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TOL. 5
LINCOLN, NEBRASKA, APRIL 4, 1908
NO. 1
ROOSEVELT'S LATEST MESSAGE.
LABOR TEMPLE DIRECTORATE.
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I 1 1 S trades" COUNCO)
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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:
