Image provided by: University of Nebraska-Lincoln Libraries, Lincoln, NE
About The Wageworker. (Lincoln, Neb.) 1904-???? | View Entire Issue (Sept. 23, 1910)
PRINTING PROMPT PROMPT PROMPT PROMPT (C PROMPT PROMPT PROMPT PROMPT PROMPT PROMPT THE WAGEWORKER PRINTER ACCIDENT AND THE LAW. Kansas Courts Decide a Case Against Careless Employer. Tony Caspar, a laborer In a Kansas scrap iron works, was ordered by his foreman, says the Survey, to throw a belt on a shaft pulley. To do so he bad to mount a nine foot ladder, which broke and threw him to his death on machinery unguarded because seldom approached by workmen. The case was decided for Caspar's widow and appealed by the defendants on the two grounds that theirs was not a manufacturing establishment and that even if it were the New York law. on which the Kansas statute requiring the protection of dangerous machin ery was modeled, had been interpreted by the courts to apply only to machin ery used by workmen in the ordinary course of their work. N The opinion recently delivered" by the supreme court of Kansas holds that a business where scrap iron is converted, as the evidence showed it was here, into certain specified lengths and forms suitable to be sold to mills comes within the statutory definition of a factory. Furthermore, the pur pose of the factory act is "to preclude a roving quest for the meaning of words" and to give them such a wide interpretation as would "protect work ing people from mutilation, physical deformity, pain, mental anguish and death occasioned by the absence of practical safeguards from the environ ment of their toil." As for the second defense, the court holds that the New York decision "proceeds upon the same lines as if the statute did not exist," and the worker was protected only by the ordinary reasonable precautions demanded by the common law. The Kansas court feels that such rulings as that of the New York court simply "fritter away serious efforts on the part of the legislature to secure factory workers against the barbari ties of an Industrial system which has been conducted with amazing prodi gality of human life and limb." THE NONUNIONIST. Principle Has No Part In the "Free Worker's" Makeup. ' WON MANY BENEFITS. Terms on Which Cloakmakers Return ed to Work. After nine weeks of fierce struggle the cloakmakers have returned to work. The strike involved 80.000 toil ers, 70,000 men and 10,000 women. The union is victorious in a large de gree. Higher wages and better hours are obtained, sanitary conditions in the workshops are guaranteed, and many petty grievances have been ob viated under the agreement reached. But the union fails to get complete recognition. There is a guarantee that union standards will be maintained and union men and women preferred when workers are hired, but nonunion workers are to labor side by side with thom without objection from the union as long as such workers are paid union WilgOS. The agreement provides for a six day week, nine hours a day. except the sixth day. which shall be only five hours, for wages ranging from $10 to $25 a week and for higher rates for piece workers. It provides that no work shall be. given out to be taken home and that the cost of electric power furnished by the manufacturers to run the machines shall not be taken out of the salaries of the workers, as was formerly done: that week workers shall receive dou ble pay for overtime. Each piece worker Is to be paid as soon as the work is examined and pronounced sat isfactory, which must be done in a rea sonable time. Payments are always to be in cash. Au arbitration board and sanitary board with equal representation be tween employers and employees and a third member representing the public are established. MENACES TRUE LIBERTY. Only Freedom the Unorganized Work er Enjoys Is That of Destroying the Benefits Won by the Union Toiler. The Contract Shop. "We are perfectly willing that those of our 'workers who so desire shall be long tat the union," say seemingly gen erous employers, "but we will not deal with the union leaders nor discriminate against workers who do not join the union. We do not wish to be dictated to by the union, and we sympathize with the liberty loving employee who has the same feeling. We will employ workers without regard to their re ligious, economic or industrial affilia tions." This subtle appeal to the American love of fair play and independence is apt to make converts among those who have not studied the practical working out of the theory of the "open shop." The worker who joins the trade union does so in order that he or she may not be absolutely "dictated to" about wages, hours of labor, sanitary conditions, etc., but may be able to arrange through proper representatives a fair business agreement, made se cure by a signed contract legally bind ing on both employer and employed. The worker who does not join the union, on the other hand, signifies his willingness to be "dictated to" by the employers as to terms of labor terms subject to changes overnight, with no legal redress for overtime, bad sani tary conditions, low wages and unfair and rude treatment Is it not plain to the most casual observer that in a shop where the non union worker Is willing to leave all questions regarding terms of work to the final authority of the firm, and the union worker is unwilling to do so, the nonunion worker will be favored and the unionist must either yield to non union terms or else be supplanted by another nonunion worker who will ac cept them? The much talked of "lib erty of the individual worker" In the open shop is thus shown to be the lib erty to work under terms which are decided upon by the employers alone and "dictated to" the employed. The hero or heroine who is a non unionist on principle, fighting for the right of the individual to sell his labor in an "open shop," is harder to find than the proverbial needle in the hay stack. The real nonunionist is the ignorant, cowardly or desperate work er who does not dare to join the ranks of the social spirited workers who are struggling to elevate the whole of so ciety by abolishing child labor, sweat shops, tuberculosis tenements and the other fundamental evils of our. present so called civilization. The only free dom the nonunion worker enjoys is the freedom to break down the good con ditions which have been secured by trade unionists through generations of self sacrificing effort. The only right in which he is secure is the right to trust his own welfare and that of his fellow workers absolutely to the mercy of his employers. The closed shop is the only shop where reasonable business terms can be agreed upon by proper representa tives of capital and labor. It has been happily named by Miss Jane Addams "the contract shop." This issue of the "closed" or "contract shop" is the issue which manufacturers refuse to arbitrate. Surely public opinion must continue to support those workers who are standing for the right of the work ers to secure fair conditions through a trade agreement in a "contract shop." Gertrude Barnurn In New York Call. Labor Court In Germany. The judiciary system of the German empire has been ' extended, and ' a branch has been created with jurisdic-, tlon only in matters pertaining to the compensation of injured workingmen. The highest court is the court of ap peals and consists of seven members, one of whom is an employer and an other an- employee. They are learned in the law, aud three are representor tives of the government. Trials before the court of Industrial insurance ar4 conducted by laymen. The laborer is represented by a workingman. usual ly the .secretary of n trade union. In all appeal cases the Injured laborers are represented by an International labor secretary for that purpose. He Is Herman Muller. u lithographer, with headquarters In Berlin. ' The Hatters' Case. A transcript of the testimony in' what has come to be known as the' Danbury hatters' case. wherein the Hatters' union was sued by D. B. Lioewe & Co.. under the Sherman anti trust act, to recover damages alleged to have been sustained by the union's boycott and a judgment for $222,000 was obtained against the latter has been completed at New Haven. The transcript makes five volumes, or 2.769 pages, and was used in the appeal that has been eutered. The case will prob ably be argued this fall. It began In 1903. Growth of the Farmers' Union. Six years ago the Farmers' union had only 50,000 members: today it has more than 300,000. Six years ago it had no gins: now there are 6,000. Six years ago it had no cotton warehouses; now it has 2.000.' It had no fruit pack ing plants: it now owns 000. It had no representatives in the cotton market of the world: now it has a representa tive in every one. It had no financial standing in the banks: it has now twenty strong banks of its own and a financial standing In every banking center of America and Europe. It had no system of selling or handling cot ton and was without direct connec tions: today it has its connections and customers in the majority of the mill ing centers of the world, to which it ships direct. Six years ago it was at the mercy of the grocery trust; today it has thousands of stores under its own control. ' Labor Notes. A Hundred Per Cent Union. 1 .Boston Cotil Teamsters and Handlers' union. No. 8. has on Its membership roll every man In Its line of business In that city. Recently the members rev ceived substantial Increases in wages and a nine hour day. The agreement signed includes Columbus day in the list of holiday, the first agreement to Include this day as a holiday. He who will not fight for the right is equally guilty with the wrongdoer. There are six colored members of Typographical union No, 6, New; York city. . .. Are you a member of your union and fighting for the right and to attain jus tice? N The convention of the American Fed eration of Labor will be held at St Louis beginning Nor. 14. It is estimated that upward of 71,000 union men and women marched In New York city's labor day parade. The congestion commission of New. York city estimates that $900 a year is the minimum wage upon which, a workingman with a wife and three children can live on an American standard in that city. The Habit of Systematic Saving. This is a habit easy to aquire, and a habit that is beneficial. It is the sure insurance against misfortune. It is the unbroken promise of a contented old age. By setting, aside a portion of your income each week, or month, and depositing with us, you are soon in possession of a comfortable bank account, and a bank account is something that gives the possessor a certain air of in- , dependence and satisfaction that nothing else produces. There are scores of , handsome homes in Lincoln that were erected through the habit of saving ac quired by dealing with this bank. We pay 4 per cent interest on deposits. Call and let us cite you examples of what workingmen and women - have ac quired by forming the habit of dealing with us. An unbroken record of ten years without the loss of a dollar or the foreclosing of a mortgage is something that we are very proud of. , .. r' AMERICAN SAVINGS BANK 132 NORTH 11TH ST. p m, imi a m L$E!t RECTOR'S White Pine Cough Syrup Is a quick and positive remedy for all coughs. It stoqs coughing spells at night relieves the soreness, soothes the irrita ted membrane and stoqs the tickling. It is an ideal preparation for children as it containes no harmful anodynes or narcotics. -' 25c per bottle RECTOR'S 12th and O St. Dr. Chas. Yungblut ROOM r . ' BURR No. 202 Lyentist block AUTO. PHONE 3416, BELL 656 LINCOLN, -:- NEBR. Wageworkers We hava Attention Moneytoloan vii vxiatbcio. Plenty of it. Utmost Secrecy., 129 So. iithSt Kelly & Norris MONEY LOANED on household goods, pianos, hor ses, etc.; long or short time, No charge for papers. No interest in advance. No publicity or fil papers, We guarantee better tet ms than others make. Money Eaid immediately. COLUMBIA OAN CO. 127 South 12th. l ?t - Li I --Mil. . ufiiiY'" li OFFICE OF ; DR. R. L. BENTLEY, SPECIALIST CHILDREN Office Hours I to 4 p. m, ' , Office 21 18 O St. Both Phones , LINCOLN, NEBRASKA THE BARGAIN CHASE. American Women and the Shopping Game Mania. More money is wasted every year by women buying ueedless things uuder the excitetnint of the bargain hunt than is spent in ail the gambling houses and race tracks put together, eays Mary neaton Vorse in Success Magazine. When you say that I have no statistics to prove this I answer that 1 have common sense and have spent much time Id city ' shops. I know. too. what I am capable of. and I am but a half hearted hunter. 1 know what my friends do. It Isn't for nothing that 1 have seen earnest young students of eoouomics succumb to this bunting instinct and fare forth to buy ninety-eight cent undergarments. It is not only in the stores frequent ed by poor or uneducated women that I have seen the more brutal Instincts of the human race come to the sur face. I have seen a charming looking elderly womaD in a high class store snatch a dress length of gray voile from the hands of another elderly wo man, and the reason I happened to see these sights wns because I myself was at the sale looking nt garments I didn't want and didn't needand buying them. The bargain chase, the shopping game passion or sport, life work or recreation for it may be any one of these, according to the temperament of the woman has American women well In its grip. Hardly one of us es capes some one of the psychological deviations from the normal which I have mentioned. READ HIS FACE. The Youthful Amateurs Were Sura He Was Philanthropist. They were youthful enthusiasts in physiognomy. On the seat opposite In tbe train was a man of commanding figure, massive brow and serious ex pression. "Splendid face!" one of them explained. "What do you suppose his life work has been?" ' 1 "A lawyer?" suggested the other. "No-o; there's too much benevolence in that face for a lawyer." ' "Maybe a banker?" "Oh, no! A man with an expression like that couldn't have spent bis life in merely turning over money." "He might be an editor." "An editor! Cutting and slashing bis enemies at every turn and even his friends occasionally for the sake of a smart paragraph? . Ygu, can't read faces. That man's a philanthropist or engaged in some sort of public spirit ed work. Why. there isn't a line that doesn't indicate strength of purpose and nobility! Look at that curve there on the left!" At the next station an old country man took his seat beside the man with massive brow and soon eutered into a conversation with him. In the course of -which he asked the latter "what was his line." The two opposite held' their breath in the intensity of their Interest. "Oh. I've got a little taverD and butcher shop back in the country a bit!" was the proud reply. "My wlfo tends to the meals aud 1 dp my own killing." Youth's Companion. Picture Forgeries. There are three or four times as many Corots In existence as the French painter produced .in his lifetime. He lived to be nearly eighty, but at Mont uiartre his posthumous canvases are still being turned out to meet the de mands of the market. Tbe old mas ters never die - They are still working overtime In the back rooms of Flor ence and Rome. At Cologne the man ufacture of genuine mediaeval metal work and antique carving is a thriving industry. These foreign forgers may be scamps.' but their tireless energy also testifies to the reverence Id which posterity holds the great names of by gone periods. If they are not so high ly prized, what Inducements would there be for anybody to waste time, paint and muscle In creating fraudu lent copies and Imitations and pass- ing them off under false pretenses? Our millionaire collectors are not con stantly exposed to the risk of buying, high priced forgeries where the origi nals have no value. New York World. Mourning In Japan. The Japanese code of mourning Is very elaborate and complicated. As followed by the well to do classes It Involves the wearing of special gar- . ments and abstinence from animal food. At tbe death of a husband or real or adopted parents the -custom de mands . thirteen months of mourning , apparel and fifty days' abstinence from meat. Grandparents are honored by 150 days If they are on the paternal side: if only common. Insignificant, maternal grandparents,- they have . to put up with ninety. The same rule applies to maternal uncles and -aunts. It is one way of Introducing the orien tal contempt for women. i