewels are bogus is about the
worst blow' yet to Japanese nationa.
confidence.
Those Boston girls who broke th<
record as high jumpers will cause
come of us to revise our notions ol
Boston dignity.
The General Federation of Women s
Clubs has officially thanked Gov. Odell
for saving Niagara falls. We stand
right beside the ladies.
Richard Strauss says Boston stands
as high in musical taste as any city
of Europe. Boston will call tha«
damning with faint praise.
A Zion City dentist claims that hr
and his wife can live on $1.68 a week.
It is to be understood, of course, thai
he doesn't use an automobile.
The government is going to try
to reclaim 100,000 acres of arid lane
ir. Washington. Determination will do
almost anything, and we have the
sand.
The New Jersey judge who has
ruled that a. boy's life is worth twice
as much as a girl’s has probably
changed his opinion since he was
twenty.
A St. Louis preacher now declares
that Santa Claus is a myth. Some
clerical iconoclast will be calling sa
tan a figment of the popular fancy be
fore long.
There are 13,000,000 children en
rolled in the Sunday schools of the
country, and the parents of most ol
them buy oil from young Mr. Rocke
feller’s father.
-— — ^ .- ,
Now that the season for thundei
showers is open, remember how calm
ing the statistics are, and make up
your mind firmly that this year you
won’t be scared.
Of course it is more or less annoy
ing to the emperor of Korea to have
the Japanese take possession of his
country, but then, he's used to trou
ble. He has 100 wives.
“Chicago presents no immoralities tc
the visitor,” says Anthony Comstock,
who is spending a few days in the
Windy City. Certainly not. She
chaiges an admission fee.
It is to be hoped that, when the Jap
anese get hold of Port Arthur, they
won’t feel it necessary to change the
name. It’s about the only one of the
lot that’s at all pronounceable.
We wonder whether the Yale wait
er who, although he carried a rab
bit’s foot, refused to wait on thirteen
students at his table, is superstitious
enough to refuse a tip of 13 cents.
We doubt the authenticity of this
story that Gen. Kuropatkin is carry
ing his coffin around with him. His
martial cloak would answer,all prac
tical purposes and sound much better
in the poems.
A London court has held that a
man is not liable for his wife’s dress
making bills. Doubtless some soulless
?reature will now stamp himself with
the mark of the beast by bringing a
test case over here.
A pitcher that is 2,000 years old is
being exhibited at the St. Louis expo
sition. We know of several ladies
who would like to obtain the address
of the girl whq worked for the familj
that owned the pitcher.
A Chicago woman was granted a
divorce in just thirty-six minutes after
filing her application. But if the thing
has to be done, why delay? In some
places the courts dawdle over thest
matters for an hour or two.
It’s as natural for a girl’s shoe
strings to keep coming untied whet
she has on fancy open-work stocking?
as for a man to speak with a careless
familiarity of his rich friends whet
they are out of the country.
A press agent story says that an en
thusiaatic audience threw real jewelrj
at an opera singer. The practice
should be followed with care. The
most avaricious person would object
to having an eye put out, even with a
diamond tiara.
The Princess of Wales is one of the
*?,ost expert typewriters in England
She can rattle off 100 words a min
ute. If anything ever happens tc
make the British people quit support
ing their royal family the princess
needn’t worry.
A manager has docked a grand op
era prima donna’s salary because she
did not do all the singing called foi
by her contract. Expert opinion leans
to the theory that this manager is
entitled to the benefits of Mr. Car
negie’B hero fund.
After twenty years of blindness,
Mrs. C. M. Kirk of Lansdale, Pa., re
gained her sight when her three sons,
whom she pictured still as little chil
dren, called unon her. This is not the
first time that grown boys \ ha\ a
opened their mother’s eyes.
THE AGE OF ALUMINUM.
Ever since the separation of the
metal* aluminum from its ores—and
every daybank is an aluminum mine
—inventors have dreamed of an “alu
minum age,” whose mechanical mar
vels should leave as far behind the
present “age of steel” as we surpass
the “age of stone” of the primitive
man. Here was a beautiful metal that
was only a third as heavy as iron; and
what limit could there be to the won
ders its use would make possible. The
long-awaited airship was to become a
reality and a revolution was to come
at once in shipbuilding, railroading
and automobiling.
L'ut little can be done with a metal
so soft that to secure the same
strength as much aluminum in weight
as of iron must be used. If only some
way of tempering it could be found!
Now the announcement comes from
Germany that this problem has been
solved. “Meteorlt” is a simple alloy
of aluminum and phosphorus, and for
it is claimed that it is six times as
strong as aluminum itself, is noncor
rosive, highly polishable, and may be
soldered and galvanized with nickel
or copper. If all that is claimed for
it is true, then the “age of aluminum”
may not be far distant.—Boston Globe.
SUBMARINE WARFARE
i
Aa gunpowder eliminated the heav
ily armored knight, so the rapid de
velopment of submarine explosives
points to the disappearance of great
armored ships, which must always be
defenseless under the water's surface.
It is merely a logical development of
the inventive genius of the race that
so vulnerable a point in war ships
should finally be yielded up to the
inevitable assault of any enemy. Even
now, with torpedo boats numerous
enough and with crews of sufficient
persistence and daring, the battle
ships have met their match. In the
future it seems certain that the tide
of scientific progress will be on the
side of the still imperfect submarine.
There is but one possible outcome in
such a struggle.—Springfield (Mass.)
Republican.
THE CRAZE FOR MONEY.
At the bottom of all the too preva
lent corruption, commercial and politi
cal, is the prevailing idea that suc
cess consists in the gaining of money.
Joseph R. Burton of Kansas, the first
United States senator to be convicted
of crime while in office, testified that
he used his official influence In con
sideration of a salary of $500 a month
from the Rialto Grain and Securities
companies of St. Louis, because he
needed the money. Those convicted
of fraud in the postoffice department
at Washington perpetrated the frauds
in order to make money. Almost ev
ery act of corruption in office is done
to get money; and the money that is
paid to induce official corruption is
paid to obtain wrongful opportunities
to make more money. All the dishon
est bargains between business men
and corporations are merely attempts
to make money. People who have no
need of more money keep on trying to
make money, because that is their
only ideal of success. Those who have
more money than they can count or
use in any way, try to add to it be
cause they are lured on by the idea
which has been burned into their
minds that making money is success
and nothing else is success. Corrup
tion thrives on this false ideal, and
will cease only when this false idol is
thrown down from the high pedestal
on which it stands before the minds of
the American people.—Boston Watch
man.
BRAVE MEN ON BOTH SIDES.
The fact Is frequently and pleasant
ly observed that the soldiers on both
sides in the Asian war are displaying
valor. The Russians find in that some
consolation for the grievous losses
they have suffered. Their seamen at
Chemulpo and their soldiers at the
Yalu were beaten and perished, but at
least they fought bravely and fell like
heroes. The Japanese find in the
same circumstance an added cause for
exultation over their victories. Their
seamen eagerly enlisting for a death
errand at Port Arthur and th<*r sol
diers storming intrenchment? -Jththe
bayonet at the Yalu have ' Jed new
lustre to the fame of Samurai hero
ism. Nor is that all. Each side has
learned to recognize the valor of the
other and to pay it the tributes which
are its due. Whatever may have been
their opinions of each other before the
war, these last three months have in
spired them both with the respect
which brace men feel for each other
the w’orld around.—New York Trib
une.
LATIN-AMERICA.
It is a curious fact that the Latin
American countries have so little dip
lomatic intercourse with one another.
This does not tend to confirm the alle
gation made every now and then that
the Central and 3outh American na
tions have a consuming jealousy and
dislike of the United States and are
Inclined to form combinations to re
sist the assumed “aggression" of the
Yankees. The Mexican Herald notes
that there is but one diplomatic rep
resentative of Latin-American govern
ments at the capital of our nearest
southern sister nation, and that Is
the minister of little Guatemala, a
next-door neighbor. Mexico has lega
tions in the Argentine Republic. Bra
zil, Chile, Peru, and in fact all the
other countries on the isthmus and
In South America, but there Is no re
ciprocity, , for the habit of keeping
ministers at the respective seats of
government is more honored in the
breach thfan in the observance. If
the Latin-Americans are not thus
friendly among themselves they are
not likely to combine against the
United States.—Troy Times.
STATISTICS OF INSANITY.
A bureau at Washington has pre
pared some interesting statistics of
the distribution of insanity through
out the United States. In the whole
country one person of every 528 is
crazy. In New England, one in every
359; in New York and Pennsylvania,
one in 424; in Indiana, Ohio, Illinois,
Michigan. Maryland, Virginia, Ken
tucky and Tennessee, one in 610; in
the Middle West, one in 750; in the
Southern states, one in 935; in the
Reeky mountain states, one in 1,263;
in the Pacific states, one in 387.
It will be seen that madness is more
prevalent in New England than any
where else, with the Pacific states a
close second. The sanest part of the
country is in the mountain region of
the west, and the south comes next.
In Kansas one person out of every 560
is crazy, and Missouri has one for
every 602 of population. Some waiter,
in commenting on these facts, says
that if anyone can construct and de
fend a theory to account for the va
riation, he is welcome to the oppor
tunity. Still, the report gives some
basis for speculation as to causes or
reasons. For example, it is shown
that the proportion of insanity among
foreigners is double that among na
tives, and that the negro is only half
as susceptible to madness as his white
brother. This will account for the
low rate in the south and the high
rate in localities largely peopled by
foreigners, but how are we going to
account for the big rate in New En
gland and on the Pacific coast?—Kan
sas City Journal.
EVIL TO HAZER AND HAZED.
There is a sincere bgiief In the
minds of some very intelligent men
that hazing has good effect and if not
carried too far is “good for the cub”
and there is basis for this belief. But
it is not easy to see how any good to
the lads hazed can compensate for the
evil almost inevitably done to hazers.
Practically without exception the vic
tim of hazing is helpless in the pres
ence of superior numbers and
strength. In other words, the action
of the hazers is essentially cowardly.
Their motives, if not so deliberately
bad as sometimes represented, are in
no sense good and to maltreat those
who have nothing like a fair chance
to resist and almost no chance to in
flict injury on their tormentors is not
manly, not gentlemanly—is, in fact,
cowardly and cruel.—New York
Times.
WIRELESS TELEGRAPHY IN WAR.
'The question of the value of .wire
less telegraphy in war has already
Deen considered. Now it is supple
mented by that of its legality. The
Russian government has practically
served notice that it regards it as il
legal. At any rate, the use of such a
device at the seat of war will be
treated as a breach of neutrality. Cor
respondents telegraphing without
wires will be shot as spies, and ves
sels equipped with wireless tele
graphic apparatus venturing near the
scene of war will, if caught, be con
nscated as contraband of war. So far
as correspondents accompanying the
Russian army are concerned, we may
unhesitatingly concede the Russian
right of censorship. That is a matter
of course. A belligerent power has
the undoubted right to decide whether
it will permit correspondents to ac
company its army at all, of course,
prescribe what matter may be sent
through the lines, and how. Similarly,
It may exercise a censorship over
new vessels entering its territorial
waters, or the waters implicated in
the sphere of belligerent action. But
a general outlawing of wireless tele
graphy in that part of the world
would be a much more extreme mat
ter.—New York Tribune.
PRECEPT AND EXAMPLE.
Thinking to make an impression on
the boys of London, the Times recent
ly published a manifesto carrying an
enormous show of great names, such
as the duke of Fife, the archbishop of
Canterbury, the bishop of London and
eleven leading lords of the realm, se
verely enjoining all religious teachers
to discourage cigarette smoking
among the young, as it was rapidly
sapping the vitality of the kingdom.
It is to be feared that this method
still lacks the power of example suf
ficiently, for the greatest men in Eng
land still smoke. The priests of In
dia and Japan all smoke and the
champion smoker of the world is prob
ably the king of Portugal, who smokes
forty cigars a day. Dean Swift used
to smoke throughout his whole ser
mon. What might not the boys quote
as to great names?—Boston Globe.
WORTH OF CHEERFUL WORK
That which may truly be said of
Americans is that they have not yet
learned to rest from their labors be
times, to *go upon a holiday in due
season, to “loaf and invite their
souls,” as Whitman counseled them to
do. All work, not less than all play,
makes Jack a dull boy or man. Work
regularly, intelligently, no matter how
energetically done, is rather more
likely to promote health than to im
pair it, or to prolong life, rather than
to shorten it. The idle man, who
lacks employment of body and mind,
is more likely to suffer from nervous
depression, or to discover, as Car
lyle says, that he has within him that
“infernal machine, a liver,” than is
the man who has serious work to
think about, and who, by doing it,
keeps his physical organs in nbrmal
condition. Indeed, the secret of health
ful living seems to be a plenty of
work cheerfully done—the maximum
of inspiriting labor and the minimum
of dull care.—Philadelphia Ledger.
A good man is a man who knowa
I how bad he ia.
Central America; the Negro’s Eldorado
A Country where the Black Han Knows No Sorrow and Free
dom Reigns.
By Frank A. Harrison, Special Staff Correspondent.
jBelize, British Honduras, May 26.
Tnis old English coion;, is a won
derful place for a Nebraskan to be
hold. Situated in the tropica, on low
ground, and surrounded by all the lux
uriant tropical vegetation, its climate
is tempered by a steady breeze from
the Caribbean sea, making it one of
Ihe healthiest oi Central American
towns. It contains about 8,000 inhab
itants, three-fourths of whom are col
ored.
Belize w’as the principal port for the
cuttera of logwood, mahogany and oth
er valuable woods a hundred years
ago, and was an important shipping
point for the English trade. Still ear
lier it was a rendezvous of the buccan
eers and pirates that infested the Cen
tral American coasts, and it is said
many of the pirates settled here when
their business was broken up and that
they eventually became good citizens
tfnd left many descendants of various
colors. It is now a quiet, law-abiding
place, and if the restless blood of the
piratical ancestors affects the present
population there is sufficient diversion
in the handling of the hundreds of
boats which carry the coast and river
trade.
The English have made Belize the
mosf^progressive and best of the Cen
tral American cities, and it is prob
able that they have only been pre
vented by the Monroe Doctrine from
civilizing other parts of the country.
One can not but think that the cele
brated “doctrine" is wrong if its pur
pose is simply to prevent progress in
this part of the world. If the idea is
to sometime Americanize the whole
continent, then the doctrine is right,
but the progress is long delayed.
Here there are good stores, and pret
ty homes. The harbor is full of ships
and small craft and the river is crowd
ed with boats. There is a bustle ap
parent everywhere, and an evidence of
constant contact with the outside
‘■world. There are five Protestant
churches, and on Sundays the build
ings are crowded- with the Sunday
school pupils reciting the lessons and
singing the songs that are familiar
in the United States.
In the matter of trade there is a
closer observance of Sunday here than
I have ever seen. The business houses
are all closed except the restaurants,
and the latter sell only ice cream. They
would not sell lemonade, gum or can
dy. Ice cream is termed a “necessary
article,” and small cakes are served
with it. The inhabitants will sell noth
ing at their homes except strictly eat
ables. All efforts to buy cocoanuts or
fruit which hung in abundance in every
yard were unavailing. They all said:
“We sell nothing today. Come tomor
row.”
There is a wonderful public garden
here, where all the tropical plants and
; fruits are grown, and It is probably
| one of the most complete gardens In
the world. It is cared for by colored
gardeners, and is guarded by colored
police.
On,e notices here that the colored
people who have grown up under the
English rule are different from those
in the United slates. They are more
quiet and business-like. They have no
recollections of “slavery days." and
therefore do not find it necessary to
go to any extreme to “show that they
are free.” Many here are from Jamai
ca and the Barbadoes, also English
colonies. Most of them are able to
read and write. They find it easy to
make a living, and they dress mostly
in white clothes, which are especially
fresh and dean on Sundays. We see
just enough “greasers” or Mexicans
here to see how superior to them are j
the English speaking colored people.
It becomes plain to a visitor that there
is plenty of room in Central America
for all the colored people in America,
that in any of these republics they
would enjoy more social and political
equality than they now do in the Unit
ed States; that they could make a liv
ing with one-half the work and worry,
and that they would be a civilizing in
fluence in any part of the rural coun
try from the Rio Grande to Panama.
Wholesale emigration south would
solve the “Negro problem.”
The money question which is such
a mathematical study and constant
worry In all the Spanish American
republics, is no worry here. British
Honduras silver stamped on ono side
as it is with the profile either of Queen
Victoria or King Edward, passes for
its face value in gold, and American
money circulates freely on the same
basis. And in the surrounding repub
lics with their depreciated silver and
hopeless fiat paper money, the money
of both the United States and British
Honduras is called “gold,” and a sil
ver dollar will buy two dollars and a
half stamped by the other countries.
Near here is a large coral reef, and
boat loads of the coral are brought, to
the city to be broken up for ballast
on the swamp roads and streets. When
broken up the coral looks like chips
of porous marble. In the largo round
chunks in its natural state it would
sell for a hundred dollars a barrel in
the United States as curios, as most
of it is of very beautiful pattern.
From here It is one day’s trip to
Porto Cortez, in Spanish Honduras,
the great banana port and the natural
entrance to the country which is soon
est to feel the civilizing influence of
“How did they get into society?”
“Oh, they were arrested three times
ono morning for running their automo
biles too fast.” _
It’s absolute proof to a woman that
she is a good mother to her children
when their uncles and aunts tell her
that she is spoiling them.
One swallow of bock beers doesn’t
make a summer, but a sufficient num
ber of them has been known to make
u fall.
When a man asks a girl to go to
the theatre with him she goes around
telling everybody that she has had an
other proposal.
Unless a, man is his own master he
can’t master others.
Little Tommy—Mamma, may I go
over and play with Mrs. Nexdoors’
children?
Mother—You have never cared to
pj*y with them before.
Little Tommy—But my ball went
over into their yard, and they threw
it back to me, and it was all sticky.
I guess they’ve got some candy.
tbe United States. The rush there now
is constant because of the banana, cof
fee and rubber plantations, and of the
mineral possibilities in the mountain
ous interior, already tapped by several
paper railroads.
Porto Cortez. Honduras.
From a distance Americans are ’in
pressed with the idea that the people
and the governments are the piinclpal
features of Centra! America, but hero
on the ground on-? is impressed most
by the -animal and plant life. The
immensity and constantly changing
forms of tropical growth is a cause tor
continual astonishment.
Here in Honduras, on the level land
of low altitudes, the palm frees re cm
to have at some time crowded out the
other plant^. These palms now pre
sent trunks of about a foot in diame
ter, with long fern-like leaves branch
ing out about fifteen feet from tho
ground. These ’eaves are each at out
thirty feet in. length un<l intermingle
in such a way that the rays of the sun
seldom reach the ground. Thus all
■mailer shrubs are squeezed out. But
on every hand one may se« another
tree stifling the palms. The seeds
from the Giant tree, called by the na
tives "Cieba,” are deposited up in the
palms Just where the group of leaves
branch out. The seed sprouts at once
and sends up a shoot with leaves not
unlike the oak, only larger. At the
same time roots start toward the
ground, entwining the trunks of the
palms. The growth of the new tree
and of its dangling and twining roots
is rapid, and in j few years the palm
has been chokfd to death and disap
pears. The twisting roots of the Cieba
grow together into a solid trunk, and
I have seen many of the trees over ten
feet in diameter that had their start
in this way, the twist of what were
once the roots being plainly seen up
to twenty feet above the ground. Along
in the valleys may be seen thousands
of instances of this palm strangula
tion in every stage, and may also be
seen the long liana vines and orchid
parisites In their turn attacking the
Cieba trees and other giants of the
forest that have been able to rear their
heads above the shade of the palm.
It is a constant struggle of all the
plan’s to reach the sunlight, and In
the scramble, like a human scramble,
many are choked or trampled to death.
There are many vines which crawl up
the trunks of trees, and as they grow
larger and squeeze harder the original
| tree is killed and remains rigid only
long enough for the vines to consoli
dato into a common trunk to be able
to hold themselves in the air. Then
the original tree rots and disappears
and the vines turn into a tree them
selves, the trunk finally becoming
solid and presenting an appearance
not unlike that of the giant Cieba.
Often parisites take root in the bark
of a tree limb and extend vine-like
roots to the ground. These grow into
the ground and the circulation thus
formed changes the vine into another
trunk of the parent tree, supporting
the outstretched limb. These and
many other wonderful growths would
require a volume for adequate descrip
tion.
Of course. In this jungle of battling
plants there is a numerous and varied
animal life. The eomman deer exist by
the hundreds of thousands and as
plantations and grass lands are ex
tended by the chopping down and
burning of the forests, the deer grow
more numerous in spite of the fact that
they are killed by the thousands, mak
ing venison the common meat food of
all the rural population. The large
and spotted jaguars, the mountain
lions, wildcats, coons, a minK as large
as a coon, and many other land ani
mals roam in countless numbers
through the Jungles and over the
mountains. Iguanas, or large lizards,
ranging from four inches to four feet
in length, are at every hand, and their
big uncles, the alligators, infest the
rivers and lagoons. In the swamps
the huge boas and other snakes bang
from the tree limbs. In the larger
forests the monkeys race from limb
lo limb, chattering like demented be
ings. Everywhere are the parrots,
macaws, and a thousand other richly
plumed and harsh-voiced birds. Ants
from minute forms to sizes like wasps
are constantly in search of prey.
Grasshoppers larger than Nebraska
“natives” join with crickets in making
the woods resound, while one lone
locust In a Cieba tree could teach
voice culture to a square mile of seven
teen-year locusts at home and make
itself heard above them all.
Along the rivers are mosquitoes, and
in the forests are ehiggers. each Intent
on the “blood of an Englishman.”
Tarantulas abound in the bananas and
centipedes and scorpions come into the
houses to show their sociability.
The reader cannot but wonder what
is attractive and pleasant in this coun
try. Yet it in a fact that one visit to
the tropics brings on a desire for more
visits.
A man occasionally takes his pen in
hand, but the umbrella he takes in
hand usually belongs to another.
Occasionally a man Is so anxious to
see his name in prin t that he gets on
the delinquent tax list.
Mrs. Newwed—What would you be
today if it wasn’t for my money?
Mr. Newwed—A bachelor.
The result of the annual physical
examinations of the midshipmen of
the three classes at the naval academy
at Annapolis, Md., shows that seven
teen midshipmen are disqualified to
continue in the service and their resig
nations will bo handed in. Among
the number is O. W. Howard of Oma
ha, Neb., a member of the fourth
class.
The Little Sisters of the Poor, at
Pittsburg, Pa., were robbed of $3,000
by a man who represented himself as a
plumber. The man went to the insti
tution in Penn avenue, where an addi
tion to the home for the aged is build
ing by the sisters, and represented
himself as a sub-contractor for the
plumbing work in the building. When
the inmates of the home had all gone
to the chapel for prayers, the fellow
made his way to the office and carried
away the §3,000, which represents the
collections made by the sisters to pay
for the new building.
miso,r—o
From “Whippoorwill Time.”
Let down the bars; drive in the cows;
The west is dyed with burning rose;
Lnhitch the horses from the p'nws.
And from the cart the ox that lows.
And light the lamp within the house.
„e .Whippoorwill is calling,
"Whip-poor-will; whip-poor-will.’’
\V here the locust blooms are falling
On the hill.
i he sunset’s rose is dying.
And the whippoorwill is crying.
Whlp-jjoor-will; whip-poor-will”;
Soft, now shrill,
ihe whippoorwill Is crying,
“Whip-poor-will.”
The cows are milked; the cattle fed;
_The last far streaks of evening fade;
The farm hand whistles in the shed,
And in the house the table’s laid;
The lamp streams on the garden bed.
The whippoorwill is calling.
" *» hip-poor-will; whip-poor-will,”
\\ here the dogwood blooms are falling
On the hill;
The afterglow is waning.
And the whippoorwill's complaining,
"Whip-poor-will; whip-poor-will’’;
Wild and shrill.
The whippoorwill’s complaining,
"Whip-poor-will.”
The moon blooms out, a great white
rose;
The stars wheel onward toward the
U psf •
The barnyard cock wakes once end
crows;
The farm Is wrapped in peaceful rest;
The cricket chirs; the firefly glows,
The whippoorwill is calling.
"Whip-poor-will: whip-poor-will.”
Where the bramble blooms are falling
On the rill;
The moon her watch is keeping,
And the whippoorwill is weeping,
“Whip-poor-will; whip-poor-will”;
Lonely still.
The whippoorwill is weeping.
‘Whip-poor-will.’
—Madison Cawein. in the May Atlantic.
NEWS OF THE LABOR WORLD.
Items of Interest Gathered from Many
Sources.
The closing day of the convention
of the Amalgamated Association of
Meat Cutters and Butcher Workers
re-elected the old officers.
Owing to differences over wage
scale, about 250 bakers went on strike
at Cleveland and the bread output will
be decreased from 250,000 loaves to
125,000.
Seven hundred carpenters, shut out
since May 1, have returned to work,
at Des Moines, all differences having
been settled. It is believed the end of
the big labor war is now in sight.
Robert A. Callahan of Boston and
Jere Sullivan of Cincinrati were re
elected president and secretary of the
Hotel and Restaurant Employers' Na
tional Alliance by the general conven
tion at Rochester.
The Loretto mine, at Loretto, Mich.,
shut down, throwing about 200 men
out of employment. Many mines are
closing and miners are leaving for
Europe on account of the general de
pression on the range.
Chicago hotel cooks have made a
demand for a ten-hour day and a
closed shop agreement. Heretofore
they have been working eleven hours
a day. Their demand will be consid
ered by their employers within a few
days.
Nearly all the striking miners, sev
enty-nine in number, who were driven
from Ludlow' to Trinidad. Colo., a dis
tance of twenty miles, by a cavalry
troop, have been released after hav
ing been registered by the military
authorities.
Arbitration has settled the w’age
scale of 7,000 union painters at New
York, and the agreement has been
signed. It grants an increase of 50
cents a day. making the scale $4 and
$4.25 for plain and decorative point
ers, respectively.
As the result cf notices served on
the Minneapolis trades unions, 5,000
men struck May 25. The open shop
system will be started by the con
tractors allied in the Builders’ and
Traders* Exchange at that time, say
the notices, regardless of what the
unions do.
The International Brotherhood of
Papermakers adjourned, after electing
officers and deciding to hold the next
convention at Holyoke, Mass. Geo.
Mackey of Watertown. N. Y., was
chosen president and Frank E. Mace
of Neenah, Wis., is one of the vice
presidents.
The strike of the freight handlers
on the Fall River and Providence line
of sound steamboats assumed serious
proportions and a complete tieup of
the sound fleet is threatened. The
Norwich and New Haven companies’
men have gone out and the Stoning
ton line is crippled.
The Springfield. 111.. Federation of
Labor has 6,000 paid up union mem
bers and is steadily growing. The
teamsters are divided into two local
unions—those who own not more than
one team and those who are hired by
the day. All conditions are peaceful,
the unions securing good agreements
May 1 without strikes.
In an interview at Cleveland Dis
trict Captain Paul Howell of the Mas
ters and. Pilots’ Association charged
the members of the Lake Carriers' As
sociation with conspiring to use the
present controversy over the demands
of the masters and pilots as an ex
cuse to keep their boats out of com
mission In order to force freight rates
to an abnormal figure.
A German professor named Schmol
ler has been studying the question of
wages for thirty years and has lately
published the results of his re
searches in a French magazine. He
says that the four principal causes of
high wages in modern times are as
follows: 1. Trade unions. 2. Popular
education. 3. Better social training.
4. More humanity among the
wealthier classes.
New wage scales of sixteen unions
in the Chicago stock yards, with a
membership of nearly 14.000, whose
agreements with the packers expire
soon, w'ere indorsed a* a meeting of
the Packing Trades Council, and the
unions will present them to represen
tatives of the packers within a few
days. Officials of the unions here do
not anticipate any difficulty in secur
ing their demands, as they ask for an
equalization of the wages by all pack
ers.
Labor unions of Georgia are advo
cating the establishment of a bureau
of state labor statistics and mining
There are now affiliated with the
American Federation of Labor; Inter
national unions, 118; state branches,
thirty-one; city central bodies, fi$|;
local trade and federal unlo*** having
no International unions, 1.6\' fht«^
does not include the charters issued
to local unions by affiliated interna
tional unionc, the total of these locals
being 26 400.
At Cleveland. Way 21. behind clored
doors votes were taken for officers
by delegates to the convention of the
Amalgamated Association of Iron.
Steel and Tin Workers. Theodore J.
Shaffer of Pittsburg, who has been
president for several years, wav re
elected. Other officers were re-elected
as follows: Secretary-treasurer. John
Williams, Pittsburg; assistant secre
tary, M. F. Tighe, Pittsburg: ditar as
sociation journal, Ben I. Davi Pitts
burg. The convention adjourn d af» r
choosing Detroit as the next plat t of
meeting.
The newest international union to
establish its headquarters iD Chicago
is the Hodcarriers and Building la
borers’ International union. It \va
formed in April, i903, at a convention
called by Samuel Oompers, and held
In Washington, D. C. When fir«t or
ganized there were twenty-six local
unions affiliated, with a membership
of about 10,000, over one-half of which
was from the Chicago locals. At the
present time there are 173 local
unions connected with the interna
tional from all parts of the country,
and the total membership is 38,000.
“The state militia was degraded to
the uses of corporations which con
nived at the breaking of the law. The
very men whom we used the troops to
protect imported all-round bad men—
the very men I ran out of their camps
—to break the law in Denver and car
ry the election in their interests.”
With this statement Adjutant General
Bell, heretofore the right-hand man of
Gov. Peabody in his military methods
of handling recent labor troubles, in
Colorado, announced his purpose to re
sign his position and have nothing
more to do with what he considers an
improper use of the state forces.
Orlando H. Baker. Unite 1 States
consul at Sydney, New South Wales,
reporting on labor conditions there,
says: “Hardjy a boat arrives here
from the United States without bring
ing some victims of the writer who
has pictured New South Wales as ‘the
paradise of the workingman.’ The
unions have by law a monoply of the
work to be done at fixed prices. While
some are well paid—mostly employes
of government works—thousands can
find nothing or very little to do at
any price. No encouragement is given
for immigrants who are dependent
’ upon their labor for a living. These
facts should be known to Americans.”
Brass Molders’ union No. 83 has
seceded from the Metal Polishers.
Platers, Buffers, Brass Workers and
Brass Molders’ International union,
and propose to form an international
union of brass molders alone. It is
not likely that the brass molders will
be given a charter from the A. F. of
L.. as the Boston convention conceded
the Iron Molders’ union jurisdiction
over the brass molders. The seces
sion was due to the failure of the re
cent strike of brass workers. The
molders say that the brass workers
and chandelier makers returned to
work, leaving the molders out in the
cold.
An event of vast importance to
trade unionism occurred in the British
house of commons on April 22. By a
vote of 238 to 199 what was known as
the “trade union bill” passed its sec
ond reading In the house of commons,
in spite of an adverse speech and an
adverse vote trom the premier. Mr.
Balfour. This bill legalizes peaceful
picketing and amends the law of con
spiracy in connection with trade dis
putes. It also protects trade union
bank accounts and other funds against
legal process for damage caused by
the action of members of such unions.
The bill, as is there commonly known,
was the outcome of the recent judg
ment in the TafT Vale railway case,
when the Railway Servants' Union
was mulcted in heavy damages for
picketing and alleged "interfering”
with nonunionists.
The labor editors of the state of
Illinois, the men who publish the
trades union journals for central
bodies of organized laber in the small
communities, have formed a state
association. The meeting was held
at Springfield, but it is expected to
make the association permanent at a
second meeting to be held at Peoria
in June. The officers selected are:
President, E. A. Whitney of the Ke
wanee Labor Herald; vice president,
S. W. Smalley. Galesburg Labor
News; secretary-treasurer, R. e.
Woodmansee, Springfield; executive
committee, Eugene L*inxweiler, De
catur Labor World; W. E. Corson,
Danville Labor Herald; J. w. As
pegren, Rockford Union Record; J. R.
Ashuff, of the Streator Trade and
l^abor Gazette. Of the fifteen editors
of labor papers which are official or
gans of unions in the state, twelve
were represented.
Since the great coal strike the em
ployers of labor in all parts of the
country have been preparing to break
tne power of the labor unions. In
Chicago and St. L^iuis the employers’
associations have emergency funds
of over 11,000.000 in the banks, ready
for immediate use. The method of
attack is to establish what are called
"open whops'"—shops in which the
employer has the right to discharge
without giving causes and the right to
hire men who are not members of
the union, On the part of the em
ployers it is claimed that the "open
shop" means no more than the equal
treatment of union and nonunion
men; but on the part of the trade
unions it Is said that this is the thin
end of u wedge which will be driven
In until the unions are broken up.
The employers’ associations are also
establishing employment bureaus for
the purpose of keeping track of the
records of all wageworkers and mark
ing out those who are active In the
union. As a result, so it is claimed
by labor men, a blacklist will be pre
pared which will be used to punish
and terrify the members of the
unions. The railroads and banks are
wM to be iy\»ml the new anti-unioa
VfUlHTt.
