The Wageworker. (Lincoln, Neb.) 1904-????, December 16, 1910, Image 40

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    GET READY TO FIGHT.
Citizens Opposed to Pipe Dreams
Should Gird on Armor.
Citizens and taxpayers of Lin
coln who are opposed to pipe
dreams and in favor of progres
sive municipal government,
should be getting ready to put the
rollers under the proposed new
city charter framed up by the
cumbersome charter committee.
The fine Italian hands of two or
three franchised corporations are
easily discernible in the framing
of the proposed charter; also the
much coarser hands of something
like fourteen politicians who are
seemingly anxious to perpetuate
their little $25 a month council
manic jobs.
Even the proviso that the mayor
may not appoint any of his rela
tives to office does. not counter
balance the vicious features of the
charter. Briefly the proposed
charter provides for a council of
fourteen members elected at large
the same sized council as at
present. Then it provides for the
election of a mayor, who shall
have power to appoint all other
officials and heads of depart
ments. This ?s said to be after
the ."Boston plan," and it sounds
like it.
The people of Lincoln want a
commission form of government,
and have so expressed themselves
They want it without any frills or
furbelows. Just a plain commis
sion form government, with five
commissioners, each responsible
directby to the people for the man
agement of a specified department
of the city government and sub
ject to recall at any time. They
want this because they are tired
of the councilmanic form, which
is cumbersome, unresponsive to
popular will, beyond recall and
usually so messed up with cheap
politics as to be wholly useless
to the taxpayers. The proposed
plan retains this bad feature and
add another in the shape of allow
ing one man to appoint all the of
ficials outside of the councilmen
themselves.
The Wasreworker has inter
viewed a number of voters, repre
sentatives of all classes of our
citizenship, and has yet to find the
first one who has a good word to
say for it. On the other hand they
condemn it, and some of them
use pretty lurid language in their
condemnation.
THE COLOR LINE.
Must Be Obliterated if Organized
Labor Is to Succeed.
The drawing of the color line
in a labor organization is one of
the most unreasonable ideas we
have ever heard advanced. Labor
knows no color, white, black and
yellow have to work and are em
ployed by capital to produce
wealth.
Nothing suits the corporate in
terests better than to inject the
' color line in the labor move
ment, as it means a serious stum
bling: block to the thorough or
ganisation of the workers. Tditor
Scaife of the United Mine Work
ers Journal has the folloiwng ar
ticle in. a recent issue:
The electrical workers are being
perplexed somewhat by the large
number of colored men who are
becoming electricians, and as
their constitution forbids the col
ored man to hold membership in
the Electrical Workers union.
They are asking, "What are we
going to do?'' The answer is
easy do the same as the miners
did twenty-five years ago admit
them into the union, treat them
risrht and they will be among the
best union men 3-ou have. This
color , line on a proposition in
which j'ou have either to treat it
right or it will be used against
you is foolishness. Capital draws
no color line in its employment of
labor. If it can use one race to
crush the other it will and does.
Labor has only one remedy, and
that is to get all men who earn
a living- into the organization of
the craft they belong to, and then
it will win every time. United
we win, divided we lose, hits
white and colored alike in the la
bor "movement. Colorado Indus
trial Review.
tion on account of a lack of funds,
and a collection was taken from
all the delegates of 50 cents each
to pay his expenses, and this col
lection was taken on the very date
that the subsidized press all over
the United States came out with
the story that Sam Gompers had
read the negro out of the move
ment. Oklahoma Labor Unit.
Stereoptypers Settle."
The commercial stereotypers
and electrotypers" strike in San
Francisco is settled. The men
employed in the job offices won a
quick and decisive victory. Every
journeyman and apprentice
obeyed the strike call, making a
complete tie-up. The strike lasted
only one week.
NO COLOR LINE.
There was one colored delegate
to the A. F. of L. conventnon,
who represented a southern or
ganization. Early in the conven
tion the colored delegate stated
that his organization could not af
ford to send him to the conven
Hyrs Endorsed.
"Gus" Hyers of Havelock was
endorsed for the position of sheriff
at the meeting of the Havelock
and Lincoln branch of the associ
ation of machinists Friday even
ing. Lincoln Daily Star.
GETTING TOGETHER.
The central executive of the
Victorian (Austrailia) Political
Labor Council has discussed the
question of affiliation of all trade
unions (numbering about 60)
with the council. A number are
already affiliated, and it is un
derstood that the Victorian Coal
Miners' Association will shortly
do so. Special efforts are to be
made to bring in those unions not
yet affiliated.
Twenty-four Years Old
The Old Line Bankers Life
Of Lincoln Has Over
Assets Farm Mortgages