Newspapers / The Harbinger (Raleigh, N.C.) / Aug. 2, 1902, edition 1 / Page 1
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. (77 ( i UyrA HARBINGER H ORGANIZATION. EDUCATION.' ELEVATION. Vol. I. Raleigh, N. C, Saturday, August 2. 1902. NC 30 H THE LITTLE OLI STOKE. Oh, the little old store with the bell on the door, That rang as you went out and in, With a ting-a-ling ting, as it swung on the spring And deafened your ears with its din ! Oh, the little old store gave measure aud more, And everything smelled sweet of spice ; Though 'twas dark, to say, and nothing was new Yet ever) thing sold there was nice. For a quaint little maid, in muslin arrayed, Would answer each from the door, And smiles sweet and simple played tag with the dimple In the cheeks of the maid of the store I used often to step in the little old shop, And sometimes for nothing at all, But to just shake the spring and to hear the bell ring For Nelly to answer its call. Ah ! those times are all o'er, the little old store Has vanished with old-f ashioned ways ; Till sometimes it seems as but one of the dreams That we have of our boyhood days. Though a faint, vague regret comes over me yet As I think of those days now no more, In my heart I would fain be a glad lad again And with Nell in the little old store. Roy L. McCardell. UNIONS AFTER DIRECT LEGISLATION. BY HENRY STERLING, (Of Boston, in the Typographical Journal.) For years the platform of the Amer ican Federation of Labor has contain ed a plank demanding direct legisla tion. Most Central Labor Unions and State Federations declare it to be nec essary. Numerous national and inter national bodies have resolved in favor of it, and our own International Typo graphical Union has twice set forth its desirability, and urged its members and locals to work for it. Some trades unions have awakened to the fact that this reform is absolute ly essential to the further progress of the labor movement. In Oregon, where a constitutional amendment granting to the people the initiative and refer endum has just been approved by the people, the unions were an essential factor in the struggle to wring this concession from the politicians. In Missouri organized labor is lending valuable help, in the effort to being the matter forcibly before the next Legis lature. Rhode Island trades unionists assisted in the abortive attempt to se cure the referendum from the rulers of that petty principality of plutocracy. But it is in Massachusetts that the. trades unions have been most earnest, active and insistent in their demand for the initiative and referendum. Its power, value and necessity have been more fully recognized by leaders of labor there than elsewhere. In every city of the Commonwealth, and in many of the smaller towns, the unions have discussed and agitated for direct legislation for the power of the peo ple to make laws for themselves. A word as to the power of the initia tive: There is not a monopoly in ex istence but what derives its misused power from special privileges made possible by law. Every trust that en slaves labor and robs the public owes its life to iniquitous legislation. The law-makers who' met this year, last year, and whojwill meet next year, are for the barefaced extortions and op pressions which are throttling the as pirations of the poor ; for the dumb wail of the Southern factory child ; for womanhood blighted by competition for work with those who should be protectors; for the poverty which dwarfs the body, starves the mind and smothers spirituality. ,.. The wrongs which humanity suffers are legalized. Then why not change the laws? Last year the Massachusetts Legis lature rejected, almost without consid eration, over thirty labor bills, clearly righteous, all in the interest of the peo ple ; it enacted, almost without oppo sition, over sixty laws granting vari ous fresh privileges to corporations. Its record this year will be as - bad. And it has the reputation of being the most liberal Legislature to labor in the United States. Not by Legislatures will salutary changes be made. The people must act for themselves. There is little recognition of human rights in any legislative body. Why shouid there be? A Legislature is itself a close corporation, holding an absolute monopoly of the most precious right of the community the right to make laws. We stand in the absurd light of creating a monopoly to control the fundamental function of govern ment, and expecting freedom and jus tice to spring from it. We are foolish enough to grant special privileges to a few in order that all may enjoy equality. The mother of all monopolies is the monopoly granted to the legislat ors of the law-making business. Over throw that, and no more monopolies will be created. Those now sapping the vitals of labor and making liberty a byword and mockery would soon be destroyed by denying their privileges. The initiative aud referendum afford equal opportunity for each citizen to take part in making the laws. The attainment of direct legislation means the death-knell of monopoly. Every year shows a more lively apprehension of these facts by the trade unionist of the Old Bay State, and each year the demand for the initiative becomes more urgent. Four bills on the subject were presented to this leg islature, and when the committee to hear petitioners in favor of the bills met, more than 2,000 advocates flocked to the state house to present their case. Nine-tenths of these were trade-unionists. The bill specifically supported by them provided that constitutional amendments should be submitted to a vote of the people when petitioned for by 50,000 voters. The committee gave to the legislature a unanimous favorable report. After two months of anxious waiting, a final vote showed 129 in favor to 82 against (including pairs), a majority of 37, but still 17 votes short of the two-thirds required for a constitutional amendment. The unions are indebted to some honest, earnest legislators, who did all they could to carry the measure this year. These will be remembered. Some members show their affiliations in their opposition. These, too, will not be forgotten. Boston Central La bor Union has already ordered that the roll-call on the bill shall be print ed and circulated as thickly as possible in every district in the state. The re sult will be to make the unions more determined than ever to attain the ini tiative and referendum. By order of the city council, the la bel appears on all municipal printing at Salem, Ohio. Good for No. 441. : Minneapolis ; unionists have ideas upon the exclusion of the Chinese, and they are putting them into effect by boycotting restaurants and all other branches of business in which the wily Mongolians are interested. "WOULD CHRIST BELONG TO A LABOR UNION?" Rev. Cortland Myers, D. D., has en deavored to answer this question in a book he has written which bears the above title. The book is in romance form, having as characters David Dowling a minister of the gospel, whom the author makes the vehicle of his opinions on this question, through conversations and sermons ; Henry Fielding, a union working man, and his sister, Elsie ; Grace Chalmers, a young woman of wealth, consecrated to philanthropy, and Richard Hard ing, a fellow member and fellow work man of Fielding's. Passing by the romance and love making features of the book, and con sidering the vital question, it is inter esting to know that the author has answered it emphatically in the affirm ative Christ would belong to a labor union ! Not, assome one has face tiously said, because, in certain locali ties he would be obliged to, if he wanted to work at his trade, but be cause the fundamental principles of trades-unionism are correct and their soundness no more vitiated by the ex istence of malcontents than those of the Christian religion because of the presence of hypocrites. There was naturally some curiosity to know what the author would say on this subject, and his handling of it is an agreeable surprise. To be sure, he condemns violence while uphold ing the working man's right to organ ize. It is unfortunate that his solution of the labor and capital question ap pears so impracticable. For to achieve entire success it will be necessary for every working man and every employ er to look at the great industrial ques tion as Rev. Mr. Myers looks at it, which involves thorough consecration to the Supreme Being and the utter rout of selfishness from the human soul. And that would be the millen nium ! So, too, if this same selfishness were eliminated there would be no further need of jails, courts, police, asylums, poor-houses indeed, we would need no government of any kind ! If ! But while that long word of two letters really the longest word in the lan guageexists the irrepressible conflict will go on, and all we can hope to do is to have the law, which was set in motion to curb selfishness, to intervene in labor disputes as it does in other disagreements, and settle them ration ally and justly, without resort to open warfare. I never knew but one other minister of the gospel who talked and wrote like Rev. Mr. Myers, and he was Rev. Harry Cassell, an Episcopalian and a union printer. Would there were more ! Far be it from me to discourage the efforts of this author to settle the great question of labor and capital, but the remedy proposed, while I would hail its universal acceptance with joy, in the light of past experience seems such a far cry that it leaves . little to be hoped for. Were labor as a whole to drop all other efforts at equitable ad justment and wait .for the thorough evangelization of the world what more could capital ask ? J. J. Dirks, of Boston, in Typographical Journal. DOOLEY ON THE LABEL. "Did ye say 'Wot's the union label?' Hogan ? Listen to me fer a short space and ye'll know. "The' union label, Hogan, is a sign that th' trusts don't make everything. T' use th' words of what's-his-nanie, is th' world th' bright an' shinin' stor that shows t'thT world Uh'strength uv th' workin' man an' also a club, t' knock th'divuls out in th' scab fac'trys. When ye see th' label on th' shoes ye can make up yer mind that th' man that made thim had pie fer dinner last Sunday. When ye see th' same on yer clothes ye know that ye won't ketch th' smallpox from wearin thim. Whin, Hogan, ye see th' label on th' paper ye read, ye know that no matter whither its Raypublican or Dimmycrat or mid dle of th' Road Prohibitiohists, th' gang set it up had a few pennies in their pockets Saturday night. I tell ye, Hogan, 'tis a great thing. Whin ye go t' buy yourself a hat, Hogan, don't let th' man tell ye that 'ye look nice in that wun, sir,' until ye's looked for th' hat makers' label. 'Wot good will all this do ye,' d'ye say, Hogan? "Hogan, ye're an ass. Don't ye see that whin th' gang gets paid $10 a week they can pay fer more groceries thin they cu'd on $6? Hogan, ye're a dead head." ORGANIZATION PAYS BIG DIVI DENDS. The old; old question is still being asked : "Does it pay to organize?" The writer has made a number of in vestigations of late as to results ob tained by organization. Take for ill ustration our own industry. It is shown that Brockton, wich is the best organized shoe town in the world, pays nearly 10 per cent, higher wages than its nearest competitor. Perhaps the notable example of the big dividends which organization pays is in the mining industry. In the anthracite coal district in Alabama the miners were almost whol ly unorganized prior to 1897. Their wages at that time were 37 cents a ton for mining coal and the 10-hour day prevailed. Ten thousand miners have been organized in that state since 1867, and they have reduced the hours of labor to nine per day, and increased the wages 17 cents a ton. A miner can mine 100 tons a month, this would indicate an increase in wages of $17.50 a month. Take the Seaman's Union. The secretary at New York has informed the writer recently that a thorough or ganization of the seamen on the At lantic coast has resulted in an increase of wages from $7 to $15 a month. Not only have their wages been increased but other reforms have been won by uniting. How often do we read in the daily press of union brickmasons, carpen ters, plumbers, hod-carriers, and other well organized crafts demanding the 8-hour day and from 35 cents to 50 cents per hour for wages. These illustrations might be contin ued at such length as to fill the Jour- nai. ;. .'; The biggest diiiidend-paying institu tion that the wage workers can invest in is the trade union movement. Bos ton Shoe Workers' Journal. . A CURIOSITY OF COINAGE. A writer describing a visit to the United States Mint in Philadelphia, says in part : "A peculiar thing about the coinage system of the United States is that the government loses money in coin ing gold, but makes a big profit in coining pennies.' For instance, in a $10 gold piece there is exactly $10 worth of gold and 10 per cent, of cop per put in to harden the precious metal besides the cost of mining. A silver piece of money is about half pro fit, but the penny pays Uncle Sam best of all, as the blanks are purchased at the rate of $7,300 per million. That is, the United States government ob tains for 7 3-10 cent the copper blanks, which, by the process of stamping, are transformed into one dollar's worth of pennies. "The Philadelphia mint is the old est in the United States, and turns out every year millions upon millions of dollars' worth of gold, silver and cop per coins Each day, from 9 till 12 in the morning, visitors pass up tli broad marble steps which lead to the entrance of the building. Guides are stationed at the door to receive and conduct visitors from room to room, and explain the process of coining. In one vault of the mint millions of sil ver dollars are tied up in bags and stacked against the wall like so much corn. In another vault are piles of gold bricks laid in regular order. In another room the gold and silver bricks are cast into long strips just the width of the coins, and from these strips the coins are cut by machines with heavy punches. In other rooms girlsit in front of large machines, and feed the blank coins into a tube, which drops them one by one between two dies. The dies come together, with enor mous preasure, and stamp the beauti ful impression seen on all our coins. Pennies drop from the stamping ma chine at the rate of 100 per minute; silver dollars and $5 gold pieces at the rate of 80 per minute. The bright' new coins are gathered up the pen nies look more like gold than copper and counted by a girl who uses a device known as a counting board, which reckons 500 at a time." A JUST DECISION. That a union has a legal right to deny admission to an applicant was established by the decision of the Su preme Court of New York in the case of James Lynch against the Compact Labor Club of Marble Cutters' Help ers. Lynch applied for membership on March 22, 1 901, and claimed he paid $100 as an initiation fee and there after received notice of the union's meetings. On April 7. 1901, the treas urer returned him the $100, saying that the union had rejected his appli cation. He then instituted suit to coin pel it to admit him. When the case came to trial the counsel for the union admitted that the $100 was paid the union, and that it gave Lynch a proba tion card which entitled him to all the rights of membership until his name was voted upon and the union finally rejected him, but contended that the union had a perfect right to do so, and no man could force himself into ther union through any court. Justice Greenbaum, before whom the case was tried, sustained this view and denied plaintiff's motion for mandamus, i. j
The Harbinger (Raleigh, N.C.)
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Aug. 2, 1902, edition 1
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