The Birmingham age-herald., 1920-04-11

making payments on cottage in the country, he had his own whisky still in the kitchen and his own bed of mint at the back door; the family ate meat sew eral times a week, and 1t looked as fl 1 there would be enough of the wooden i garage, split in short lengths, 10 give a | little bit of fire every now and then right on to spring.
 He liked his employers, and his em- ployers liked him. They paid him a great deal more than he was worth, because the public liked his work, and he knew | that he was overpad. and wished to keep on being overpaid. | But one day he walked into his boss office and said with a sigh
 Mir. Juggins, l am through" l Through? What's the matter?' l I'm finished. Im off the job,
 But, Great Scott, -Boggs! Aren't we paying you enough?' % No kick on the salary boss
 Are you overworking? If you are, we Il get you an assistant to do some of the rougher work, such as Iaying the heavy ! pigment to the Canvases and signing your name in big letters. I have always thought that you signed your name so large that it must tax you physically, even although it never seemed to hurt your nerve M
 "No, Juggins I'm not overworked at
 
 and they have been doing the heavier part of it for the past year." What is 1t, then. Boggs?' II m called out, sJuggins. l don't want to go out. But if l don't go, Ill get kicked out of the union. and then I'll starve to death. The illustrators have been called out on sympathetic strike"
 | Tn sympathy with whom?'s With the cooks"
 But where did this thing start9
 Tn my owh home, Iuggins, I'm sor- ry to say, We have had cook for al most year. now it seema strange but it's true. Last week. my wife asked her why she always served boiled potatoes with the skins on. She replied that she was a cook. and not potato peeler, She said that she had TO objections to cooking potatoes with the Jackets off if ny wife or some enc else would peel them: but as fo1 her, peel them she would not.
 My wife refused to accede to her demands. My wife held. and I backed her Up in the contention. that it is the duty of a cook not only to cook the food, but to prepare the food for cooking to do such things as stringing the beans, washing the spin aeh, singeing the chickens, and so forth
 The cook replied that fortunately, this was not a matter of opinion at all, but that 1t had been settled The Cooks Union had recently voted on the matter and had decided that a cook was to cook, and was to do nothing but cook.
 And the consequence was" con tinued Boggs. "thatrt three days ago the cook went out on strike. And today I have been ordered out on strike in sympathy with my own cook who is striking against me-
 Why don't you accede to the cooks demands. get that strike called off get the sympathetic strike called off in turn, and stay at work here? asked Juggins.
 Unfortunately" said Boggs, 'T am not only an employe of yours, belong ing to the Illustrators Union, but as an employer of labor I belong also to an association of employers. This as- sociation will not permit me to yield to the demands of my cook. If you will look through your mail carefully today, Mr. Juggins, you will find a let ter from this same union of employers taking up this very ease of Boggs cook---for you are yourself member cf this same employers' union.s
 II see,s said Juggins.
 II have been declared unfair by the Cooks Union" said Boggs. The illustrators. Union, to which I 'belong, has ordered me out in sympathy with my cook, and they are prepared to de- clare me scab if I don't strike against you. If I do strike against you. or if I do yield to the cook. the employers union will bend something over my crown
 Tt looks to me" said Juggins, ras if you were ruined, no matter what you do or what you don't do. What do you think you'll do for living"
 There are two courses open to me" said Boggs, and I am wavering be- tween them. One is to violate a lot Of the injunctions against me and gu to jail and stay there. The other is simply to quit work entirely and be- come dependent for support upon char ity, government penions. and all that sort of thing"
 But if you stop your work my busi- ress will be ruined aiso,' said the pub fisher. My magazines sell largely be- ca use you illustrate them'
 Your business is ruined already said Boggs, but you haven't found it out yet All your authors have been called ont in sympathy with my cook already. and the advertising solicitors, eompositors, pressmen, and so forth, are preparing to go out"
 'Boggs'' said Juggins. let us just leave the damned business and get us a couple of tomato cans and hobo.''
 "Juggins," said Boggs. "it isn't that easy. There is a hoboes' union, too, nowadays. You can't hobo unless you belong to it.'
 Then what shall we dor"
 Do? Nothing. The millennium is here, if you only understood it. The great day for which the ages have waited has arrived Nobody at all is ever to do anything any morer.
 Life In the Chilean Capital