from trying to show non-union men the results of their non-unionism.
They have been restrained from walking along the public highways.
And now a San Francisco judge has restrained them from refusing
to patronize a firm that sells "scab" hats. But, thank God, no judge
ha sas yet restrained us from breathing the same air that the trust
magnates breathe although we expect to be served with such a re
straining order almost any time.
WILL M. MAUPIN, EDITOR AND PUBLISHER
Published Weekly. One DoHar Year. Advertising Rates on Application
THE WAG EWORKER
,
Entered as second-class matter Ap ril 21, 1904, at the pcstoffice at Lin
coln, Neb, under the Act of Congress.
n WHAT MR. BROWN STANDS FOR.
In one of his campaign speeches Mr. Pollard, the republican
nominee for congress, said that he was in favor of a "conservative
reduction of the tariff." This should be good news to everybody.
If there is anything on earth that people are crying for it is a "con
servative reduction of the tariff." 'But we are not going to rend our
nether garments over Mr. Pollard's declaration until he tells us just
what he means by a conservative reduction of the tariff."
But we do know what Mr. Brown, the democratic nominee for
congress, stands for. There is no secret about Mr. Brown's position
on the tariff, or any other question of interest to the people. Mr.
Brown is opposed to any sort of a tariff that robs the many to enrich
the few. He believes that if given a fair field the American crafts
man can hold his own against the craftsmen of any or all other coun
tries. He believes that the American farmer, aided by the best soil,
the finest climate and best brains ever put into human skull, can hold
his own against the grain raisers of any or all other countries. He
has no patience with the hollow mockery of the cry, "protection to
American labor," while hordes of ignorant and degraded labor
swarm to American shores to work under contract for tariff-protected
barons, to the detriment of free and intelligent labor. Mr.
Brown believes that fewer millions spent on a large army and a
large navy, and more millions spent in irrigation, good roads, and the
development of agriculture would be a great benefit to American
citizens.
But Air. Brown stands for some things that vitally interest the
wage-earners of this country. He believes in the doctrine of collec
tive bargaining which means that he believes in rerognizing union
labor and maintaining the "closed shop." He believes in the shorter
work-day. He believes in labor's right to organize for its own pro
tection and benefit, and being a fair-minded business man he prefers
to deal with men through their union organizations. He emphatically
refused to join an association having for its object the destruction of
the "closed shop" and openly declared his friendship for labor or
ganizations. Every skilled laborer in his employ is a union man
and must be to secure and retain employment.
If elected to congress Mr. Brown will do all that one man can
do to protect the interests of labor not by "protective tariffs" but
by laws that will protect the workingman's life, widen his oppor
tunities and shield him from the aggressions of dishonest capital:
He will seek to strengthen the alien contract labor laws; he will seek
to secure a better enforcement of immigration laws; he will seek to
secure better and stronger laws for the protection of life and limb.
Frank W. Brown is not a politician. He is a successful business
man, and in the whole of his business career he has always shown his
friendship for organized labor. He did not seek the nomination for
congress. It was forced upon him. He has no selfish interests to
serve. He is under no obligations to any trust, corporation or selfish
interest. As a congressman he will be free to act as he sees fit, and
his actions as a congressman may be judged by his acts as a business
man, and employer of labor.
The Wageworker doesn't care a rap whether Mr. Brown is a
"gold bug" or a "silver bug." It doesn't care a rap whether he is a
"free trader" or a "standpatter." It doesn't care a rap whether he is
a "big sticker" or a "no sticker." But it does cafe a lot about his
friendship for organized labor and that friendship1 has been demon
strated often enough to be convincing. It is because Mr. Brown is
a friend of organized labor that The Wageworker is supporting him.
A LITTLE PRIMER LESSON IN POLITICS.
The other day a business lot in Lincoln sold for $12,000 spot cash.
It had an old, dilapidated building on it that was worthless except for
kindling. Fifteen years ago the man who built that building on the
lot bought the lot for $1,200, and spent $1,100 on the building. The
property cost him a total of $2,300.
The rent paid the taxes and a fair interest on the investment.
When he sold the lot and building for $12,000 the owner cleared
$9,700.
What made that lot worth $12000?
The growth and development of the city.
Who developed and made possible the growth of the city?
The men who worked and t6iled and sacrificed, spending their
wages in Lincoln, building little homes, supporting good schools and
elevating the moral standard.
To whom, then, should the increased value of that lot belong?
To those who gave it the added value, of course.
Stop and consider this long enough to let it soak in good and
deep.
If no one had worked, if no one had settled in Lincoln, if no
homes had been built, if no merchants had prospered that lot wbuld
be worth only the price of farm property.
Do you grasp that idea?
The man who bought the property for $2,300 did not add one dol
lar to its value. You,, and you, and you, and you all of us added
the $9,700 value to that lot.
Do we get the benefit?
Not on your life !
Every time a workingman builds a little home he is taxed on his
frugality and enterprise, while the speculator who holds upnoccupied
lots profits. ,.
The men who build up Lincoln pay for the privilege. The men
who do nothing sit still and wait profit from the increased value
of real estate.
What's wrong?
Here's the answer our tax system.
Now study the .Georgian ideal of taxing land values instead of
taxing enterprise.
The workingman who owns his own home and fails to study the
single tax system is foolish.
That will be all for this lesson. The class is dismissed.
TOTE FAIR, GENTLEMEN.
The Wageworker, as every reader knows, has a mighty poor
opinion of the management of the Lincoln Distraction company. But
The Wageworker believes in toting fair. That's why this modest lit
tle labor paper unhestitatingly declares that the attempt to prevent
the construction of the depot loop is founded on something more than
appears on the surface. This thing of damning the Distraction com
pany for not making needed improvements, and then seeking to en
join it when it undertakes to make an improvement is unfair. That
depot loop is needed, and needed badly,
v The idea that the construction of the loop would depreciate cer
tain proprty makes us smile. Perhaps it would. Not for the world
would we put ourselves in an attitude of contempt by seeking to
venture an opinion before the honorable court makes the first guess.
But just the same the idea makes us laugh.
Give the Lincoln Distraction company a square deal, gentlemen.
Then make the Lincoln Distraction company do the same thing.
When the farmer learns the benefit of organization, and when the
trades unionist learns the benefits of united political action regard
less of partisan lines when thes"e are well learned the professional
politician will be out of a job and the pampered capitalist will have
to either go to work or live off the principal.
Police Judge Cosgrave says he will fine every man who spits cn
the sidewalk. That's right, judge. And if he spits "scab" tobacco
juice fine him twice.
If Andrew Carnegie had paid fairwages to his men, and given
them decent hours, he would not ncjl be so badly worried about
dying rich. v '
Union men have been restrained frtom striking. They have been
restrained from asking higher wages. They have been "restrained
An old friends of the editor, Mr. I. J. Copenharve, has started a
labor paper in South Omaha, the Labor Gazette. The best we can
wish for the Gazette is that the laboring men of South Omaha will
give it as good support as the laboring men of Lincoln give The
Wageworker. And as loner as Copenharve runs the Gazette it will
be. worthy of undivided support, for he is so choke-full of unionism
that he talks about it in his sleep.
There are two classes of men who howl loudly in advocacy of
'protection for American labor" the skilled mechanic who is glad to
get a job at $2.50 a day and the multi-millionaire who spends a mil
lion a year on private yachts and game preserves. Which of these
two men is the nremium sucker?
Banker Bigelow stole $3,000,000 and was sent to the pen for
ten years. Frank Stevens of Columbus, O., stole a $40 bicycle and
was sent to the pen for eight years. But the workingman who insists
that there is one law for the rich and another for the poor is an
'anarchist."
Mr. John B. Farwell of Chicago appears to be one of those bull-
headed gentlemen who believe that a laboring man has no rights
which a big capitalist is bound to respect. Men of the John V. Far
well class are always the first to howl against "appeals to class preju
dice," too.
Andrew Carnegie is one of the men who advocated a protec
tive tariff in order to "protect American labor." Andy is now worth
$300,000,000 after giving half as much away. Can it be possible that
Andy failed to make an honest division of the profits of the protective
system ?
The biennial elections law having been knocked out we will
have to elect a biinch of county officers this fall. And right now is
the time for union men to get into the game. The ranks of unionism
in Lancaster county contain fit material for any old political office m
ight.
Funnv creatures, women. When they were little girls they
loved to put on long skirts because they thought it made 'em look
like women. Now they want to put on short skirts because they
think it would make 'em look like girls again.
When laboring men learn to vote for the men who demonstrate
their friendship for labor, instead of voting for men who appeal to
partisan prejudice, the laboring men of the c6untry will come into
their own.
The man whose mouth is talking unionism under a "scab" hat is
merely a liar that's all.
A LAST APPEAL TO THE TYPOTHETE.
A Member Shows the Organization Where It is Going to Make a
Very Serious Mistake.
It is to be regretted that the Typothete, an organization of em
ploying printers of San Francisco, is determined to invite trouble
with the Typographical Union, by insisting upon a return to the
nine-hour working day on July 1st.
The Union cannot concede the demand without taking a step back
ward, which it is not likely to do.
I he eight-hour day, as we pointed out in last week s Star, came
gradually, as a compromise measure by mutual agreement between
employers and employed. ,The latter wanted it two years and a half
go, but, being reasonable men, accepted the suggestion of the
Typothete that instead of at once reducing the day one hour, which
would be a hardship to employers, they reduce it fifteen minutes
every six months, which would give employers two years to regulate
their business accordingly.
Could anything have been fairer?
That a majority of the employers are satisfied with the eisrht-hour
day, and would "preserve the peace" that now exists between them
and their workmen, we are convinced; yet some of them, through
pressure of one kind or another which will yet be made clear
have been inveigled into signing the agreement to return to the nine
hour day.
A number of offices including the Star will abide by the eight-
hour day. All of them wpl be compelled to come to it in the end.
Progress cannot be held back by a few malcontents.
Years ago we told the employing printers of this city, when many
of them objected to granting the nine-hour day, that it had come
to stay until superseded by the eight-hour day. They did not believe
us then, but not .many moons had passed before they realized that
we had spoken the truth.
We now tell them that the eight-hour day has come to stay, no
matter what they, or any power behind them, may do. They may
doubt us as they did before, but only a short time will pass when
they will once again admit that we were right.
5ut, in the meantime? Ah. "there s the rub." The action of the
Typothete will engender strife ; long-standing friendships between
employers and employees may be broken; and it may take years
to obliterate the bitter memories of only a few days or hours.
Unce more, gentlemen and fellow members of the Typothete. we
ask you to think of these things ; and we make a, last appeal to you
to reconsider what you have done, and be guided by reason and
right. San Francisco Star.
SOME RED HOT STUFF.
A Missouri Populist Who Talks Right Out in Meeting About the
Great Labor Movement.
Will Crittenden Thornton, editor of the People's Banner, knows
what he knows and he knows a lot. Crittenden prints a paper on a
farm, two miles from Belleville, Mo., setting all the type himself and
writing every blooming line that goes into his paper. And it is a
ed-hot little paper, too. He is a populist, and he calls attention to
i few things that every populist should consider. Filled with su
preme disgust with some of his fellow populists, Crittenden sat
down at his rural editorial desk the other-day and ripped off the
following. It is good reading for every trades unionist in the
country:
The People's Banner has no patience with those pretended
populists who make no effort to keep abreast with the labor
movement. Some of the alleged populist papers have been run
by the most contemptible scabs that ever disgraced our country,
as in the case of Herb. George, of the old Denver Road, and
there are a few of his Ilk still engaged in driving the organized
labor vote away from us. A true populist is a trade-unionist to
the core, and could not be induced to print union-hater Post's
contemptible scab drivel at any price, nor would he patronize a
"patent" house that is unprincipled enough to thus prostitute his
columns. A decent populist editor would rather starve and die
than plead the cause of union smashers, scabs and strike-breakers
under any circumstances. The news reports in the patent sides
Of the populist local papers concerning the present strike in
Chicago are damnable lies the insertion of which is paid for by
the villainous Employers' association for the purpose of preju
dicing the rural population against unionism. And yet, some
of these ignorant yap editors are wondering why Tom Watson
didn't get the organized labor vote of any city in America. Go
to, now, my beloved country brethren, and apply to your simple
minds enough of this anti-scab ointment to curejyou of the citi
zen's alliance itch and make true and consistent c.opulists of you.
I a wk mm
NOW USES A
If she has none, she immediately sets about getting one,
The modern housewife seeks for labor saving appliances
just as the husband seeks for labor saving machinery or
labor saving business devices. Here is the greatest labor
saver the American housewife can find:
f mm f flnl . f
W J mm'-rsr a11 the work of carrying coal, dumping
J X OflVC S ashes splitting kindling, etc. No wait
ing for the fire to get hot enough to
cook with. No waste of heat after the cooking is done. The heat
is all there right on the very moment it is wanted. When no
longer needed both heat and expense stop.
The Expense
A Comparative T:
Fuel Gas costs less than coal or woodto say nothing of
the saving in health and time No waste of time; no
waste of heat; no waste of strength.
A GAS RANGE
means a comfortable kitchen. Surely
the health and comfort of the house
wife is worth considering. Increase
her health and comfort and the meals are better cooked, better
served and more thoroughly appreciated. There is as much dif
ference between a modern Gas Range and an old-fashioned cook
stove as there was between the cook stove and the old-fashioned
fireplace with its swinging crane and kettle oven. - v',
Don't take our word about the eco
nomical, healthful and comfortable
features of a Gas Range. Just ask
those who are using them. We'll
abide by the decision of our customers.
We carry a full line of Gas Ranges and Water Heaters, and will
take pleasure in showing them to you and giving a clear demon
stration of their utility and cheapness.
OFEIN EVENINGS '
INVESTIGATE
FOR YOURSELF
Lincoln Gas . Electric Light
DELL 25
COMPANY
1326 O ST., LINCOLN.
AUTO 2575