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K TRAPES iilCOUNCILg
VOL. 5
LINCOLN, XEBEASKij, JANUARY 16,-1909.
NO. 41
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Among the Live Ones
Here and Hereabouts
The Central Labor Union's first
meeting in the new year was unusually
well attended, and there were some
interesting features apart from the
usual order oV business.
The committee appointed to partici
18te In the work 0f framing the new
city charter reported with several
printed copies or the instrument, and
the charter was discussed pro and
con. There was a difference of opin
ion on every topic discussed save one,
i nd on that there was a unanimity
that was good to see. This was upon
he provision that the city election be
held on the first Tuesday In May. .t
vas instantly seen that this would de
irtve a large number of honest, hard-
ttorkiug and taxpaying citizens of an
opportunity to vote, and it was pretty
generally agreed that the supporters
if the May date had this very thing
in mlnJ. The central body and Its
affiliated bodies will doubtless oppose
to the last ditch the May date and in
fdfet unon settlnsi the election not
Liter than the second Tuesday in
April.
The Central Utbor Union unani
Vn.ously decided to take the Initiative
and properly celebrating the one
hundredth anniversary of the birth of
Abraham Lincoln. In support of this
proposition several short talks ' were
made, and Acting President Quick ap
' rotated the following committee to
oi range the details Messrs. Kelsey,
AVoelhaf slid Walker. The committee
' was given full power to act.'
It Is proposed to secure some well
known 'speaker from abroad to de
liver the principal' address, and' to
' have two or three local speakers give
' hort ' addresses. A brief sketch of
' Lincoln's' life will be read and there
will be plenty of patriotic music, vocal
and instrumental. All citizens will
be asked to join with the trades union
isls in'propery celebrating the anni-
versary.
'Delegate Chase, who just came over
fiom the Carpenters' Union, was made
" a member of the charter committee
and thereby becomes also a member
( the' legislative committee. In ac
Cfpting the appointment Delegate
Chase suggested that it was high time
': the unions were training up men to
transact Us business, just as corpora-
' lions train up men to manage their
affairs. He also insisted that it would
be Just the proper thing to do to
" employ a couple of good men to watch
" the legislature and look out for legis
intiori In the interests of organized
labor, paying them the wage scale for
t'.ieir work. "We get It in the neck
kecause we don't try to do our own
business in a business way," said
Delegate Chase.' "We demand some-
' thing, then forget that we have made
the demand until we find that we have
lost our opportunity. Then we holler.
' The corporations and the trusts make
their demands and then keep ham
r.ierlng away until their demands are
complied with."
John P. Byei-s ol Chicago, a member
of the Painters and Decorators' Union,
was present as a visitor,' and was in
'. troduced by Delegate Kelsey. Mr.
Byers made ' a short but eloquent
speech In response to an invitation
to address the body. Mr. Byers is the
author of a labor song entitled "The
Ninety and Nine," which has been set
to muBic and published in sheet music
form, by a firm that uses the allied
printing trades label. The words and
music are fine, and the song shoulj
be familiar to every trades unionist.
The Wageworker acknowledges the
receipt of a copy from Mr. Byers. It
is dedicated to the toilers of America.
The music ia by G. W. Ashley. We
venture to print the chorus:
"Yes, the ninety and nine who toil
each day
Should receive for their labor a fair
day's pay.
And the wealth they, create in field
and mine
Should remain In the hands of the
ninety and nine."
The Central Labor Union will -hold
a "protest meeting" some time in the
near future, probably about the mid'
tile of next month. At this meeting
the protest of Lincoln trades unionists
against the Wright decision in the
case of Oompers, Mitchell and Morri
sen will be presented. The meeting
THE AWING IGNORANCE DISPLAYED BY JUDGE IVRIGIIT
will have some fireworks attachments,
heoretically speaking.
BOUNCED.
John J. Powers, business agent of
the Brotherhood. of Carpenters in New
York City," is out of a job. The
Brotherhood bounced him because ho
attended the "labor dinner" at tho
white house to which Samuel Gomp-u-3
was not invited.
UNIONIST LANDS.
Mayor McClellan, of New York City,
has appointed James P. Holland a
member of the board of education.
M!r. Holland is president of the Elec
tric Engineers' ' Union . and is a
delegate to the Central Federated
liion. He succeeds Samuel B. Don
nelly, who has been appointed public.
I.vinter by President Roosevelt.
'The senate committee on finance
Thursday made a favorable report on
the bill to make the salary of the
president $100,000 and that of the
vice-president $20,000 yearly.
An American Mechanic
Writes of Trades Unions
This "American Mechanic," with the
modesty of his class, prefers to re
main anonymous. He is a man of
great ability and with ".. a thorough
knowledge of his trade and of the in-
One is filled with astonishment its one studies carefully the de
ision of Judge Wright in the Gompers case astonishment that a
man so ignorant should be foisted upon the federal bench; astonish
ment that such a bunch of falsehoods should be allowed to stand as
the judgment of any court for even an hour. It would be amusing
to read his display of ignorance of the real purpose and course of
trades unions were it not that he is a judge whose mental gyrations
are written into law by the mere ukase issued bv hmiself. Hear him:
'Announcing freedom to pureahse what and where one will,
ihey (the unions) deny that right to him himself; proclaiming the
right ot all men to labor, they restrict it to the holders of a union
card.' declaring the right to enjoy full earning capacity, thev limit
his daily earnings to a stated sum."
The declaration of Judge Wright contains more falsehood to
the square inch than any forty pages of Baron Munchausen's book.
Unions do not restrict the right to labor to men who hold, union
cards they merely declare that their members shall not work by
the side ot men who are too stingy, too subservient, too feeble-mind
ed and too selfish to bear a share of the burden of securing and main
taining the bettered conditions and wages that are the direct result
of union organizations.
Judge Wright's declaration that the unions limit the members
to a stated sum is a lie that has been so often repeated that jt may
be possible that Judge Wright believes it. But no amount of repe
tition will make it any less a lie. There is not a union in America
that limits its members to any stated wage, save when industrial de
pression makes it necessary to exercise discipline in order to dis
tribute the opportunity to make a bare living oVer as wide a field
as possible. But to say that any union limits a man to any stated
sum per hour or per day is as false as anything the father j)f lies
could invent. Unions fix a minimum wage below which its members
may not work, but there is not a. union that puts a maximum oh
the amount per day or per hour that its members may earn. Anv
There you have it, flat. The simole deeree nt nv n'i.nnraV;,
tool elevated to the federal bench by virtue of an oily political pull,
musi noi ne questioned. 11 he says the worker must not do a thing,
no matter how legal th'e doing may be, the worker must not do it
lest he be sent to jail, not for doing an illegal act but for defvino the
court. And the worker thus restrained by judicial deeree from ex
ercising his constitutional rights lias, according to Judge Wright,
absolutely no recourse within his limited financial reach. ;
V "It is written in this record," says Judge Wright. "That the
labor union and its officers meddle into a member's daily affairs
deeper than does the law; restrict him in matters that the law leaves
free; and' then so continually crowd their authority upon his at
tention that insensibly he comes to regard them as of control in his
affairs; the fact that he regards them as authority leads him to
heed them because-of his readiness to yield to authority; his very
respect for authority assumes that all authority is respectable, and
so upon them he relies, by them he is led."
Of course the unions deal with its their members' daily affairs
even deeper than does the law. What of it? Isn't that true also of
-the ehurch .'To be sure the union restrict its members in matters
that the law leaves free. What of it? Isn't the charge equally true
ot the church? Ihe law leaves a man free to purchase Avhere and
what he will, but the union, profiting by experience, restricts . its
membership to purchasing where the benefits will be mutual. The
law' leaves a man free to enjoy the pleasures' of the waltz and the
two-step, but the church generally speaking restricts him to the
pious promenade. And because the union helps the member to help
himself by restricting him in certain ways it is, perforce, a criminal
conspiracy., - But the church, which throws even greater restric
tion about the memberwell, what would Judge Wright: inflict in
the Avay of punishment upon the priest or pastor brought before hini?
"The law has been piade to fail," declares Judge Wright. To
this dictum organized labor objects.. If church congregations may
judge upon the benchlwho pretends t discuss this question in hand-ij'ote to refrain from giving countenance to an enemy of the church
ing down a judicial decision, and who is so ignorant as Judge Wright
shows himself to be, is a disgrace to the beuch and a dangerous
man to entrust with a tithe of power that federal judges have pre
sumed to exercise.
What," asks Judge Wright "knows the ' worker in Texas,
Florida, Maine and Oregon of the merits of the original controversy
of thirty-six metal polishers in Missouri? What knoAvs he of the
refined distinctions about "boycott,' 'conspiracy,' 'injunctions' and
the 'voidness for want of jurisdiction,' of judicial decrees? In re
spect of each of these and of the original controversies, he has been
betrayed, hoodwinked into the stand of an enemy of law and of social
order." ' i
There's the milk in the cocoanut! The worker is an ignorant,
bestial, dull-witted animal, therefore he must be kept in proper con
trol and subjection by those who have been ordained of God to act
as trustees for the proper distribution of the blessings of earth. Be
ing ignorant, men of the Van Cleave-Post-Wright-calibre must step
in and protect him from himself lest he fall into the wicked error
of thinking he has some rights which even the self-appointed trustees
of Divine Providence must respect. And when he falls into the er
ror of thinking that he has some rights under the constitution
rights equal to those of the self-appointed trustees it is because he
has been "betrayed, hoodwinked" into the error by cunning and
conscienceless men like Samuel Gompers. And while the cunning
and conscienceless Gompers has been "hoodwinking" the workers
and piling up millions as a result of his graft, the good friends of
the worker, like Van Cleave, Parry, Post, Carnegie, Morgan, Harri
man et al, having been making sacrifices in the workers' behalf un
til today they are all but paupers forced to rely upon the county
for aid. .
"What knows he of the refined distinctions about 'boycott,'
'conspiracy,' and the 'voidness for want of jurisdiction'?" asks
Judge Wright. N
Not much to be sure. But he knows that the weapon which is
called a "boycott" when he uses it is illegal, while the weapon that
his employer uses is merely a "black list" and entirely proper. He
knows that when he and his fellow workers get together for mutual
help and mutual protection they are adjudged guilty of "conspir
acy," and that when their employers get together for the same pur
pose it is called a "community of interests" or a "gentlemen's
agreement," and the parties thereto hailed' as "captains of indus
try" and guardians of vested rights." .
What does he, the ignorant worker, know about injunctions?
Not much, to be sure; and what little he does know was not ac
quired in a law school, but by bitter experience. He knows that
when the workers resent an injury they are enjoined because it is a
"restraint of trade" or an attack upon "vested rights," but when
the employers take similar action it is called "economic evolution"
and a "proper safeguarding of sacred property rights."- A "sacred
property right" is the right to sell merchandse, but the right to
sell one's labor either singly or in partnership with others who have
labor to sell is too dangerous to be allowed, for are not the workers
an ignorant, dull-witted lot who are too easily deceived by talse
leaders and must, therefore, receive the fostering care of such great
hearted men as Van Cleave, Post Wright et al.
"There is," says Judge Wright "A' studied, determined, de
fiant conflict precipitated in the light of open day, between the de
crees of a tribunal ordained, by the government of the Federal
Union and of the tribunals of another federation, grown up in
the land ; one or the other must succumb, for those who would unlaw
the land are public enemies." , '
without danger of punishment,' why should trades unionists be sent
to jail like' common criminals for deciding amongst themselves' that
they will not countenance or support an enemy of their industrial
progress? If an individual lias a right to proclaim that he does
not patronize a certain firm, or that a certain firm is unfair to him,
is that privilege forfeited when he takes a union obligation? Judge
says yes; .organized labor says no. And that is . the question
organized labor wants threshed out in open court, but which Judge
Wright declares closed by his judicial decree and sentence of im
prisonment upon men who have dared to claim what their forefathers
fought to secure for them liberty of thought and speech. Judge
Wright says: "Tis so," and lo, it becomes the law of the land with
out legislative enactment or executive approval or sanction, and
woe betide" the " desperado who dare question the legality of the
judge-made law !
Hear Judge Wright again as he sheds the light in upon the be
nighted" minds of. the workers who are incapable of caring, for their
own interests
"Says the authority of law, 'I lead you by the truth.' says the
other, 'I lead you by a lie.' Says one, 'I stand for the obligations of
contracts, including yours;' the other, 'I throw down contracts,
even though yours.' Says one, 'I am for law'; the "other, 'I un
law'."-' '','.'..'. ;.;'.' ; '.
There is more of misstatement, more of misrepresentation, more
of unfairness, more of downright falsehood in that paragraph than
one will find in any other paragraph of similar length in any ju
dicial decree, issued from the federal bench. . .'"',.
Unions stand solidly for the solemn obligations of a contract,
and statistics will prove, as history written and unwritten proves,
that for every contract violated by organized labor, a dozen have
been violated by employers and employers' associations.-' The union
that violates a contract is disciplined by those in authority ; the
employer who violates a contract is hailed by the daily press and by
the Van Cleaves, the Posts and the Parrys as "an employer wno nas
rebelled against the exacting and unreasonable demands of a damn
able labor trust. ..
Who stands more erect or more staunchly for the supremacy, oi
the constitution and the laws of the land than the men who eat their
bread in the sweat of their faces? Let the recdrds f the Civil
War tell the tale. Let the records of the Spanish-American war lur-
nish answer to the query. The man who bore the brunt in those wars
as in all other wars for freedom and huamnity were the me
chanics, the plowboys, the clerks, the artisans. And while these
toilers were offering themselves as sacrifices upon the altar of their
couiftry, men Who now prate so loud and so long about the suprem
acy of the' constitution and respect for law . were selling shoddy
goods by -contract . to Uncle Sam for the soldiers to wear, doped
food and embalmed beef to feed them, trafficking in the nation's blood
and wringing a profit from the tears of wives and mothens and
sweethearts. .
O, the appalling ignorance, or the' collossal presumption of
Judge Wright ! Is it any wonder that with such men upon the tea
eral bench arrogating to themselves more power than is claimed or
exercised by czar or sultan, that organized labor raises a voice of
warning and of protest? Is it any wonder that thoughtful men who
have an idea above dollars realize the grave danger; that threatens
American liberties in the shape of a federal judiciary appointed for
life and answerable only to its own conscience?
No ; the wonder is that there are any who are silent in the face
of the threatened danger, or so selfish and self-centered as to profit
by a system that is fraught with so much danger to the republic
side workings of the labor unions, it
is of the very greatest importance -that
the members of ' our churches
should get the view-point of the labor
ing man in all things, especially in
this matter of the labor unions, which
so closely concerns our national wel-1 '
fare. ' We have never sen this view
point better presented than in this
article." . ; '
We had a queer experience the
other night at a meeting of our labor
union. We initiated five candidates ' '
and it required the services of as
many, different , Interpreters. There , '
was a Swede, a German; a Hungarian,
a. Bohemian and a Frenchman.
The fellows had lots: of fun about
it, but it; was serious business to the
officers who were doing the' Job.
Every one of. the candidates went
through the entire performance witb v
out a smile. These foreigners . were
certainly a solemn crowd: '
The ceremony reminded me ' again
and again of the pledge required by
the American Federation of Labor--that
its members will "neVer discrimi- -nate
against a ' fellow-worker on ac- '
count of creed, color or nationality."
Once on a time we machinists were
bound to introduce into our lodges -only
white candidates. But about a
dozen years ago the American Federa-
tion of Labor told us that either we
should . have - to cut out the word
"white" or they would cut us out.' v .
We cut out the word. ' The lodges
that are still using the old form are ,
doing it against the laws of the union..
It isn't to be wondered at that in some
parts of the country there is this feel
ing against the colored ; man among
some trades unionists, because there ,
are many eminently respectable citi
zens in : the same communities who
keep them out of their churches and .
all other organizations with which 1
they arte identified. It's easier for a -
colored man to join a white man's ;
union than it is for a colored man to
join a white man's church. .
It's harly a square, deal to hold'
against the abor union the charge of -'
discrimination, when these folks in , ,
the supposed better classes . are' doing
the same thing. ;V ,
Americanizing Foreigners.. :
But, when It comes to an out-and-out
proposition with reference to the
foreigner, you can't find an organiza
tion that does more than the labor -union
to Americanize him..
. All you've got to dp to get the proof '
is to go to the stockyards district in
Chicago and- study tbe influence of the
labor unions over the thousands of
foreigners i of different nationalities ,
that work in the yards. .
Or, if you traveled through the coal
fields of Pennsylvania, among pretty '
nearly the sam class of people, , you
would find that John .Mitchell's or
ganization has been a "great civilizing
agency among' theni..' Tfce' miners' :
union . has its. .constitution translated
into nine different Ja'ri'guajges. v
ivioi oi mese lureiguers come to
this country with the' idea " that the
word "government" means oppres
sion. Through the labor unions they
soon come to know that it means
friend. ' ' .' V ,' 1 "
The immigrants are real flesbnd-
blood people, with human hopes and
aspirations, with 'human neejS ant
human hearts. They are men, aW
they must be so regarded.
Perhaps it is because this has been
recognized by organized labor that
the union is so influential with the
immigrant. The public school has its 1
place in educating most familiar with
American Institutions and customs
through the labor organization of
which he becomes a member., . ,
Here he gets. rid of his clannish in-'
stinct. He comes' to know more about .
the solidarity of the. human race, tie1
brotherhood of man. Here his stand
ard) of living is elevated. Here he,
learns his first lesson in democracy '
To the trades unionist the immi
grant has no romance. Whether he
comes from ' sunny Italy or from -stormy
Russia, he is looked upon as a
workingman who needs help and who,
in turn, may give help to those of his
class. ''.'. , " .' ', ' '.: ''
There has been no sentimentality
about the job, but the union has sue
(Continued on page 2.)
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