The wageworker. (Lincoln, Neb.) 1904-????, 1907-09-06

Lincoln are working the eight-hour
day, the Tribune still held to the 91a-
hour day. By stress of circum-
stances it has been compelled to pay
high wages during the last two or
three years, but it has never main
tanned the union schedule, either as
to hours or wages. Because of these
facts the Tribune plant has been able
to take a vast amount of work from
Lincoln and Omaha, thus injuring fair
employers in these cities. Common
justice demanded that the union
printers in these two cities should
make a concerted effort to not only
protect these fair employers but to
enforce union conditions for it's mem
bership employed by the Tribune.
The Typographical Union has never,
in any way, shape or form, sought
to manage the business" of any firm
or corporation employing union print
ers. It has never asked for nor re-
ceived any right to even the small
est voice in the business of any con-
Germ. 1t has only sought voice in
the trade conditions under which it's
members work. 1t merely asserts the
right of men to collectively bargain
for the sale Of their labor, just as the
members of the Hammond Printing
company demand a voice in the dis
position of the product of their plant.
The man who seeks to do business
with the Hammond Printing company
must do business with the manager
of the company, to which procedure
no sensible man can object. Print
ers have formed fraternal and pro-
tective society, and they insist that
those who do business with them
shall do it through their accredited
business managers. To say that crafts
men may not delegate one of their
number to dispose of their product to
the best advantage is to say that pro-
ducers may not appoint sales agent
to dispose of their product to the best
advantage.
of the union is for the eight-hour day
and subsection to union rules" That
sta tement is only partly true. The
eight-hour day is demanded. There
is no subsection to union rules de-
manded, for the union makes no rules
save for it's own members. The union
can only demand from it's employers
what is specifically set forth in a mu-
tual contract The largest printing
companies in the world are union Of
fees. More than 80 per cent of the
daily newspapers in the United States
are issued from union offices. Elk
perience has taught the members OF
the National Publishers association
that it is to their advantage to con
tract with the Typographical Union
| for the reason that it puts them on
an equality with each other, prevents
i strikes, betters conditions and pro
vides for arbitration.
The talk of peaceful relations is
sweet to the ear, but the peaceful
/
dictation of the employer sooner OF
later spells industrial slavery for the
employed. The shorter work day, the
increased wage scale and the better
sanitary conditions have been forced
from unwilling employers by the
power of labor organizations. 1t is
not in human nature to pay higher
wages than one is forced to pay, les
sen the hours more than one Is
forced to lessen them, or to spend
more money than one LAS to spend III
making the surroundings agreeable
for the employed. The greatest phi
lanthropists" are those who have &C
cumulated the wealth which they sc
lavishly and ostentatiously distribute
by sweating the life blood out OF
HELPLESS men. women and children.
The Hammond Printing company is
not asked to grant any more thar
5000 other employers of printers have
already granted-most of them volun
tarily. They are not asked to allow
the union to run their business. They
are only asked to allow their en-
ployes the same privileges in the dis
position of their product that the
Hammond Printing company demands
| in the disposition of its products.
The attempt to class labor union
with a trust is peurile. The Typo
| graphical Union does not arbitrarily
fix a price on the labor of its mem
bers 1t merely fixes minimum
wage below which it's members shall
not work There is nothing to pre-
vent an employer from paying
union printer twice that scale II nc
thinks the man worth it. But the
union printer who is not worth thai
minimum wage is an expense to the
| 0f toJx IN Hnn1