The wageworker. (Lincoln, Neb.) 1904-????, 1907-07-05

organized in America, says Charles H. I
Sanford, of North Bend, Ore, in the |
| last issue of The Carpenter. At that |
time fellow by the name of Sam |
/ Adams, discontented with the state of |
affairs, made up his mind to get the
boys together and organize. No doubt |
he was called an agitator by the boss
and blacklisted. Nevertheless, he got
the boys to back him up. committee
was appointed consisting of Sam
Adams, Jack Adams, John Fay, Pat
Henry and George Washington, to
draw up a set of resolutions setting
forth their grievances, which they did,
adopted (see declaration of indepen-
dence:)
Resolved, That. we hold these
truths to be self-evident that all men
are created equal; that they are en-
dowed by their Creator with certain
unallienable rights; that among these
are life, liberty and the pursuit of
happiness; that to secure these rights
governments are instituted among men
deriving their just powers from the
consent of the governed That when
any form of government becomes de-
structive of their ends, it is the right
os the people to alter or abolish it and
to institute "a new government, lay,
ing it's foundations on such principles
and organizing its powers in such
form as to them shall seem most like
ly to effect their safety and happiness.
and when a long train of abuses
and usurpations, pursuing Invariably
the same object, evinces desire to re-
duce them under absolute despotism,
il is their right, lit is their duty, to
throw off such government, and to pro-
: vide new guards for their future secur-
tity."
The boss, whose name was John
= Bull, got rip roaring mad and said
: he would be ding busted before he
would give them what they asked for,
:. !. and said he would fire the whole
:. bunch If they didn't behave, but
:, these union men were pretty stiff
necked themselves and said they would
o go him a whirl if they lost their jobs
' by it. One fellow got considerable
r applause by shouting, ''Give me liber-
l. ty or give me death!''
T. About one-third Of the members were
e opposed to calling a strike, but the
# motion carried, and George Washing
e ton was unanimously elected "busi--
|, LESS agent" No doubt you have
t. heard something of what happened
J How they. gained their point, and not
s only gained their point, but kicked
the boss off the job and took charge
: themselves and ran it on the cooper
. ative plan.~. They had considerable
trouble before the won; the boss ran
in lot of strike breakers, and there
were quite a lot of non-union men and
"scabs" around them, and some joined
them just to keep the boss posted on
what they were going to do, but they
made short work of these fellows when
they found them out. Sometime after
they got this settled, they had trouble
among themselves, because some of
the union men wanted to work non
union men, but Abe Lincoln, who was
then president of the union, said NO
Then the fellows who wanted to use
draw out of the union and get char
ter, and organize union of their own
But Abe was a pretty sensible old
duck and said: 1--WE must preserve
the integrity of the union and he
went after the blacksliders, thrashed
them into line again, made them dis
charge their non-union men and took
the nOn-union men into the union.
Probably there are not very many
people who have heard of this before
as it happened in an out-of-the-wa.
sort of place, but I will give my
Word of honor that it did happen JUS
as told it, and If those fellows did it
and it was considered all right, dom
see why other fellows, who are the
same kind of fellows, have not thu
right to do the same The very foun
dation of these United States was lait
OH the organizing of a few men whit
went on strike to better their condi
tions. Yet, hoarse on the Fourth o
July sounding the praises of Georg
Washington and his co-patriots, siren