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About The Wageworker. (Lincoln, Neb.) 1904-???? | View Entire Issue (May 11, 1906)
X ; W 4 ; j$ i 1 Fin 1? g TRADES lrABFL.1 COUNCILS If u TOL. 3 lilNCOIiN, NEBRASKA, MAY 11, 190 NO. nnT ) 1 ' The Man With The Some men are so constituted that they cannot Bee all sides of even the simplest proposition. This is often so not because they are insincere nor be cause they desire to be contrary, but 'it is due to the fact that previous en vironment or training has taught them to take a narrow view of things. To the eye specialist, a man fre quently seems to be all eye. The shoe maker is most concerned .about man's feet. The architect wandering through the great exhibit sees only the strength and the weaknesses of the buildings. The machinist notices, principally, the engines and the tools. But there is another kind of nar rowness which is almost unpardonable. The narrowness of the specialist may bft excused, but that of the pessimist well, It at least deserves our pity. Re cently, our attention has been called to the "muck-rake." Read again that story of Bunyon's Pilgrim's Prog gress, In which is told the incident of the man who wa3 so taken up with his filthy occupation, that he failed to see Just above him the most beautiful things. There is good In every man. In most cases there Is more good than even his best friends suspect. But his enemies are searching for the evil, and a man usually finds what he looks for. It 1 not surprising, therefore, that the best intentions sometimes meet with con tempt and opposition. This has its A "SCAB" CIGAR. The Wageworker Apologizes Humbly for Having Advertised It. The Wageworker owes an apology to every union man in the country, and M-pectiolly to the union cigarmakers, for having advertised a "scab" cigar in. its "Friendly List Edition." On the rear cover page on the left hand at the stalwart union man, will he found the advertisement of the "Royal Highlander" cigar. There were two reasons why this "scab" cigar adver tleement slipped in: The Royal High landers is the name of a fraternal in surance company having headquarters in Lincoln. The name of the cigar led the publisher to believe and very naturally that it was made in Lin coln, and therefore union made. Again, tut advertisement came in at the last minute and was secured by a solicitor who was criminally negligent because he did not ascertain whether the cigar vas union made. The "Royal Highlander" cigar is a "scab" clsar and under no considera tion should it be smoked by any union man or friend of unionism. If the Capitol Cigar Co., the firm handling the cigar in Lincoln, and who gave the order for the advertisement, will present ether the contract for the ad vertisement or the receipted bill, the mcney will be refunded by the pub lisher of The Wageworker. The management of the Royal High landers owe It 'to themselves and to tho union members- of that great or ganization, to immediately disclaim all responsibility for this "ecab" cigar and t?ke immediate steps to have it either made by union men or the nam1) changed. As it is now the cigar will antagonize union men and women and have a bad effect on the fraternity. TWO TEAM8TER8. And the Difference Between Them Shown by Their Actions. Teamsters in Lincoln just now flnl plenty of employment on the excava tions for new buildings, and it la in teresting to Watch the men who drive the teams, either to the wagon or the er.raper. Last week we saw a teamster who is not a member of the union, sit on a heavily loaded wagon and bru tally beat his team to make it pull the wagon from under the dump and up a short and horribly steep grade. The poor horses strained and struggled their best, while the brutal driver lathed them with a heavy whip and cursed like a pirate. When the load vas on the street the horses stopped, flanks quivering, knees trembling and nostrils blood-red. On the same day, on another job, we saw a teamster with a union but ton bring his team out from under tun dump and up an equally steep grade. "Mtick Rake," compensations, for opposition puts a man to a test, which not only brings out the best that is in him, but it develops the finer virtues. The fellow who handles the muck-rake he who slings mud will find that he ha3 soiled his own hands. And in most cases it will be discovered that the filth failed to reach his mark. It is unfortunate that the rank and file among workingmen are often too ready to believe a lie concerning the men who for years have been fighting their battles, sometimes during periods when, to be known as an "agitator" meant only hardship. The thousand and one victories vanish in the con templation of the single error granted that the story of the enemy is true. There is need in tha labor move ment, as In other movements of a breadth of spirit which will seek to know the best things about men, and not the worst. This was the spirit of Christ. To Peter, who'knew only too well his own fickleness, Jesus said: "Thou Shalt be come a rock" sturdy, strong, firm. So Ho dealt with men, always. Never excusing meanness, for He had only words of contempt for the hypocritical Pharisee, but seeing end loving the good that was In men, He made even the sinner realize that in Him might be found a friend and brother, who was tempted in all points like as ha was, and yet without sin. Rev. Charles Stelzle. I;ut he never used the wfaip, never swore an oath, and he not only did not ride on the heavy load but he put his shoulder against the wagon and pushed. He encouraged his team with pleasant words, and when the load was on the street he pulled them down, then walked around and patted Ihein. talking to them all the while as if they were little children. When he was ready to go he shook the lines, and the horses stepped off without a pro test. It's dollars to doughnuts that this pretty well illustrates the difference between the union and the non-union drivers as a rule the world over. STREET CAR STRIKE AVERTED. Omaha Street Railway Employes Win Their Main Contentions. For a couple of days last week Oma ha was threatened with a street car strike that would have paralyzed busi ness. But the employers side-stepped, the employes dodged, the business men argued and common sense prevailed. There will be no strike. The men get a readjustment of the scale, better conditions and recognition of their union. There were numerous conferences, and every conference was marked by good will and a disposition on all sides tr be fair and reasonable. The great eft rejoicing among the men is over tl.e fact that their organization was recognized by the conference. That'3 enough to make the Mahoney-Martin bunch of union busters jump in the river. IT WAS A MISTAKE. Barber Shops Still Remain Open the Same Old Hour. Last week The Wageworker an nounced .that hereafter the union bar ter shops would close at 7 pj m. in stead of 7:30 p. m. The announce ment was made on the strength of 'a notification to that effect by a com mittee of union barbers who called at the office. The announcement was premature. The half-hour was clipped off at a special meeting, and restored at the uext regular meeting after a warm de bate. OMAHA PAINTERS WIN. Score a Splendid Victory and Make One Little Concession. The painters and decorators of Oma ha whipped the unfair employers to a standstill, notwithstanding Tim Ma heney and his union buetlng bunch o business men got behind the employ ers. It took the painters and decorators Tess than three weeks to turn the trick, and it coat them less than a hundred dollars. When the bosses re fused to sign up the men quietly went to contracting on their own hook, and left the bosses up in the air. Then came the conferences and a speedy agreement. The union men made one concession. They promised the bosses they wouldn't tell the Business Men'a association how badly they had been licked. UNION MEN IN POLITICS. Time That Unions Consider This All Important Question. Trades unionists are generally agreed that the time has come for the unions to participate In the elections as unions. The method of participa tion is likely to cause some difference of opinion, and in some cases may re sult in the unions failing to secure that which might be theirs. When the question of the method comes up, there will be, first, the de mand of the socialists that the unions shall "go into politics" through the socialist gate. And so insistent are the advocates of that cause, so skillful In the presentation of their theories, so entirely earnest and apparently sin cere are they that there Is likelihood in many cases of their carrs-ing their point and in lining up the trades unions o? a locality for the socialist ticket. In some communities even the election oZ socialist candidates to leg islative and even congressional seats may result. In, other locations political parties will be coquetting with the unions for indorsement. Platforms will be drawn more carefully than ever before with a view to satisfying the demands of the unions before election. The unions will be called upon to carefully avoid the indorsement of any political party that merely offers a platform accepta ble to union men. The candidates must be acceptable if the unions are to gain their desires. A man in a leg islative office who has failed to sup port the measures demanded by organ ized labor should be carefully remem bered. The men who have been open ly hostile or secretly treacherous to the interests of organized labor should be opposed, no matter what his plat form, his promises, or his party. But President Gompers advises that the unions shall secure, wherever pos sible, the election of members of the unions to legislative positions. In the Federationist for May he says: ' "Elect clean cut, straight out trade unionists to congress and the state legislatures wherever -you can, and never waver In your unionism." Again, referring to those who have been tried and found wanting: "Defeat labor's known enemies, even if you have to elect those who are not straight labor men. If we can not use the 'other man' as a staff to lean upon, for tem porary purposes he may be just good enough to use as a stick, to beat the enemy." It is time that the unions commence the consideration of these questions Philadelphia Trades Union News. GOOD FOR FENNESSY! Gets a Big Boost From Union Buster Otis of Los Angeles. The Los Angeles Times says: "Tom Fennessy, the blatant walking delegate of the printing trust than whom no more perniciously active nor pugnaci ously meddlesome strike purveyor ex ists in Los Angeles is being boomed for 'trusty' of the trust's boneyard in Colorado. No greater dis-organizer of the peace than this worthy has existed in the annals of California. That he is a true type of the incompetents he represents is manifest by the utter abandon with which they follow him in his diabolical effort 'to coerce the employing printers of this city to pay nine hours' wages for eight hours' work. This man Fennessy possesses genius for deviltry in organized form. He is a veritable Beelzebub in this City of Angels, and, like his prototype, could destroy the peace of Heaven itself. His followers swear by him because he is the embodiment of their hellish demands, doing everything and anything the 'boys' desire. He is from the ranks; the rankest of the rank. If his election as a 'trust!' will remove him from our midst, for' once we can truly say we regret we cannot help him along. - When he is gone, a long stride toward peace will have been made in this community." A FATAL OBJECTION. One of Bolton Hall's Little Fables From Reel Life. Labor was wild. He found his work very hard, his head was swelled, and he didn't know his place, and he was unreasonable and violent; so they took him to the Social Reform Clinic, and considered his case. When he was stripped, an iron col lar appeared embedded in his neck, and Doctor Lord explained that many years ago, when Labor Was a child of wandering habits, he had put the col lar on him, and that it had never seemed to do him any harm. He said also that, anyhow, there was plenty of room for Labor outside of the collar. 1 Doctor Legis suggested compulsory arbitration to decide what was really Labor's place. Doctor Ateower saldr "I think that to shorten his days would lengthen his lite." Doctor Malltia said that his system needed stimula tion. "Now," said he, "if we could get him Into a fight, so he wouldn't think about his own condition " Doctor Boness said a share in the profits of exploiting would do Labor good. Doctor Status said an old age pen sion would help Labor very much if he lived long enough, but that if he should die sooner, what he needed was an Association for the Reduction of Fu neral Expenses. "A law against sweating," said Doc tor Statute. "And against drinking," said Doctor Prohib; "if he didn't drink he wouldn't sweat." "And against gambling and other excite ments," added Doctor Nosey. "Not forgetting," said Doctor Vigilant, "a law against immorality (of the cheaper grades).'? .''Whyvnot remove the iron c6llar?" asked an orderly. "My friends," said Doctor Conservl ta, "we have had many excellent sug gestions here today from my learned colleagues; all of which we will try again, if the patient can be kept quiet; but we are not here to consider the revolutionary theory of this Radical." So they discharged the orderly. La bor had another fit that night and cut Doctor Conservita's throat. Life. COURT UPHOLDS UNIONS. Legal to Peacefully Persuade Non Union Men to Come Out. Members of labor unions may use peaceful persuasion and argument to irduce non-union workmen to leave the employ of persons antagonizing the unions, and to unite with their un ions, so long as no contract is violated and no violence or veiled threat is used, and the parties accosted are left free tc act, by going on with their work or joining the union, which would mean t3 quit. The above is a concise syllabus of the decision handed down by the Su perior Court in general term yester day, in the matter of the Iron Molders' Union of North America against the I. &-.E. Greenwald Company, taken up on appeal from the finding of Judge Hosea in special term. The opinion was himded down by Judge Howard Fer ris, Judge Harry M. Hoffheimer and Judge William Littleford concurring in supplemental opinions. The case of the Greenwald Company against the striking iron molders has attracted na tional attention in the labor world, and the decision of the Superior Court ha3 aiixiously been awaited by organized labor throughout the country. In tho evidence adduced it was shown that the men had been peacefully induced to leave the employ of the Grenwald company and join the ranks of the Iron Molders' Union, wiho took charge of them and their families and furnished them transportation to Cleveland, O., from whence they came. Potters Her ald. PLUMBERS ON STRIKE. Nashville, Tenn., May 6. Sixty-five union journeymen and union plumbers employed in nineteen shops will strike here tomorrow for higher wages. The union is affiliated with the Nashville council of the Structural Building Trades of America, and any attempt of the employers to work non-union men will result In all the unions in the alliance quitting .work, the men declare. Boosting For The Good Old Label of Unionism S. J. Steam, of Chicago, a prominent official of the Garment Workers' Un ion, and general promoter of the label, was in Lincoln several days this week. Mr. Stearh is traveling over the coun try in the interests of the union label In general and the label of the United Garment Workers of America in par ticular. He is on his way back to Chicago after an extended trip to the Pacific coast, and reports a gratifying growth of the demand for the union label by union men and women. "I am taking a great interest in the organization of the retail clerks," said Mr. Stearn. "I find that a lack of organization among the clerks hin ders . us very mucli in our efforts t advance the labels of all tradas. If we can get the clerks interested in union ism we have made a long step for ward." In his investigations in Lincoln Mr. Stearn found a lamentable lack of un ion made clothing on sale. He de clares that this i3 due to two rea sons the failure- of union men to de mand the label; aid the inclination of clothing merchants to slight the labeled goods in order to sell some thing else. "I wish I could tell every mother and father of the conditions in the sweat shops in which thousands of garment workers are employed by un fair contractors. But I would not dara to tell one-half the truth to a mixed audience. I- would hesitate to tell it to an audience made up wholly of men. The horrible immorality, the foulness, the disease, the filth that exists in these svvieat shops where the daintiest lin gerie) the finest skirts and waists and the daintiest of clothing for children is made in almost past belief. When we hint at these things unthinking men and women charge us with draw ing on our imaginations In order to advance the interests of our union. Nothing could be farther . from . the truth. We are fighting these condi tions, not in the interests of our or ganization wholly, but la the Interests of the poor, starving victims of sweat shop greed. Our trade, more than "all others, is carried on in these iniquitous GOOD WORK. The president's idea is that if a man looks upward and onward while he is wielding the muck rake the work will proceed on a more elevated plane. A practical man who has ever had to stand over a stable boy knows that the only way to wield a muck rake is to keep the eyes on the muck until it is out of the way. The result of some muck raking In the senate will be seen in the result of the railway rate bill as it was seen in the passage of the pure food bill. The senate has become at last a little more afraid of the people than it is of the corpora tions Sioux City Union Advocate. A SAD BEREAVEMENT.' Last week The Wageworker an nounced that Walter Brown, foreman of the Free Press press room, had been suddenly called to Chicago by the ill ness of his mother. With sorrow The Wageworker reports that his mother passed away shortly after he arrived at her bedside. Mra. Brown was 63 years of age, and the immediate cause of her death was pneumonia, although she had for several years been suffer ing from heart trouble. Mr. Brown will have the sympathy of his fellow ui.ionist3 in his great bereavement. CIGAR MAKERS STRIKE. Boston, Mass., May 6. It was an nounced at the headquarters of the cigar makers' union tonight that ar rangements were complete for the strike tomorrow of cigar makers to enfoi-ce a demand for an increase' in wages. It is thought about 1,200 men will go out. TRUST CIGARS. According to a circular Issued by President G. W. Perkins, of the Cigarmakers' Union, the annual pro duction of cigars in the Philippines amounts to $200,000,000. and the wages paid in Manila vary from 25 to 37 cents a day. Of the seventy-nine cigar fac tories in Manila, forty-eight are owned by Chinamen, who employ Chinese coolie labor, and with the exception ' dens, and garment workers, more than pny other r class of skilled workmen and women are the victims of this vicious and un-American system.' We are fighting it because it is beastial izing our mothers, our wives and our children. Our organization can do much as an organiation, but unless the peo ple who believe in fair play, honest wages and sanitary conditions come to our aid, we can never win a complete victory. "There is just one method of wiping out the sweat shops, and that is to patronize the union label. The mother who insists that our label appear on the suit she buys for her little boy, is doing her share towards preventing the boy of some other mother from being sentenced to a life of unrequited toil in a foul sweat shop and a tear less funeral and a grave in the potters' field. She is helping to give honest employment under fair conditions to an adult man or woman and to drive out the awful evil of child labor. If we ccujd impress these facts upon the pub lic mind with enough force, we would soon drive out the sweat shops and have our children in the schools in stead of the mills and the tenement workshops." On Tuesday evening Mr. Stearn de livered a "label talk" to the Carpen ters' Union, and on the same evening addressed the Central Labor Union. Wednesday he visited many Lincoln business houses and acquainted him self with conditions. His stay in Lin- coin was necessarily short, but he was promised to return in the fall, or send some ona else, and . take the lead in an active propaganda in the Interests of the label. He reports two or three business men who express themselves' as favorable to' an organization of the retail clerks, and several business mii who will increase their stocks of la beled goods and push them out instead o holding them back in order to sell something else. ' ; Mr. Stearn is well acquainted with the work he has in hand, and there is no doubt that his visit in Lincoln will result In much good to the unions of the city. , o two, the other factories are owned by Europeans. Union workers should remember all goods sold in stores of the United Cigar Stores Company are trust, scab, coolie and child labor good3. STRUCTURAL IRQN WORKERS. After an interval of some five years, the building trades in Chicago were again disturbed by a strike on the 2nd one of the largest of the May-day strikes. The immediate cause of this ' strike is a wage dispute, the men de manding $5 for an eight-hour day, and the contractors offering $4.60 for four ' months and $4.80 for the remainder of the year. The men voted for the strike 3 to 1. In behalf of the strikers demand it is said that the average of life in the trade is only ten years.- Chicago Public. . LOCOMOTIVE ENGINEERS. Memphis, Tenn., May 9. The sev enth biennial convention of the Inter national Brotherhood of Locomotive Engineers met here this afternoon in the Grand opera house. The sessions will extend through a series of four weeks and many important matters will be disposed of. The city is deco rated in honor of. the delegates and visitors. Today's session was called to order by Chief , 1 Engineer W. F. Stone and was merely preliminary. If They Only Would. If some of the union men would take as much interest in getting members . into the union as they do in the vari ous lodges they belong to, the unions' membership would be greatly in creased. We know two good union men who were so anxious to get a-' brother unionist into a lodge that they made out the application papers, signed them and paid the Initiation fee. They are now wondering whether their friend will pay them the amount of the initiation. How many of them would do this to get a man into the union? Easton, Pa., Journal.