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THE
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W AGEWORKE R
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A Newspaper with a Mission and without a Muzzle that is published in the Interest of Wageworkers Everywhere.
VOL.2 LINCOLN, NEBRASKA, JULY 7, 1905 Tr- NO. 13
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PRINTERS AND AUXILIARY.
News Notes From Two Live Organiza
. tions That Always Keep Busy.
The excessive rain the day before
the Fourth Impelled the managers of
the proposed Auxiliary picnic to post
pone that event. Regret Is felt on
all sides, as complete arrangements
had been made for a fine time, and
the Fourth turned out to be an ele
gant day. . In lieu of the picnic the
Auxiliary will endeavor to make the
July social a record breaker, and the:
indications are that the effort will not
be in vain. I
The Auxiliary held Its first July
meetings at Bonhanon's hall Wednes
day and transacted a lot of business.
Mesdames J. E. Mlckel, F. W. Mlckel
and W. M. Maupln served refresh
ments at the conclusion of the
meeting.
' John Moore, who has completely
recovered from a long selge of typhoid
fever, is again at work as head push
of the Star ad alley. Mrs. Moore is
also fully recovered. At the July
meeting of the Typographical union
resolutions of rejoicing at the recovery
of this popular couple were intro
duced and unanimously approved.
' Ed Howe has scraped the hirsute
barnacles from his visage and looks
like a tyro fresh from the country in
search of a card and a regular "sit."
i Perry Barngrover stepped on a
, piece of rusty tin the other day, and
as a result the lad is hobbling around
with the injured member tied up in a
rag.
Marie Mlckel made a mltep the
other day and as a result has been
suffering from a severely sprained
ankle.
' JLIttle Miss Mea Armstead of North
Bend, la visiting with her aunt, Mrs.
w M. Maupln.
The Typographical Union took in
three members at the July meeting.
The work of revising the constitution
and by-laws is welt under ' way and
will be completed at the August
meeting.
Plans are on foot for a grand eight
hour rally of the allied printing trades
in the Missouri valley and the local
Typographical Union has selected a
committee to represent it In the work
of making arrangements.
Will Norton was off a couple of days
last week on account of illness, but
U again at work at the "P. O." house.
Do not forget the Central Labor
Union benefit at the Oliver theatre
Wednesday evening, July 19.
G. E. Locker has switched from- the
night side of the Journal and is now
working on the day side of the News.
CARPENTERS' UNION
Some Brief Items From the Big Union
of Lincoln
Carpenters are plenty in Lincoln.
The Lincoln Sash & Door Co., will
get out the trim for the new post
office. Bro. C. E. Woodward visited Omaha
for the Fourth and reports all kinds
of work there.
Several 1055 boys have gone to
work at the new postofflce.
New foundations are getting fewer.
Isn't it about time we began to pre
pare for Labor day?
The business agent is putting men
at work every day. .. . ''
Send items for publication pertain
ing to the Carpenters to the business
agent.
'What Is the matter witlT'the Car
penters having a social?
Installation ', of officers Thursday
July 6.
If you want the handiest saw clamp
on the market, one that is unbreak
able and that you can put. in a chest
till, inquire of Bro. S. J. Kent.
Lots of applications are rolling into
the Union. We are nearing the 300
mark, i ' ' .
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NO SCABS FOR HIM.
Philadelphia Landlord Fires a Bunch
Looking for Them.
Manager O'Neill of the Hotel Co
lumbus, Philadelphia, has no use for
"scabs," and he thinks even less bf
men who will chase around hiring
them. Last week there was a strike
at the Burleigh boiler works on Staten
Island, and immediately the managers
sent out men to hunt for strikebreak'
ere. A couple of these agents went
to Philadelphia and put up at Manager
O'Neill's hostelry. They advertised
and soon "scabs" and loafers began
flocking in to get a "half dollar in
advance." The presence of the odor
ous bunch attracted Manager O'Nelll'3
attention and he investigated. As
soon as he learned the facts he fired
the agents out of his hotel.
"You can't set up any 'scab' em
ployment, bureau in my house," ex
claimed Manager O'Neill. "If you
don't hike out of here in less than
five minutes I'll kick the whole bunch
into the street."
The agents looked at the irate man
ager' for a 'second or two, and then
quietly sneaked out, taking their
odorous bunch with them.
SPECIAL TRAIN TO BEATRICE.
On Sunday, July 9 and 16 the Union
Pacific will run special trains to Be
atrice Chautauqua, trains leaving Lin
coln at 9:05 a. m., returning leave
Beatrice at 7 p. m. Fare $1.00. Tick
ets on sale at city office, 1044 O street.
Depot at Fourth and O streets.
LEAD POISONING.
. Henry Bruening, head stereotyper
at the Free Press, was taken to the
office of Dr. Wllmeth Monday evening
suffering from a. severe attack of lead
poisoning. He is again at work, but
sees the necessity of engaging in some
other line of work and will retire
from the stereotyping business in the
near future. ;
THE OLIVER THEATER
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Central Labor Union Benefit
WEDNESDAY EVE , JIM 19
By the kindness of the Fulttm Stock Company and Manager .Frank. Zeh
rung of the Oliver, a benefit for the Lincoln Central Labor Union will be given'
on Wednesday evening, July 19, on which occasion the magnificent Labor Play,
"LOST
Will be given. This splendid play deals with the ever-pressing ' Labor
Problem and should be seen by every employer and employe in Lincoln and
vicinity. It is full of heart interest, replete, with thrilling situations, and is pre
sented with a wealth of scenic effect by a splendid company. . . ...
See the Great Mill Scene. See the Great Strike Scene,
The' proceeds of the entertainment will be turned into the treasury of the
Central Labor Union. No advance from regular prices of admission 25 cents; ;
15 cents and 10 cents. Tickets exchangeable for reserved seats at the box
office on sale by Central Labor Union delegates.
...Specialties Between Acts
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The Fulton Stock Company, now playing a summer engagement at the
Oliver, is equal to many of the attractions playing one night engagements at a
' heavy advance over' the regular season prices. Its productions are unusually
well staged, its plays the best that can be secured, and the individual members
of the company are artists in their profession. .'; , - -.
"LOST PARADISE"
Conveys a valuable lesson to both Labor and Capital.' . Its love stories are
unique. Its comedy is clean. Let every workingman and woman in the city
take an active interest in this benefit performance.
Wednesday Eve., July 1 9th
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COUNTRY CLUB'S CELEBRATION
The Lincolif "Country Club" observed the Fourth of July at the
spacious grounds made ready for the guests. During the day several
match games pf tennis and golf were played, and in the evening
picnic parties were the rule, the diners scattering themselves over
the grounds or eating in the cafes as inclination led them. The at
tendance was unusually large, the day being perfect, and Lincoln's
society folk were out in full force. After the picnic supper the crowd
assembled at the club house and Hon. Frank M. Hall, acting as
master of ceremonies, introduced the speakers of the evening. Mr.
R. L. Metcalfe, associate editor of the Commoner, and Mrs. A'. J.
Sawyer were the first speakers. Will M. Maupin, editor of The
Wageworker, was the last speaker, and using as his subject "The
Needed Patriotism," spoke as follows:
It is. so common for the American citizen to open his vocal
apparatus on this glorious anniversary and shout in gladsome tones
about the grandeur and bigness of this country, that I am impelled
both by precedent and inclination to follow the general rule and
devote the limited time at inyf commond to panegyrics upon our
republic. ' ' ,
This is indeed the land of big things. We have the largest
area of country dedicated toliuman freedom in all the wide universe.
We have the most beautiful, flag, whether viewed from the artistic
or the sentimental standpoint. We have the handsomest women,
the strongest men, the bestj behaved children, the fastest horses,
the best poker players and :the greatest swindlers. We have the
longest rivers and the widest chasm between the classes. We have
the greatest lakes and the greatest trusts ; the highest mountains
and the lowest depths of political degredation. Indeed, this is the
land of superlatives, and one 'who would pay just and proper tribute
to our republic must exhaust the dictionary of its adjectives.
T It is. indeed proper, then; that' we make this day a day of noise
and rejoicing, for when we Have the biggest of all the things, the
best of all things and the meanest, of all things, certainly there must
be those somewhere ready to celebrate our possession of all these
things. , ;. . .. .
There are a thousand definitions of patriotism, not the most
inaccurate being that of Dr; Johnson who defined it as "the last
refuge of a 'scoundrel.'' The 'grandest scoundrels we have ever had
in this country have been men who were loudest in the protesta
tions of patriotism, and we are all familiar with the wonderful
patriotism of the men who are always shouting for the old flag and
a fat office with a .bigvappr6priation for incidental and contingent
expenses. " j
But it is not- my purposed, at this time to deal with the abstract
phases of patriotism. I must follow precedent and endeavor to
snatch a few feathers from the tail of the eagle and wave them aloft
for the delectation of the assembled multitude. Let me, then, devote
a goodly portion of the time at my disposal to giving jn detail somej
of the wonderfuf characteristics of this country. ) For more than a
century we have been holding aloft bur flag as a beacon to guide the
oppressed of all nations to a haven of liberty and equality, but we
have prudentlv shut Our eyes to a few other things' which those who
follow the beacon find here among us. We prate of liberty and
go forth with sword and cannon to impose our rule upon a weaker
and a helpless people. We boast of equality before the law and
the rich criminal escapes with a letter of recommendation while the
poor devil who steals to save, a starving family goes to jail amidst
the execrations of press and?public. We point with pride to the
vast stretches of unoccupied lands within our borders, capable of
affording homes for added millions and forget to add that these
unoccupied lands have been grabbed by speculators and frenzied
financiers and are held out of the market until they are made more
valuable by the sweat and toil of the homeless, We point with
pride to our great universities and colleges endowed by our multi
millionaires and shut our eyes to the hundreds of thousands of chil
dren who can never take .advantage of them because human greed
has condemned them to slavery in the sweat shops, the mines and
the factories. We boast of equal opportunities to all and take no
thought of Ithe fact that men whose only god is gold have purchased
special laws that afford them' immunity in their damnable work of
robbing the masses to enrich themselves. We swell up with patriotic
pride and ' declare that every "American citizen is a sovereign and
then let a few unprincipled -f rascals ride rough shod over us to
place and power where theyfean work out their, own selfish plans
and schemes at their elegant leisure. We have told in song and
story of our utter disregard for aristocracy and our contempt for
patents of nobility and scarcp a month goes by that some American
sovereign does not buy a titled' husband for his daughter and weds
her to the frayed and frazzled remnant of some washed out:':-race
of dukes and earls. We boast of our Christian civilization and
pride ourselves on being the most advanced people in all the his
tory of the world and take no thought of the fact that within one
square mile in the center of the greatest metropolis .upon the western
continent there exists the highest luxury that wealth' cam buy and
the deepest poverty that ever afflicted humanity. We boast of our
civic virtue and graft reigns; supreme in our cities, in our legisla
tures and in our congressional- halls. We, boast: of representative
government," meaning by that; term representation, of , the people
in the making of our laws and .in the governing of our. institutions -and
then, gone mad with partisanship, we turn in and elect repre
sentatives of the trusts and corporations to guard their interests, at
the expense of our own. Our society columns are full of magnificent
descriptions of elegant social functions, but never a word about, the
starving men and women wbo live and suffer and die; and : rot
in the tenements within the shadow of the palaces erected by our
multi-millionaires. '
A big country? The biggest' on earth! The biggest trusts, and
the biggest bunch of suckers that ever had an opportunity to
stand up for their own rights and never had sense enpugh to do it.
A grand country? The grandest on earth! Where the workingman
is patted on the' back and called the mainstay of the republic, and
then crowded off the map as pon as he begins to think for himself
and demand a fair .share of the products of his: toil, and ignorant
ind ' degraded Huns and Finns and Slavs imported in violation of
our alien contract labor laws to work at wages a white man can not
live on and all for the fattening of the greed of selfish man who
amass their millions and then give them with brass band accom
paniment to pur. magnificent universities, our great colleges and our
worthy missionary societies. On the one side we see the most
lavish and ostentatious wealth, and on the other side we see the
direst poverty and distress. On the one side we . see a violator
of the law with a political pull taken into political office and pro
moted to a fat job with a rotten insurance company with a clean
bill of health in his pocket, and on the other side we see a tnan who
had the nerve to expose graft in public place kicked down and, put
:n 'disgrace.' Great country! When we do things we do them on
.'he biggest possible scale. Wheri we celebrate the Fourth of July
we spend enough money in making a noise to keep a million poor
families in comfort for a generation. And when we engineer a
ccheme for graft it beats anything ever attempted by the unfor
tunates who must live under the reign of an effete monarch in
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Europe. We dot the country with school houses, and then foster t-' : l
d. vuiiuiuuu cuuipcis wic cnua 10 enter me sweat snop ortne
factory almost before its tiny limbs can support its body', and keep
it there until disgusted nature gives up the case as a bad job- and
leaves the stunted little unfortunate to either die or become, an
enfeebled charge, upon the charity of the public. ; .: -
Retrospection is, a mighty good thing, providing we have lived
on the square. Introspection is not always so cheering or pleasant,
but it is often beneficial ; and profitable. : Would it riot be a good
idea, then, my fellow citizens, to look within a little more. Instead
of boasting forever about the good things we have, let us spend a
little time now and then looking up the bad things with a view to
correcting them. Keverence for the uag is a good thing, but are' we -i
not in danger of making the flag a fetich?, Are we not in danger
of making it an idol before which we bow down and worship? i
Standing apart the flag is nothing more than a painted rag. and I
unless we appreciate what the flag stands for we are nothing more i
nor less than idolators when we greet it with cheers arid pay it
the homage of our devotion. For fifty years it was a flaunting o
lie, because while it pretended to be the emblem of human liberty.it
waved over slaves owned body and soul by men who prated of 1
universal freedom. Can we with truth say that: it is today the j
emblem of freedom? While that flag waves over one American )
citizen who is deprived cjf his rights, who is bilked and swindled j
under guise of law, who is forced to abandon hope; while that
flag flies over the heads of any man whose love for it is not so I
ingrained in his soul th,at he (will willingly die in its defense because f
it means something more to him than a mere bit of bunting, the
flag flaunts a lie, and it is your duty and my duty,. my fellow Amer- i
icans, to wash that lie from the flag. ' , ,
Now bear with me a few minutes 'longer a very few minutes
while I speak to you of a patriotism that is more needed right now; ;
than any sort of patriotism was ever before needed in thisrepublic.
I nave no patience with those who teach what seems to me to be '
the unpatriotic and Unchristian doctrine called, "the strenuous life,'?f
of which we have heard so much during the last few years. ' Those?. r ,
who advocate this sorcalled strenuous life take issue with, the? .
Man of Nazareth, and nowhere in the Good Book which we or'mostfs t-' -of
-us-r-believe to be the inspired word of God, can there be foundT., -
one iota of evidence in support of strenuosity as exemplified in our' i
modern social and business life. That strenuosity implies the idea' , 1
of climbing to success over the bowed back ;of weaker brethren, (
and whether that success be financial or social it means that the-- fj
successful one has won place and pPwer because of superior strength '
that enables him tp' overcome the lesser strength of his brethren.
That such a' system is contrary to the spirit of the Master must
fre admitted by very student of the scriptures.; That it is contrary;
to even an embryotic understanding of ; the principles of human , " -
brotherhood is so apparent that we must stand amazed that such"'
an inhuman and unselfish doctrine has obtained even a slight hold '
upon the hearts of American men and women.. , - , ' ; i
.lanetiotitpaMotUm ar,e' not confined to 6neut; and V.l.j
it is not necessary for one to die upon the field of hattle to evidence1"
his patriotism. Not for worlds would I detract from the glory of? . u
those who have responded to the nation's call for armed-defenders .
and marched away to fife and drum to fight and die in defense off, -
their country and its institutions., But there is a higher and a di-
viner manifestation of patriotism than this, and to it I would call -
your attention the patriotism that .impels, the citizen to, live for ; .'. , ; ?
his' country. War offers many opportunities, f of , a display of patriot-7 t ; j
ism, but greater opportunities are afforded us in these .days of so
called peace, and these opportunities may be found in the slums
of our great cities where . men and women and children weep and 1
starve and suffer and die. in destitution and w.oe-r-yictims of the : " '
greed, of men who are our most vocif erous advocates of the streni- C" -ous
life in the financial and business world.' Were I' rich, rich be-
yond the dreams of avarice, and inclined to build monuments to
patriots who have served their country ; well, I would : for the
time being pass by those who have died upon the field of battle,
and rear monuments to those grand heroesand heroines who, sac- ,i
rificing their own creature comforts,' ha've 'toiled and moiled in the 3. -
filth and dirt of the slums to carry some ray of hope and cheer and ' ;
comfort into the darkened lives of , the untold number of victims to
human greed. To my mind the knightliest hero who ever couched t :V;
lance and rode in full tilt to the fray no matter what his cause is iv
not for one moment to be compared to that grand woman of $.--.'.Kr:
Chicago whose life has been devoted to bettering the conditions "
of her brothers, and her sisters of the slums. When the final roll of ."-'. -'-
earth's greatest and best is called, the name of Jane Addams will ? ; ;,'
lead many ot those whom the world hails as heroes. ; I would rathei ..-vy
live in the memory of a few by reason of having done a work like . :
that of Jane Addams of Hull House fame, or Jacob Riis of East, f -i
Side tame, tnan to lie under a marble shaft rearei because 1 had '
gained honor and fame and glory upon 'the battlefield. ' :
Dr. Johnson was too narrow in his definition of patriotism, but '
when we stop to think about it for a moment can we deny that, ;
there is in his definition a great truth which we need to impress more
firmly upon our minds. A multi-millionaire at the beginning of our
reent war. with Spain armed and equipped a regiment at his own ;
.expense, and he was hailed by press and public as a "patriot." And, ,
yet we know that his vast fortune was accumulated at the expense ;
of millions of his fellows, and that-the pearls and diamonds worn
by his wjfe and daughters Were the crystalized 'tears of widows and
orphans whose comfort had been, sacrificed, wh6se lives-had been
blighted and whose homes had. been" wrecked to satisfy the greed1 -and
avarice of this man. Men who have accumulated fortunes by ,.
trickery, chicanery and fraud, but who have kept inside the letter
cf ,the law of the land while violafhig its spirit, scattering woe and
misery in their wake, stand forth, with smug face and sanctimonious
canV and give huge sums' to "charity" God save the mark anT ;
men and women hail them as philanthropists and talk about how t
much these men love their country and their fellows. All the mil- ?
lions given by a Rockefeller or a Carnegie will riot weigh as much- -in
the scales of the Almighty as the sacrifice of one-who,, putting "
comfort behind, goes forth among the suffering humanity and laves .
the parched lips of God's unfortunates. . -. A '-V :--V ' ' c
You and I know men right here in Lincoln who would unhesi-'T,
tatingly announce their willingness to die for their country, and V
yet these tnen perjure themselves every year when the' tax collector
come around to get the money necessary to the lifetof the cOtmtry.
V We ncprl Ipss of this willinfr-to-die-for-one's-cduritrv natriotism;?
and more of the patriotism that will impel us to live fpr our eoutnryv
To sacrifice not only bur time but our money to better the conditions
of our 'fellows and afford them an opportunity : to beepme strong,
thoughtful and, intelligent citizens. The future of this country 'lies , f
not in the hands of those who are ready and -willing to die for it, but j f l
in the hands of those who are ready to live for... it live for-it and t j
devote their lives to abolishing the evils that have crept, into our ;
social being the evils of greed and aYarice. The "sweat shop," 1,
the trust and all other cancerous growths that sicken our body poji- ,
tic ai-.e not to be curedjan exhibition of that patriotism that " :
the battlefield.. : li, : . -
kth'e citizenship of America shall" real-1 j
the - nationals not sacrifice upon the d ' '
the primrose paths of peace. r "
contemplates only deat
' God hasten the da
ize that the crying nee
battlefield but sacrifice
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