Image provided by: University of Nebraska-Lincoln Libraries, Lincoln, NE
About The Wageworker. (Lincoln, Neb.) 1904-???? | View Entire Issue (Feb. 8, 1907)
r-' .''("' '-: 3 VOL. 3 LINCOLN, NEBRASKA, FEBTJARY 8, 1907 NO. 44 S TRADES ijjggai COUNCILS) rf7 I I L , 'I uu CI M U' Among Lincoln's Hustling Unions The Central Labor Union meets next Tuesday night, and the labor fair committee will make and submit its final report. There is much -other business of Importance to be transact ed, and every delegate should make it a point to be present when the gavel falls. The most Important business of the evening will be the election of officers for the ensuing term. This is a matter that demands the careful considera tion and action of the delegates, for upon the selection or the right meu depends the usefulness of the organ ization. Let every delegate be there. THE CARPENTERS. Notice of Special Called Meeting to be - Held Next Tuesday. All members of Local No. 1055, Unit ed Brotherhood of Carpenters and Joiners, are heerby notified that next Tuesday, February 12, is a special called meeting for the purpose of ; acting on by-laws and trade rules for the ensuing year. This meeting is ' stirring up a great deal of enthusiasm among the boys and every member is earnestly requested to be present and give their views and cast their ballots for what they thing should be.. Since the city authorities have seen fit to let the job of remodeling the old post office to an out-of-town firm. we , extend our best wishes to the firm for their success while in Lincoln. We have heard considerable about " ,' home Industry' from our most prom Ineat business men during the last two or three weeks, and we are cer tainly glad to hear it. True, home in dustry would mean a great deal tq Lincoln. But we have in mind a cer- " J ' rXs!fS Urni 'that speaks up wftfiagreat big voice. This firm started in 'busi ness in a very small way many years ago. Its first place of business was a little shop on N street. The firm . thrived and prospered and removed from N to O, and prosper still. They say they handle nothing but the best. The firm's catalogues go far away. They have built on here and added on there, and right now they are re modeling some. But Instead of re . membering some industries they en i gaged carpenters who have been brought from outside towns' because they would work long hours for small pay. Yet this firm talks about home , Industry and denounces catalogue houses. If this is patronizing home Industry we don't know it, but we are willing to take a few lessons. The headquarters report for De cember shows receipts of over $53,000 ,ln dues tor the month. The Lead, S. D Carpenters' Union will celebrate its first anniversary on February 12th with a grand ball. TYPOGRAPHICAL UNION. February Meeting Largest In Hisjory of the Organization. r V The meeting of Lincoln Typograph ical Union last Sunday was the largest in the history of the organization, fully four-fifths of the members, being pres ent when President Coffey's gavel fell. ! The business of the meeting; was transacted with usual dispatch. The executive committee made a report that met with the approval of the members. One new member was obli gated. ."..'.. ' President Fisher, Financial Secre tary Kinney, Secretary Platz and Mr. Kellogg- of Omaha Typographical Un ion were welcome visitors and ad dressed the meeting. They brought words of good cheer from Omaha, and their remarks were loudly applauded. The Allied Printing Trades head tiuarters, room 8, Holmes block, ate becoming popular, and U13 boys are beginning to drop in fo;; social inter course, i Official notice has been received of a reduction of the assessment to 3 per cent. ' BURIED BY THE UNION. I. D. Howe, the aged bricklayer who died recently, after suffering a stroke of paralysis, was buried by the local Bricklayers' Union, of which he was a member, the union bearing all the expenses. Mr. Howe was a stranger in Lincoln, and had been here but a short time. His fellow unionists saw to it that his last hours were made as comfortable as possible, and all that fraternal hands could do to exhibit love and respect for the dead wa done,. FEAR JS ALL RIGHT. But There Were Too Many Trimmers Against Him, Charles W. Fear, delegate from Kan sas - City, was the most courageous man in the late I. T. U. convention. It is easy for men to get stage fright and be silenced by the noise of a big bull dozer and a drilled army of pay roll- rooters, but it takes a brave man to stand alone in a convention of 200 dele gates and go down in defeat with a smile on his face. Mr. Fear wrote and introduced a resolution in the convention which provided for the election of a committee to investigate the management of the Printers' Homo. This was looked upon as a terrible crime by those who might be investigated. He was threatened by Superintendent Deacon and Trustee Shepard. Various schemes were adopt ed to induce Mr. Fear not to introduce his resolution, but he stood like a rock for what he thought was right and he was about the only man in the convention who did. He was downed by the convention, but he went down in defeat with a smile on his face, while the victors were in a maddened rage to thing he would dare defy the king. Secretary Bramwood requested all delegates who had spoken in oppo sition to Fear's resolutions to write but their remarks so that they could be printed in the proceedings, but when Fear requested that his state ment be also printed in the proceed ings, a motion- was made and carried that his statement be not printed. The delegates voted in favor of a trustee appointing a committee to investigate the trustees. This commute "white washed" the Citizens' Alliance of Colo rado Springs. Fear stood alone against such a job and we admire him for his courage. Oklahoma Labor News. Typographical Union Ball, Monday, February 25, Fraternity Hall. Quick's Orchestra. THE UNION CLUB. Pleasant Evening Spent at the Home of Mr. and Mrs. C. B. lighter. The Union Club met with Mr. and Mrs. C. b. Righter last Friday evening, and while the embryo blizzard raged without the "Bermudas" enjoyed them selves within. Every member of the club "registered in" and the result was a congenial gathering that en joyed themselves to the full. At just the proper moment the feast was an nounced, and it consisted of a great plenty and variety, the piece de re sistance which is French was, of course, onions. High five was indulged in. Messrs Barngrover, Bustard and Norton tied for first prize, and on the "cut" Mr. Bustard won. Erstine King won las "booby." Mrs. Bustard won the la dies' prize. An interesting and entertaining fea ture of the evening was the reading and dedication of the "Official Ode of the Bermudas," written by Mr. Spen cer, faher of the hostess. It was the first meeting of the club in three months, and the members made up for lost time. ' SURH1 All the rant and cant about the open shop hallucination is positively enervating. Reduced to its final an alysis, it means simply laat the work- ingmen shall not be allowed to com bine for self-protection. However, the manufacturers, stockholders and bondholders can have all kinds of close corporations for the purpose of mulcting the public. Tobacco Worker MUNGER WILL GO TO HELL. He Has Stolen From Womanhood All That Makes Womanhood. Last week a girl working in Mun ger's laundry stole some clothes. She was led into the court room almost fainting, and pleaded with Judge Chambers to be as lenient as pos sible. Judge Chambers passed sentence and the girl who had worked in Mun- ger's laundry for f 6 a week was brand ed as a common criminal. The girl had taken some clothes from Munger's laundry and was branded a thief but what had Mun ger's laundry taken from the girl? What has Munger's laundry taken from many girls? It was Munger's laundry, you will remember, that under its previous name of Cleaver's laundry, fought the poor laundry girls' attempt to raise their wages and better their condi tions. It is Munger, himself, who is now the secretary of the Los Angeles laun dry trust and a prominent member of the citizens' alliance. This is the laundry which refused to accede to the request from the laundry girls that they be allowed to work nine hours a day. . r This is the laundry that pays its little girls as low as $5 a week to sweat ten and twelve hours a day in the hot, foul steam of its work rooms. And it is Munger's laundry with 1 PATRONIZE YOUR UOHE INSTITUTIONS Where you earn your money is the best ' place to spend it. ' Let Lincoln workingmen remember that important faet. Every dollar earned in Lincoln and spent out side of Lincoln is a dollar taken away from the local volume of money, and in time will re-act on the wage earners. .'''..; Every dollar spent in Lincoln adds to the volume of business, and every addition to business means more work for wage earners, i ' , . .These statements, are axioj.tic. r An axiom is a ; self-evident truth. - There is no reason whatever why a Lincoln wage earner should buy a pound of groceries, a stitch of clothing, a dollar's worth of fire, accident or life in surance, a piece of furniture, a yard of carpet, or anything else, outside of Lincoln. All these things may be purchased as cheap or cheaper in .Lincoln than elsewhere. You know your local merchants. They are responsible, and if their wares are not up to requirements they will make good. The catalogue houses are financially responsible, of course, but if the goods they sell are not satisfactory the purchaser has no recourse. Every dollar spent with Chicago catalogue houses is a dollar taken from Lincoln, and that dollar never comes back to Lincoln. A dollar spent with your home merchant remains in Lincoln; and sooner or later some wage earner gets it. Your local merchant will help yoti if you are in the hole, lie will give you reasonable credit, and in ease of sickness will stand your friend. The cata logue houses do not know you, will not trust you and after they get your money they don't give a tinker's dam whether you live or die. Your local merchants pay taxes to help support the schools where the children of Lincoln wage earners are edu cated. The Chicago catalogue houses do not pay a cent towards the support of Lincoln schools. Lincoln merchants pay taxes to help keep the streets clean and well lighted and the city libi-ary open. The cata logue houses do not pay a cent in Lincoln for that purpose. Last year the merchants of Lincoln voluntarily subscribed upwards of a thousand dollars to improve the new city park, which will be enjoyed by the wage earners of Lincoln- and their children. The catalogue houses will not subscribe a cent in a thousand years for that beneficent purpose. When you were out of work a month or two agd, was it the local merchant or the catalogue house that gave you credit and trusted you until you got work and made the money to meet the bill ? The local merchant of course. You would have suffered , and you family would have suffered if you had been compelled to depend on the catalogue house. Stand by your local merchant. Spend your money at home, and you will be able to make more money to spend. ' . Home first, the world afterwards. That's a mighty good motto for any city to follow. Patronize home institutions and home merchants unless you know them to be the enemies of organized 6 o o labor. ". j 8 0OffiO00505000 00OSO00S0000000 its union-hating proprietor that drags a poor girl into court for trying to steal some of the clothes she can not buy . out of the scant wages paid by Munger. ' Yes, the girl stole but who stole first? ' 1 Why stole her chance to breathe a fair share of fresh air? Who stole her right to a decent living wage? Who stole from her all her strength, her 'health, her complexion, her vital ity in short, all of the things which woirianhood must have or perish? Who stole first Munger or the girl? The girl may go to prison; but where will Munger go? Los Angeles Union Labor News. . i . . .. Typographical Union Ball, Monday, February 25, Fraternity Hall. Quick's Orchestra. ' , . . If, every man and woman in i the United States were to call for union labeled goods congress would not have to consider a child labor law. f Employer's Liability There is a big fight on in the legis lature over the enactment of an em ployers' liability law, and It behooves workingmen to get busy to prevent a botching of the job. The McMullen bill, which seems to be the bill settled on by a lot of the house members, is not all that the wage earners of the state want. And it is a whole lot less than what they have a right to expect in view of the declarations in the republican and democratic plat forms. The McMullen bill includes only common carriers within Its pro visions, and it contains an attack on the Burlington Relief Bureau that is resented by the older men among the Burlington employes. These old em ployes elaim that the bill, If enacted into law, will destroy the relief bur eau and thus deprive them of sick, accident and death benefits. They base this contention on the ground that they are now too old to secure insur ance, and that even if they could the extra hazardous nature of their-em ployment would make the rates ex cessive." McMullen and the support ers of his bill declare that the Bur lington is merely making this as a threat to stave off the enactment of any liability law. The Wageworker is not interested in the Burlington relief bureau save to the extent that it wants it retained if the men who are paying the money into it want , it retained. But this paper does oppose fle McMullen bill on the ground that it is not what the workingmen of this state want. If we are correct in our understanding of what legislators should do, it is not a question of what Mr. McMullen or any other legislator wants, but a ques tion of what the people want who have employed Mr. McMullen and other leg islators to act as their . lawmaking agents. If the Burlington men are satisfied with the Burlington relief bureau certainly Mr. McMullen ought to be satisfied with it. And if the wage earners of the state want a broader law, one that, will be an em ployers' liability law in fact as well as in name, Mr. McMullen and his colleagues ought to be willing to give it to them. If it does not stand the test of the courts the workingmen will take their medicine and try it again. What the wage earners of this state want is a liability law that is general in its application. The McMullen bill affords no protection to the lineman who is roasted by coming in contact with a live wire. It affords no pro tection to the machinist who is in jured by the carelessness or incom petence of a fellow servant or the de fectiveness of a piece of machinery in the shop. It affords no protection to the man horribly burned by the explosion of a defective carboy of acid or the carelessness of a fellow servant who fails to properly secure the car boy. It reltaes solely to employes of common carriers, and that kind of a law has just been declared unconsti tutional by two federal judges on the ground that it is class legislation. The eight hour law enacted by a Nebraska legislature sixteen years ago was de clared unconstitutional on. the very same ground that will be urged against the McMullen bill if it is en acted into law. The eight hour law excepted farmers from its provisions, and because it did not apply to all classes alike Judge Wakeley declared it ur constitutional. To be effective, and to give wage earners what they want, the employ er's liability act must be universal in its scope. Here is a bill, introduced by Senator Burns known as Senate File No. 233, that is just what the wage earners of this state want: A bill for an act to render employers liable for damages on account of in juries inflicted, upon persons in their employ through the negligence of fel low servants of such injured employe, and to repeal any act in conflict here with. "Be it enacted by the legislature of the state of Nebraska: , "Sec. 1. Whenever any action shall be brought in this state to recover damages on account of personal in juries received by one who was, at the time of such injuries, in the employ o fthe party against whom such action is brought, and the ground of such action alleged is carelessness or negli Law We Want gence on the part of such employer, bis or its officers, agents or employes, ' by reason of which said injuries were received, it shall not be a defense to , such action that the officer, agent or employe "guilty of such negligence was, at the time thereof, a fellow er- yant of the person so injured. This statute shall apply and be in force in all cases where such suit is brought by the person injured, or by an ad ministrator or other person entitled ' to maintain the same for the recovery of damages on account of such in juries to such employe. ' : ' "Sec. 2. All acts and parts of acts ' inconsistent with this act are hereby repealed." , This is the sort of liability law that the wage earners want, and as they are the ones most interested, certainly their ideas are worthy of considera tion. ' ' ; ; ' .,- - Mr. McMullen claims that his bill will in no wise Interfere with the Bur lington relief. The railroad men as sert that it will. Now, in order to avoid any dispute on that point, why not take the bill that the employes want, and which they are confident will ; not antagonize the relief, and which will include all classes of em ployed persons instead of confining the ' benefits to a certain few? The judiciary committee will again ' - consider the several liability acts next Monday afternoon immediately upon adjournment of the house. Tuesday evening at 7:30 the senate , judiciary committee will give a hear ing on the child labor bill now before it. This is the Clark bill which re- ' cently passed the house by an over- - whelmning vote. . Strong opposition im being manifested and . It behooves those interested In its-passage-to take -sy-.i an active part. i -, j Typographical Union Ball, Monday, February 25, Fraternity Hall. Quick's Orchestra. WESTERN UNION TRICK. Employs a Detective Agency to Organ ize Opposition "Union." New York, Feb. 3. New York Local No. 16, Commercial Telegraphers' Un ion of America, in its regular semi monthly meeting in Brooklyn today, had a great surprise sprung on it by one of the members. It was to the effect that knowledge had come to him that the Western Union Telegraph Company, which has never recognized the Telegraphers' Union, has under taken to put a new union in the field with the idea of drawing away from the Commercial Telegraphers' Union of America as many members as It could and to create dissention among, the remainder. This plan, he said, is being managed by a certain detective agency familiar with such work, and a start is to bu made this week. The idea is to start it at first in New York, then in Chi cago, and then in San Francisco. Typographical Union Ball, Monday, February 25, Fraternity Hall. Quick's Orchestra. - . A LITTLE ; SHAVER. And not so little, either. He weighed twelve pounds and arrived at the home of Mr. and Mrs. R. L. McBride cn Sunday, January 27. This is the first born and of course he is a little the finest boy' that has arrived in Lin coln lately. Mr. McBride is ex-secretary of the local Barbers' Union and shop foreman in the Pioneer. Here'3 hoping that McBride Junior will be all that his fond parents hope for him. , Typographical ' Union Ball, Monday, February 25, Fraternity Hall. Quick's Orchestra. THE UNION PRINTER. . Well, now, those ' typos must be a good set of fellows. Just think! Ten per . cent assessment for ten months, then 7 for one month and now 5, and still they are as stubborn to win the eight hours as ever. Could any other union under the sun with stand such an assessment T But they, are out to win and they are accomp lishing their goal, for all along the line comes news of firms giving in and desiring their former union help. A union printer Is a credit to any community. Toronto Tribune.