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About The Wageworker. (Lincoln, Neb.) 1904-???? | View Entire Issue (Sept. 30, 1910)
WAGEWOEMM VOLUME 7 LINCOLN, NEBRASKA, FRIDAY, SEPTEMBER 30, 1910 NUMBER 28 TH u J 3 f JUST BETWEEN Early last spring a young man named Ellis or giving that name appeared at The Wageworker office and tried to make arrangements ito perform a little work. There was nothing doing in that line, and the aforesaid Ellis disappeared. Incidentally a Wage worker check book disappeared about that time, but it was not until later that the two 'disappearances were con nected. Incidentally, also, a few days later an Omaha landlord came down to see about collecting a board bill from rthe aforesaid Ellis. Since that time divers and sundry checks made out from the vanished checkbook and to which the name of "The Wage worker Publishing Co., per E. L. Grubb, Mgr.," has been forged, and bearing various endorsements, all writ ten in the same hand have travelled back to Lincoln from widely separated points. The most recent of these for geries was passed upon a 'hotel in St. Paul, Minn., and was for $50. It was endorsed with the name of "Stearns," initials forgotten. The check book was upon the Farmers & 'Merchants Bank. Labor exchanges will please look out for this clever, forger,, and help us put a stop to his depredations. He is a rather undersized chap,' dark complex ioned and with a Hebaic cast of coun tenance .although apparently of Eng lish birth, . To . date he, has secured about $250 from confiding individuals. A correspondent of the Lincoln Jour- nal, who is , an ardent supporter of Mr. Aldrich, refers to Mr. Dahhnan as "this uncvrcumcised Philistine who defies the armies of the living God," Doubtless the man who wrote ; that , poses as a "temperance man." Doubt less, too, lie decries all manner of in temperance, save .only the intemper ate use of the tongue always an un ruly member.,. But, somehow or other, , jr4ave men. liking for the man .who' nna r-smimir-m l rmnuin w sari pmanji iihvihii. . . a m x a eyes heavenward -sad then unloosens a tongue' to besmirch the character, of his fellow man. We are not a very warm admirer of Candidate Aldrich, nor do we warm up very much to the interests most active in supporting Candidate Dahlman. But we have no hesitancy - in saying that if Candidate Aldrich is expecting to be elected be cause of the support of men who utter such blasphemous remarks as the Lin coln Journal's correspondent above Quoted, he is going to wake up on November 9 with a huge bunch of re gret nestling in his bosom. ' The trouble with most of these seal bus reformers of other men is that they overlook the prime necessity of first reforming themselves. Usually the zealous advocate -of temperance meaning, abstinence from the use of intoxicants are the most, intemperate people on earth in the use of tongue and. pen. And those most given to charging others with '.'appeals to ap petite" are likewise given to making strenuous appeals to prejudice and passion, and not at all careful about the methods they pursue in doing so. This is a queer campaign the queer est ever known in the great state of Nebraska. In the language of ot(r old friend, Bud Lindsay, "party lines are all shot to h 11!" Owing to the actions of leaders in both political camps those of us who have heretofore been rather good party men bolting only part of the time feel free to do about as we please. So far as the writer is individually concerned he is merely hoping that November 8 will be a bright warm day, for he knows a place where it is lawful to cast for bass until November 15. If he can feel assured the day before election that his old friend and employer, Gilbert M. Hitchcock, will pull through all right, easting for basts will be just about his election day's work. Maybe he will feel differently about it before then, but just now the above describes his feelings. One thing is sure, the writer of these lines, who happens to be an appointee of Gov ernor Shallenberger's. has had his nil of political officeholding. Damned on the one side by selfish interests that he has sought to hold in check, and "knocked" on the other side by those whom he has tried his best to serve to say nothing of being criticised mer cilessly because he hasn't been able all by turns' If to do work that ten men OURSELVES couldn't do he is ready to retire the day Governor Shallenberger's succes sor is inaugurated not only ready, but willing and anxious. Experience has taught one more man that he who gives up a good job at 'his chosen pro fession to accept a political job is well, experience is a dear school, but fools learn in no other. The game of politics is all right. Every man should be more or less of a politician, but they ought to play the game for the love of it and for the good of the country. But until a man is ready to quit his chosen profession, or wants a political office for honor or advertise ment, he ought to be content with play ing the game from the outside. This thing of trying ito make a living hold . ing office and administering that office honestly isn't what it is cracked up to be. O, no; there's nothing of "sour grapes" about this. The compiler of these feeble lines is drawing near the half -century mark; he has given some seven or eight hostages to fortune; he hasn't laid up any treasures to amount to anything on this earth, and after a couple of years' experience in politi-; cal officeholding he has made up his mind that it is high time for him to dig in and try to lay up something for the inevitable, rainy day. That's all. .... Mr. Aldrich is quoted as saying that ., he would like-to " get behind Omaha and shove the whole city over into . Iowa. ' ' Also, that Omaha is very milch akin .to the city thaj Lot escaped front just in time to escape being barbecued. -All of , which if , Mr. Aldrich, .-js eor reetly quoted, is not only very foolish, but in the last instance very untruth-' ful . also. : Omaha ..will, not; at least, have to answer for the sin of hypocracy which will nolj be the case with some . municipalities much given to. criticism ' j of Nebraska's metropolis. - The fact of ' the matter is, Omaha is a great big, growing, prosperous city .with a. cos mopolitan population ; a city of energy ' and enterprise ; a city that is1 growing, too fast for her garments thus quite often exposing too much of lanky, limb .;; for the comfort of the prudish-minded The gateway of a vast population con:, stantly shifting eastward and west ward it is only natural that Omaha should have at times more than her quota of criminals. But those who as-. Bert and declare that Omaha is domi nated wholly by booae, that her gov ernment is permeated by graft, and that the majority of her people are immoral those , who constantly . assert or intimate that sort of . thing are . merely exposing the fact that they are so narrow-minded that they could turn their heads around between the wall paper and the plaster without mussing a hair or disturbing' the paste. ' As before mentioned in these, col umns, the trouble with Omaha lies in those whom it has allowed too often to appear as her spokesmen. Her real business men have been so intent upon business that they have allowed a lot of frothy-mouthed advocates of "per sonal liberty " meaning thereby un bridled license to make it appear that the aforesaid f. m. a's. are Omaha. Some of these days the real business men of : Omaha the liberty-loving, home-sustaining, city-building, state supporting men will rise up en masse and squelch the self -constituted mouth pieces now so numerous, and put the real Omaha on view for the edification of the state. Aside from the mouth pieces mentioned Omaha has some things that she would be better off without, but she also has a lot of things that some of her detractors would do mighty well to acquire the spirit of "hustle," for instance; and the spirit of tolerance; and the spirit of "pull-all-together" that must be in evidence in every city that amounts to a hill of beans. "German Day" in Lincoln, hs else where in this land of the free, will be a great day. Senator Richard O' Neill of Lancaster county, voiced the sentiments of most of us when he arose on the floor of the senate a few years ago and asserted in ah orotund tone of voice surcharged with deep feeling that "every man ought to love the land of his nativity, whether he was born there or not." The man who does not always cherish something of a feeling of love for his native land, no inatter how bitter its persecutions may have been, lacks a great deal of the fine fibre of real manhood. And Germans have every reason to cherish a deep and abiding love for the Fatherland. The Genua n-Aniericans are none the less patriotic Americans because they re member the old country. Indeed, iit makes them all the better Americans. Fusible metal, those Germans, in this great "melting pot" of the nations. This country needed them, and had them, fifty years ago, nearly, ' when they "fit mit Seigel," or gave our armies the benefit of their trained mili tary intelligence. . And their hands have wrought wondrously well in this new country of ours. Home-loving, industrious, enterprising, honest our German-American citizens have not only done themselves proud but they have given us some of the best in our citizenship. Here's hoping that our German-American citizens will observe the day every year hereafter. "A few years ago," says W. B. Bur gess, manager of the Brandeis theatre in Omaha, "my wife and I took a little tour through Europe. One evening in Munich my wife was not feeling well so I sauntered out alone and dropped into one of the many gar dens in the city. .. There were thous ands of people there listening to. one of the finest bands I ever heard. Lonely and alone I sat at a little table listen ing to the music and feeling just a bit homesick for little old Omaha, U. S. A. Suddenly that magnificent biand struck up 'Star Spangled" Banner,' and before I could get to my feet a. fellow, about a Tod . away jiynped upon a table . and let loose & hurrah that made every eye, turn toward him. I only knew he was a fellow American, and started for him,, cheering just jjke he was cheering: It didn't take long for us to get ac quainted, and I never was so glad to meet a. man in all .my life. We had a? bully time, and a our - joint request the band repeated 'the: good old tube, throwing in 'Bed, White and Blue for good measure. Ever since, then- I -can understand why a German in- Am erica cheers the ' Watch- on the Rhine,' Dt fia, Englishman , stands- attention ? wie dke fceprsW God SaveHthe : B3ri"g,"'-7' or a Scotchman 's eyes brighten at the skirl o' the pipes." . v The coal mine owners, having, given the miners a raise of 10 eents a ton for, -digging the coal, have to add 30 cents a ton to,, make themselves even. ' The railroads, not to be outdone, raise, the freight 15 cents a ton, and the retail, coal dealer, having to pay 45 cents a ton more for the coal on the tracks naturally adds 90 cents a ton in order to make himself even. And the urti- ' mate consumer is compelled to pay 90 cents more for his coal in order to give - . the miner 10 cents a ton more, for-risk ing his life in the digging: thereof.:, NoW if the people . owned the coal , ' mines; as they ought to, . they could ; get their1 coal at half the price they are paying for it, and pay the miners twice as much for digging it as they , get now. ' ' . , . ;..-,::, i The "ultimate consumer" in the in tellectual country of ours is a fool. We hope somebody ; will have the -nerve to serve an injunction on Chief of Police Malone forbidding him to listen to any calls coming from West Lincoln. That burg has deliberately burned itself, and it should now be com pelled to sit upon the blister. With a half-million of public build ing under way, and more than half that much of residence building under way, it strikes us that the " knockers " on Lincoln have to exercise great fer tility of imagination in order to get something to talk about. Let us have a genuine commission plan of government. Let us elect a board of five commissioners, each one to be the head of a department and absolutely responsible to the people for the conduct of that department. Then let us pay salaries that will in duce business men to accept the posi tions. Five commissioners will be enough. One should have charge of the Department of Public Safety fire and police. One should have charge of the Department of Public Works waterworks and lighting. One should have charge of the Department of Pub lic Finance. One should have charge of the Department of Public Health, and one should have charge of the Department of Parks, Streets and Alleys. This is merely a tentative plan, but it is a plan that will meet the demands of the times. I WHAT THE DICKEY BIRD SAYS I v. - J "A mayor with power to appoint subject to the approval of fourteen councilmen elected at large, and with arbitrary power to remove!" And we are asked to give patient con sideration to a fool proposition like that! The fact of the matter is, the present "charter committee" is just a bit worse than a farce. Schroeder, Bauer, George, et al., are opposed to any change in the present system. Candy does not know what he wants and only knows that he is opposed to about everything that -anybody else favors. And (through the whole committee runs the thread of Traction Co. influence. A few members of the committee want real progress on sensible lines. A few are dreamers whose feet seldom come in contact with the earth. A few do not know what they want, and others are quite content with the pres ent system that allows of wire-pulling, self-seeking and political scheming for position, together with a continuance , of business methods that would wreck a private concern in a fortnight. Perhaps., the people of Lincoln like to he "played, horse" wfth--and..per-haps not.. If they like that sort of thingi certainly .they, are getting; plenty of it from this charter committee. But ,if there, be those on, that com mittee 5 who. thinifc.they -can procrastinate- and postpone to the last minute, -and :ihen jam their kind of a charter, through . the legislature if :-. there - be such upon' the committee they are due for a bump. ,,...; That .section: lying south of 0 street and east of ;Thity-third street is not in the city limits. The gentleman who owMt tigr, fiit0-. escaped paying a rightful share of pair-. ing, of the south side of O street from . Thirty-third to the cemetery. As .ue--. suit one side;' of the, streetis,; unpaved;. Yet, whenl a fire .attacked ..this gentle man's property the other Jay he holler. ed for help from the. fire department, of Lincoln and got it..- Enjoying .all the advantages of a city, street ears, paved streets to. his , very door,' protec tion against fire, etc., he refuses to come across, biding behind the legal subter fuge, of , being outside : the city limitts. Cheerfully admitting that isn't a Chris tian spirit, this newspaper has : no hesi tancy fin saying that, if vt had been in charge of the fire department on , the occasion above mentioned, knowing all the facts, blessed if the .,, whole depart ment wouldn't have made a mistake and .gone in the wrong direction,; suc cessfully failing td See 'fts error until too late to be of service. ExrMayor Brown has a happy knack of hitting upon good ideas wjtfh pleas ing regularity. Now he, wants to know, you know, why the county commission ers do not got busy and spend a little of that inheritance tax money in fix ing up the roads leading into Lincoln. If we are not mistaken there is now about $13,000 lying idle in that fund quite enough to make several miles of model road. , This inheritance tax money can only be expended for road purposes, and outside rthe corporate limits of any town or city. And surely it ought to be spent instead of lying idle in the county treasury. We would like to see a lot of business men, professional men, clergymen, Y. M. C. A. workers and others who are not members of organized labor, visit the Labor Temple and see just what the unionists of the city are maintain ing. We can assure every inquiring visitor of a warm welcome and an in spiring spectacle. They will see work men engaged in reading, conversing, playing friendly games of pool or bil liards and "talking shop" in a way that means better workmen. The Labor Temple is one of the most helpful in fluences now at work in Lincoln. More and more it is becoming a center of education and civic pride. The men who are keeping it up are feeling more and more like they had something at stake other than the mere making of bread and butter. If there is any in stitution in the city deserving of the support and good offices of Lincoln people, it is 'the pretty little Labor . Temple on North Eleventh sttfeet. Drop around and go through it, andalk with a, ;n ' i a, xne men you win meet mere. One year -ago tomorrow, October 1, the Labor Temple Association assumed ownership of the property. It was bought on a "shoestring," the associa tion having less than $700 in cash. It borrowed $300 and made a first pay ment of $1,000, and , without a cent either in possession or in sight, promis ed to pay $3,500 thirty days later. It took nerve to do that but the men in charge of the movement had a lot more nerve than money. They cashed in their nerve and got the money1 thanks to a number of friendly business .men and the help of a lot of true blue union men. The $3,500 was paid on schedule time. So confident were the directors that things would go right that they actually had men at work remodeling the building before the contract of sale' was signed. Things went right, too. Besides paying $5,000 : on the property, another $5,000 in the shape of improvements has been added, and to day Lincoln has one of the prettiest and most commodious Labor Temples in the country. The mortgage is still ' there, -but it will be taken ears of . It - is a going institution , In the year just closed the receipts from rents, pool ami tobacco have been; $5,736.38. J, fe-expenses have been irtearly: . $2,500 of this' expense'-hasllitewvin e' . snape oi permanent ' wnprpeiwouss , improvements ; that will not need to be , made again., .This means that the Tern-. actually able - fro mnos n, if -its. -patronage continues aa zkw, , : to. py sir . profit of fully ten per cent on the' in vestment. , ' But it wUl be necessary ttake eare., the net revenues will supply. J?of .that,? -reason money will have to . be rsed, thegood people of Ifot.t&Vppd, v :. wht;;(Uie .jenrple is' mgp'. earners of the i;-iVB-Sir'vWi! -, t large, they would eoyjfowjtyjijfa jn.,a hurry, and not only hejp; WiWr'.'' nf tlie indieWednim hut hein' add' the? needed thdrdstoiy- and uip;-af4bandr - some library and reading room. . - ' i- . :'r.-.-.-. jii.v--- vS:-::-a Last Tuesday we heard sv well posted politician declare that in his , candid? opinion James C. Dahlman would carry . Lancaster county. Whatl ci Anybody ready, to wager thait Profes sor Crabtree will not get more VoteaT than any other, candidate for state ' office, no matter what ticket t ,V Somti.ovc or other we can 't help bmt believe that Col. Will irig aimatettr. ritks" an auto with ;Aldjrich i jind BdAett- Wraptiing tiw stai foldsf tlwAa about him, Elmer- J. Burkett nuuiages J to keep, a few niisguided people from remembering that he is dodging again. He has not yet answered Mr. Hitch cock's challenge. . ' Believing in giving credit where credit is due, we stop. the press. 40 as-, sert, asservate, declare and pronounce, that the success of the state fair is. due in largest measure to the splendid pnh-. licity work of Secretary Mellor. As an advertiser he is Al. In fact, he can advertise a state fair now fully as well as he could play ball twenty-five years ago when he and "ye editor" were often pitted against each other and Mellor was some ball player, too. Incidentally we pause to remark that The Wageworker printery is equipped to turn out the finest kind of campaign printing on the shortest possible notice, and place thereon the "little joker" that proves that the artists on the me chanical side of the printery carry paid-up cards . in their respective unions. We venture the assertion that we could pick five men from the rank of organized labor in Lincoln and pre pare a better charter in less time than it will take that bunch of idealists and politicians to get close enough together to draft an outline. Chief Malone seems to have the happy knack of pleasing all classes of people save the class that would like to have the police force abolished.