THE GREAT DEBATE
Nebraska Will Defend the Closed Shop
Proposition Soon.
The debate between the University
of Nebraska and the University of Wis
consin on the question of the open shop
vs. the closed shop will be held in Lin
coln on December 2nd. The Nebraska
debating squad will take the closed shop
end of the controversy, and here's put,
ting a lot of trust in the ability of th
Cornhuskers to make good.
The debate will be held at the uni
versity chapel and promises to be the
big university event of the year.
THE WORKER'S DUTY
The laborer has wrongs to right, haf
obstacle, to remove. He has notonlyf
right but a duty to seek to correct thes
wrongs and remove these obstacles, anc1
he has a right-nay, a duty to corr.b"n
with his fellows in his work. I lock up
on the organization of laborers as the
morning star of the new day, the latest
and finest product of social evolution.
Let them find each other out, discuss
their common interests, discover theii
mutual obligations, study together th
perplexing riddle of life. Let them
combine. Help them combine. Let
those who perhaps through superior
merit of their own have some advantage
ground guide them in their own combi
nation. Rev. Jenkin Lloyd Jones.
THE RIGHT S?IRIT.
The union men of Sangamon county,
111., the county in which Springfield is
located, do things. At the last election
tdey elected a representee in the legis
lature, the couty clerk and the clerk of
the probate court. Two were on the
republican ticket and one on the hemc
cratic ticket. The union men fo get
politics and went out to elect men of
their own class. They had four candi
dates, but lost out bn one by a narrow
margin. The unionists of Sangamon
have set a fine example.
AN OVERSIGHT.
By oversight The Wageworker of
November 5 appeared minus th i label of
the allied printing trades. We disc
overed the oversight about as soon as
the carrier began leaving the mail the
next morning. The 'phones began ring
ing and "kicks" were registered. Sev
eral copies came back with the ' 'sticker' '
thereon. And ye editor has been held
up on the street and forced to explain
a score of times. It's there now, anc
the make-up man notified that he will
be instantly discharged if ever again the
.label is lifted from the forms for any
purpose whatever.
Capital vs. Labor.
First Drummer-How much do you
earn a week, old man?
Second Drummer-Oh, about $500 for
the firm; but I only get $25 and expenses
out of it.
A Reproof.
"Ob. children, you are so noisy to
day. Can t you be a little quieter"
"Xw. grandma, you most ie more
considerate and IK scold us. You nee.
If It wasn't tor us yoU ivouidul lw a
srauduui at ail."
THE TRADE UNION.
Workingman's Sole Weapon of
Protection.
COMPELS A LIVING WAGE.
Capital Dislikes Labor Organizations
Because of the Power They Wield
Against Injustice True Meaning of
Unionism.
We have listened to the old reason-
I Lug iuui iuk vvuiiiiiiguiuu is uuie n
' make as good a contract individually
as a labor union can. I don't believe
j the Individual switchman or a rail
road man who i3 earning $G3 a month
would get much satisfaction if he pro
tested against a cut in his wages.
What chance has he to see the su
perintendent and insist that he cannot
support his family on a smaller wage?
But If he is a member cf an associa
tion that includes thousands of men in
every branch of railroading, his griev
ance is sure to reach the ear of the
president.
Trade unions endeavor to secure a
monopoly of labor, they say. Well,
suppose they do. If they could create
a monopoly they could starve the
world.
But it seems to me that the trade
union is net the only bedy that tries to
establish a monopoly. Capital does it.
Capitalists do not like unions be
cause they interfere with business,
they say. Yes, they do interfere if itb
business. They compel capital to pay
living wages. They enforce the de
mand for the protection of life in the
factories. They keep women and chil
dren from working fifteen and sixteen
hours in an insanitary building. This
is a pretty serious thing when a state
has to pass a law to prevent a man
sending his twelve-year-old girl into a
factory. You don't have to compel a
tiger to protect its offspring.
Capital says unions interfere with
business. A brick factory does not
make a business any more than a body
of wcrkingrnen gathered outside the
factory makes a business. There is no
business until the owner of the fac
tory and the workmen meet, agree
upon terms and the men enter the fac
tory and go to work. The employer
puts his money Into business and the
workingman his life. The one has as
much right as the other to regulate
that business. . .
Men don't go into businesses be
cause they like them. They are ex
pensive. It costs money to support a
union. Men don't advocate a closed
shop because they like it; but, my
friends, it Is because trade unions and
the closed shop are the only means
the workingman has to protect his life
and family.
Their faults are human.. The weak
nesses of trade unions are the weak
nesses of every association of men.
They cannot be helped.
Some day there will come the broth
erhood of man. Some day industrial
warfare as well as warfare between
nations will be seen to be ridiculous
and a waste of life and money. Some
day men will work together in a grand
co-operative scheme. But until that
day the trade union must stand .as the
only safeguard of the workingman,
the only instrument by which he can
maintain himself and his family.
Clarence Darrow.
Laughter.
Laughter i recommended as a cure
for indigestion. It looks easy to the
person who Is not afflicted with indl
iresiiya. Toledo Blade,
EVBi COURTS CAN LEARN.
Recognition of the Humane Idea In
"Freedom" of Contract.
"What we know as men we cannot
proics3 to be ignorant of as judges."
When the supreme court of Illinois
acted on that idea it made a long jump
from the musty past to the up to date
present. In this particular case the
court was acting in the matter of the
law liriting to ten hours the working
day of women in factories. By its
action it overruled the decision of the
supi tae court of the same state of fif
teen years ago. By the old idea citi
zens, whether men or women, were to
be "free" to contract for a day's work
of any length whatever. Bjr the new
idea women are. to be protected from
such ' freedom," since with their health
rests lac future of the race.
As f ?e Oregon restriction law on the
same subject has been held constitu
tionr.1 Ly the United States supreme
court, the factory owners in the other
states may as well bow to the inevita
ble w'.cn their legislatures pass simi
lar laws. And that principle that
what judges know as men they ought
also to know as judges might be ex
tended to other matters affecting la
bor. Every man in the Unted States,
whether judge or layman, knows that
a man's purchasing power is his own
and that he cannot be deprived of it
by any rightful decree. Every man in
the United States knows that the right
of free speech and free press is essen
tial to a free country; no man, wheth
er layman cr judge, is good enough or
wise enough to forbid another man
to speak his thought. Just as the Il
linois supreme court has reversed it
self in the case referred to above
other courts may be reversed which
have assumed to say that free speech
shall not be free speech and that a
free press shall be muzzled. Samuel
Gompers.
TWAIN ON UNIONISM.
Saw With Clear Vision It Was the
Worker's Only Hope.
William Dean Howells, Socialist and
novelist, in a series of articles in Har
per's Magazine on Mark Twain, of
whom he was an intimate friend, tells
of Mark Twain's attitude to working
class politics in the following descrip
tion: His mind and soul were with those
who do the hard work of the world,
in fear of - those who give them a
chance for their livelihood and under
pay tliem all they can. He never went
so far in socialism as I have gone, if
he went that way at all, but he was
fascinated with "Looking. Backward"
and Lad Bellamy to visit him, and
from the first he had a luminous vision
of organized labor as the only present
help for workingmen.
He would show that side with such
clearness and such -force that you
could not say anything in hopeful con
tradiction. He saw with that relentless
insight of his"that in the unions was
the woringman's only present hope of
standing up like a man against money
and the power of it. There was a
time when I was afraid that his eyes
were a little holden from the truth,
but in the very last talk I had with
him I found T was wrong and that the.
great humorist was as great a humor
ist as ever. I wish that all the work
folk could know this and could know
him their friend in life as he was in
literatr.re, as he was in such a glori
ous gospel of equality as the Connecti
cut Yankee at the court of King Ar
thur. Workers Urged to Organize.
"A 'strong labor uniou is the only so
lution -f the present condition of the
worlzliigmei," said Johann Giesberts,
meml'ef of the German reichstag and
leader cf the Center party of that
body, in a recent address at Philadel
phia. He said:
"Socialism is not and never will be
able to better the condition of the
working classes, although its very ap
peal to the public mind is the promise
that it will work this benefit. I am
fight.' ng this socialism, and in doing
so I realize that there is an absolute
need of some social reform, especially
here in the United States. The only
way we can get reform is by legisla
tion, to be brought about by the work
ingmen. The strongest weapon the
laboring classes have and the one that
can do them the most good is the
strong labor union. Let the working
men organize among themselves and
see what a power they will become."
Wages of English Bakers.
A difference as to hours and rates
of wages between bakers and their
employers in the Birmingham district
has been settled, and a material re
duction in the hours of labor and some
increase in wages have been effected.
Hereafter fifty-four hours a week, ex
clusive of mealtimes, are to be the
limit of employment. Previously the
average throughout the district was
seventy hours per week. '' ' "
VALUE OF ORGANIZATION.
If every union man should
constitute himself an organizer T
and should give even one even
ing of each week to organiza
tion, if he should single out one
nonunion neighbor or acquaint
ance and persist in an effort to
organize that man, what a short
time it would take to unionize
all the workers of our country!
And if all were organized how
much less difficult it would be
to secure higher wages, shorter
hours and better conditions of
life and labor! John Mitchell.
i
t
ii
a
t ! '
She Didn't Mind.
A girl with a Gibson face and a
green feather in her hat boarded a
Chestnut street car the other after
noon. She carried something in a pa
per sack under her arm. The car was
crowded with passengers, and no one
offered to rise.
The girl looked worried, but set her
lips and grabbed at a strap. Just then
the cur lurched, the girl made a wild
effort to keep on her feet and threw -her
bundle straight in a large man's
lap. There was a peculiar grinding
sound in the sack, and then something
seeped out that looked suspiciously
like the yellow of an" egg.
"What in the thunder is this stuff?"
he stit rted to say. when she sweetly
remarked as she clung to the strap:
"Oh. never mind making apologies.
I can get another dozen of eggs at our
grocery."
The conductor removed the. sack of
eggs, and the man looked so savage
that no one dared laugh. Louisville
Times.
A Weekly Birthday.
Dr. Marks, who, for many years was
head of St. .John's college. Rangoon,
which the young Burmese princes at
tended, once granted a day's holiday
because it was Queen Victoria's birth
day. The king asked Dr. Marks what
he meant by It. On hearing the ex
planation he said graciously, "That's
all right, but will you give them a holi
day ou my birthday?" :
Dr. Marks said he certainly would
if bis majesty would inform .him what
was the day on . which the world was
blessed by his birth. ' - :
"According to Burmese national cus
tom." said the king, "my birthday Is
every Tuesday!" -.'
