3
ra
VOIi.3
LIXCOL., NEBRASKA, MARCH 8, 1907
NO. 48
mm
2 TRADES iKSBSl COUNCILS)
Among the Live Crafts
In This Good Town
OF INTEREST TO PRINTERS.
Another Welcome Announcement
About the Assessment Received.
Last week the welcome announce
ment came from International head
quarters that beginning on Monday,
Mh ch 3, the assessment for the
eight-hour day cause would he reduc
ed ti 2 per cent. This makes a total
1 eduction of eight per cent since last
fall. With the unparallelled label
agitation now in progres it is believed
that such a demand will be created
for good printers that the assessment
may soon be abrogated. Since the be
ginning of the struggle for the eight
hour day Lincoln Typographical
Union, No. 209, has raised and for
warded to headquarters $9,000, in ad
dition to which it has financed its lo
cal affairs 10 the extent of about $1,
20J. All this has been done in seven
teen months a mighty good recorl
for a union that averages about -ilnety
In membership. It means practically
an average of $100 per man in the
seventeen months.
r Monday- the union men in tho Ne
braska Printing Co. shop were pullel
out, the proprietor of that concern
refusing to sign the eight-hour con
tract. Four men came out. "Levy
has robbed the cradle and the grave
to keep going," remarked a unionist
. who looked in at the window and saw
the bunch of near-printers who were
attempting to act like real mechanics.
At the proper time the local will
give this shop the attention due it.
The four men who walked out were
.speedily placed.
Lincoln Typographical Union met
- in regular session last Sunday after
noon, and the session was full of in-
terL Thc-new members were ad
mitted and obligated. The attend
ance' was unusually large.
Detroit Typographical Union, not
withstanding a long strike and a heavy
drain on its treasury, has pledged
$1,000 to the new Y. M. C. A. build
ing in that city. It will be the best
Investment the union ever made, too.
What do you think of a bunch of
mechanics who have been paying a
10 per cent assessment for nearly two
years walking up and promising to
donate a thousand dollars to a reli
' gious institution? Can you beat a
bunch like that?
W. H. Colescot, aged 76, a member
of Typographical Union No. 1, died
at the soldiers' home at 'Marion, In
diana, last week.
Shelby Smith, who was sacrificed
at Toronto to make a Roman holiday,
Is doing more for the cause than any
half-dozen of the gang that went after
' his scalp. Through his efforts one
of the biggest shops in Philadelphia
was organized recently. Then Smith,
as editor and publisher of the Trades
Union News, proceeded to get busy
for fair. He went to the unfair shop
that had the contract for printing the
Musical Enterprise ad asked it to
square up. It haughtily refused.
Smith turned around and secured the
contract for printing the magazine.
Now he is after other publications
that are now printed in unfair shops.
If the shops square up he will not
Interfere. And this is the man whose
"scalp" they had to have to salve their
outraged union honor!
John W. Wise has sued the Lyric
theatre management for $3,800 dam-
, ages. He said he had a contract for
printing the programs, said contract
having been assigned to him by the
firm, originally holding it. Manager
Miller is not worrying. The people
who sold Wise a "contract" had none.
They paid Miller so much for the
privilege of furnishing the program.
Things are looking up in Detroit.
Within the last couple of weeks twenty-five
men working in unfair shops
have voluntarily joined the union or
left town. The "rat" printeriea are up
against It worse than ever.
Typographical Unions all over the
country are already making prepara
tions for the proper observance of
"Printers' Memorial Day," which is
the last Sunday in May. The printers
were the first craftsmen to officially
adopt' such a day and custom.
upon. There is a growing enthusiasm
among the members, and all are tak
ing a greater interest in union work.
Work is better than ever before in
the history of the town, and pay en
velopes are fattened up accordingly.
Printers have succeeded in reclaim
ing three shops in St. Joseph, Mo.
THE CARPENTERS.
All carpenters of L. U. 1055, C. and
J. of A., are hereby notified to appear
at the next meeting, March 12, as it is
a special called meeting for the pur
pose of acting on a special assess
ment recommended by the trustees.
Bring your due books for quarterly
examination. This is to be a meeting
of great importance and every mem
ber should come and get next.
J. A .CHAMBERS, Secretary.
STEVE ADAMS' CASE.
The case of Steve Adams, charged
with the murder of Fred Tyler, went
to the jury Wednesday afternoon. The
instructions of Judge Richards were
claimed by the defense to be all that
the prosecution asked for. No refer
ence to the Western Federation of
Miners appears in the instructions.
Th Wageworker's forms closed be
fore a verdict was reached.
Pressmen's unions pretty generally
throughout the 'country are up in
arms over the agreement signed by
their national officers postponing the
eight-hour day.
Labor News Picked
Up Here and There
THE ACQUITTAL OF SHEA.
Some Plain Truths About the Famous
Chicago Case..
At last the Shea conspiracy case
is ended. President Shea arid his
teamsters' union associates have been
acquitted. Only two jurors were for
VICTIMS OF CAPITALISTIC HATE
President Moyer Secretary Haywood
THE KIDNAPED MINERS' OFFICIALS
conviction at the start, and these
quickly ylelifed to the other ten. The
prosecution was utterly without merit.
It was instigated and maintained both
in court and in the trust newspapers,
for private business ends. The pro
secuting lawyer was hardly more than
nominally a member of the prosecut
ing officer's staff. He was the pri
vate attorney of the business interests
that instigated the prosecution. And
the prosecution itself, while nominal-""
ly for a blackmailing conspiracy to
injure - the business of a mercantile .
firm, was In fact for the criminaliza
tion of sympathetic strikes. It failed, .
first because there was no credible
testimony of blackmail, and second be
cause the jury would not place sym
pathetic strikes under the ban of the
criminal law.
A curious thing happened after the
trial. Three or four labor leaders
who had been accepted as informers,
had sworn to transactions calculated
to prove that the strike was In fur
therance of pecuniary objects, that
brutal violence had been resorted to
deliberately by the strike leaders, that
they themselves had' participated in
these criminal purposes and acts, that
no promise of . immunity had .been
made them, and that having pleaded
guilty they expected to be imprison-,
ed. Now, it is true that the jury re
fused to believe these informers
(some of whom were shown to be con
victed criminals), in so far as their
testimony incriminated the men on
trial. But that was no reason for ex-'
onerating them upon their own pleas
of guilty. Although the men on trial
were acquitted, these informers were
guilty on their own pleas. If "the in
dictment described a crime, they stood
before the court self-convicted of that
crime. Yet the prosecuting attorney,
failing to convict the innocent men,
exonerated these guilty ones. This
may be' the law, for the prosecuting
attorney did it; presumably it must
be the law, for the judge allowed It.
But what kind of law is it that per
mits guilty men, men guilty of crime
upon their own confession in open
court, to go free because a jury would
not believe their . testimony against
other men? Chicago Public.
LETTERS FROM A WORKINGMAN
LETTER NO. 1
THE PRESSMEN.
The Printing Pressmen's and Assist
ants' Union is getting along quite well,
thank you. Four new members werp
obligated at the last meeting and sev
eral applications remain to be acted
TO THE MINISTERS OF LIN
COLN. Dear Brothers: I note that
a committee from your union visited
with the excise board the first of the
week for the purpose of securing
what seems to you to be some neces
sary steps in the curtailment of the
saloon evil. You would have my sup
port in this matter were it not for the
fact that experience teaches me that
you church people have gone at this
liquor problem wrong end to. In or
der to make my position clear let me
state, emphatically and positively,
that if I had the power I would close
every saloon in the world before next
Monday morning. " But as I haven't
that power, -and there is as yet no
power developed than can do it, I be
lieve we ought to face the problem
fairly and squarely and try to solve
it with horse sense and not with
hysterics.
Let me tell you something, breth
ren: The quickest way to put the sa
loon out of business is to offer to men
something that will be more attrac
tive. When you seek the aid of the
hw to wipe out what you claim is a
moral wrong, you admit that the
power of the gospel of the Nazarene
is not effacacious, and that it needs
an enacting clause from a fallible leg
islature and a constable's club in the
hands of a sworn officer to make it
effective. I can" not believe that you
really mean to make that admission
For every dollar invested in the
saloon business in Lincoln there are
perhaps twenty dollars invested in
God's business. By God's business I
mean the churches. I believe I am
well within the facts when I say that
there are five church properties with
in three blocks of the Lindell hotel
that represent more actual money in
vested than there is invested in all
the thirty-eight saloons of Lincoln.
Now suppose I should invest in all
the thirty-eight saloons of Lincoln.
First Presbyterian church, Thirteenth
and M streets, in a stock of merchan
dise. Fifty thousand dollars, for in
stance. And suppose I should keep
my store open an average of eight
hours a week. What would be the re
sult? Either I would go bankrupt or
my friends and relatives would have
me committed to the asylum for the
insane. Now is it not a fact that with
perhaps half a million dollars invest
ed in churches in Lincoln these places
of God's busines are open less than
an average of eight hours a week
each? How can you expect to make
God's business prosper on that sort
of a basis?
Gentlemen of the pulpit, you may
thunder your anthemas against the
liquor traffic until you are blue in the
face; you may plead for rigid excise
laws until hades boils down to a poul
tice; you may inveigh against the sa
loons until the Missouri river dries
up and the Rocky mountains become
holes in the ground you may do all
these things but they will avail noth
ing. But the moment you set to work
on a commonsense basis and strive to
give the workingman a club that is as
attractive as the saloon, as democratic
as the saloon, and that extends as cor
dial a welcome as the saloon, then the
saloonkeeper will see his finish.
Churches closed 160 hours out of every
168 do not offer these inducements.
Man is a gregarious - animal. He
seeks the company of his kind. Will
you please tell me a more democratic,
likely, sociable place than the saloon
for him to find it under our present
social conditions? Do you expect me
to hang around the closed and locked
door of a church in order to meet and
mingle with my fellows?
Pray tell me, brethren, what has
your church to offer me outside of a
few remarks calculated to Impress
upon my mind the necessity of tak
ing out a fire insurance policy on my
soul? Your music is good, but I can
hear just as good or better every day.
Your singing !s good, but I can hear
as good or better every time of my
comrades get together and begin on
the old songs. Your' churches are
bright on Sunday, but they are dark
and cold and dismal every week day
night when I am anxious to meet and
mingle with my kind. If I don't go
to the saloon to meet them, where
will I go? To the library? Fudge!
How about my evening pipe and my
desire to converse with my friends?
Remain at home? God bless you,
brothers, I have no home, and there
are nearly a thousand like me in Lin
coln. Now, as an ordinary man, with a
man's instinct for mingling . with his
fellows and a man's instinct for amuse
ment and entertainment, tell me what
you of the churches have to offer me?
The church has set its face against
most of the amusements that appeal
to virile men, with the result that the
devil has seized them and uses them
as bait to trap men Into his clutches.
I have seen good Methodist and Pres
byterian brothers and sisters who
would faint If asked to play "cinch"
or euchre, grow so excited over
"flinch" that they could be heard a
half a block away. Pray tell me the
difference between playing with cards
that have pictures on them and cards
that have mere figures on them. Is
there a minister in Lincoln who op
poses croquet? Now what is the dif
ference between knocking wooden
balls around on the green grass and
knocking ivory balls around on a
green cloth?
I love to play billiards, and I have
yet to be convinced that it is wrong
to play the game; but if I want to in
dulge in this splendid sport I must
either join an expensive club or play
it in a foul pool hall. Why? Because
the church, foolishly, yea, criminally,
gave this fine game over to Satan to
be used as lure to drag men to destruction.
But this is wandering from the chief
premise. What I mean to say is that
you are wasting time fighting the sa
loon the way you are. They are here
to stay, In one form or another, until
you can find something better that
will appeal more strongly to the
average man. If one-half the money
now invested in spires arid stained
glass windows, and chimes and hand
carved altar rails were invested In
workingmen's clubs that would offer
him clean amusements, clean fare,
clean asociations, hearty welcome re
gardless of dress, and make him feel
as much at home as he feels in the
saloon say, such an investment would
do more in a year to solve the saloon
problem than all the gabfests, peti
tions and legislative enactments in
dulged in since Hector was an infant
canine.
I visit the saloon now and then
chiefly because I find there what I
can not find elsewhere of an evening
after my day's work is done con
genial companions, a hearty welcome,
good cheer and forgetfulness for a
time that I am a "Man with the hoe."
If you'll find me these same things,
then I'll promise you upon honor to
cut out the saloon.
Dearly Beloved, I speak as a work
ingman who knows workingmen bet
ter, perhaps, that any clergyman in
Lincoln. If my views are worth any
thing to you, you are welcome to them.
BILLY MAJOR,
Workingman.
DENOUNCE SENATOR FORAKER.
Unionists Declare This Champion of
Humanity is a Sweat Shopper.
Cincinnati, O., Feb. 26. The union
men of this city are simply disgusted
over the brazen effrontery of Senator
Foraker in pretending to champion
human rights in the Brownsville af
fair while using his employes like
dogs instead of men. , .
Foraker's Cincinnati . Traction com
pany discharges an army of more than
1,000 men every year, who are denied
both a personal hearing or appeal by
a representative, the evidence against
them being gathered by Pinkertons
and presented behind closed doors,
and no known union man is tolerated
in the service. Many of the discharg
ed men are blacklisted.
This is the corporation of Senator
Foraker, who shouts to the galleries
his protest against the summary dis
charge of a company of 67 colored
troops by President Roosevelt.,. How
does he reconcile his pretended Inter
est in the colored troops with his posi
tion in the employment of labor?
BUILDING TRADES COUNCIL.
The Building Trades Council met
last Wednesday evening and elected
the following officers for the ensuing
term: President, George Quick, Car
penters' Union; vice-president, Louis
Hale, Painters' Union; secretary
treasurer, B. J. Chipman, Plumbers'
Union; ' sergent-at-atrms, Charles
Burns, Plumbers' Union.
- CAPITAL AUXILIARY, i
Capital Auxiliary, No. 11, to Lincoln .
Typographical Union, No. 209,. will
meet Friday at 2:30 p. m.Marcb 15,t
at the home of Mrs. J. E. Marshall,.
1523 North Twenty-sixth street. There
will be a picnic supper and social in
the evening to which all members and
their families are invited.
Within 130 years 23,000,000 foreign
ers have come into this country, and
within the past year the immigrants
numbered more than 1,000,000, or 20
per cent more than any previous year.
