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NEBRASKA'S - SELECT - HARD-WHEAT - FLOUR
WILBER AND DeWITT MILLS
THE CELEBRATED
Little Hatchet Flour
Rye Flour a Specialty
TELEPHONE US
BeU Phone 200; Auto. 1459
145 So. 9th St., LINCOLN, NEB.
PRISON MADE GOODS,
Exploitation of Convicts a Na
tional Disgrace.
Yl WORKERS UNIONJf
rJi t n,r . . . ... irj-
UNIONJ STAMP
, raetory No. 4
Named Shoes are Often Made
in Non-Union Factories.
Do Not Buy Any Shoe
no matter what the name unless
it bears a plain and readable
impression of this Union Stamp.
All Shoes Without the Union Stamp are Non-Union
Do not accept any excuse for absence of the UNION STAMP
Boot and Shoe Workers Union
246 Sumner St., Boston, Mass.
JOHN F. TOBIN. Pres. CHAS. L. BAINE, Sec-Treas.
(sVl
I Lyric Theatre
I MATINEES
wed. cl sat.
NEXT WEEK
" Brown of Harvard "
I
230.
.THE LYRIC STOCK COMPANY
Evening 8:30; 15c, 25c, 35c; Matinee 15, 25c.
3SQ0 life? 05s
Farmers IS Merchants Bank
C W. MONTGOMERY. President. -:. -:- H. C. PROBASCO. Cashier
Safety Deposit Boxes for Rent
Every man and every wo
man should have a checking
account. The Check is the
modern instrument of ex
i u i i
cnange. 11 is cican auu ton
venient. It saves making
change and it gives you a
receipt. The fact that it has
so m-ny advantages and is
so universally used proves
that you should use it too.
Every Banking Convenience
Open Saturday Evenings 6 to 8 F. & M. Bldg., 1 5th & O Sts.
Lincoln Business College
AN ESTABLISHED AND RELIABLE SCHOOL
Courses: Bookkeeping, Shorthand, Type
writing, Penmanship, Commercial Law,
Office Practice, etc. Catalog Free.
13th and P Sts., - Lincoln, Nebraska
....The Reimers-Kaufman Co....
Successor, to THE REIMERS & FRIED CO.
Sidewalks, Sidewalk Flags,- Building
Blocks, and Tile Floor
Office and Yards, 12th and W Sts.
Both Phones LINCOLN. NEBRASKA
CONTRACT SYSTEM EVILS.
I First Trust B Savings Bank I
Owned bj Stockholders of the First National Bank
THE "BAk'K FOR THE WAGE-EARNER
INTEL EST PAID AT FOUR PER CENT
Tenth and O Streets Lincoln, Nebraska
MERCHANTS AND UNIONS.
Distressing Effects of Penal Labor
Competition With Free Workers.
Livelihood of Women Endangered.
Sad Lot of Prisoners.
Sensational evidence charging that a
mammoth trust is exploiting prison la
bor throughout the laud and that this
combination corrupts officials, de
grades convicts, destroys free industry
and denies a living to thousands of
working men and women has been laid
before the house committee on labor
by manufacturers, reformers and rep
resentatives of organized labor.
In support of bills which If made
law would practically abolish Inter
state commerce In prison made goods
the terrible extent and effect of prison
labor were clearly shown by men and
women in all classes of life and all
parts of the country.
That Judge Watson of the appellate
court of Indiana is a stockholder and
director In the Reliance-Sterling Mauu
facturing company, otherwise known
as the "prison trust." was charged by
A. B. Salant, n shirt manufacturer. It
was also related that a warden in
New York had made $10,000 "commis
sion" In one year for selling prison
made goods and that another in Ken
tucky was dismissed for receiving
bribes from contractors.
This powerful prison trust, accord
ing to the testimony, controls the con
tracts of eleven penitentiaries and re
formatories. It pays New Jersey con
victs as low as 20 cents for nine hours
of labor.
One hundred prisoners working at
machines turn out 10,000,000 hand
kerchiefs a year, which are sold in the
open market at 4 cents less per dozen
than it costs firms employing free la
bor to make the same article.
It was estimated that the output of
shirts mude by convicts yearly Is
4,500.000, or 75 per cent of the entire
industry.
Rev. .1. Burkart. ex-chaplain of the
Baltimore city jail and house of cor
rection, emphatically denied the asser
tion made by some that convict indus
try teaches trades to the prisoners and
prepares them for work after being
released. lie said that most of them
are employed at making goods done
by women workers outside of the pris
on walls. He also declared that the
contract system is brutal in the ex
treme, being worse than peonage or
chattel slavery. The prisoners, he said,
are driveu from early morn until night,
leaving no time to improve them mor
ally, mentally or physically.
Arthur E. Holder, who, with Thom
as F. Tracy, represented the American
Federation of Labor at the hearing,
gave the following incident in his ex
perience as an organizer, showing how
convict labor affects "free"' workers:
TJp here in a little place called Tldi
oute. In northwestern Pennsylvania,
last summer I went into a large chair
factory, among the employees. 1 tried
to induce those men to form a local
organization, and those men told me,
with tears coursing down their cheeks:
"Mr. Holder, it is no use. We are
down and out. We are simply living
upon bread and molasses. We have to
live two families in a small home,
where formerly we used to have a
home of our own. Then our day's
earnings came down to $1.35, from
$1.35 they came down to $1.15, and
from $1.15 they came down to $1, and
last summer we were working for 90
cents a day."
B. A. Larger, secretary of the Unit
ed Garment Workers of America, told
the committee that convict labor
threatens the livelihood of the 30.000
women organized in his union. He
said: "In the Trenton penitentiary they
make corduroy trousers such as are
made by our best class of firms manu
facturing that grade of goods, and they
ship them complete for 50 cents a doz
en. Our price on that class of goods
is $1.75 a dozen."
Henry E. Wise of Wise Bros., shirt
manufacturers, said that the competi
tion of penal labor has forced them
to reduce the number of their employ
ees from 3,000 women to 100. Wise
said: "We formerly used to run the
Maryland reformatory house of ref
uge. We could not run it. No man
who calls himself a man can run a
prison contract and do what is expect
ed of him." Minneapolis Union Advocate.
Why Business Men Should Favor Or
ganized Labor.
There is one reason if no other why
business men, especially merchants,
sbouid favor union labor In prefer
ence to cheap nonunion labor, and that
reason is 'bat if labor is poorly paid
the wage earner will have no money
to spend with the merchant. Every
business man knows, if be will stop
to think, that the retail house depends
upon the wage earners for 90 per cent
of their trade. If he had to depend
upon the trade of the rich for his sup
port the retail merchant would stand
a small chance of succeeding. If the
working people are prosperous the
merchant thrives from his trade, and
when the worklngman's wages are cut
down it takes just that much cash
from the till of the business man and
just that much comfort from the cot
tage fireside. Is not that sufficient
reason why the business men in this
country should support and encourage
the great masses of organized labor?
The union men in this country are
not so blind or deaf that they do not
know their friends. They know the
sentiment and attitude of every busi
ness man of any prominence, and a
careless or slighting remark made
against organized labor finds its way
into the meeting place of the toiling
masses as fast as one spoken in its
favor.
It has been said that unionism and
anarchy travel hand in band, but they
are as far removed from each other
'today as heaven is from the last rest
ing place of the man who deserted his
union. Union men today are the bone
and sinew of civilization and our re
publican form of government. In
times of war the union man is the first
to shoulder the musket and rush to
the defense of our flag, and he will do
so again if he Is called upon. Union
men are the champions of right and
justice, aud they have the manhood to
resist oppression from those who
would sap from them, drop by drop,
the means of support for their wives
and children. A. R. Wyatt in Ameri
can Federationist.
JUSTICE TO WORKERS.
Growing Demand For an Equitable
Compensation Act.
Compensation acts for workmen
must sooner or later come in all our
states. Under the present system
about one workman in ten who are in
jured has the legal right to a lawsuit,
and if suit is brought his chance of re
covery is about one in ten. The de
fenses set up by the employer are, un
der modern conditions, arbitrary and
unreal. If suit is brought it can be
dragged along for several years, and
the lawyers' foes and court expenses
eat up half the damages.
Large employers and the liability in
surance companies hare all the advan
tage in the trial of a case because of
their perfect machinery for getting ev
idence, their skillful lawyers and their
ability to take all appeals. In New
York state this subject is being ener
getically pressed at present, the gen
eral feeling being In favor of an act
providing for compensation equal to 56
per cent of the wage rate in case of
disability and in case of death for a
sum equal to four years' wages.
The present system does not tend to
make the employer interested in pre
venting accidents or in the proper care
and quick recovery of the Injured any
more than it tends to give real relief
to employees and their families. The
proposed change would produce a com
munity of interests between the em
ployer and the employed. It would
lead toward better machinery, better
care and far more justice. It Is recog
nized, however, on the other side that
the act should be so drawn as to pre
vent the encouragement of litigation
by attorneys who live by collecting ac
cident claims, and one method of ac
complishing this would be a plan for
the settlement by arbitration of prac
tically all questions arising under the
compensation act. Collier's.
sw-
IBERTY
? LI n Dnnn t-r. 1
LIBERTY
Nuff Sed
Suits Cleaned and
Pressed
SL50
LINCOLN CLEANING AND
DYE WORKS
LEO SOUKUP, Manager
320-322 So. 11th Lincoln, Neb.
Both Phones
Read THE WAGE WORKER
Labor's Memorial Day.
The second Sunday in May is labor's
memorial day. Responding to a wide
spread sentiment, the Norfolk conven
tion of the American Federation ol
Labor in 1007 recommended that as
the date on which throughout the ju
risdiction of the American labor move
ment men and women might assemble
and give public recognition to the
services for labor performed by de
parted fellow workers. The observ
ance of the day promises to become
more general year by year. The offi
cial organs of the International unions
and the labor press as a whole are
making mention of the approach of
the date and suggesting appropriate
ceremonies for the occasion. There's
no a community In all the land which
ha not had noble examples of devo
tion and self sacrifice among the mem
bers of organized labor who are no
longer among the living. Here's to our
absent comrades! American Federationist.
Unions Ask For No Special Privileges.
The trades unions ask for no spe
cial rights or privileges not accorded
to or enjoyed by any individual citi
zen. We insist upon freedom of ac
tion always within the law and invite
punishment by due legal process of
law if we transgress. We object to
and emphatically protest against gov
ernment by injunction, which is an
other name for industrial slavery and
a hollow mockery on our boasted de
mocracy. We want and demand free
speech and a free press, both of which
are guaranteed by the constitution, but
denied us by Injunction judges in
some cases. Cigarmakers' Journal.
Meaning of Cheap Labor.
Cheap labor means poverty and deg
radation for the masses of the people.
It means low prices for the products
of the farm and factory. The consum
ing power of the people Is measured by
their earnings, and cheap labor means
the lessening of their purchases. The
sooner the retail merchant looks at
these facts in the right way the better
off he will be both in the sale of fac
tory and farm products.
Give Us Men.
Give us men,
Strong and stalwart ones,
Men whom highest hope inspires,
Men whom purest honor fires.
Men who trample self beneath them,
Men who make their country wreath,
them
As her noble sons,
Worthy of their sires:
Men who never shame their mothers.
Men who never fall their brothers.
True, however false are others!
Give us men! I say again, " j
Give us men! ..
i
WARM
WEATHER
WORRIES
Are now beginning. They'll multiply unless
you divide them. While you are dividing
them we will subtract
We Take Away Discomfort'
We Add Comfort
A Gas Range in the Kitchen adds to the
Housewife's joy of living. A cool kitchen
maketh a good-natured cook. Take out the
steel range and cast-iron cook stove that
broil the cook while boiling the food and
SUBSTITUTE a Gas Range.
MAKE HOME HAPPY
By making the Housewife comfortable.
Fuel Gas is cheaper than coal. It is cleaner,
easier to handle and safer to use, Four
Thousand families will bear witness to the
facts. Once used, never abandoned. Let
us figure with you in replacing your steel
range with a Gas Range. We furnish the
fuel You touch a match. We court investigation.
Lincoln Gas & Electric
Light Company
Open Evenings
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