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About The Wageworker. (Lincoln, Neb.) 1904-???? | View Entire Issue (Feb. 5, 1910)
Hbe TO age worker Patronize out Ad vertisers and Boost! Estabtisgetj. go 3 and Stttl Growing VOL.. VI. LINCOLN, NEBRASKA, SATURDAY, FEBRUARY 5, 1910. 8 PAGES 3fO. 45 CENTRAL LABOR UNION At Its meeting last Friday night the Central Labor Union got down to busi ness, and after amending the constitu tion so aa to provide for a more equitable system of dues, proceeded to take a hand In some important civic matters. Heretofore the dues to the central body have been $1 a month for unions having less .than twenty-five members, and $1.60 for unions having twenty live or more. This was not equitable, as several small unions were paying considerably more per capita than the larger unions. Hereafter the dues will be f 1.50 a monoth per union and 2 cents per capita. Every time a del egate is present 25 cents of the dues are remitted. Thus, if all three dele gates of a union are present at both niMtin? In the month. th union is rebated the $1.50 dues and pays only the 3 cents per capita. It is be- lieved and hoped that this system will result In a larger attendance. A committee consisting of Kelsey. Coffey and Mauplu was appointed to prepare a revised version of the con stitution and by-laws. The delegates also took cognizance of the "meat strike" by adopting the following resolutions: Whereas, Unlawful trusts and com bines have secured practically absolute control of the food products of the country and the distribution thereof, thereby enabling them to exact exor bitant prices from the people; and '' Whereas, There is now manifest upon the part of the people a disposi tion to resent these exorbitant de mands by what is in effect a boycott of certain trust-controlled products, notably the meat supply of the coun try, but which is In fact merely a pro cess of pinching the belly to make up for the results of not properly using the franchise; therefore be it Resolved, By Lincoln Central Labor Union, representing the allied trades union of Lincoln, that we are in hearty sympathy with any movement calcu lated to prevent further extortion by trusts and combines, and ready at any time to join hands with fellow work ers elsewhere to boycott those who deal unjustly. Resolved, That we recommend In all kindness and fraternal spirit the neces sity of informing ourselves more fully before exercising the franchise, and use the boycott of the ballot against the aforesaid trusts and combines. Resolved, That copies of this reso lution be sent to sister bodies in Ne braska, Iowa, Missouri and Kansas, and that a copy be furnished to the official organ of the American Feder ation of Labor. ' The following resolutions demanding an amendment to the homestead laws were adopted: Whereas, The present homestead laws are antiquated, preventing by their hartfh and unreasoning terms many deserving people from securing possession of lands now vacant, and Whereas, Avenues of employment in the congested centers of trade are constantly narrowing, making the struggle for existence more intense each year; therefore be it Resolved, By Lincoln Central-Labor I'nlon, representing the allied trades unions of Lincoln and vicinity, that we demand of our representatives and senators In congress a modification of the homestead entry laws; first, to do away with the present demoralizing and unjust lottery plan of distribu tion ; and second, to provide for a Joint homestead entry making it possible for two persons not owning land to die upon a homestead, only one being required to live thereon, the other be ing permitted to remain where em ployment may be secured and wages earned to help Improve the land, the homestead later to be divided between the two and patents issued seperate ly. Such an amendment to the home- stead laws would be of real benefit to peopie now landless, relieve me con - gestion in the large cities, settle up more rapidly fertile lands now vacant, develop our common country and in ure to the good of all the people. Resolved, That this body call upon tile friends of labor everywhere to Join with it In demanding of congress the amendments herein mentioned. Be It further Resolved, That this resolution be spread upon the minutes of this body, and copies thereof be furnished the prow of the city. Some time ago the matter of put ting mail boxes on street cars was rgttaied in certain quarters. The Cen tral Labor Union goes on record as opposing the idea by the adoption of the following resolutions: Whereas, There is a movement on foot in cortaia quarters to establish in Lincoln a systen ofo mail boxes on street cars, ostensibly for the better service of the public, and Whereas, Such a system would, not tend to better a service already excel lent and superior In most respects to other cities of the same size, but rather tend to lessen the opportuni ties for the employment of more men in the mail service, and "Whereas, There is grave danger that the pretended interest In the wel fare of the public is but a cover to insure federal intervention in case of labor disputes; therefore be it . Resolved, By the Lincoln Central Labor Union, representing the allied trades union of the city of Lincoln, that we protest against the proposed placing of mail boxes upon the street cars, urging in furtherance of this pro test the following cogent reasons: Under a federal court decision rend ered during the now famous American Railway Union strike, backed by fed eral bayonets, an arrogant corporation was enabled to defeat labor's demands for Just wage arid conditions by hav ing the postal laws so ridiculously stretched that even Pullman sleepers attached to trains carrying mails were declared to be, per se, "mail cars." A street car carrying a mail box becomes in effect a "mail car," and should the street railway employes at any time become involved in a contro versy as to wages and hours, they could at once be put under federal in junction and thus restrained from the exercise of their American rights and privileges, a process already resorted to entirely too often in industrial dis putes. Street car collection, of mail would result in further demoralization of a service already inadequate "by reason of greater delay in the running of cars, end impose another hardship upon men already overworked and underpaid Mail boxes in street cars would give the cars absolute right of way, fur ther emphasizing an already existing evil. Resolved, That this protest against the proposed plan . of street car mall collections be spread upon the min utes of this body, and that copies therefor be furnished to the press of the city. The usual number of bills were al lowed. Under the head of "good of the order" several good short talks were made. The committee appoint ed to visit the unions and urge better attendance of delegates reported that It was making the rounds, and the bet ter attendance at the meeting demon strated that the committee had been busy. BITING SARCASM. Striking Tin Plate Workers Will Show Difference in Banquets. Striking tin plate workers of the American Sheet and TInplate company in Pittsburg district have been in vited to attend the banquet of their fellow strikers to be given at Bridge port, Ohio, next Saturday night. All who can get car fare and one cent ad mission will go. The admission fee of one cent is to pay for oil for the torches. The banquet is to be a "take off" of the recent swell banquet given by the Carnegie officials at Pittsburg, which is said to have cost $100 per plate. The starving workmen who have been on strike since July 1, offer the following bill of fare: Watercress, crackers, peanuts, smok ing tobacco, cob pipes and river water. Instead, of having gold fish, human or otherwise, swimming in pools the strikers will have snowballs in dinner j)Un8 otherwise empty. San Antonio . Dispatch. SURE, MIKE! Speaking of the International Labor Press Association the St. Iouis Labor Compendium says: "Non tarn potentia sua quam negli genta nostra!" You bet your life! We don't know what it means, but if the Iabor Com pendium said it, then it goes with us, and don't you forget it. Wed ontgiva danif or theh highb rows oft he execu tlvac ounc il any more. That's flat. We are tired of trying to pay composi tion and press bills with hot air sup plied by the Jim Duncans and others. ATTACKS ON SUNDAY LAWS. Senator Schulz, of New York, has introduced (by request) the old propo sition to create a commission to exam ine and revise the laws regulating la bor on Sunday. Labor regards this as a disguised attack on the laws prohib iting work on Sunday. It is Senate bill no. 13, and referred to finance committee. Rochester Journal. ELECTRICAL The social dance given at the Tem ple Thursday evening by the local Electrical Workers for the benefit of the Temple was a success in every way. The only trouble was that there were more people ready to dance than could well be accommodated In the small space at the disposal . of the Temple management. The Musicians' Union donated the music and the en tire proceeds of the social were turned over to the Temple associa tion. The committee having the af fair in charge is to be congratulated upon their success. The arbitration board will meet at Springfield, Ills., on February 15, and resume negotiations looking to peace between the two factions. Joseph Tazelear., a member of the Painters and Decorators Union, and an organizer of the American Federa tion of Labor, was a delegate to the Toronto convention. He was a mem ber of the laws committee, which fori sidered the case of the Electrical Workers. He touted for the executive council from the first, and before the committee had been in session five minutes he demonstrated beyond a doubt that he was intensely preju There may be some labor editors who imagine that the International Labor Press Association has "died a' bornin'." Never were men more mistaken if they have been seized with such a notion. The association is alive, prospering, and has promise of big things. True the membership is growing slowly but surely. To date twenty-seven members have been enrolled. Secretary-Treasurer Mau pin will next week send to every mem ber a cut of the association's label, which Is found at the head of this department this week, and which will be found at the head of the editorial columns hereafter. Smaller labels will be provided for stationery in a short time. Every labor editor in the United States and Canada has already re ceived copies of the association's con stitution, its "proclamation" and a per sonal letter from the secretary-treasurer. The objects of the association are legitimate to secure better busi ness at more remunerative prices; to insist upon something better than "hot air" resolutions from interna tional conventions of the crafU and the American Federation of Labor; to cut out the advertising fakir; to in crease the advertising field by offer- gin a more thoroughly organized press system or reaching the consumer of union made goods. The secretary-treasurer has re cently noted several labor papers making sarcastic comment on this thing of "hot air" resolutions in sup port of the labor press. Strange as It mav seem, a number of these papers have not yet joined the Association. They ought to be getting into the game right. At the Toronto convention of the American Federation of Iabor the as sembled labor editors issued a procla mation and asked that it be presented to the convention. The request was denied, and an effort is now being made to shift the responsibility. The facts are these. The editors appointed a committee to present the proclamation to Secre tary Morison with the request that he have it read from the platform. Secretary Morrison handed it to Vice President Duncan, who was in the chair. Duncan handed it back and Morrison gently laid it upon the table. That night the committee made in quiries and Duncan said that Morri son was responsible. The committee went to Duncan, and returning with the ISNT IT THE TRUTH? Once upon a time a tariff was placed on steel, so the American worklngman would not have to compete with "pau per labor" of Europe. The effect of the tariff has been to make paupers of our American workmen, and from our view point, has improved the condition of the European workman. Fort Scott Sentinel. WORKERS diced in favor of the McNulty-Collins faction. Well, Joseph conceived- the idea that he could beat Joe Skenip for the. I secretary-treasurership of the Brotherhood of Painters, Paperhang ers and Decorators. But Josephus now has another think coming. Skemp left him at the first quarter post. Talk about hard luck! "Jim" Han Ion, a union Electrical Worker of Buf falo, N. Y., recently went up against a live wire and was so badly burned that he was laid up in a hospital for weeks. When he recovered he went back to work, but before he had got in a full week he fell from a pole and broke both legs. President Reid has Just secured the first closed shop agreement ever signed by Electrical Workers in De troit. President Reid has Just made the astonishing discovery that Philadel phia is the greatest "rat" breeding place in North America. Gosh all hemlock! Any of us tmion printers could have told him that at any time during the past twelve years. The strike at EI Paso, Texas, has been won. The town is "closed" now, with an eight-hour day and a $4 scale. report that Duncan objected to read any thing that had the name of "Jim" Eagan, or the Toledo Union Leader, on it. Eagan was the delegate of the Ohio State Federation of Labor and was denied a seat because the Ohio Federation had ignored the demand of the executive council to unseat the Reid Electrical Workers' delegates. The proclamation was not read to the convention. The members of the In ternational Labor Press Association indignantly refused to let Jim Duncan or any other "high brow" of the Fed eration, censor their membership. Three weeks ago the secretary-treasurer of the association sent a copy of the proclamation to Secretary Frank Morrison with the request that it be printed in the Federationist. A letter from Morrison conveys the informa tion that the proclamation was turned over to President Gompers, editor of the Federationist. We are waiting. Every week the labor press is asked to publish a lot of matter sent out from the headquarters of the Ameri can Federation of Labor. It costs money to set type. If the Wage worker had published all that the ex ecutive council asked it to publish during 1909, the composition would have cost something like $75. In pay ment for this the American Federa tion of Labor offers the usual "heifer dust" resolutions of support for the labor press, and then refuses, through its officials, 'to give the organized la bor editors a hearing before the con vention. On the editorial desk of The Wageworker is a spindle, and on the spindle is several columns of "copy" sent by the executive council. And it is going to remain there or be dumped in the waste basket when the spindle ip full, unless the Association's procla mation appears in the Federationist. As secretary-treasurer of the Associa tion the. editor of The Wageworker has no advice to give the members on this matter. But as a brother editor it asks them to follow suit. When the Association was organ ized it was decided to make the initia tion fee and the 1910 dues $2.50, pro vided application was made within three months. Notice is hereby given that after March 1, 1910, the initiation fee and first year's dues, will be in creased to $5. The secretary-treasurer is now in communication with several big firms looking towards the making of some profitable advertising contracts for the Association membership. THE CIGARMAKERS The United Cigar Stores company has announced that it is about to in vade Lincoln, and it is given out that the new store will be at the corner of Twelfth and O, in the new Ganter block. This corporation Is one of the biggest in the country, but it Is not, as some imagine, a branch of the American Tobacco company. It is a corporation by itself, but it Is big enough to practically control the cigar end of the tobacco trade. It has un limited capital and the best sales sys tem ever devised. It does not handle union made cigars, but handles every known kind of "scab" tenement bouse cigars and factory cigars. It cuts prices and It gives coupons. Wherever it has gone it has taken firm root. It remains to be seen whether it will win out in Lincoln. Local cigar manufacturers have heretofore contented themselves with allowing the union cigarmakers to do about all the boosting that has been done for Lincoln-made cigars. Instead of organizing an advertising propa ganda themselves, the manufacturers have been content with complaining because they were not given "proper support." If the entry of the United Cigar Stores company will have the effect of waking local manufacturers up and Inducing them to move along proper lines of publicity, it will be a good thing. This thing of building up "home patronage" is a matter of edu cation. People must be taught the good effects of standing by home In stitutions. There are five or six cigar factories in Lincoln, and if the men who conduct them would wake up, display a bit of enterprise and spend a little money In educational work, they need not fear any grave results from the competition of the big cor poration. But the union cigarmakers must not be expected to bear the bur den. They have spent dollars in boosting for . Lincoln made cigars where the manufacturers have spent dimes. The Wageworker is quite will ing to. warrant that the union cigar- makers will join hands with the man ufacturers in an educational cam paign, and that the cigarmakers will THE TEMPLE DIRECTORATE. Regular Monthly. Meeting Held at the emple Monday Even'ing. The first monthly meeting of the board of directors of the Labor Tem ple Association was held last Monday evening. Heretofore the Tioard has met weekly, but hereafter will meet but once a month, leaving the bulk of the work to the trustees. President Chaplin having been re tired from the board it was necessary to elect a trustee in his place, and al so select a new presiding officer. R. L. McBride, the newly elected represen tative of the Barbers was elected to to the board of trustees, and immedi ately elected president. The matter of opening the billard room on Sunday was Informally dis cussed and the trustees instructed to inquire as to the law. It Is felt by a majority of the board that allowing stockholders the privilege of the bil lard room on Sunday, just as the Com mercial Club and fraternal club rooms are open on Sunday, will be apprecia ted by the workers and will result in good in more ways than one. . Manager Rudy was instructed to se cure estimates on the probable cost of adding the third story to the Temple building. , Several bills were allowed, and then followed a general discussion as to "ways and means." The matter of fur nishing the library went over for . a time to give opportunity for better in formation as to the cost. For the first time the Musicians' Union was represented by a director and Director Bingaman appeared for the first time as a director-at-large. The attendance was fifteen, the largest in the history "of the association. FEDERAL UNION ORGANIZED. First Meeting Held at Labor Temple Last Monday Evening. The start of a Federal Union was ac complished at a meeting held at the Temple last Monday evening, at which time a score of building laborers met and signed up. So far only the build ing laborers have been approached, but the scope of the organization will be enlarged. The desire for organization was man ifest to a splendid degree, and that a federal union will be the result is no bear their just share of the expense. It is possible to so arouse local pride as to make Lincoln one of the big cigar producing centers of the coun try. The local cigar dealer who does not push Lincoln made cigars Is stand ing in his own light. The Lincoln smoker who does not buy Lincoln made cigars in preference to the tene ment made cigars sold by the United Cigar Stores company is not doing his duty as a citizen. It is time for every body especially Lincoln cigar manu facturers to wake up. The Cigarmakers International Union of America has just closed one of the most prosperous years in its recent history. In 1909 there was a distinct gain in membership, and as a result the receipts were increased. A further result was an awakening of a new spirit among the rank and file. During 1909 the gain in membership was 4,000. In 1908 the expenses of the international exceeded the re ceipts by nearly $70,000, but in 1909 the receipts exceeded the expendi turs by upwards of $50,000. It takes four languages for the offi cial organ of the cigarmakers to reach the membership. T. W. Parker, a member of the Lin coln local and president of the Cen tral body, has made up a nice little list of subscribers for The Wagework er. Every cigarmaker in Lincoln ought to be on the list. E. W. Brooks has gone to Beatrice to work. ' , . - Business Is slow for the cigar makers at present. The cigarmakers are going , to get busy at their next meeting and get something started to help trade. The Commercial club Is taking up subscriptions to help home industries. They can help the cigarmakers some by clearing up their cigar case at the club rooms and filling it with home made goods. Golden promises don't count with me. Business has got to come our way; I can keep busier than a bee Giving some union a lift every day. ,T. W. PARKER. longer doubtful. Another meeting will be held at the Temple next Tuesday evening, and all laborers not now affili ated with some union are requested to be present and hear what a Federal Union means and learn what it can accomplish for the now unorganized la borers. President Coffey of the State Feder ation presided at the meeting Monday evening, and he and several , other trades unionists talked about the ben efits of organization. But the best talks along organization lines were made by colored men. They are eager for it, and they are in dead earnest Those present at Monday night's meet ing will see to it that practically every unorganized working man is notified of next Tuesday evening's meeting. ANNOUNCEMENT. The Sunday afternoon meetings of the Lincoln Economic Educational League are beginning to attract a good deal of notice. This Is a work ing class movement, intended for ex tension of economic knowledge to working men and women. ' The league hopes to make these lectures... a "Workers' University Extension" in Cact as well as in name. The meet ings begin promptly at 3 p. m. and close at 4 o'clock. The program for Sunday, February 6th, is as follows: Music "The Marseillaise," Mrs. F. J. Webb. Tenor Solo "If I Only Had the World to Give You," Frank R. "Webb. Lecture "Whither Are We Drift ing?" Clyde J. Wright. These meetings are held at A. O. U. W. hall, 1007 O street. GOD'S TRUTH. "What we ought to strike at first, and strike at hardest, is the bottom monopoly, the parent of all. Men lived without gas and electric light ing. Men lived, drawing their water from wells and springs, before water works. Men lived without railways, the telegraph and the telephone. Aye, men have lived and could live again without money. But no man ever lived, no man ever can live, without land. Henry: George. Well, Lincoln is pretty "wee right "now, anyhow.