Image provided by: University of Nebraska-Lincoln Libraries, Lincoln, NE
About The Wageworker. (Lincoln, Neb.) 1904-???? | View Entire Issue (Nov. 4, 1910)
The Human Riddle. One ot t Ite strangest problems of our Un-xpiirable nature is tbe choice of evil and tbe rejection of good, even after long experience has proved that misery and evil are synonymous. Vir tue, it is true, does Dot always exempt from sorrow, but crime must ever be wretchedness. Dope loses Its balm, and fear acquires a keener sting. The present is anxiety, tbe past remorse, tbe future ?s despair, and yet tbe way ward man drinks tbe bitter cup when tbe sweet i3 offered to bim and launch es his boat upon an angry sea. where storms attend bis course and ship wreck terminates his voyage, rather than glide down tbe smooth current of a tranquil stream where peace pilots bim on the -way and happiness waits him on the shore. Exchange. The Term "Bully." The term bully in the days of Shake speare had quite a different meaning from that which it has at present, be lug an expression of endearment and good fellowship. Some suppose that the word, when it is used in approval, is derived from the Dutch boel or ;er tnau buhle. which stands for the Eng lish lover. Tbe harsher use of the word is. however, to be traced to bel low, tbe root of bull, with a signifi cance of noisy blustering. A Frank Reply. A kind local lady went to Columbus to distribute helpful literature to the convicts in tbe penitentiary. "What are you in for, my poor fel low?" she inquired of tbe first prisoner she saw. "Because I cau't get out." he an swered. Then she moved on to the next cell. Toledo Blade. Chilly! 'My dining room is tbe hottest place on earth. I wish I knew what to do to cool it." "Did you ever take a friend home to dinner when your wife didn't expect it?"-Buffalo Express. If He Has Sense. 'Singleton Is a man safe in getting married on fifteen a week? Wedmore No. but he's comparatively safe from Retting married.- Boston Transcript. A Matter of Vision. "Marie, didn't I see the baker kiss ing you this morning?" "Madam herself Is the best judge of her eyesight." Pele Mele. The true aim of art is to embody man's thought concerning nature. W. M. Rossetti. i The Remains. After many unsuccessful attempts a little girl managed to spell "that" cor rectly. "'Now," said her mother, "wh.it remains after 't' is taken away?" "The dirty cups and saucers'" was the reply. Another Shock. Bore I've had an awful shock. I went for a long walk on Sunday morn ing with another man. and be commit ted suicide on Sunday evening. Bored (surprised Not until evening? She Had Reason. "Johnny, what is the meaning sought to be conveyed In the assertion. 'Free dom shrieked wheu Kosciusko fell?'" "Freedom was prob'ly what he fell on. ma'am." Houston Post. A Comforting Map. There Is always the right kind of weather In some parts of the United States, according to the weather map. Dayton News. CHURCH. FOB LABOR. Tho Congregational Brotherhood Asks Equal Rights For All. At the recent congregational conven tion at Boston suggestions for the Im provement of labor conditions iu the country were discussed. The labor suggestion was made by the Congregational Brotherhood of America in the form of resolutions which advocate a participation by all Protestant churches in the practical industrial problems of the country. The resolutions recommend that the churches "must stand for equal rights and complete justice for all men In all stations of life." They advocate arbitration of labor disputes, the protection of workers from dangerous machinery, occupa tional diseases, injuries and mortality, the abolition of child labor, such regu lations and conditions of toil for wom en as will safeguard the physical and moral welfare of the community, a liv ing wage as a minimum in every in dustry and the highest wages' each in dustry can afford, the most equitable division of products of industries that can be ultimately devised and pro visions for workers whom old age has rendered helpless to make a living and for those who are incapacitated by Injury or illness. The resolutions will be taken up later by the national con vention. SHORTEST TROLLEY STRIKE. Union Two Days Old Brings Company to Terms. With a union only forty-eight hours old, conductors and motormen of the Riverside Traction company, operat ing between Camden and Treuton. won the shortest trolley strike on rec ord in tbe state. The union was formed on a Satur day night by Organizer Clarence O. Pratt of Philadelphia. The men held a secret meeting Monday night and decided 'to declare a strike the next morning. Not a car was operated all day on the forty mile stretch of road, but in the afternoon a committee of the men met C. Merrit Taylor, presi dent of the line, and reached an agree ment satisfactory to the strikers. BENEFITS HUMANITY. The trade union movement is an everyday practical gospel for the toiling masses of mankind, and Its beneficent effects are re flected in benefits for all other classes. $ $ j j 'j i5 l i Cannot Be Explained. ' It has been proved beyond tbe ques tion of a doubt that men cannot work with profit to themselves or their em ployers more than eight hours a day Yet big employers shut their eyes tightly to these scientific facts and fight the reduction of hours that mean more for them as well as their men as if they were fighting Invasion ol their homes. The hatred and bitter ness with which some employers re sist to the last the reasonable and just demands of their employees for shorter hours are one of the inexplicable things In social science. Portland Labor Press. Miners to Elect In December. The election for international officers of the United Mine Workers of Amer ica will be held in December. District President John P, White of Iowa will oppose Thomas T. Lewis, the incum bent, for International president. Wil liam Green of Ohio and E. S. MeCuI lough of Michigan are the candidates for. secretary-treasurer Thereu are about 300,000 miners in the miners' union. Wages In Germany. Consul General Richard Guenther of Frankfort reports that the president of the local Prussian government dis trict has fixed the wages of ordinary day laborers in Frankfort and suburbs as follows: Male adults, 72.3 cents; fe male adults, GO cents; youthful males, 48 cents: youthful females. 33.3 cents. Labor .Temple In San Francisco. The San Francisco Labor council has purchased a site 80 by 115 feet for a labor temple, the price being $35,000. The building will cost between $150, 000 and $175,000. I THE DIGNITY OF LABOR. It is unfortunate that our sys tem of education, particularly in our public schools. Is such that the vast majority of chil dren, even the sons and daugh ters of the working class, de sire to become professional men and women because they have an idea that such work is more gonfeel than that in the trades, wiih the result that the profes sions are overcrowded with peo ple who are unfitted for the oc cupations which tbey have se lected as their life work. . The next great task of our educa tional institutions is so to dig nify mechanical labor that it will appeal to the boys because of the possibilities in it for them.' This will raise the arti san class to a higher and saner level and will giv-e the efficient wbrkingman the place in society to which he Is justly entitled. It will take away the false con ception, present even among workingmen, that to toil with one's hands is to accept a me nial position. Rev. Charles Stel zle. 11 l jl 4 1 H$nj He Saw She Saw It. As tbe man who writes little items for tbe paper sat getting himself fitted with a pair of shoes tbe other day he saw this happen. A woman was get ting waited on by a clerk who wore on the third finger of his right hand a diamond twinkler weighing at. least a carat and a quarter. He hadn't al ways worn a ring of that sort. It was new to bim. He took a great deal of pride In his new ring.' Oh, how it sparkled when the light was just right! Once or twice he got so interested in twisting it around on his finger with his thumb to a position where it would be most easily noticed by the woman customer that he forgot to finish lac ing up the shoe she was trying on But be had succeeded in bringing the jewel to her attention. She bad a sharp, leathery, suffragettish face and a disposition to speak right out on things. 4 see it," she remarked in a refrig erated tone. "It's very pretty and at tractive. You wear it with a good air of abandon too. I admire It exceed ingly. After you've finished toying with it I wish you would go ahead and - show me somet hing else some thing with not quite sucb a narrow toe." Cleveland Plain Dealer. Weighing Machines. Weighing machines and - scales of some kind were in use 1800 B. C, for It is said that Abraham at that time weighed out? .400 shekels ...of., silver, current money, "with the merchant to Ephron. the Hittite, as payment for a pAe? f.iSiyL. iPUJiPS. tbcare and alPthe standing" timber "in the neld and In the fence." This is said to be the earliest transfer of land of which any record survives and that the pay ment was made in tbe presence of witnesses. The original form of the weighing scale was probably a - bar suspended from tbe middle, with a board or shell suspended from each end, one to contain tbe weight, the other to contain the matter to be weighed. Tbe steelyard was probably so called from tbe material of which it was made and from its former length. It is also known as tbe Roman bal ance and Is of great antiquity. The Spinning Mule. Samuel Crompton, a boy of sixteen, copied tbe best features of the spin ning machine Invented by Hargreaves and Ark wright, added to them some of bis own and, after three months of anxious and secret experimenting, pro duced tbe first spinning mule, so called because it was a kind of hybrid be tween Hargreaves jenny and Ark wrigbt's water frame. Tbe raw ap prentice lad was, however, do match in cunning for tbe cotton lords, who soon found out tbe secret of his new machine and shamelessly robbed him of the fruits of his ingenuity. Many years afterward. It is true, they used their influence to secure for him a par liament grant of 5.000, but he was' then a broken hearted and disappoint ed man, to whom the money came too late to be of any real service. ( Life Saving on Conditions. A treatise on "how to be kind, but rautious," might, be written by a wo man who played the part of good Sa maritan in the One Hundred and Third street subway station. Another wo man had fainted. What she needed to bring her to In a hurry was smelling salts, but nobody had smelling salts. . "1 think she lias a vinaigrette of her own In that bag," said the Samaritan, "but in tbe absence of a policeman 1 am afraid fo open It, to find out" Something that looked like a small bottle could be discerned through the mesbes of the chain bag, and the crowd, valiantly shifting responsibil ity, said, "Go ahead and open it" "On one condition I will," said the Samaritan. "1 want three bystanders to watch me and sign a written state ment that I have taken nothing from the bag but the vinaigrette. I know this town too well to take any chances oh being accused of theft." The oath was drawn up In a Jiffy, three signatures were appended.' the Samaritan opened the bag, found the vinaigrette and proceeded - with resto rative measures. New York Times. The Real "Sherlock Holmes." It was a well known Edinburgh pro fessor of medicine who, all uncon- sciously, gave Sir Arthur Conan Doyle 1 the idea , of "Sherlock Holmes," the most famous detective ,knowri In fic tion. Sir Arthur studied under him as a medical student "Gentlemen," this professor would say to the students, "I am not quite I sure whether this man is a cork cutter ! or a sla ter. I observe a slight harden ing on one side of his forefinger and a little thickening on one side of his thumb, and that is a sure sign that he is one" or the other." Or to a patient he would say. "You are a soldier, and you have, served in Bermuda as a non commissioned officer," and then, turn ing to the students, he would point out that the man came into the. room with out taking off his hat as he would en ter an orderly room; that his manner showed that he, was a noncommis sioned officer and that a rash he bad on his forehead was known only in Bermuda.