The wageworker. (Lincoln, Neb.) 1904-????, 1908-09-19

ographing industry-one OF the great
est in the country insofar as the busi-
ness of publicity is concerned was
paralyZed-
The striking Iithographers would
have won handiIy had il not been for
the unwarranted and Illegal inrerfer-
ence of Oscar Straus. secretary Of
commerce and labor and pretended
friend of the workingmen of this
country.
The employing lithographers ap
pealed to Secretary Straus- and with
| one stroke of his pen he defeated the
hopes and aspirations of the striking
photographers
| How did he do it,
| On the pretense that there was q
dearth of skilled workmen in the Hth-
ographing trade Secretary Straus
! SUSPENDED THE ALIEN CON
TRACT LABOR LAW INSOFAR AS
1T PERTAINED TO LITHOGRAPH-
ING. AND PERMITTED THE E3f-
PLOYING LITHOGRAPHERS TO IH-
PORT LfTHOGRAPHERS FROM
EUROPE.
And this. mind you- when hundreds
of American Iithographers were walk
ing the streets. unemployed and ask
ing only for an eight hour work day.
American workingmen have had
enough and plenty of friendship like
that 1t is the same kind of friend
ship that pretended to be for the pre-
lection of American labor bat has
filled the mines of Pennsylvania and
West Virginia. the steel mills at
Homestead and Chicago and the tube
mills at Youngstown with Huns SIays
Firms and Hungarians who gladly
worked for wages that would reduee
the American workman to the level Of
the pauper labor in Europe
Continuing Secretary SGraus says
Il do not think that even Bryan him
sci wouis claim that President Roose-
sch y as lnimitaf TO labor and knox
from my own connection as trusted
member of his cabinet and say this
without disclosing any of the priyaeIes
of the cabinet ROOM that whenever
the labor question came up either in
OF out of that room Mr. Tafr-s position
has always been for the best interests
Of the Iaboring man
We hold that any fair-minded and
unprejudieed man viii admit that the
men who toll at the forge the bench.
in the mine. the shop and the MILL who
feed the furnaces and handle the throt-
tle-in short the men who perform the
nerve-racking Iabor-are better fitted
who sits at a mahogany desk in =
cabinet room or a counting house.
Straus says William H. Taft Is a
friend of labor He says that Nr.
Taft has always been for the best in
terests of labor
Is that the reason Judge Taft
cinched the union bricklayers OF Gin
cInnati because they refused TO handle
the product of firm that was injurins
them as workingmen2 Is that the
reason he sent Frank PheIan to Jail
for trying to organize railroad men IN
defense of their rights. Is that the
reason he jailed the Ann Arbor enzT
neer who insisted upon his right 60
cease work when he saw fTt2 Is that
the reason he uusurped the functions
: OF grand chief of the Brotherhood OF
r Locomotive Engineers and forced that
order to rescind a rule which in the
|, judgment of its members was neces
+ sary for the protection of the engi
+ neers? Is that the reason he Offered
, the chief of the Brotherhood of Loco
motive FTremen the choice between
: going to Jail and promulzatfns TO the
membership an order written by Judge
Taft himself. which order nuIIIfied the
efforts of the organization to protect
and benefit its members,
, Theodore Roosevelt and his atti
: tude towards workingmen is not a sub
ject of discussion at this time NeftheE
is government ownership of railroads
Neither is -1s to l. But William Fl
Taft is So is guarantee of bank de
posits
William H. TaftEs friendship for Ia
Dor is matter OF record So Is the
! friendship of Oscar Straus- So is the
record of a score of bank failures IN
Omaha and Lincoln wherein hundreds
of workingmen lost their little savings
land lost them beyond recourse