Newspapers / The Labor News (Greensboro, … / March 12, 1909, edition 1 / Page 1
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"'1 ' n- ORG AM OF THE STATE I FEDERATION OF LABOR ENDOBSED. BY GREENSBORO TRADES COUNCIL. -F-3 V t- MOTQV Q VOL. iv. iATpMQa 19091 NUMBER 3 6 ; 1 1 THE BIGGEST THlNli YOU HAVE. By Norman DLippincott The future of the South is In the hands of the people who work. The aristocracy is dead and has been dead for forty years. Even while yet alive, its value was always in proportion to its actual work of superintendence. The portions of the South' which will bear any comparison with- similarly populated western areas are those in which industrial development has been proceeding on a considerable scale. Your union holds the key to the situation. If you can control the workers in any section you can de mand a steadily increasing portion of the profits of such development. Bradstreet's agency tells you that 95 per cent, of the people who embark in the small retail line fail. You will find the vast majority of small trades men are not receiving the net yearly income that you are, while the aver age clerk's wages are nothing like as high as your own. Your motto in de manding an increase should always be that of Morgan: "All the traffic will bear." Don't let. abstract rights worry you. They never worry the or ganized privileged classes. I always liked that motto. When applied to un ion demands It means many things: First, that the increase should be simultaneously demanded in all con tiguous industries In any given line. It should never drive an inaustry from one town to another or from one state to another. Second, it should always take ex isting conditions into account. While this panic lasts, many demands would be worse than useless. And, by the way, if the workers had been thor oughly organized enough to enforce, a full wage' return for their work, they could have continued buying back all which they produced, and there would consequently have been no overpro duction, and no panic. One town may suffice, as compared with another through location, rail road extortion or other causes. When such a case is plainly evident to the intelligent heads in any line of work the demands should be modified ac cordingly. Third, the union man should never forget that the larger part of wage increase is immediately shouldered, by the organized employers, back on himself and every other unorganized worker. If a union of masons, for in stance, enforce an increase from $3.00 to $3.50 per day, every house which they, the clerk, the larmer, or the ser vant buys, costs a certain amount more or rents for more per month. To place the union idea oni the firmest foundation, every class of workers should be organized, so that they may participate In the benefits of such or ganization; and until that time comes the unorganized classes should be given ti certain consideration. The union is the biggest thing you have in life. It has raised you from poverty to a tolerable existence. It is giving you decent clothes and a comfortable house. It is permitting you to edu cate your children. Their wants will be more than yours. Prepare the way for them to step into an income in proportion to their needs and intel ligence. They arepot all going to be doc tors, lawyers, or professors. Teach them the dignity of useful work. Teach them the intelligent use of the spare time resulting from shorter working hours. Teach them to read promiscuously. Keep the union idea alive in them. You can't afford to' let any of the next generation drift into the superintending ranks, and align itself against you. Make your union the center of your life. Organize a club, and reading room, A part of what you spend in many places would, if spent in a co-operative club room, pay- all running expenses. There Is not a single educational or social fea ture of your life which could not as well be built up around your union as any other institution. Advertise and popularize the union idea in every possible way, and above all things study politics. Asheville, N. C. FROM PHILADELPHIA. Editor of Labor News: -According to a table published in 1907 by Louise Bullard Moore, a computation of the income and expenditures of 200 work ingmen's families in New York city is made for the purpose of showing how much of said income goes for rent. In this table we find that rent ab sorbs a little over 19 per cent, of the gross income and also that the poor er the family the larger is the share going for this purpose, in some cases it being 30 per cent. We also find ' that the total average Incomes were $851.28; nineteen per cent, of this is about $161.74. It might be interesting to anyone of the inquiring turn of mind to find out why the American working man has to pay this large share of his in come and who receives it and what does the receiver give in return. When the builder empioys the archi tect, the masons, bricklayers, carpen ters and the host of others who help build houses, it is right and just that they should be compensated for their time and labor. The owner of the houses is entitled to enough income to cover the current expenses and a reasonable interest on his investment So far nothing seems to stand in the way of justice and equity.- v Now let , us . suppose a; builder from the town of Green Valley reads the above statement and he figures it out this way: "Each of these fami lies will give $160 a. year rent; that is 10 per cent oh $1,600 MvesfedVHr can build a six or seven room house I good quality for $1,600, for which f ' i i I I I W. H. SINGLETON, President Bookbinders Union, Raleigh these people will pay $160 and will gladly leave" the evil smelling tene ments in which they are now com pelled to live." The proposition looked good to him, so he boards a train for New York. Upon his arriva he hunts up a friend and states his proposition to him: He is surprised at the pity ing look on his friend's face, and asks him to explain wherein his proposi tion is faulty. "Where is the land on which to build the 200 houses?" The builder said he didn't know, but Judg ed that a matter of small consequence because on his way up from the ferry he saw enough vacant lots on which he could build many times 200 hous es. "Yes," said his friend, "although that land is vacant, yet It is .very val uable." "How can that be?" said the builder. "No labor has ever been ex pended on it, there are no crops grow ing on it" "I understand." "You're from Green Valley. Well it's this way: Land, owing to the present and prospective population of New York City would yield an enormous crop of 'dollars,' and as the population in creased it would soon make tho $160 rent now paid by the workmen look very small." In proof of this asser tion he showed him a statement In which the land value of New York City is far in excess of the value of tbct -1mpirvpmfvnt rrt -the- land. "If you say the present and pros pective population of New York City makes the land so valuable, then, why don't the people who make that value appropriate it to the needs of the community and no one would suffer. because it would come back to them in added communual benefits; besides such a course would help the builders and mechanics, as well as allow ev ery one to purchase or rent a home at a reasonable cost" His friend didn't attempt to answer this last statement, except by telling him that he was one of those Henry George cranks and that his scheme was impracticable. Very truly yours, Oliver Mcknight. IS SOCIALISM PERMANENT? By the Rev. Charles Stelzle. Suppose, for the sake of argument that socialism would bring about all that is claimed for it by its most ar dent advocates. Does anyone who has studied history imagine for a moment that our solution of the social prob lem will be satisfactory to the next generation? It does not matter how high our ideals may be nor how per fect our system the ideals and so lutions for our day will be laughed at fifty years hence,; just as we smile aye, and are ashamed of the social and economic system of fifty years ago, when the systen of slavery was quite generally accepted even among the very best and most sincere peo ple of the times. So thoroughly did they believe in It that it was one of the occasions of the greatest civil wars in history. But who is there to day that believes that any man, no matter who he may ;be, has a right to enslave his fellowmen. It is true that even some of the churches believed it fifty years ago, and no one enjoys reminding us of this more todiy than does the socialist, even though he would have us repeat the mistake of advocating a social system which fu ture generations will declare obselete, if not worse. ; It is quite generally admitted even by the socialists that socialism is not the ultimate ideal toward which we snould strive. . Many,; of the best in formed among them gay that social ism is simply a step 'toward philoso phical anarchy, a system, which would completely annihilate the law, and which today frankly declares that the law is the source of all evil stand ing at the opposite extreme of social ism, which would apply the law to so ciety In all of its ramifications. If so cialism IS to be discarded and some thing better is to take its place some time in the-future, why should the church stop short of, anything that is not the: highest and best? Why should it not stand for certain fundamental principles which are applicable to so ciety in every generation and which were taught by Jesus Christ himself? These principles are eternal and It is for these that the church must ever contend. . ' .Jf'j. . When the socialists have been ac cused of preaching "class conscious ness" for instance, thev tell that they LpreaSh this doctrine" in order to wipe v Jr vies consciousness t among men, so that they niay "assert the reign of i.-e spirit : of brotherhood. ...,-V-if , . ' . I 7 u , ;? . ! - I. A. OF M. J. N. CURTIS. Recording Secretary J. W. McENTEE, Vice-President C. E. FISHER, Financial Secretary But why should the church preach class consciousness in order to bring about the high ideal for which it is contending? Is it not better to strike at once for the ultimate ideal toward which we all profess to be aiming? Every man knows that his ideals are constantly advancing. When he reach es the ideal of former days, already his conception of what he ought to be has gone far beyond. Indeed, we will never reach our best aspirations hi this life. No matter how advanced our progress in this generation, . we cannot legislate for - the- next rSHs labor question will never be settled until the last day's work is done and the church cannot afford to be spon sor for any system which may embar rass future generations, both inside and outside of the church. FROM BAINBRIDGE, GA. Editor Labor News: In New South Wales, the premier state of Australia, there are no hard times, if the official report of the Labor Bureau of that state are to be believed. According to that report; there are no unem ployed in the country. Not only that, but wages are actually rising nota bly among agricultural laborers. In the adjoining state, Victoria, on the other hand, the government is making frantic efforts to find work for the unemployed, and wages are falling. Why this contrast? Is there any difference in the administration of the two governments that might account for it? The most radical distinction be tween the two systems is in the mat ter of taxation. In Victoria, the gen erally accepted taxing methods pre vail. In New South Wales, we find the most striking instance on earth of radical tax reform. Early in the year 1908 this new sys tem came into operation. It was es tablished by the state parliament, and required all town and county councils (only excepting the city of Sydney) to place a tax of one penny in the pound on land values, irrespective of improvements other taxes to be placed on land or improvements, at the option of the local council, sub ject to referendum vote of land hold ers. There are 324 such taxing bod ies in New South Wales, all subject in part, to the will of the land own ers in the matter of taxation. As a result we have the remarka ble spectacle of landowners placing all taxes on land in 299 of these 324 communities. They think it worth while to pay a greater tax on land values in order to exempt their im provements. This leads directly to the question of why there are no unemployed in that country. Increased taxes on land make it unprofitable to hold land idle, and consequently, much land is thrown on the market, and the price conspicuously drops.. On the other hand, exemption of Improvements makes the idea of building look far more attractive to the man of lim ited resources. Cheap land and untax ed improvements have started a build ing boom which means the employ ment of labor in many -fields, and may be reasonably credited with the : fav orable condition of labor in ;iNew South Wales. Very respectfully, MARY HICKS. Balnbrldge, Ga. "There's one thing that Tve no ticed about the charity that begins at home," sneered the crusty . old bach elor i ' - . , , . "What's , that?" , "It becomes so etreinely domestic that It never calls r on the neighbors' Exchange. 7 ; -,;!! ;j ; c ' Joy is well lh. it way, but a 'few flashes ' of ' joy are trifles in 'compari son with a life of peace." 'I;- h. THE SORT OF SCHOOLS THE SOUTH NEEDS. But without disparaging the college or the university, I would say that first of all, we must give greater at tention to the public schools. It is in them that the farmer, the average man, gets his education. We can not make our Southern farmers adopt Iowa methods so long as in the aver age Southern State, there are five times as many white farmers who can't read a farm paper or fertilizer Xofcmnia as. there, are ..in. Iowa. - We cannot improve our farming until we educate our farmers; we cannot de velop the South until we develop our Southerners. I Nor is it enough that we have long er public school terms; we must have j better public schools. And we must ' make them train for life, for practical things. Teach the farm boy how cot ton and corn and tobacco may be im proved by seed selection; how a plant feeds, and how soils are exhausted; what elements are found in common feedstuffs, and which make fat and which make muscle, which cows make money in the dairy, and which should be selected for beef and a thousand other things. Not only should the ele ments of agriculture be a public school study in the rural districts, but there should be a revolution in the text-books for other studies. In your spelling book, for instance, where do you find such words as nitrogen, pot ash, protein, or even such common farm terms as clevis, singletree, mat tock, etc.? Made by city people for city .people, the books and teaching have not been adapted to the needs of the country children. We shall take a long step forward when the farm boy has proportionately fewer problems in arithmetic about foreign exchange and latitude and longitude and the metric system of weights and measures, and more about how to calculate a feeding ration for cows or a fertilizer formula from certain quantities of potash, phosphoric acid and nitrogen, and when he studies proportionately less about far-away Australia and Kamchatka, and more about the soil that he walks over and plows in every day of. his life. From an address by Clarence H. Poe, editor of the Progressive Farmer and the Southern Farm Gazette,' before the Southern Commercial Congress, Wash ington, D. C. THE AIM OF ORGANIZATION. Sometimes people talk as -if we or ganized unions and paid dues, talked unionism and endured the hardships of strikes just for the fun of the thing just because we want to dis turb the peaceful owners of all prop erty. Really, we should assure these people, this is not true. We are not passionately in love with the word "eight" or with the minimum wage of our trade. What we want and work for is life more life and fuller, men tal and physical. The practical jus tification of our struggle always to shorten hours, always to raise wages, is, thus expressed by Wendell Phil lips: "Lift a man, give him life, let him work eight hours a day, give him the school, develop his : taste for music, give him a garden, give him beauti ful things to see and good books' to read, and yon will starve out those lower appetites. Give a man a chance to earn a good living, and you may save his life. So it is with woman in prostitution. Poverty is the road, to it; it Is this that makes them the. prey of wealth and the leisure of another class. Give a hundred men in , this country, good wages and eight hours' work, and, ninety-nine will disdain , to steal. Give unto- all ' women a . chance to earn a good living, and ninety-nine of j them , will disdain to : barter their: virtue I for gold."- Dallas, . Tex., Laborer." V .i j J t f GEO. R. MATHEWS, President Central Labor Union, High Point, N. C BRAINS. Thomas L. Masson, in Lippincott's Magazine, thus wittily discourses up on a fruitful theme: "Brains are common to all parts of the country, and traces of them have even been discovered in summer at Lenox, Bar, Harbor and Newport. "They are originally used to obtain money; but when money is obtain ed by them it usually takes their place. "The quality of. brains varies in dif ferent localities. Mixed with ginger, they become very valuable. With a spine, they are a necessity in every household. "At one time they influenced litera ture, but the discovery was made that literature could do without thenu Since that time they have been al most exclusively devoted to advertis ing. "Brains are employed in various en terprises. They make bridges, rail roads and other systems of transpor tation. They also create capital, and are used extensively in evading the law. They mix with water and gaso line, but are absorbed by alcohol. "Brains are bought and . sold in the open market. They may be traded in on the exchange in Washington and Albany or in other political cen ters. TeestqTIity7howeverr are not traded in. Indeed, oftentimes they are not even heard of until long after they have passed away." THE UNION SHOP. An Advantage to Both the Employer and the Worker. In conncetion with the open shop campaign in the District of Columbia Sam De Nedrey, secretary of the Cen tral Labor Union, is sending out some educational literature to both bosses and workmen. One of the "union shop statements" follows: "The trades union enables the fair employer, who, like the fair unionist, predominates, to estimate his labor on a living basis. This system is a good deal preferable to figuring on what his unfair competitor can pro cure his cheapest help for. Not only that, but it is a protection for the mer chant. It enables the trades union ist to live as becomes an American cit izen and has a powerful influence in procuring fair compensation. ' "Again, the union headquarters act as a clearing house for the employer. It is convenient to send there for ad ditional help. "The trades union s not flawless by any means. It is a good deal easier to tear down than to build up, but the latter course applied with Intelli gence to the labor movement will ov ercome many of its deficiencies. The gains are greater than the losses. While the dominant trait of human nature is selfishness just so long will we find both sides endeavoring to get the best of the Industrial situation. The trades union has come to stay, It is a natural outgrowth of present day conditions." DOLLS AND DOLL CARRIAGES. We have entirely too many dolls and doll" carriages. . We have our regular quantity bought and through a mis understanding of the salesman we were shipped double the quantity; while we are not the sole losers on this deal you are the gainer. These dolls and carriages must be sold and sold quick and there's but one way to move them, and that is to sell them less than any one else can afford to, which we are doing every day. We have the greatest line of dolls and toys that has ever been shown in Greens boro, and we are selling them at the same small profit in- which we move all our merchandise. We don't offer you any extra premiums in order to move this merchandise and then in a cunning way tell you we are going to give yon something, and then on ev ery twenty-five cents worth you buy from us add 10 per. cent, extra. This old premium business has play ed but- -Every' 'dollar's worth the' merchant gives away;;; his ; customers pay; ten,: for. r . So why ;. not , come to a store . whichX has . been doing: business and treating the people right for twenty-two 1 years; and 1 business- increasing every year.' We guarantee to save you mony on every dollar's worth yon buy frpxn us and you will notice it more , on our holiday line than on anything else you 5 buy. THE ORIGINAL RACKET STORE, A. V. SAPP, Prop. - 318 S. Elm St. WISDOM. FOR EMPLOYERS. . Judge George Gray, speaking of or ganization as a factor . in industry that must be recognized, said : "Trade unionism is rapidly becom ing a matter of business, and that employer who fails to give the same careful attention to- the question of his . relation to labor or his employes which r he gives to other- factors which enter into, the conduct of his business makes a mistake which sooner orjat er he will be obliged to correct. In this as In -other things it is much bet ter to start right than to make mis takes in starting, which necessitates returning to correct them. . Experi ence shows that the more full the rec ognition given to the trades union the more business-like and responsible it becomes. VThe worker has the right to quit or to strike in conjunction with his fellows when "by so doing he does not violate a contract made by or far nim." UNION MEN. Patronize the merchants who advertise in your , paper. . THE LABOR NEW8 Is appreciated by merchants ' who are In sympathy with the workers' cause, or who look for the business of the wage earner, and they use its advertis ing columns. There is hardly a firm In this city that could stand out openly and say it did not care for the workingmen's trade, but names could be mentioned of bus iness men . who have nothing but hard words to nand in return for a generous patronage. Stand by the . business men, who stand by you. You can purchase as cheap ly and advantageously from THE LABOR NEWS' advertisers, with as good treatment thrown in, as from any or all others combined. Patronize Home Industry. Patronize , our Advertisers. , Help your Friends. r , Get 1 Union Laber Goods. PRIDE 0? Smoking Tobaccc " is made by a Killed union labor. Every bag baa tbe bltie label on it and is tbe finest tbat of cost SEEE)S BDCXBES9 8EEBS SUCCEED! SPECIAL OFFER: Mmim 1M Kr BhImm. A trial Win make yoa oar permanent customer. w.ww.. tas 1 kind: TMUtws 11 tbe fine ; T fplendid 2 0te, best TMie- Write to-day g Mention this Paper. SEND lO CENTS i m4 PMkta and neato tmla TihaUt eoOrtfon cC 8e4e tyM. torathar with nqr big i iMtnettra mmiuim Bee mm A moat Beak, i muogn if art rmnmm bmj Ftante, ef. Thos. A. Partin Company The Hen Dry Goods Store. Ladies' FurnioK- ingo and Novoltioo tio ci .call. -i If: I T.H.BRIGGSfiSONS ;.7f: RALEIGH, N. C. .nr T H E B I GO ,s ft i. , -. ; : Sons of Mechanics . no; .. h Friends op Mechanics . ; Vet lyilLTltEAT YQURiOHTif x 1 1 taeovar pomh naraware Dtore
The Labor News (Greensboro, N.C.)
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March 12, 1909, edition 1
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