WAGEWORMR
VOLUME 7
LINCOLN, NEBRASKA, FRIDAY, JUNE 17
NUMBER 13
m
J BILLY MAJOR'S
THE SAME CONTAINING A FEW
MATTERS OF MORE OR LESS
191
The Ad Club has put its collective
tihouUer to the wheel and is going to
Kiiove the bond propositions to success.
That's the best working bunch in Lin
( oln when it comes to boosting for the
i ity. When it gets its flying wedge
organized and starts on the bond cam
paign it will make the fossils come to
life.
Let 'b get this park bond proposition
on straight to start with. First, the
proposition is to borrow money on ne
gotiable bonds to be issued by the city
to the extent, if found necessary, of
$100,000, or sueh smaller sum as may
be found sufficient, for the purchase
nud improvement of certain specified
pieces of property to be used for park
purposes. Not a word about the price
that must be paid for any piece of pro
perty. Nothing mandatory about buy
ing any certain piece or pieces of pro
perty. All that is left to the park com
mission and the city council, subject
to certain limitations as to the property
that may be bought.
Some opponents of the bond issue de
clare it is a scheme to unload Lincoln
Park on the city for an exhorbitant
price. Don't you believe it. The mon
who own Lincoln Park today don't
give a tinker's dam whether the city
buys it or not. The city, however, will
get Lincoln Park if it finally decides
that it wants it for just what it is
worth, and not what the present own
ers may think it is worth. So don't
let some of the enemies of civic pro
gress the antedluvians deceive you
by their stereotyped yell of " graft 'V
For my part I believe the city will be
the gainer in a thousand ways by se
curing Lincoln Park right now at the
full price asked 150,000. It would cost
that much, and a half-century of time,
to take a piece af raw land and make
a park equal to what Lincoln Park is
this very minute.
I was in Beatrice the other day and
got a glimpse of the new high school
building in that city. It is a beauty.
A Lincoln man who looks at it will hide
liis head in shame to think that a city
the size of Beatrice has a high school
building that makes the Lincoln high
school building look like a relic of the
palezoic age. . Beatrice paid $75,000 for
it, and if Beatrice with 10,000 people
can spend an average of $7.50 per cap
ita for a high school building, certainly
Lincoln can spend an average af $3
per capita. That is the proposition on
the high school matter. But we must
have a new school building in place of
the apology known as the Hayward
school, and we must have some im
provements on the Saratoga school.
We are asked to vote school bonds in
the amount of $315,000. This is less
per capita than Beatrice voted for t
high school alone. And shall we do less
for our children than Beatrice is doing?
Far be it from so! Come on now, let's
build the handsomest high school build
ing in the west, and set it in the midst
of a park that will be the admiration
of all the world.
During the last fifteen years Kansas
City has spent $15,000,000 on her parks
and boulevards and Kansas City is a
city, believe me! What has Lincoln
done T Really I am almost ashamed to
say. In fifteen years it has spent for
park purposes as much as it takes to
pay the interest for three months on
what Kansas City has spent in the same
length of time.
The men who have made Lincoln are
not the men who have grown rich.
The wealthy men of Lincoln are not all
of them men who have grown rich by
reason of their superior business acu
men or their great industry, They
have grown rich by reason of the fact
that you and I and the rest of us who
DOPE CARD !
UNBIASED OPINIONS ABOUT j
INTEREST TO THE PUBLIC
toil with our hands have built our little
homes here, spend our wages here and
tins increase the value of all the sur
rounding real estate. Now let us make
these gentlemen whack up by compell
ing them to do their part in furnishing
us with parks and playgrounds. For
the life of me I can not understand the
mental processes of the wage earmer
Now is the time to get out and register yourself in favor of a bigger and bet
ter Lincoln. The "knocker" and the "tax shirker" should be relegated to the
rear. The men who have grown rich from the toil of the wage earners should
be made to come back with some of it to provide our children with better edu
cational facilities and all of us with recreation places.
The only objection that can be raised against the bond propositions is that it
will "increase taxes." Who raises this objection? Don't forget that in the last
analysis the wage earner pays all the taxes. What's 60 cents on the thousand
dollars valuation compared with a modern high school for our boys and girls, and
beautiful parks where they, and us, can have some of the pleasures too often mo
nopolized by the rich. We can secure parks cheaper now than we ever can
again. Now is the accepted time; now is ths day of salvation!
Mr. Wage Earner, enlightened self-interest should compel you to be a booster
for the bonds. If you love your children, boost for a modern high school and
an adequate park system. If you love the city in which you live, boost , to make
it bigger and better and prettier. For the first time in nearly a generation we
have a chance to show the world that we are up and coming, and that we are
not divided on a proposition that means the ultimate good of the city and people.
who is opposed to voting for the park
and school bonds. To my mind such a
man is merely standing in his own
light.
Vote for the bond issues, and make
more work for workers, better schools
for our children, better parks for our
families, a better city in which to live.
Here's the first real opportunity in a
decade to give Lincoln a boost!
The bonded indebtedness of Lincoln
today is less than a million and a half.
The city owns property worth $2,500,
000 such as the waterworks, muni
cipal lighting plant, city hall and
parks. Very few cities of the size in
America can make as good a showing.
If West Lincoln issues a license
"for a dispensary" which God forbid
I can wish West Lincoln no worse
fortune than she be compelled to har
bor all the drunks she makes. :If that
license issues I suggest that Lincoln
build a "bull pen" immediately upon
the line between Lincoln and West Lin
coln, into this "bull pen" to be thrust
all the drunks that West Lincoln pur
poses making in order to get its muni
cipal hands on a paltry three thousand
dirty dollars. But West Lincoln's
council hasn't isseud a license yet. And
if it does, it will be some time before
that license is operative.
Believe muh! With President Tom
Pratt holding the gavel over the city
council there will be almighty little
trifling with the parliamentary rules.
Now if the council will adopt a rule
limiting its members to not more than
thirty-seven speeches on any one mo
tion, and no one speech to occupy more
than fifty-seven minutes, perhaps the
council can get somewhere with its
business.
I don't know how many inhabitants
Lincoln has, but my guess is 52,743.
And here's hoping that every blessed
one of 'em, school children included,
will be a booster for the parks and the
high school. Lincoln's greatest need
right now is for boosters!
BILLY MAJORS.
CONTRASTING BRYAN AND
ROOSEVELT.
Sir. Roosevelt's troubles in Egypt
bring to mind Mr. Bryan's articles on
India. The former gained the displea
sure of the people of Egypt by extoll
ing the British rule, the latter gained
the displeasure of the British officials
by defending the right of the people of
India. From these two incidents the
character of these men may be judged. '
South Bend, Ind., New Era.
Every wage earner should vote
' i tfce parte bond issue and for
the school bond issue. Why? The
reasons are too numerous to men
tion, but here are a few:
Because the parks are the play
grounds of the common people
the rich can go to the mountains
or the seashore.
Because the wage earners
whose toil has made the city pros
perous and the few wealthy are
entitled to parks and playgrounds
for themselves, their wives and
their little ones.
Because the issuing of bonds
will- compel those who have
grown rich from our toil to give
us back this much places in
which we may spend an occasion
al hour away from the, grind.
Because the high school is the
ultimate "college" of a very
large percentage of the children
of wage earners. The rich can
send their children on through
college or the university. Your
children and mine too, often have
to quit school even before com
pleting the high school course,
and enter into the terrible race
for existence. The high school,
therefore, ought to be the best
obtainable. Let us compel those
who can afford to send their chil
dren on through the university
help us who can not do so, give
our children the best possible
high school advantages.
Because the money spent tot
park improvements and new
school buildings will be largely
spent for labor, thus furnishing
employment .
. . Because a bigger and better
Lincoln means bigger and better
opportunities for us all.
Because we owe parks and
schools to our children, and be
cause it is our duty to leave con
ditions better than we found
them.
You owe a duty to your city,
to yourselves, to your families.
Vote for Lincoln, for your chil-
dren and for yourselves .
IS LINCOLN'S SLOGAN A JOKE j
J MEN WHO SHOUT "LET'S ALL WORK TOGETHER FOR LIN-
COLN" GO BOOSTING WITH A CHEAP LITTLE COUNTRY BAND
The slogan of the Lincoln Commer
cial club is "Let's all work together
for Lincoln!"
That's a bully good slogan. Nothing
could be better. Poets might write and
singers might sing, but what could be
better than the Commercial Club's ral-
lying cry of "Let's all work together
for Lincoln?"
Doesn't it sound good to you?
Sure! That's all it is sound! "Let's
all work , together for Lincoln,'' and 95
per cent of the cigars sold in the Com
mercial Club rooms are made in the
tenement factories of the east. But
that isn't all.
"Let's all work together for Lin
coln," and next Monday morning a
lot of Lincoln business men all mem
bers of the club having sueh a beauti
ful slogan will start out on a trade
extension excursion, and they take
along with them a band.
A Lincoln band ? Not much. A band
from a town a hundred miles away.
"Let's all work together for Lincoln,"
you fellows who live here, support your
families here, spend your money here
and then watch the business men
who utter the beautiful cry slipping
the money over to an out-of-town band
instead of employing Lincoln musi
cians. "This is a reciprocal trade excur
sion," explained the chairman of the
committee, ' ' and we deemed it wise
to reciprocate with the men we are
trying to induce to trade in Lincoln by
employing them in part."
A little bit later it developel that the
out-of-town band was employed be
cause it agreed to go along for boys'
wages.
"Let's all work together for Lin
coln!" You workingmen need only
boost and see to it that you don't spend
your money elsewhere. That's the work
you are expected to do for Lincoln. But
when it comes to employing you well,
that's another story, as Mr. Kipling
would say.
What do you think of it, Mr. Lincoln
Workingman? The men who are ask
ing you to work your heads off for Lin
coln reserve to themselves the right to
go outside of town when they want
something that can be had cheaper
abroad than at home.
Thursday afternoon a committee
from the Musicians' Union appeared
before the excursion committee and
made a protest against the Commercial
Club or any of its members in commit
tee going outside of Lincoln to employ
musicians. The Commercial Club haa
conducted some five or six of these
trade excursions, and on no one of them
has a Lincoln band been employed. It's
almighty easy to holler "Let's all work
together for Lincoln," but how'n thun
der is the Lincoln worker going to
keep eating if every time the business
men want to employ somebody they,
go out of town to get them?
Last Wednesday two little girls try
ing to earn a bit of money by selling
soap for an outside concern were
stopped by the activity of the Commer
cial Club, that organization holding
that the little girls ought to be selling
Lincoln made soap.
O Gosh! Fudge and Heck! To say;
nothing of Splash!
And the next day the same organiza
tion slips over to Hebron and hires a
cheap band to play on an excursion
planned to boost Lincoln.
Wouldn't that jar you!
Stand up for Lincoln and hire the
Hebron band to furnish the music for
the Lincoln Boosters? The local musi
cians are really not worthy of consid
eration. This is a reciprocal trade ex
cursion, don't you know and the He
bron band will work cheap.
The committee that waited on the
excursion folk were 'courteously re
ceived but it got almighty littje satis
faction. All it learned was that the de
fense of "reciprocal trade excursions"
was merely a blind to cover up the fact
that the cheap band was hired in pref
erence, to giving - employment to Lin
coln musicians at a living wage.
If that isn't a Sears-Robuck, Mont
gomery Ward, proposition, we never
saw one.
"Let's all work together for Lin
coln!" Give me one Of those cigars
made in a Philadelphia tenement. They,
are better than the Lincoln made ci
gars. "Let's all work together for 'Lin
coln!" We can hire the Hebron band
for our Lincoln booster ' excursion
cheaper than we can hire a Lincoln
band, so we'll limit our boosting to
other lines and hire the Hebron band.
As remarked in the beginning, it is
a beautiful slogan " Let's all work to
gether for Lincoln!" The man who or
iginated it was a genius. Go on, Mr.
Lincoln Musician, and work your fool
head off for Lincoln. You haven't any
thing else to do, for the main squeezes
will hire an out-of-town band to play,
for the Lincoln trade excursions so yon
will not have the excursion of another
job to explain why you are not "work
ing together for Lincoln."
"Let's all work together for Lin
coln!" The rhythm of that slogan is
fascinating ; it haunts the mind like
Mark Twain's story of "a blue trip
slip for a six-cent fare, a pink trip slip
for a four-cent fare, a buff trip slip
for a two-cent fare, punch in the pres
ence of the passengaire." Let the chil
dren of Lincoln workingmen sing it as
the trip blithely to and from school.
Papa isn't working, because it was
cheaper to hire a man who spends all
his money in Hebron. Let' the house
wives sing it. Their husbands are not
working, for it was found cheaper to
hire the husband of. another woman liv
ing in a city a hundred miles away.
Let everybody who works in Lincoln
sing it with a vim. The policy pursued
by the Lincoln Commercial Club in the
instance of the trade excursion about
to start, will soon result in Lincoln i
workingmen having nothing else on
earth to do but sing, "Let's all work
together for Lincoln."
I ain't a choich member yet, 'cause
I ain't found one t' date dat shows as
much intrust in me as it does in dem
heathen kids ten t'ousand miles across
der pond. ' ili