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About The Wageworker. (Lincoln, Neb.) 1904-???? | View Entire Issue (April 4, 1908)
y : s TOL. 5 LINCOLN, NEBRASKA, APRIL 4, 1908 NO. 1 ROOSEVELT'S LATEST MESSAGE. LABOR TEMPLE DIRECTORATE. WW A fpg3fiA7 I 1 1 S trades" COUNCO) o) V7P? 61 v ? Y v Barry's Interesting Comment on the Latest White House Paper. President Roosevelt sent to con gress last Wednesday a needed antl timely message. He does not forgot to romind congress that he has "re-pt-atedly suggested action" on most of the matters now urged upon the attention of the republican majority. Thus, perhaps Inadvertently, he sug gests to the country that if a repub lican majority will not enact needed legislation,, the people should elect a 0mocratio congress. "Child labor should be prohibited throughout the nation,' says the presi dent. That is, child labor is a moral wrong against the children and against the nation; but It Is not a legal wrong throughout the country. The president renews his recom mendation for a good, "court-proof" if possible, employers' liability law, pud another law giving compensation to public employes for injury or death incurred in the public service. In regard to the matter of in lunctlons In labor disputes, the presi dent's recommendation is unsatisfac tory. He says that "no temporary restraining order should be issued by any court without notice." The fact is, there should be no temporary or permanent restraining order affecting free speech, free writing and free publication, either with or without rr.tice, in labor disputes or in any circumstances. The president and the labor unions are discussing labor dis putes. The Star is speaking of con stitutional rights. Speaking of sentences for contempt, tfc president suggests that "the issue should be decided by another judge than the one issuing the injunction, except when the contempt is commit ted in the presence of the court or i ether cases of urgency." If the injunction be wrongfully Is sued, if by its terms the injunction deprive a person of his right to speak, write or publish freely a right given by the Constitution it makes no dif ference what judge sends the "of fender" to jail. It is unnecessary to d:spute over those cases in which u contempt is committed in the Imme diate presence of the court, or so near thereto as to Interfere with the ad ministration of justice. It is admit ted that such offenses should be sum marily punished. But it is not and should never be admitted that one judge, or any num ber of judges, should have the power for they have not the right to pun Ub a person for exercising a consti tutional right. The president is right in asking that the Sherman anti-trust act be amended in certain particulars no tably in giving the interstate com merce commission power to make pub lic and pass upon the issuance of all securities hereafter issued by roads cloing an interstate buslnes. The law should be amended, also, so that the federal courts cannot use ft to break up labor unions and loot their treas dries. "Strikes themselves are and should be recognized to be entirely legal," spy s the president. That is correct. nut we do not know at what time a , federal court may issue a ukase that "ttrlkes are illegal;" not because they are violations of law, but because the court Bays they are illegal. In saying that "nothing should be done to legalize a blacklist or a boy cott," the president appears to forget that the federal courts have "judicially legalized" the blacklist during the puBt sixty days, and have "judicially it rgallced" or outlawed the boycott The president has not dug deep enough Into federal court usurpation. How much attention will congress B-ve to the recommendations of the p.-esldent? Isn't it rather a reflection on the federal Judges when President Roose vt It suggests in his message this week that, when a federal court ap points a receivership for a railroad, the attorney general should have the right to name one of the receivers. This right should be given to the at torney general, he says, so that the sume crowd that wrecks the road may not choose the receiver! But the ap pointing power rests with the federal judge. Is it possible that federal jtdges are still as careless in this matter as they were in 1895, when Judge Jenkins appointed a band of freebooters as receivers of the North ern Pacific? San Francisco Star. ? a rairamt3 warn w it At a well attended meeting of trades unionists Wednesday even ing, George J. Thompsonlabel secretary of the Cigarmakers' Union of Chicago, made the principal address. In the course of his remarks Mr. Thompson said: Fellow Workmen : I have been looking over your city and am surprised that any of your people should want to exchange your sys tem for that which prevails in so-called prohibition towns and states, for it is conceded on every hand that prohibition everywhere is work ing tremendous injury to the cause of real effective temperance, and putting aside the question of personal liberty it is quite impossible to enforce a prohibition law in a large community or a state. Look at Maine, Kansas, Alabama and Georgia for instance and you will see how true this is. The attempt to enforce such laws consequently leads to thousands upon thousands Do you know what makes friends it is because prohibition right that he is in justice and equity and when these laws are made they to nullification. Some good-hearted men and hibition crusade through some sentimental sympathy for the drunkard, and quite frequently upon the theory that our boj-s will be protected, but what is the truth of the matter? saloon is not as dangerous to the the club room and private drinking creates. The worst trap for incautious pleasing forms of club life, and youthful mind. The advocates fact that under that system these will be so reduced in num ber that they will be easily guarded, and so conducted that they will be found infinitely less dangerous to the " morals of the community than the holes in the wall and the backdoor and the lootleg saloons, which are the legitimate results of prohibition. We can guard our youth from danger which we see and know; but against these hidden foes, which appeal so powerfully to certain in stincts in the human heart, who can protect them? Your licensed saloons will be limited to a locality twelve by eight license annually, netting the city $G4,000 with which to maintain pub lic schools, etc. Prohibition puts out the licensed saloon but makes saloons of the home, creates 'blind pigs," and drains the city of funds sent to li censed towns for beer and liquor, and the temptation to drunkenness is greater. Chattanooga, Tenn., received $10,000,000 last year from prohi bition towns near by in Tennessee, Georgia and Alabama. The trades unions of the country are doing more for temperance than all other agencies combined, in that they seek to educate and improve the condition of all workmen, thereby reducing poverty, which is the great cause of drunkenness, and all evidence worth-considering goes to prove that drunkenness, poverty and crime are the results of enforced idleness or low paid labor. As a rule men who are steadilj cinployed at some productive labor and who get in return for their la bor what they consider to be a fair share of the product of their ef forts, are temperate and moral. If all men could feel sure of steady work at fair pay there would be practically no need for policemen or temperance societies. But prohibition if adopted here will do as it has done in other localities, throw many of you out yon and possibly despondency and hibition do not restrain the right To the Voters of the City of Lincoln As the question of prohi bition of the sale of intoxicating liquors is soon to be submitted to the electors of our city, it becomes their duty to carefully consider what will be the effect of prohibition on the morals, business growth, pros perity and financial conditions of the city. There are now in our city forty-one saloons, and some wholesale houses and druggists, all of which pay for licenses which amount in the aggregate to alout $05,000, all of which goes into the school fund for educational pur poses. This business furnishes employment for at least two hundred men, all of whom live in the city, and most of them have families. This means that the business furnishes a, home and livelihood for about one thousand people. If prohibition carries, the amount now paid for licenses will have to be raised by increased taxation, if our schools are to be kept up to the present standard. About two hundred men will be thrown out of employment; over forty busi ness rooms, and about two hundred houses vacated, and our popu lation decreased by about one thousand. The law of Bupply and demand governs the price of rents and wages, as well as of com modities. If forty business rooms and two hundred dwellings are thrown upon the market for rent, and 200 people thrown out of employment, it follows that incomes and wages will decrease; while by the loss of the licenses, taxation will be increased. This is burn ing the candle at both ends, an experiment which should not be indulged in, until convinced that our city will be correspondingly benefited. Where this experiment has been tried, what has been the results? The saloon has run either in defiance of the law, or of illegal sales of liquor. prohibition laws ineffectual i My seeks to deprive the individual of a entitled to, a sacred, human right, arouse resentment and are doomed women are often drawn into the pro I believe the open, well regulated morals of the rising generation as habit which prohibition always youth is the one hidden under amid the secrecy ever dear to the of high license lay stress upon the open from seven to seven, and are blocks in size7 and they pay $1,500 of work, causing want for many of drunkenness. The restraints of pro man. . The drunkard gets something to drink even under the most rigid enforcement. Prohibition is a gun that hits almost everything but the target at which it aims. Intemperance is not the cause of poverty, says Professor Warner of Leland Stanford University after fifteen separate investigations of actual cases of poverty, numbering 100,000 cases in America, England and Germany, embracing the cities of Baltimore, Buffalo, Xew York City, Boston, Cincinnati, East London and seventy-seven German cities. They include virtually all the facts collected by trained in vestigators unbiased by any theory. He says that from these facts it appeares about twenty percent of the worst ease's of poverty are due to misconduct, and about sixty-five per cent to misfortune. Drink causes only eleven per cent, while lack of work or poorly paid work causes nearly thirty per cent. The prohibitionist is too often a fanatic and believes he is on the side of the Lord, and of. course, thinks nothing of anything else. You may show him that it would be an economic injury to you in de priving you of your privilege of employment and that it also curtails your personal liberty and freedom and that a million others would unjustly suffer. He simply does not care; he has his own ideas and he is willing to institute in this country a species of white slavery. It is because of his unreasonable and his unreasoning attitude toward those who differ with him that at times cause him to be classed a fanatic. In conclusion let me say to you as workingmen that you re fuse to be misled into bringing your beautiful city to the disgusting conditions of Mobile, Kansas City, Kas., and other places where by prohibition the workingmen have been thrown out of work by the thousand, school hours reduced, kindergartens and studies eliminated, teachers', principals', and unblic employe's wages reduced and unpaid, taxes increased and a tax of $16 levied upon any workingman for each child he wants to send to the high school. The regulation of saloons that you now have is about the best in America. They are absolutely under your control, and if any abuse arises they can be further restrained. The people who want prohibition have no use or friendship for you, they never help you to get sanitary workshops, they never sup ported you in your struggle to abolish child labor or the sweatshop, they never helped you get better wages. Even if you should be left destitute from lack of work caused by prohibition they would never lend you a helping hand. Today they, destroy your right to spend your money for what you want, tomorrow they destroy your right to plea sure or amusement on Sunday, and the next day they may take from you the very air unless you breathe it the way they say. Remember also that the Rockefellers and other lawless trust mag nates who seek to crush labor are supplying the funds to the prohibi tionists in order to divert attention from their lawless acts and to work up public sentiment so that the legislaion needed to control law less trusts and combinations will be lost sight of. Abraham Lincoln once said, "Prohibition will work temperance. It is a species of intemperance within itself, for it goes beyond the bounds of reason in that it attempts to control a man's appetite by legislation, and in making crimes out of things that are not crimes. A prohibition law strikes which our government is founded. to protect the weaker classes from the stronger, and I never can give my consent to such a law as you propose to enact. Until my tongue shall be silenced by death, I will continue to fight for the rights of men." And so you, my fellow-workmen, should stand with Abraham Lincoln and refuse to strike a blow at human liberty and right. Fight as vou alwavs have against all sorts "-. . i i -. - under tne guise oi pronimuon, timentality. am mm w dtt they have been followed by what are called "lioles-in-the-wall, " 'blind pies," and "boot-legging." In most cases where the sale law, the officers have frequently, drive out the open saloon, but even then the most vigilant have not been able to prevent the surreptitious sale of it. A law which S large minority of the community what they believe to be a just right, the violation of which does not in their opinion involve any moral turpitude, is very difficult to enforce. A man who holds his juror in a case of this character cuse to find the accused not guilty. You cannot change a man's opinion by legislative enactment. prives him of a just right, he holds in contempt, and has no consci entious scruples about violating it. When a large part of the peo ple hold to this view, a rule or a law is not only difficult to enforce but it breeds a contempt for law, and cannot fail to have an in jurious eifect on the morals of the community. I know of no city in the United States where the sale of intoxicat ing liquors is better or more rigidly regulated ; no city of its size where there is less crime; a smaller police force, less violation of the excise law, less pauperism, or less drunkenness, or better edu cational facilities, or where a higher moral standard is maintained. In my opinion, it would be injudicious to exchange this condition of things to try an experiment, which, where it has been tried, has too often, if not always, been found to produce disastrous rather than beneficial results. a great injury to the cause of a blow at the very principles on I have always been found laboring of oppression, whether it is clothed 1 " I" i ' . . T . .1 . 1 - - ...... religious ituiaiicism ui of liquors has been prohibited by after a long struggle, been able to believe unjustly deprives them of opinion when called to act as a is ready to lay hold of any ex A law which in his opinion de Yours very truly, E. E. BROWN. . A Short Meeting That Resulted in Very Little Advancement. The meeting of the board of direc tors of the Labor Temple association last Monday evening was very short For the first time since the initial meeting last September, Chairman Dickson was absent, and the other directors were paralyzed. As a re sult, very little business was trans acted. The fund was increased by a few minor subscriptions. The board adjourned after a session of less than thirty minutes. It will meet again next Monday evening, and on that occasion it is hoped taht something big will be reported. Last Wednesday evening Rev. H. H Harmon, pastor of the First Chris-, tian church of this city,, called up The Wageworker and asked how the Labor Temple was progressing.' After listening to a report of the progress he said: ' - "I think that is one of the best things ever inaugurated in Lincoln, and I want to be identified with it. I want to help it along all I can both as a minister of the gospel and as a-citizen of Lincoln. You may: call on me any time for any help ? can give you. I'll preach about It f rom : my pulpit, and I'll talk it among my friends. I am in hearty sympathy with every move calculated to bene fit the toiler, and surely nothing will be more practical than a Labor Tem ple that will be at once headquarters and home for the men who produce." Rev. Mr. Harmon concluded by. pledging a generous subscription to; the capital stock, and said he would urge the members of his church to do likewise. . t The picture of the proposed build-. iu g is now on ' exhibition in the big windows of the A. D. Benway Fur niture Co. Take another look at it . and then subscribe for a block of stock. . i i TWO BILLS ARE IN ' FAVOR. Firemen and Enginemen Give Them Their Approval. WASHINGTON, March 30. One thousand delegates, representing the brotherhood of locomotive firemen and enginers. from thirty states,' concluded their union meeting here today and decided to held the next meeting at Atloonta, Pa., on the fifth Sunday in May. - Resolutions favoring the pas sage by congress of the Hemenway Graf bill requiring the equipment of lo comotives with safe dumping ash pans, the La Follette-Sterling employers' li ability bill and such legislation as will prevent the abuse of the power of in junction in labor disputes, were adopted. A resolution also was adopt ed voicing the opposition of the or ganization to the Townsend bill pro viding for the investigation of contro- ' versies affecting interstate commerce which is declared to be a measure aimed at governmental regulation and control of labor disputes and a step in the direction of compulsory arbitra tion. . The resolutions will be presented to Speaker Cannon and Vice President Fairbanks by a committee of the or ganization tomorrow. This afternoon the delegates were received by President Roosevelt at the white house, the r.eception being infor mal. No speeches were made. THE CIQARMAKER8. Work Still Slack Because of Unsettled Condition of Trade. The Cigarmakers' Union reports business a little dull for this time of year, and this is attributed to the unsettled outlook. But business is picking up a little. Label Secretary Thompson of Chicago, who has been in the city for the past week, has been busy rounding up the situation, with the result that he has inspired confidence in the members. He will return to Chicago Sunday, and leaves with a favorable impression of Lin coln. ; Work is progressing on the Pepper turg building on O street between Eighth and Ninth. When it is com pleted William Pepperburg will move his cigar factory from Plattsmouth to Lincoln. This' move is made because of Lincoln's superior facilities as a shipping center. . He has always run a union factory, and the local union is not particularly worried about what he will do when he comes to Lincoln: