The Butler County press. [volume], November 12, 1915, Image 3

About The Butler County press. [volume] (Hamilton, Ohio) 1900-1946

Image provided by: Ohio History Connection, Columbus, OH

                
TRADES COUNCIL
The Co-operative Trades and La
bor Council met Tuesday night in
regular session with President Geo.
Wiseman presiding with about 40
delegates being present.
A communication was received
from the Metal Polishers in which
they ask for a donation for the Sil
ver workers.
Communication from the Black
smiths and Helpers' Uuion of Can
ton, Ohio, in which they state that
Roy Horn will be in our city to or
ganize the blacksmiths. They also
state that any assistanct given
Horn will be appreciated.
Carpenters and Joiners' Union
No. 637 submitted a set of resolu
tions in which they ask for financial
assistance for the Women's Union
Label League. The resolutions
were adopted a* read.
Delegates of Iron Molders* Un
ion protested against the attitude
taken by Adam Rentschier against
the molders and the machinists.
The Machinists' delegates re
ported that Bro. Corley of their
Union will speak in front of the
Court House, Thursday bight.
They invited all delegates to attend
the meeting.
Complaint was made that some
of the striking molders in East
Hamilton were purchasing scab
bread.
The report of the last meeting of
the Legislative League was read
and received.
The committee appointed to look
after the contractors on couaty
work reported progress.
The jail committee reported and
was discharged.
Fred Steffen was elected guide
by acclamation.
John Few delegate to the last
invention of the Ohio State Fed
eration of Labor read his report
which was quite lengthy. The
same was received.
Little Bits.
True to their word the officials
•f the Machinists' Union are secur
ing jobs for all machinists whe
wish to leave town Iu the pist
week more than fifty men left Ham
ilton to take jobs elsewhere. Be
fore the men went on strike the
o/ganizers of the International
promised to get the men other jobs
if they cared to go. Reports come
from some of the men already who
have left that they have better
jobs, less hours and more pay.
More men will leave in a few days.
rc
A committee appointed by the
Labor Legislative League attended
the meeting of the Uni'ed Trades
and Labor Council in Dayton last
Thursday night. The committee
appointed consists of Chas Vaughn
John Few and Edw Weiss of Ham
ilton, Roland Liyre and Frank
Teckemeyer of Middletown. Layre
could not come on account of a
burnt foot he received while in the
employe of the American Rolling
Mill at Middletown.
U
Frank "Dooles" Mooar formetly
a member of the Hamilton Metal
Polishers' Union and Eld ,n 'Mugs'
Wright both from Newport, Ky.,
stopped off here for a few hours
Wednesday. After visiting a few
friends they left for Detroit, Mich
igan where they are both expect
ing to take good situations.
U
The Labor Home Rule League
met last Monday Might with a fair
attendance. It was decided to
make the organization permament.
The meeting night will be changed
and the League will meet in
Symmes hall, corner Monument
and High street the first Frida of
the month. All members are re
quested to attend as many gather
ings as possible.
Railroad Mm Want 8 Hours.
Boston, Nov. 12.—Officials
five railroad brotherhoods, together
with 1,000 representatives of these
organizations from this section of
the country, voted to launch i
campaign for an eight-honr day
The brotherhoods represented were
Engineers, conductors, £iemen and
enginemen, trainmen and telegr
phers. It was unanimously voted
to act together. It was explained
that the plan cannot be taken up by
members employed west of the
Mississippi river and in the south
before April 1, 1916, when present
contracts expire.
Men operating trains now work
•a a ten-hour-day schedule, but,
according to speakers at the meet
ing, a majority of the men are
forced to work from twelve to six
teen hours, and as a result of "long
hauls" it was claimed many do not
average thirty hours a week at
heme.
It was made clear that the move*
ment is not to bring about an in
crease in wages, but solely to shor
ten the Working hours.
Convict Labor Illegal.
Oklahoma, City, Okla., Nov. 12
The attorney general of Okrahoma
has advised the state board of pub
lie affairs that its plan of working
convicts in coal mines on the state
penitentiary lands at McAlester is
prohibited by the state laws.
Several weeks ago the board an
nounced that this coal would be
mined by convicts and be used in
state institutions. Officers of the
state federation of labor filed a pro
test with the board, in which they
called attention to a law enacted in
1906 prohibiting such procedure,
although the board of affairs had
previously secured an opinion from
the attorney general that subse
quent legislation invalidated this
act.
The federation's protest was re
ferred to'the attorney general, who
reversed his former view and sus
tained the trade unionists.
Record For R. R. Earnings.
Philadelphia, Nov. 12 —A re
port covering the net earnings cf
the Pennsylvania railroad line? east
of Pittsburgh should furnish a clue
to those well-meaning citizens
who marvel at the "unrest and dis
content of working people."
The report shows that the net
earnings for September amounts to
$7,282,021, and is the largest for
auy one month in the railroad's
hist ry. The gross earnings of
#20,817,361 have been exceeded
only twice, the figurss for the
months of August and October,
1913 being slightly higher.
"SCAB!" There is no'word in
the English language so frought
with hatred as this one word when
it is used by strikers against strike
breakers. Girls cry it with tears
of rage in their ey^s and every
primitive instinct aroused against
the man or woman who is jeopard
izing their fight for better working
conditions. Men cry it with all the
unleashed passion of their natures
urging them to wage cave warfare.
If you ask them just what is a
"scab" you always get an answer
like this: "A lowdown fink who
is taking our jobs!" "a gutter
bum that's scabbing on the job and
sacking in with the boss," or even
some unprintable definition, but al
ways from the same angle—what
the ''scab" does to the worker.
The thing you never get and
which has always seemed to me to
be of so much more importance is
what the "scab" is to herself or
himself.
A few years ago I had occasion
to talk to the wife of a man who re
mained working with a few others
while the rest of his shop went on
strike for better conditions.
His two children, both of them
old enough to realize the word that
was being called their father, sat
in the room with the mother as she
talked, and while her eyes were
bright with defiance, the boy looked
down at the pattern of the carpet
and the girl looked out of the win
dow.
"I told my man to work," the
woman said defiantly. "I told him
we ain't got no time for strikes
He'd been out of work for months
before he got this job and me and
the dhildren need the money. We
got bills to pay."
Her voice was hard. She talked
feverishly. She said too much.
She realized she wts the wife of a
traitor to his class, and though she
had urged him on, though she jus
tified him then, she was tasting the
bitterness of loss of self-respect.
And the children were tasting it
with her. They would never be
proud of their father again, for he
i wore the brand of a traitor and they
U
td i It
The "Scab" has to Pay a Much
Greater Price Than the
Worker He Betrays.
A "Scab Is a Creature Over Whom Men and Women Weep
A Human Being Without Respect
By JANB VlHITAKKR.
ment.
The strike of machinists at 'he
Hooven Owens & Rentschier plant
is beet ming more effective every
day. Many contracts which this
firm had under course of construc
tion are completely tied up and the
firms who gave the ccmpany those
contracts are complaining bitterly
of the shortsighted policy of /he
Hoovens Owens & Rentschier Co.,
in not granting the men the two
hours per week requested which
would be the means of settling the
controversy. Petty officials of this
company have been working night
and day in an effort to break the
ranks of the strikers, but their ef
forts have proven futile as the men
are standing mor? solidly today
than at any time since the stiike
became effective.
At the Hamilton Machine & Tool
company and the Kern Machin
Tool company not a wheel is
turning, these plants being com
pletely tied up.
The Black and Clawson plant is
in a similiar conditions. The main
fight will center at the Niles plant
which is also closed tight as a re
sult of the strike and every effort
on the part of the officials of the
company to re-open with a number
of men has proved a complete
failure.
Wm. Blackmail, representing the
Federal Department of Labor was
in the city for several days during
the week endeavoring to bring
about an adjustment, but was in
formed by the manufacturers that
they had nothing te arbitrate and
it would be a fight to a finish. Mr.
Blackmar left for the east and it
is not known whether he will re
turn or not.
Several clumsy spotter? employed
by manufacturers are making them
selves rediculous in the eyes of the
strike's by their crude detective
would not be able to forget it
The loss of the respect of others
is a terrible price to pay, but it is
little btsides the loss of one's self
respect. One may get away from
the others one cannot get away
from one's self. Judas, who be
trayed his Master, hung himself to
escape his conscience. There is al
ways the 'still, small voice" to
taunt there is always the sense of
shame that only the traitor knaws
If ths fight is lost, his is the
consciousness that he helped to de
feat the workers who fought, and
the industrial slavery that binds
itself siill more tightly about the
mass was caused by the treachery
of the one.
If the fight is won he has no part
in the victory, for he did nothing
to make the fight a success.
He has not even the satisfaction
of receiving the gratitude of the
bosses for whom he betrayed h|ji
class. The briber has naught but
contempt for the bribed. The cap
italist despises the worker who wil
sell out his class. He wouldn't
trust the traitor when his need oi
him has gone.
"Scabs" they start and what do
they finish? You will get your
answer in front of some of the
shops today where men who bear
on their faces the brand of failure
and, more—the look of the traitor
are earning a few aollars a day
hired out to the bosses to slug men
and women clothing strikers
Those sluggers are the flotsam anc
jetsam today. They are the men
who began as traitors to their class
and today have no class to which
to return.
They haven't the respect of the
bosses they haven't even the re
spect of the coppers, and they have
the hatred of the class to which
they once belonged.
If I were asked for a definition
of a "scab" I would not give the
one the majoriry of the workers
give. I would say a "scab" is
creature over whom men and the
angels must weep— a human being
without self-respect.
methods. One prominent repre
sentative of the strikers stated that
in his judgement they could not
track an elephant in the snow.
Manufacturers Hold Nu
merous Meetings.
In the past week the manufac
turers of the strike ridden shops
have been holding meetings almost
daily. The purpose of the meetings
to devise some scheme whereby
they can induce the molders and
the machinists to return to work.
One of their latest bluffs was to set
time for the men to come back to
work, and if they did not accept
the offer then they could never
get back. Some of their men were
called into these meetings and so
notified, but fiom all reports the
I
tea
bluff did not work. Their scheme
last week to have the men that are
not members of the union to stam
pede the union men was another
failure on the part of the factories.
The men did not go back to work
neither did the non-union men who
tried to pull off the stunt. The
strike situation so far is about the
same as the day the men wa'ked
out, but the men think that they
have a little the best of the game
so far. Union men are being sent
to other cities daily where good
jobs are secured for them. More
wen will leave next week if the
strike is not settled and the factories
do not come to their terms. About
the only thing for the manufactur
ers to do, is to grant the strikers
their demands, if they don't they
will loose all their men. Unionism
must be recognized and it might as
well be done now.
Estimates
on ail
Real Public Ownership Demanded
By Unionists.
Detro't, Nov. 12.— At last meet
ing of Detroit Federation of Labor,
its legislative committee gave little
encouragement that it would suc
ceed in securing a clause in the
proposed municipal street car or
dinance that would protect the
trade union movement. As the
ordinance is now drawn there is no
provision for arbitration, and the
commission that would handle the
street car system is provided with
dictatorial powers, without being
responsible to the people's repre
sentatives.
We believe our work will help your busi
ness, for it is executed in the highest de
gree of the art known to printers.
The legislative committee is urg
ing that the ordinance be amended
to include collective bargaining
with the various crafts, and that
the main features of the agreement
To push your business, and
which compels the attention of the public
Cards, Tickets, Labels,
Checks, Ta£s,
Letter Heads, Note Heads, Bill Heads,
Statements, Envelopes, Folders, Cata
logues, Booklets, Programs, Circulars, in
fact anything in the printing line will be
skillfully produced at this office.
qi
sin
ompany
320 MARKET STREET
rfully Furnished
now existing between the street
car men's union and the street
car company be included. The un
ionists show that this procedure is
not unusual and furnished city of
ficials with agreements now in force
in Monroe, La., and EdmontOfi*
Alberta Canada.
The central body supported the
position of its committee, that the
proposed scheme to purchase the
street railway system "designs to
cloak the commission with an au
thority independent of the city
council."
Machinists Make Gains.
Cleveland, Nov. 12.—After a
strike of two weeks, 100 machin
ists employed at the Bardon &
Oliver plant have returned to work.
Improved working conditions are
promised.
®A
W:IU
S&3
r..
I
:xvyj--*
I
"4
Ms
p'Vvi