The Bismarck tribune. [volume] (Bismarck, N.D.) 1916-current, 1928-11-26
By BRUCE CATION

The modern workman, pulling his
chair up to the table on Thanksriv.
ing and taking up the carving knife
with eager anticipation, congratu-
lates himself. on the fact that his
wages are great deal higher than
his grandfather would have dreamed
of making.
Despite that, however, the
Thanksgiving season always brings
regrets for those good old days.
the fabulous era of the happy work.
man, when little would buy much,
when life was more peaceful and
serene, when the toiler was more of
an individual and less Of a machine.
All right; let's see about it.
We're the good old days" all of
those nice things?
We have already seen that the
old-time worker, even after allow
ances are made for the difference in
price levels, actually lived in abject
poverty, compared with his present
estate. Now let's look into his
working conditions.
In 1924 the tailors of Buffalo. on
Christmas eve, had what they called
turnout" for better wages. They
held a meeting, agreed on a new
scale OF wages and quit work when
their requests were turned down.
On the day after Christmas they
were arrested for criminal con-
spiracy, convicted and fined 50 each!
Until that year a labor union was
in itself criminal conspiracy,
whether it made any demands for
higher wages or not. Then, a little
after this Buffalo case, the courts
began to hold that labor union
might be tolerated if it didn't do
anything; but any effort> to raise
wages was anathema. In 1885 an
other New York court held that a
group of journeymen shoemakers,
trying to force higher wages, were
"conspiring to injure trade and COM
merce," and hence punishable.
To be sure, in 1912, a Massachu-
sets judge held that a peaceable
strike was legal; but for many years
his view was not adopted universal
~. AS recently as 1894, Federal
Judge jenkins ruled:
1T is idle t, talk of a peaceable
strike. None such ever existed.
+. No strike can be effective
without compulsion and force.
/. 1t has been we'll said that
the wit of man cannot devise q legal
strike. A strike IS essentially
a conspiracy to extort by violence .
The workingman, accordingly,
was more or less up against it in
the matter of improving his work
ing conditions, hours Of labor or
pay schedule.
Nor was that his only difficulty.
In these good old days" it was a
rare employer that did not put some
kind Of swindle over on his hire.
lings. One of the favorite methods
with factories and mines was to pay
by script-that is. by orders on the
company store. Under his system,
the worker was very lucky to break
even, and if he didn't watch out he
would find himself in debt to his
employer for the simple necessities
lof life.
Another stunt, popular with lum-
Der companies, was to pay by checks
which were dated 30, 60 and 80 days
ahead. These could be cashed only
at ruinous discount. Time after
time labor managed to get enacted
laws to remedy these abuses, only
to see the courts knock them out
A Missouri Judge declared that 4
law requiring mines and factories t.
pay in cash was "class legislation.
IA learned brother on the Indians
ibench decreed that . law requiring
THAT workers be paid weekly, II
leash, interfered with the worker
freedom Of contract. And in Cali
fornia, q Judge knocked out. . sim
lilar law with The remark that "th