The wageworker. (Lincoln, Neb.) 1904-????, 1904-07-01
Open Meeting of
Central Labor Union

! say the unions make scale of wages
that destroys ambition. We only strive
to fix a minimum figure. If the en-
ployer wants to pay more to anybody
that is his privilege. The union does
not deny him. Many employers rec
ognize that uniform minimum wage
scale reduces jealousies and the envy
that are destructive of generally sat
| isfactory work. 1t is SO in Europe.
The meanest people with which union
men have to deal in business mems
associations are not those who are in
the habit of paying fair wages. but
those big concerns which pay from SC
to $40 a week to the men who roll the
trucks on their big platforms
wholesale men. In eastern cities these
laborers are the hardest to organize
because they are SO completely in
Inundated by their employers.
! Following are the resolutions passed
| in the interest of the Rocky Noun
tain News and Denver Times. Pat
terson has them on the hog train"
|
would soon have them in the packing
house."
For more than a century the thought
| full men of America have realized fully
| that the greatest bulwarks of American
safety and American liberty are freedom
| Of thought. freedom of speech and free
dom of the press. and recourse to the
writ of habeas corpus. AS long as truth
| is left free to combat error, error can
not long prevail; but truth once sup
| pressed and error given free reign. wrong,
backed by force and greed will soon pre-
vail and the rights of American freemen
be taken from them. The public press,
long educational institution led pub
reforms; the press once controlled by low
ers of justice and liberty like Greeley,
Raymond. Prentiss, Bryant and Richie
and mighty engines IN the cultivation
and preservation of individual liberties. is
today prostituted to low level and is
little more than the voice of organized
greed and seishness. The great daily
newspapers of the country. with a dis
coura gingIy few but. happily, notable eX-
ceptions. are owned by corporate inter-
ests and nothing more than vehicles
for the carrying of corporate interests.
This state of affairs is fraught with
graves danger to American principles and
American traditions. and to the rights
OF american people i; eh hpt, or, those n1
who eat only in the sweat of their faces.
This sad state of affairs has been more
than ever impressed upon the working
men of this country during the unfortu-
nate troubles in Colorado Men banded
together for mutual protection. for mutual
safety and for mutual uplift. have found
themselves denounced as organized muir
dererS Slandered in terms framed by the
suppliant and cringing tools of corpora
lions hired to prostitute the press to
base purposes. and deprived of all OPP
portunity to give their side of the case
to the jury of public opinion. With the
courts the executives and the military
under the absolute control of conscience
less capital labors only hope lies in
free and independent press and with that
gone hope dies never to be resurrected
save only by awful sacrifices. the very
contempa ton of which should make pat
riotic men Slludder.
The interests that have banded together
for the destruction of labor unions works
through devious channels. knowing moth
ing of honesty of justice when disregard
of these fundamental principles will serve
their unholy purpose. BY the might OF
the wealth they have all but secured con-
troll of the daily press. and in Colorado
the leading dailies with one notable ex-
ception have been hammered into sub
mission by threats of financial loss. There
is but one exception, and organized labor
should rejoice that the exception is as
strong it is. One editor has refused
to be coerced and Indignantly refuses
to allow his great newspaper to be edited
and controlled by organized greed work.
ing through mercantile interests. Thomas
Patterson. editor and publisher of the
Rocky Mountain News and Denver Times,
has hurled defiance at the lawless gang
of public plunderers and refuses to re-
main meekly quiet when wrongs are be-
ing perpetrated upon the working classes.
With scorn and without fear he has
thrown down the gage of battle to the
trust barons and welcomes them, to COM
bat. In this fight Thomas Patterson is
fighting the battle of organized labor.
of American liberty, of free speech. OF a
free press of free thought and of the
inalienable right of American citizens
to the remedy for injustice that lies in
the habeas corpus.
1t is therefore the duty of organized
labor i'm particular, and liberty-lovins
Americans in general. to give Thomas
Patterson and his newspapers their lib
eral hearty and enthusiastic support to
been exhausted and his property en-
numbered there shall be no need of his
using his credit to make the fight in the
interests of the people. In view of these
facts. and while rejoicing that such
brave and fearless friend and defender
has stepped to the front. We deem it only
fit and proper that we. the organized
make fitting recognition of Mr.. Patter-
sons splendid stand. Therefore be It
Resolved. That the organized crafts
men of Lincoln send to Thomas Patter.
and pledge him that when the time comes
something more than mere Zip recoSni-
ton will be forthcoming. And
Resolved. That copy of these resolu
tions be sent to MIR. Patterson. and tina;
copies be given to the press of Lincoln
with the request that they be given pub
lica ton.
Journal Chapel