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About The Wageworker. (Lincoln, Neb.) 1904-???? | View Entire Issue (Feb. 15, 1907)
I n n j-t l i w 1 5 TRADES BBS TRADES iHSknl COUNCILS) L3 VrOL. 3 LIXCOL-X, NEBRASKA, JEBUAKY 15, 1907 NO. 45 -a u o r r Talk About The Printer Men A little study of the financial report In the February Journal will be of in terest to the members of the Typo graphical Union. The organizers -seem to be awfully biiBy these days, and if they are getting results commensurate with their expense accounts they are certainly going some. ' The twenty-two organizers and spe cial agents spent $3,623.88 during Jan uary, Vice-President Hays leading with 1346.55 for "expenses to St. Paul and Indianapolis and services and ex penses in Philadelphia." St. Paul, by the way, Is Mr. Hay's home, and as J. C. Devereux, Jr., lives in St. Paul, it looks to the uninitiated as if Mr. Hays ijwere charging up to the boys the ex penses of a little visit home. If this Intimation is an injustice to Mr. Hays he will accept proper apologies. ' Organizer Fisher of Omaha spent $51.70 to go to Burlington, where he performed some good work, but while Mr. Fisher of Omaha was in Burling ton, 300 miles east of his home town, Organizer B. G. Brady traveled from Cincinnati to Omaha, and from thence down to St. Joseph and St. Louis, at an expense of $283.60. Just why these two organizers should cross each oth er's paths at an expense of something like $300 is a mystery to the boys be hind the assessment. Organizer J. E. Fancher visited Huron, Deadwood, Pierre and Sioux Falls at an expense of $236.04, of which amount $48.75 was for "services and expenses" in Sioux Falls. Presumably the rest was for expense, which indicates that Mr. Fancher was "going some." The or ganizers averaged over $160 each dur ', ing the month. During the month the eight hour day committee spent $1,- 413.20. The receipts for the month , were $177,405.68, and the expenditures ' $144,544.38. The International now '. has on hand a balance of $311,312.54, or which amount $12,746.26 is in the . Cummins memorial fund. The atten tion of the United Typothaete is called to these figures. Sixteen months' fight ing, and after spending $3,000,000 the union printers have $31 ,,312.54 in the strong box. And there are only about 45,000 of us in the United States and Canada. . i Frank Swlgart of St. Louis, No. 8, 13 vondering if it is his turn next to be Shelby Smithed," Swlgart is the man who has done most to secure contribu tions to the home library. He has been working night and day for the library, but the other day he received ' a shock. President Lynch peremptor , ily 'ordered him to cease soliciting ' books for the home. This was in ac cordance with a decree of the execu tive council,- Lynch notified Swlgart ,,,..th.a:the, council always found a way to enforce its mandates. He managed j to find a way when he went after She! 4 by Smith's scalp, even if the "way" 'J was brutal in th extram nnri ran. trary to all law and precedent. Swi K.irt shows a disposition to Ignore the mandate of Stsr James the Great, and it he does the matter with be threshed out at Hot Springs, and maybe there will be enough delegates present with real spines to prevent another Shelby Smith lynching. The order of the council and Swigart's reply will be found in the February Journal. President Lynch hau his picture taken the other day. He was walking alongside a lot of wagons loaded with 1,000,000" blotters count 'em 1,000, 000 which the executive council is going to distribute to boost the label. Then a half tone was made and print ed in an Indianapolis dally. Copies of the paper containing the picture have been mailed widely under post age paid by the assessment. Mr. Post in his "Square Deal" makes the astonishing assertion that the Un ion Printers' Home at Colorado Springs, was built with contributions that came mostly from men who. were ' not and never had been members of the Typographical Union. Charles W, Pest, editor of the "Square Deal," is a liar. He knows he is a liar. Every' ' body who knows anything at all about the Union Printers' Home knows that Mr. Post lied when he said it, and they know that he knew he lied when he said ij". Nine-tenths of the cost of the Union Printer s home was borne by, unlorT. printers, and 99 per cent of the cst of maintenance Is borne by mem ers of the Typographical Union. Annanias wasn't one, two, three with Charles W. Post, husband of the stenographer. Lincoln Typographical Union has been aging rapidly. On February 25 It will celebrate its "twenty-sixth" an niversary . according to last year's count, although the union wasn't chart ered until 1883. A cog was slipped somewhere. But this will be the ninth annual ball, and it will really cele brate the twenty-fourth anniversary of the local. Leon Huckins has embarked in business for himself and is now the proprietor of a job shop which is well equipped and up-to-date. Charley Barngrover is wearing a worried look these days. He is oper ating a "mill" at the Freie Presse of- fict, and it has German and English characters on the keyboard. As a re sult "Barney" is dreaming of the storied Rhine and striving hard to keen the kinks out of his tongue. Despite the best efforts of editor and proof reader the "intelligent compos itor" managed to make it read "Union Club" in last week's issue. Of course reference was had to the "Onion Club. President Coffey of Lincoln Typo graphical Union is minus one dog but plus $40 in cold cash. He shipped the dog over the Rock Island, but the an! mal escaped and has not since been seen by the owner. Coffey brought suit against the railroad, asking judg ment in the sum of $100. The com pany compromised by paying the costs and giving him $40. Adam McMulIen, member of the leg' islature from Gage county, says he is a printer by trade and that he is an ex-member of the Typographical Un ion. Mr. and Mrs. Will Bustard are pre paring to leave Lincoln for a ranch in Custer county the first Of March. Mr. Bustard's health is such that outdoor life for a year or two is imperative. He has promised to send the union enough Berkshire chickens for a feast, and has already made arrangements to sell at reduced price to the printers Buff Cochin hogs and Clydesdale cows. The ball on the 25th promises to be far and away the best in the history of Lincoln Typographical Union No. 209. Unfortunately the Omaha Aux iliary's ball is on the same night, which will prevent any of the Omaha members from attending. continued. That is, not personally. It doesn't cost him a penny. But the men who are personally interested in main taining the relief department are op posed to the McMulIen bill because they see in it a danger to their cheap insurance.- And because they stand up for what they believe . to be their rights they are charged with being cheap tools." .It was the same thing last fall when they stood out and in sisted on voting for a couple of union labor candidates for the legislature.- To do this they had to oppose two repub licans, and. immediately the Evening News denounced them as tools of the Burlington, Just as it is now denounc ing them as tools because they oppose the McMulIen bill. The McMulIen bill is opposed by organized labor gen erally because it is too limited in Its scope. It applies only to common car riers and offers no relief to the thous ands of other men employed in hazard ous occupations. It is opposed by the Burlington employes because it threatens their cheap sick, accident and death insurance. And this is why they are dubbed tools of the Burling ton. They ought to resent the insult. and their friends ought to help them. ELECTRICAL WORKERS' BALL. THE CARPENTERS. Jones Gets a Foothold in Crete and Sends Machines Crete is going to have an overall and shirt factory. L. O. Jones, after many months of effort, ha 3 finally se cured a foothold in that little city, and there are some Cretians so fool ish as to believe the new enterprise will benefit the city. The Crete Commercial club has pro vided quarters rent free, and Jones will install twenty machines at once, and more if help can be secured. The cutting will be done in Lincoln and sent out to Crete to be sewed uj. The average wage for sewing machine op erators in ; similar factories through out the United States is nine cents an hour. .... There seems to be something mys terious about this move on the part of Mr. Jones. Crete is not a railroad center, and is a town of about 2,000 inhabitants. It would seem to the un prejudiced observer that Jones has failed in his herculean efforts to per suade country girls to, come to Lin coln and work in his factory at a wage barely sufficient to pay tioard and lodging, and in despair has decid ed to try the experiment of taking the work to the country towns. ' The announcement of the Crete move contains the information that a part of the machines have already been( shipped from Lincoln. This must be taken as an indication that . they are idle machines that Jones could not find operators for. If this is true it is an evidence of the good sense of Lincoln girls who refuse to work the long hours for the low wages "that this unfair firm pays. If the fathers and mothers of Crete want a factory in their midst that will employ their daughters at ridiculously low wages, they certainly, will have no cause of complaint after the Jones factory gets started. .' But If Crete benefits by the establishment of such a concern it will break all records. A few weeks ago Mr. Jones was widely advertising the fact that he had just added twenty girls to the Lincoln force. But it seems that even this addition of 40 per cent to his working force did not begin to fill the machines, hence he ships twenty or more of them to Crete in the hope of being able to get girls ' to work for the wages he pays. Crete makes some pretensions of being an educational center, but this boast will not long have a basis It Crete parents , encourage the estab lishment of shirt factories at wages which will scarce suffice to pay board and lodgings. Typographical Union Ball, Monday, February 25, Fraternity Hall. Quick's Orchestra. Cleveland, O., meat cutters butchers are now organizing. and 0 0jKKKOOCI g Eclipsed All Records In Attendance and Genuine Pleasure. The Electrical, Workers' annual ball was held at Fraternity hall last Tues day evening, and in point of attend ance and pleasure eclipsed all former records. Nearly 200 couples were present and everybody was bent upon 'having a good time, an ambition that was ably forwarded by the commit tees in charge of the ball. Quick's or chestra furnished the music. At 11 o'clock refreshments were announced and partaken of with a relish by the dancers. The supper room was lively and the refreshments thoroughly en Joyed. There were twenty numbers on the dance program, not to mention several extras. This was the fifth annual ball of the local union, and like all of its predecessors was an unqualified suc cess, socially and financially. The following committees are entitled to credit for the success of the affair: Door Messrs. Rudy, Betz, Jones. Reception Messrs. Mayer, Ander son, Cain, Streeter, Deveraux, Hull, Gant, Seaman. Floor Carvetb, Peebles, Dixon, Sea man , Grade Rules and Regulations for En suing Year are Adopted. The carpenters met in special ses sion last Tuesday evening,' and the meeting was one of the largest held in recent months. Several addresses were made that aroused great en thusiasm, and everybody present ex pressed delight at being there to par ticipate in the meeting. The existing trade rules and regulations were adopted for another year. All seemed to be satisfied with present conditions, but expressed a willingness to put forth renewed efforts to make union ism, more of a business proposition. Work in the carpenter line is very slack at the present time, but the out look f6r the coming season was never "brighter. 'Some ' unusually large con tracts are being prepared, and resi dence building promises to keep up the wonderful gait it has been trav eling during the last three or four years. The firm of Schaui & Assenmacher, which has the contract for remodel ing the city hall building, has been put upon the fair list and have a num ber of union carpenters In their em ploy. It Is a closed shop job. Abouf three months ago Business Agent Eissler learned that the Col lins Ice Cream Co. was about to let a contract for a new factory building He called upon the manager of the company and ascertained that the con tract was about to be let to an unfair contractor. Then he got busy with his arguments and told the manager the reasons why, in the opinion of the Union men, the job should be let to a fair contractor. The manager lis tened attentively and then said that although the contract had not been definitely let, it had all but been promised to a contractor on the un fair list. But he asked for a list of the fair contractors and said he would look into it. A couple of days later the manager of the company called up Eissler and said the work had been let to L. Dybbro, a fair contractor. The manager of the company now expresses his satisfaction with the work, saying he has got one of the best jobs ever put up in Lincoln. The carpenters and other unionists in Lin coln should remember the Collins Ice Cream Co. and show their apprecia tion of its friendliness. STOP THE CHILD LABOR Now that a rational attempt is being made to secure an adequate child labor law, we are compelled to listen to the" usual tommyrot from the opponents of such a law. First we cause of child labor, but the disease is taking hold even in Nebraska, and now is the time to stop it. It would be criminal to wait until the disease became epidemic before taking steps. Child labor, like the Texas fever we hear from the defenders of the "poor widows"' llsfed td dread so much, is much easier, kept ; who will be compelled to suffer untold hardships if their little ones are not allowed to support her and themselves. Then we hear from the eminent agriculturalists who insist that a child labor law will prevent a farmer from working his children.' The 'widow" dodge and the "farmer" dodge always show up in cases of this kind. The "farmer" dodge may be dismissed with a word. Firstly, the law does not prohibit child labor on the farm. But it might not be a bad thing to throw some protection around farm children. The men who talk about the benefits they received by being '- forced to Avork. beyond their years upon the farm sounds good, but perhaps you have noticed that these same men escaped from the farm prison as soon as they could. The "widow" dodge is entitled to more con sideration, not because there is any truth n ' it, but because it is a sentimental objection and because the objection relates to woman out than stamped out. We, didn't wait until Texas fever was epidemic among our cattle . before enacting laws. We saw: it in the dis tance i and promptly passed the necessary laws and instituted, a strict and effective quaran tine. Let us do the same thing with child labor. . .Let us quarantine against it nowj rather than wait until it isepidemiean3Then spending years of time, enduring untold mis ery and disgrace, in getting rid of it. ' ' 1 So far the opposition to this bill comes chiefly from a couple of daily newspapers in-. terested in hiring small boys at ridiculously low wages to deliver papers at unseasonable hours during all kinds of weather, from .a few department store managers who want cheap help and are willing to sacrifice the; children ; to get it, and from the ' telegraph' and mes senger companies It remains to be 1 seen whether the selfish interests of these men will be allowed to make sacrifice of the chil- kind. The "widow" dodge is as baseless as dren in order to fatten their purses. It re- THE LIABILITY LAW. Usual Attack3 Made on , Burlington Employes Opposing It. .. As usual, the Burlington employes who are opposing a proposed law, are charged with being mere tools in, tha bands of the management of the com pany. Because these men oppose the VIcMullen bill, which is calculated to injure if not destroy the Burlington relief S department, they are charged wjth, being "political tools" and their honesty and integrity impugned. ; . .KOjWv. J.he. Wageworker doesn't fcarp a continental whether the Burlington relief department is maintained or dis- the "farmer" dodge. The Clarke bill, if enacted into law, will not work an injury to one widow in a thousand. The percentage of cases wherein a widow is entirely depend ent upon the work of children under fourteen is so infinitesimal that statisticians merely represent them by the minus sign. If the -Clarke bill is enacted into law The AVage- mains to be seen whether the fathers and mothers of this state will sit idly by and allow conditions to grow up that will soon be demanding the little ones in increasing num- bers to keep its greedy maws sated with the blood and bodies of the helpless little ones. It took Massachusetts thirty years to se cure the enactment of , sensible child labor worker will make a guarantee for Lincoln laws, and during that thirty years tens of COMMONER ANNIVERSARY. The fifty employes of the Commonoi boarded a special car. provided for them by the management last Satur day night and went to Fairview to celebrate the sixth anniversary of the paper's establishment. Several pres ent have been with the paper ever since it first started. Mr. Bryan acted as guide and tooic the employes on a trip around the, world, showing them the manyysouvenjrs collected by him self and Mrs. Bryan while on their world-tour. It was a most enjoyable ijourney. Light refreshments jwere served. Each succeeding celebration is voted the "best ever'apdtb one. last Saturday night waef '.easily5 the leader of the six. ' - -. : " - .'-. i ., The Methodist 'Ministerial: Alliance of Denver, Col., passed a "resolution condemning the employment of men more than eight hours a day and sent a delegate to the Trades aniabor Assembly. and Omaha that if such cases are found and brought to their attention the trades unions of the two cities will take care of the mothers and see to it that the children are allowed to go to school and provided for until they are beyond the age limit fixed by the, law. So much for the objections raised upon the two grounds given. 1 ; There is opposition from another source. It is based on the argument that children should be taught habits of industry an ar gument that nobody disputes and is ad vanced by those who want to prevent the enactment of a child labor law so they may be permitted to continue their employment of children at low wages in order to escape the necessity of employing older employes at higher wages. This argument is selfish ; it is merciless ; it is heartless. It is not denied that an adequate child labor law will work hardships in some quar- thousands of little ones were sacrificed on the altar of the industrial Moloch. Twenty . years ago Georgia and Alabama "did not need child labor laws" because they had no child labor. Today 20,000 children under twelve years of age are working in the Georgia and ' Alabama mills. In Georgia, the state that did not need child labor laws twenty years ago, 56 per cent "of the loom tenders are under seven years of age. Think of that, you 'fath ers and mothers! Child labor has, resulted in forcing the natural caretakers the fath ers -to work for starvation wages, and this has resulted in forcing the children of such ! e fathers to enter the mills almost the minute Q they graduated from the cradles. Child . ' Q labor has forced the mother into the. mill, g and this is destroying the chief bulwark of -Cj the American republic, the home. Child .. p labor has found its natural, result in the aw- p ful sweat shop and in the tenement factory. - 5 ters. 'But better a few hardships now and It is making , itself felt even in Neb'i'&ska: '$ .i. ... xi... - . rm. -i : tf.'iL -' men man umi any uousiueiauie proportion iuc avcrai; wajc.ui sewing iuauuj yywr; o of the rising generation should be dwarfed' ators in' factories making " men's.-ifgoads-cn , mentallv. morallv and mivsicallv. overalls, cants; work shirts, blouses1, etdiy ""'' 'It 'is advanced by some bill that Nebraska does not need law because we have no sweat shops, no mills child labor in the sweat shops and .tenement and no mines. This opposition is not based factories is responsible for this miserabtou'i aye criminally, low wage. sicaiiv. ui ciaus, pan is, uin biiiiis, uiuiiBtm, icivr. in ( who Oppose the 1 cents an hour, $5.40 a week. This' Work is""0' leed a child labor done chiefly by young women and ' girlan.,.,. ;. on argument. It is based on short-sightedness. The people of a new state do not wait until murder is committed before enacting f p ntixi against pturdei-, They do not wait until M y llorses are stolen 'before thev; enact a law ' against horse stealing. It is true that Ne braska is not now suffering particularly be- i.W .1 We do need a child labor law in Nebraska, t if not to wipe out child labor, then to prevent it from ever fastening its foul clutches upon , our fair state. And the Clarke bill is just the thing . needed, without amendment or alteration.