The Wageworker. (Lincoln, Neb.) 1904-????, April 29, 1904, Image 4

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    Piano Topics.
BOSS P. CURTICE CO.,
Lincoln. Neb.
There are pianos and pianos.
We sell pianos. And the piano:
wo sell are always just what
we say they are. We have
builded success on the founda
tion of square dealing.
PIANO
BARGAINS
We havo In stock two firs'
elass pianos that have been
rented. These piano3 are Just
as good as new., in every respect
elegant finish, sweet toned,
uninjured by the little use they
have had. and good enough lor
any home. They are instru
ments to be proud of but they
have been rented. The regular
price of these pianos ir, $275.
They are worth that price. But
we'll sell them for : : :
$190 Each.
S10 Down and
$6 a Month
v Better piano bargains have
never been offered in Lincoln.
And we. have others. '
We sell the following standard
pianos: Everett. Ivers & Foad,
Richmond, , Smith & Barnes,
Packard and Starr.
Ross P. Curtice
Music Co.
J$0tnbkr I
Fifteen years' experience in han
dling the Rambler has con
vinced us and our customer
that it is one of the best wheels
made.
It is noted for its marvelous
strength, easy running ana
graceful appearance.
It never fails to give entiie
satisfaction to its users.
E. R. Guthrie
1568 O STREET
Tell them you saw their advertise
ment In The Wage worker.
Are You in Debt?
Are creditors prealn(r you for small lilW
due? Wo will loan yuu money to clear up
all your indebtedness; you can repay us in
Installments. We loan on furniture, i'.oises,
pianos. No ehurec for papers; no interest
In advance; money repaid to suit conven
ience; no removal ot goods or publicity. If
yon arc a stranger it makes no difference;
very low rates.
DENNIS.
Oronnd Floor
I 1 No. l ith.
Wright Cut Price
1
Drug Co.
91.00 Paine's Celery Cornp'd . 79e
$1.00 Crystal Tonic 79c
$1.00 Electric Bittern "J9C
.50 Scott's Liniment 39c
1.00 Snoop's Remedies 89c
tl.00 Mother's Friend ggc
1.00 Hyooiei g0o
.'15 Castoria 25c
91.50 Fountain SyriDge...l 25
50 Omega Oil 43c
aoth Century Soda Fountain.
Prescription Druggists.
117 N. nth St.
Tell them you saw their advertise
ment In The Waseworker.
LABOR MUST UNITE.
SOME REASONS WHY WORKINGMEN
SHOULD STAND TOGETHER.
Organisation la the Order of the
, Day In All the World's Activities.
Labor but Follows General Trend.
Co-operation Tteeeaaary For Self
Preaervatlon.
Do we approve of organized laborj
It almost strikes me sometimes as
ludicrous when that question is asked.
It does not really matter very much
whether or not we approve of it. The
situation is not such that organization
waits upon our tardy approval or onr
modified and (jualifled and condescend
ing approbation.
Organization is in the air. Organiza
tion is the order of the day. Organiza
tion is everywhere. Ohpitnl is organiz
ed, they say. Why should not labor be
organized? Everything is organized.
Science is being organized. Even the
solitary thinker is solitary no longer;
the solitary scholar, the philosopher,
meets his fellow philosopher in con
gresses, the psychologists, the histo
rians, the economists, the scientific in
vestigatorseverywhere are these huge
congregations of effort, these co-operative
efforts, everywhere instances of
concerted action. Everywhere great
ends are undertaken not singly, btit
jointly.
Is it to bo wondered at that labor
should be organized? Labor simply
follows the general trend. You cannot
any more prevent it than you can pre
vent organization anywhere else.
And, moreover, there is a special rea
son why there should be this organiza
tion or association of laborers, because,
s every one knows, the argumcut is
so simple that one is almost ashamed
to repeat it that the laborer, singly and
individually, Is at an enormous disad
vantage as against the employer, the
same disadvantage at which a man is
who wishes to dispose of a house when
It is known that he must sell on the in
stant, that he cannot wait.
A man who must sell his house, of
whom it is known that he must dis
pose of it, is at a great disadvantage.
Ho will not get bis price, the price that
is proper, because it is known that he
cannot wait.
So the laborer cannot get the price of
his services because it is known that
he cannot wait. His necessities are
pitted against the resources of the em
ployer; his existence, always close to
the verge of want, is pitted against the
broad margin of the employer; bis ig
norance of market conditions is pitted
against the experience and the outlook
of the employer.
The only weapon in his hands is the
threat of withdrawing his service, but
as the place of an individual can easily
be filled that threat is perfectly futile.
What shall he do? To establish him
self in business is out of the question.
Ho has not as an individual the capital.
More and more large capital is requir
ed. He cannot do that.
Shall be go upon the land, ns they
say? That, too, is iniKssible; the mere
expense of takUig himself and his fam
ily to the land is prohibitive.
What shall he do? Threaten as an
Individual to leave his employer's serv
ice, when there are a hundred and a
thousand others ready to take his
place?
What shall he do? He stops to
think and' finds, while the threat to
withdraw his service as an individual
is futile, that if a hundred people
threaten to withdraw that is more ef
fective, because the places of a hundred
cannot be so easily filled, and that if a
thousand threaten to withdraw that is
still more effective, and that if, finally,'
150,000 withdraw, as they did in the
anthracite coal strike, that is extremely
effective, because the places of 150.000
men cannot be filled. Dr. Felix Adler
in New York American.
THE EIGHT HOUR DAY.
Profrreaa Blntle In Vnriona Seetlona
Toward I.eaaenlntr Houra of Toll.
A recent bulletin of the Massachu
setts bureau of statistics of labor gives
in a discussion of the eight hour day a
digest of the enactments of the various
states, a summary of legal decisions
upon these and related statutes, and an
account of the experience of srtlne Mas
sachusetts cities and towns that have
accepted the eight hour day on public
works. There arc found twenty-seven
states and territories, besides the Unit
ed States, having an eight hour day.
Six states prescribe eight hours as
the limit of a day's work unless speci
fied to the contrary x'Jz, Connecticut,
Illinois. Indiana. Missouri, New York
and Pennsylvania. Nevada and the
United States prescribe an eight hour
day upon irrigation works, and Now
York upon the reservoir. Wisconsin
prescribes this limit for manufacturing
and mechanical establishment unless
otherwise agreed upon; Missouri, New
Mexico and Tennessee for laborers on
public works; Arizona, Colorado, Mis
aourl, Montana, Nevada, Utah and
Wyoming in mines and smelting estab
lishments; California, Colorado, Dis
trict of Columbia, Hawaii, Idaho, Kan
sas, Maryland (Baltimore), Minnesota.
Montana, Nevada, Ohio, Pennsylvania,
Porto Rico, Utah, Washington, West
Virginia and Wyoming as a maximum
day on public works; the United States
upon government work. Boston Her
ald. A Sueeeaafnl London Vnlon.
The London Society of Compositors,
with 11,270 members, has a reserve
fund of $301,000. Nearly $80,000 was
puiil to the unemployed last year." The
society maintains 330 superannuated
members, who received for the year
$38,000 from the general treasury. The
funeral benefits for the twelve months
totaled $11,740.
ORGANIZED LABOR.
The Worklngman Can Walki He
Will lio Lower Crawl.
There will be recessions and pro
gressions of the trade union move
ment, like the ebb and flow of the tide,
writes John Mitchell in his book on
"Organized Labor." The movement
will be helped on in days of prosper
ity and retarded, or apparently re
tarded, in the days of adversity, al
though the moral chastening and the
hard lessons learned in the period of
adversity constitute, perhaps, the
greater and truer and surer progress
of the two. There cau be no doubt,
however, that the movement is oh ward
and upward. The workingunin who
once crawled upon his .knees is now
upon his feet, and, though he may suf
fer buffets in the future or may be
temporarily cast down, he has at lerst
learned to walk and will no longer
crawl. It takes generations to im
plant dignity in the human breast, but
once implanted it is ineradicable.
The movement called the trade union
movement is not a thing by itself, with
its own beginniug and its owu end. but
j a step in a long development, which
began many thousands of years ago
and which will not have ended many
thousands of years hence. It is a single
act in a drama as long as the history
of humanity itself a single act in the
uplifting of the human race. We are
told that man rose from a lower scale
of existence that at a certain time he
was tapped upon the forehead nud it
was said. "Let there be light." There
was a gradual rise of man from the
savage to the barbarian, from the bar
barian to the semicivilized. from the
semicivilized to the civilized man. Even
this civilized man is himself merely a
link iu a gradual evolution. The evolu
tionary and educational forces which
have been at work for thousands of
years have not spent themselves, but
will continue, so that the least civilized
innn of a future age may be higher in
the scale than the noblest, purest and
best man that lives today. There may
come a time when the generations for.
whom we are struggling will look up
on us as barbarians, but little removed
from the cave dweller or the prehistoric
savages who ranged the dense forests.
There may come a time when labor
will no longer be degrading, . when
the last vestige of slavery of any sort
will have disappeared, when work will
be a pleasure and an honor and an am
bition. When that time comes, when
men shall have advanced from and
evolved cut of the present degrading
conditions, the generations to come will
look back with gratitude and approval
upon the institution of trade union
ism, which has contributed and wil!
have contributed so much to the ulti
mate goal of society, the ascent of man.
"This." said the great humane philos
opher. Thomas Carlyle "this that they
call the organization of labor is the uni
versal vital problem of the world."
STRONG HELP THE WEAK.
The Dnty Which Trade I'nlonlat
Ore to Fellow Laborer..
The most effective work the trade
unions can do is in the direction of rais
ing the condition of those workers, or
ganized or unorganized, whose condi
tions are lowest. The poverty of the
sweatshop workers and mill town hands
compels them to send their children to
work when they ought to be in school.
The employment of childreu, in turn,
displaces adult workers and sends them
to compete for new jobs. This swelling
of the army of the unemployed and in
tensification of wages in trades for
merly more prosperous threaten even
the best paid mechanics.
We have to remember that in these
days more of what are called skilled
trades are much ensier to learn than
they were In the days of our fathers
And even though the common laborer
or factory "hand" might find it difficult
to enter a skilled trade, yet t!:cse labor
ers and operatives have sons with life
before them, and, if the conditions of
those industries in which their fathers
have been employed are growing hard
er, even greater grows the stiinulus for
them to press into the more skilled and
paid trades.
So, even in simple self defense, the
printers and steelworkers and carpen
ters and other skilled . mechanics,
though they need not fear the direct
introduction of child competition into
their special trades, ought yet to dread
the indirect influence of child labor and
to use their great power to check or
abolish it.
So. too, since the shortening of the
labor day gives an opportunity for
more men to work, and since the exist
ence of a body of unemployed men js
a constant danger to such as are eai
ployod. it behooves the unions to work
with special vigor for the reduction of
hours in each and every trade.
And since the men of the skilled
trades have' generally a more solid or
ganization, since they have more
money and more leisure, since ttiey
have greater power and influence, it
devolves especially upon them to take
the lead iu preventing child labor and
in reducing hours, not in their owu
trades only, but particularly in trades
which are worse off. Carpenters' Jour
nal. Peaceful Methoda Arc Gaining;.
"Peaceful means of settling labor
differences are gainiug over the more
warlike strike." said President Gom
pcYs in Chicago the other day.
"This is shown by the financial re
ports of the unions," lie said. "These
statements Indicate a great falling off
in the a mount of money paid for strike
benefits and a corresponding increase
in the sum paid for sick and death
claims. Employer and employee are
both learning to understand each other
better, to appreciate each other's
strength and to realize that warfare
does not pay. Conference and concil
iation are taking the place of strikes."-
CHILD LABOR EVIL.
URGENT DEMAND FOR STRINGENT
LAWS REGARDING IT.
The Flarht In ajreat Britain In Behalf
of Children Need of Legtlalatlon In
Thia Country to Cheek the Growth
of the I'cruicloua Syateni.
In a recent discussion of the child
labor problem lion. Hoke Smith, for
mer secretary of the interior, said:
"In 1890 the census report showed us
that there were employed in our stores
children betweeu the ages of ten and
fifteen to the number of more than
800,000. Unless legislation prevents
the increase in the next ten years it
will be even greater. What are we
going to do about it ? Are we to wait
or act? It took in England three
quarters of a century of lighting by the
friends of the children before legisla
tion was secured to fairly protect them
from the factories, the mines and the
workshops. The ablest statesmen of
Great Britain in the early part of the
last century began the fight. They were
told then thut the industries of "Oreat
Britain would be ruined, and that Ger
many and France would outstrip hei'.
The same kind of arguments are made
in most of our states today. It took
a long time then for the friends of the
young to overcome the influence and
power' of those who were using chil
dren, and the willingness to let them
work, the willingness not of masters,
but of Idle and brutal fathers. All dur
ing that history reports to the English
parliament are tilled with records of
shame and suffering and misery. Be
fore her commissions the ablest doctors
of Great Britain testified that to such
an extent had the use of children iu
factories and mills gone that a per
manent injury to the physical condi
tion of mankind was threatened.
"A report of the French war depart
ment has shown that iu those sections
of France where child labor exists the
recruiting officers find not more than
half as niauy men who can meet the
requirements of the army as in those
sections where child labor docs not
exist. If we come to our own country
we have ample evidence of the in
jurious effect of child labor. In a re
port made a few years back in New
Jersey by the inspectors of factories
and workshops it is stated that the
average child becomes delicate, puny,
ignorant, and thai at "the age of thir
teen the face has a little, old, worn
expression.' The children can no long
er play. They do not enjoy it. They do
not care for school or training. All
their energy and vitality have been
sapped.
"But we need not go to the records
and reports for information. Turn to
your own children. See what is need
ed to train them. Suppose they were
to be confined long hours in dark walls
and close rooms, without leadership,
without instruction, without direction,
at monotonous work. What would hap
pen to them? Think of all your loving
care and training by the best teachers
in . the best schools and all that is
done to strengthen them. Then think
of that all taken away, and put your
own children in such places as these
child laborers fill. Let the president
be as kind as he may and I want to
state that so far as my observation
goes the large majority of the men at
the head of cotton mills in my section
are kind and helpful to their children
and to their employees but in spite
of that fact 3'ou will find ignorant and
pallid faces, dejected countenances,
appenrance which indicates sickness
and the lowest vitality.
"The same New Jersey report to
which I referred declares that CO per
cent of the children twelve years of
age had not heard of the United States
or of Europe and Do per cent of them
had never heard of the Revolutionary
war. If you wish information, seek the
places where children in their early
years are worked in your neighbor
hood and you will find the effect upon
their young lives."
A Campaign of Education.
The Chicago Federation of Labor is
to inaugurate n campaign to educate
the public on the aims anil objects of
organized labor. At the next meeting
of the federation a plan along this line
will be offered. It is proposed to select
a number of the best orators to. appear
before the students of the different uni
versities, women's clubs and all other
organizations that gain their knowl
edge of the labor movement from the
newspapers or magazines and explain
the hopes and aspirations of organized
labor. The leaders iu the, movement
state that the same efforts are being
made now by tin? opponents Of labor to
misrepresent trade unions that were
followed before the big lockout in the
buildiug trades in 11)00.
LABOR NOTES.
The garment workers' label is used
in more countries than the label of any
other craft. In addition to the one
in America, the English tailors have
adopted one. and a union label has
been introduced by the. Vienna (Aus
tria) Tailors' union fo be used for union
made clothing. This is the first at
tempt to introduce a union label in
Austria.
The Boston Globe says that the label
committee of CigaruiaUers' union 07
decided to distribute 50,000 blue label
souvenirs during the G. A. It. encamp
ment week In that city. The souvenirs
will be in the form of it red, white and
blue badge.
Several postal clerks' unions have
been chartered by the A. F. of L., and
now it is proposed to form a national
union. N
The latest report of the British Amal
gamated Society of Painters shows an
aggregate expenditure of 911,000,000
and only one-eighth of this amount for
strikes.
UN HEALTH Y TRADES.
lullirr Workrooms! 'Good Invest
meat For ISmployera.
For centuries the tailor has been the
subject of jesting pity because his
trado was supposed to make him phys
ically weak, while the stonecutter has
been, usually represented as the image
of strength. So sailors and miners are
supposed to follow dangerous trades, as
indeed they do if the chances of exter
nal injury alone be considered, while
bookkeepers and salesmen are ' sup
posed to be in little danger from their
occupations. , , VV v- .
Disease, however, kills "scores where
accidents kill one, and of all diseases
consumption kills the most adults, and
with regard to deaths from consump
tion a life insurance expert has recent
ly prepared a chart from oftcial mor
tality returns which upsets many' pop
ular notions as to the relative health
fulness or unhealthf ulness of various
trades. It covers thirty leading trades
and shows the percentages of deaths
from consumption to deaths from all
causes of workers in each. . '
In the middle stand the painters and
grocers, with percentages ef 23.4 and
24.2. From grocers the figures rise
through liquor dealers, molders, long
shoremen, potters, cigarmaker3, silk
workers, hatters, salesmen,, plumbers,
bookkeepers, brassworkers, glasswork
ers. printers and stoneworkers, of
whom 45.1 per cent die of consump
tion. From painters the figures go down
through brewers, bakers, policemen,
weavers, iron and steel workers, ma
sons, butchers, 'carpenters, tailors,
blacksmiths, merchants, sailors, brake
men and miners, of whom only 6.4 per
cent die of consumption. .
It Is certainly something of a sur
prise to learn that the most widely fa
tal of maladies is less likely to kill the
proverbially weak tailor than the pro
verbially strong butcher and that sail
ors, who must endure the most sudden
and violent changes of temperature,
are less subject to consumption than
printers, who enn hardly work at all
except .in a reasonably even tempera
ture. ; '.
In this connection it Is interesting to
note that large employers of labor are
being convinced with increasing ease
and rapidity that provision of clean,
well ventilated and properly heated
and lighted shops Is an investment that
pays good dividends by increasing the
contentment and preserving the health
of their employees and that in this
manner the mortality of even the tin
healthiest trades may be sensibly di
minished. Chicago Record-Herald.
LABOR IN ENGLAND.
Statlatica Compiled 1j- the London
4 Board of Trade.
Statistics compiled by the London
board of trade for 1903 show a contin
uance of the wage reductions of the
years immediately preceding.
The fall in wages in 1901 and 1902
was mainly confined to the coal min
ing, iron and steel and shipbuilding
trades. In 1903 wages continued to
fall In these Industries, and the down
ward tendency spread to other trades;
such as the engineering, glass and
clothing trades. In all 892,000 employ
ees were affected by changes in wages
reported during 1903 as. compared with
890,000 iu 1902 and 032,000 in 1901.
The estimated weekly decrease in
wages in 1903 was 38,400 only, about
$192,000, as compared with 72,700 in
1902 and 77,300 in 1901.
There were fewer strikes in 1903 and
not so many disputes threatening
strikes. In the year there were 300
disputes, affecting 113,873 employees
and losing 2,316,792 working days.
Questions of remuneration were the
cause- of 214 disputes. Refusals to
work with nomtnionists and other ques
tions affecting trade unions were re
sponsible for 25, directly involving 17.
002 persons, while 54 disputes, involv
ing 13,471 work people, arose out of
working arrangements.
Eighty-three disputes, affecting 28,
241 persons, terminated in "avor of the
men; 15(5,, involving 25,699 persons, in
favor, of the employers, 'while 92, af
fecting 17,380 persons, were compro
mised. Labor and Capital In Japan.
The relations of capital and labor
are very cordial, says World's Work.
They are like the relation of fathers
and sons. The wages are in general
low as compared with those of the
United States and the European coun
tries, but after the war there was a
remarkable general rise in wages. This
should not be taken as the result of
strikes. It is the outcome of mutual
good will between employers and
workmen. Although there are local
trade unions without national organi
zations these are -in close harmony
with the capitalists, for the capitalists
themselves help the unions to grow.
Among others, the late T, Sakuma,
formerly the head of a large printing
office in Tokyo, has done much to fos
ter the unions.
MlsHjasIupl'M New Child Labor law.
The child labor law passed iu Mis
sissippi provides that no child ntider
twelve years of age shall be employed
in any factory; that no child under
fourteen years shall be employed to do
night work, and that no minor can Ue
employed without an affidavit as to his
age and the written consent of his
parents. The mill manager who vio
lates this law is liable to a fine of $500
and imprisonment in the county jail
Tor six months or both.
MK'Kt Work In Bake Shopa.
The advisability of inaugurating a
general movement for the purpose of
abolishing night work in all the bake
shops throughout the country is being
discussed by the members of the Bak
ery and Confectionery Workers' In
ternational Union of America,
Your Spring
Suit
If ever a man wants smart,
primp, handsome . clothes it's
when the first Warm days ap
pear. Nowhere) cah the most
particular matt firaf a tinerf
fresher or more'.satisfying stock
of suits than in our store at.
this moment. The tailor has'
;, thrown in every twist and quirk
of style-that makes an approv
ed suit.
B. L. Paine.
';.., - .: .
I qtcci nnmr
UILUL UUUIl
STOVE
New Style, Acron Make
This means it is made with all
the latest improvements known
to the cook stove world, and
carries a genuine guarantee.
. Its elegant construction makes
it an exceptionally qnick baker
and a great fuel saver.
".The ash pan sets so far below
the firebox that ashes will not
pilo up and burn out the grate,
It has an lS-inch oven, du
plex grate, and a largo front
feed pouch.
Made in acorn velvet finish,
which will not tarnish or peel
off.
, Put us on your shopping list
and see this stove. We will
take pleasure in showing its
construction.
A better stove for the money
cannot be bought.' Price
i
HARDY FURNITURE CO.
Tell them you saw their advertise
ment In The Wageworker.
White House
Butter
Deliriously sweet and fresh.
Sweet, because it is made from
pure, rich cream.
Fresh, because it sells so fast it
it cannot get old.
Most all of us are cranks on but
ter, and it's not easy to please ev
eryone. But White House But
ter seems to do it. . -
Convince yourself by trying a
pound package.
i
i
!
i
i
i
23c.
i
White House
Grocery and Meat Market
i
OOfr00-
Farmers' Meat Co.
J. W. WOLF, Prop..
Wholesale and retail dealers in
fresh and cured meats, poultry,
fish and game In season.
Boiling meats. 4c and up.
Shoulder steak, 7c.
Sirloin steak, 12 Vie.
Round steak, 10c.
Headquarters Laboring Man.
'Phone, 899. 226 No. Tenth St.
PROTECT
Your property against Fire,
Lightning, and Tornado,
and do it now!
You are taking a great risk every
day you deluy.
We are the only home stock com
' pany in the city organized
July, 18S6. . .
CASH CAPITAL - - - $100,000
FARMERS' & MERCHANTS'
Best union made shoes at Rnnr, a.
Perkins, 1129 O St. '