moderate in its methods ; that its members are as patient under op
pression as they are ?
Trades unionism is guilty of many wrong things, God knows.
Its methods are not always right. It makes mistakes. But all this
is due to the simple fact that trades unions are made up of fallible
men ; of mien as much given to making mistakes as the men of other
affiliations. But trades unionism has come out of great tribulation
much faster than the church. It has made more progress in the last
hundred years than the church made in its first eighteen hundred
years. Now and then one of its votaries may (hurl a cobblestone,
but while that cobblestone is in the air the tra'des unions are
taking a 'hundred little children from the mines and factories, eman
cipating them from mental, moral and physical slavery, and giving
them a happy childhood and an education. Now and then some
over-zealous union man may apply a torch or explode a bomb, but
while the flames are raging or the smoke of the explosion is in the
air, trades unions are carrying light and joy and hope into thous
ands of homes long darkened by the greed of rapacious taskmasters,
most of whom go up daily to the temple to pray and thank God that
they are not as other men.
Wherever you hear laughter, of happy children within sound
of the humming factory wheels you know that trades unionism has
been doing its splendid work for humanity. Wherever you see
sozy homes and happy wives and mothers within sight of the smoke
from factory or shop, you know that trades unionism has been per
forming its splendid service and itanding between the greed of the
few on the one side and the helplessness of the many upon the
other.
Trades unionism may be and is guilty of many wrong things.
But by the millions of children it has emancipated, by the widows
and orphans it has protected and maintained, by the help it has
given the helpless, by the hope and joy it has carried into places
befouled and darkened by greed and rapacity by the millions it
has lifted up to the higher and better things by all these it asks
to be judged.
Perhaps some union man did blow up the Los Angeles Times.
If it shall be so proved, trades unions everywhere will lend every ef
fort to bring him to justice.
Will those who oppose trades unionism be as quick to join with
union men in asking for the fullest measure of justice- towards those
who look upon human life as the cheapest thing in the modern mar
ket, and who reap toll from the toil of helpless little children and
hopeless widows and mothers?
Trades unions today are doing the practical work that Jesus of
Nazareth told His followers to do they are feeding the hungry,
clothing the naked and visiting the sick. They are practicing the
things that for nineteen hundred years the church has been content,
in most part, merely to preach. They are daily showing forth their
belief in the "Fatherhood of God and the Brotherhood of Man."
Undaunted by the oppositin of those who see in its efforts the
wresting of power of life and death over men from their own hands,
Trades Unions are marching .steadily on. Undismayed by the clamor
and claque of the thoughtless, Trades Unions are standing between
helpless childhood and the greed and conscienceless men. With its
face set towards the light, organized labor is marching steadily on
to the goal of equality before the law, of equal reward and equal
responsibility. "
Organized labor has nothing to fear from the fullest investi
gation of the Los Angeles affair. -It will lend its best efforts towards
finding and punishing the perpetrators of that foul crime -if crime
it be, instead of the result of human carelessness, as there is reason
to believe. 1
Mr. Thompson's Tirade.
If David E. Thompson had not himself told us (that he had
taken a couple of days to prepare his statement concerning Lincoln,
we would be forced to believe that it was hastily written by a man
suffering from an acute case of ingrowing grouch. The truth of
the whole matter is, Mr. Thompson has been nursing a sore thumb
for a long time, and he could not resist the opportunity to expose
it to the public gaze. We confess a considerable measure of sur
prise that Mr. Thompson should have done this. We had counted
him a much bigger man.
Sifted down this whole thing resolves itself into the old saloon
and anti-saloon fight. Those who favor saloons are sure that Lin
coln is headed straight for business destruction because it has wiped
out the saloons. As for itself The Wageworker does not care a rap
whether Lincoln has saloons or not. It opposed the saloon last
spring for two reasons first, it wanted the no-saloon policy given
a fair show, which it could not have had in a single year ; secondly,
The Wageworker, while not opposed to either the sale or use of in:
toxicants, is radically opposed to the license system.
It is true that there are a number of unemployed mechanics
in Lincoln. But this is no due to any falling off in business in Lin
coln. It'is due to the fact that opponents of trades unions have
for the past three years industriously sought to import non-union
mechanics and have succeeded to such an extent that there is a
surplus of labor, especially in the building trades.
It is not true that there are 1,500 empty dwelling houses in
Lincoln. The man wiho says there is either wofully ignorant or
else a constitutional prevarica or. There are many empty dwellings,
it is true, but there are today wre occupied dwellings in Lincoln
than ever before in her history and there are more and better
dwellings. We do no say that this is in any wise due to the absence
of saloons. We simply state it as a fact. We venture the assertion
that more money has been taken in at .the desk at the Lincoln hotel
Mr. Thompson's hotel during the eighteen months Lincoln has been
dry than ws taken in at the same place during the last eighteen
months of Lincoln wet.
We venture the assertion that more building has been inaugu
rated during the eighteen months of Lincoln dry than was inaugu
rated during the last eighteen months of Lincoln wet; And we
further venture the assertion that more money has been taken in
by Lincoln grocers and Lincoln dry goods merchants during the
eighteen months of Lincoln dry than they took in during the last
eighteen months of Lincoln wet. One more assertion will we ven
turethat there have been more happy wives and mothers during
the eighteen months of Lincoln dry than there were during the last
eighteen months of Lincoln wet.
Lincoln is doing fairly well, thank you. It might loosen up a
bit in some directions with results beneficial to the municipality, and
it might profit a bit by jarring loose the grip of a few fanatics who
are never so happy as when they are making life miserable for
others. But if better business is contingent upon opening the doors
to those things that feed and fatten by catering to vice and passions
and criminality well, there are a lot of us who prefer to do a little
less business. ,
Mr. Thompson should return 'his injured thumb to its bandages.
A Judicial View of the Senatorship.
We were very much intereste in reading in Sunday 's Journal
the reasons a lot of Lincoln men gave for preferring the re-election
of Senator Burktt. Especially were we interested in the reason ad
vanced by William E. Stewart, judge of the district court. Judge
Stewart said:
"For Senator Burkett to be defeated means that Lincoln loses
a republican United States senator and Omaha gains a democratic
United States senator. That is something that no citizen of Lincoln,
regardless of politics, ought to be in favor of."
Mark you, that is the reason offered by a judge of the district
court. We trust we will not be deemed guilty of contempt when
we say that a man deemed sufficiently learned to wear the ermine
ought to be ashamed to give utterance to anything quite so silly.
According to Judge Stewart it does not matter whether the senator,
amounts to a charge of exploded powder so far as safeguarding the
rights of the people are concerned, so long as he happens to come
from your town. A senatorial candidate living in Omaha might be
the brainiest man in the nation, but according to this judicial light
it would be unwise and unpatriotic for any Lincoln man to prefer the
Omaha man to any little 2x4 political accident from Lincoln who
might happen to be holding the job. We wonder what basis of
reasoning Judge Stewart would offer to the voter in Wahoo or Ed
dy ville. ,
We have a mighty poor opinion of the United States senate as
now composed, and do not believe the senate could be made much
worse. But if there is anything calculated to make that body any
more of a stench in the nostrils of the people it is to select senators
on the basis laid down by Judge Stewart of the Lancaster district
court. The judge owes an apology to the people or the people who
elected 'him owe an apology to the rest of us.
The union men of Lincoln are not asking for donations to help
them lift the indebtedness from their Labor Temple. They are only
asking that men of means carry the load for a year or two, thus giv
ing the union men time in which to raise the money themselves. In
other words, the union men ask the loan of the money without inter
est, and offer the very best of security. The returns to the men who
loan the money may not appear on their books in dollars and cents,
but there will be big dividends just the same. They will be in the
. shape of better and more contented workers, a better citizenship, a
high plane of morality. The good 'effects of the Labor-Temple are
already apparent. It deserves and should have the commendation
of every Lincoln citizen who is building for the future.
The Wageworker wants to call the attention of union men to the
candidacy of John E. Miller for the house, and in this connection
wants to state a few facts within the knowledge of the editor. Mr.
Miller was chairman of the senate finance committee during the last
session and he -advocated and tried to secure for thte Bureau of
Labsr and Industrial Statistics an adequate appropriation. He fav-