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Per Year In Boise By Members of Local Organized Labor More Than $350,000.00 Spent The Gem Worker is a recogniz ed factor in the newspaper life of Boise and of Idaho. It is the mouth piece of organized labor, and is such a welcome visitor in the homes "of the wage-earners of the 'My. As an advertising medium it ■as no superior for it circulates among a class who earn good mon ey and who spend it where it will bring results. The - wise dealer knows these facts and governs him self accordingly.___ Within tae last decade the labor press has become one of the most potent in publicity work in the United States. Where a dozen years ago a few labor pepera were published in a slipshod manner, now there are hundreds of clean, well-edited and prosperous sheets which speak for the wage earners of their respective communities. In Idaho, The Gem Worker is the recognized spokesman of organiz ed labor. 71 ^7/k "VH !■; JlllUfc. . ...ill Hd. Wtui»# BOISE, IDAHO, THURSDAY, MARCH 9, 1916 ($1.00 Per Year. 5c a Copy Vol. Ill No. 41.) EVILS OF MONOPOLY Can Only Be Overcome Through the Public Ownership of Certain industries fé i .... " (By, MARCUS DAY.) The advance of monopoly upon the unorganized field of individual capital thru the railroad rebate (which is given just as freely to-day as at any § time in the past notwithstanding the sweet-sounding denials by railroad owners and the large capitalists who are benefited by them) has in most in stances been so steered that monop oly has coerced small capitalistic units into the support politically of its main contentions not only over labor but over the field of this uno.ganized and unprivileged capital. who long be just ed al to trol of Banking, transportation and mon opolistic privileges in land and all natural resources has given monopo listic capital such an advantage that it has practically swept from the field all competition in these lines, leaving for the weaker and unorganiz ed elements of capital the less profit able fields of endeavor while at the same time holding them in coercive support of political servants who sup port monopoly first and capital after ward, but opposing at all times the forces of organized labor, who have steadily spread their field and per- j be fected their lines Of defense^ | The fact that monpolistic capital 1 has been enabled to coerce the com- j tal, petitive rival into upholding a self- j the destructive principle to the latter has | tended to create a confusion in the I nîirtds of many organided laborers | cal them overlook the fact | by the #> which makes that their greatest enemy is monop oly and that the legitimate capitalist in competitive industry is in many insances a brother victim. ers Low wages, oppression and vio lence are in most all instances to be found in those industries which are monopolized. Where the principle of competition is free and lintrammcled between rival capitalists there is a growing in dependence upon the part of workers in those fields where they have the advantage of choosing an employer. In the monopolistic field there is only one directing force to w hom the laborer is subject and who fixes the wage. The almost complete monopoliza tion of the field of industry has left the laborer nothing but the power of co-operation in his fighting -for a just recompense. But it is very doubtful if private monopoly will ever he broken up thru a disintregating process and a return to the old order of competition be tween contending units notwithstand in gthe fact that the monopoly and trust is a spurious instead of an ar tificial growth. To return to the old order is not the way of the world. Bad as has been the truts it has been an evolutionary process in the ad vance toward universal organization. The very oppression of the great monopolists toward competitive cap ital and labor, for the purpose of ab- j sorbing the former and robbing out- j right the latter, has stimulated a , movement between the small capital together and doing much to spread ; g the general advance toward universal j co-operation upon all factors in hu- j S man activity. ist and the laborer, bring them closer Private monopoly in public utility j will be the first to be evolved into ] monopoly. When this be- ; I public comes a reality the spurious monop- | oly that has not its foot somewhere j in control of natural resource wRl fall of its own weight. There have been many partial monopolists built up simply thru the process of railroad favoritism and the workings of un scientific patent laws but these are of small moment as compared with the great monopolies in public resour now in private hands. All private monopoliesmust be destroyed but the first essential movement of import ance most be in tbeose great arteries of commerce which rest upon the land. But there is no doubt in the world but what the people of this country will be masters of the situation with in the next generation and that the ces * ! private monopolist wilt be swept from the field of. industry by the ce menting, alliance between all. the forces of production. VICTORY FOR MINERS The legions, of mining multitudes who have steadily progressed thru a long train of years, enduring untold sacrifice, meeting with discouraging defeat here and gaining a foothold there, have at last reached what may be termed a culminating point in their great struggle for living just working conditions. The political situation, the increas ed prosperity of the mine owners, the foreign demand for miner al products, the certainty of great loss to the monopolists who own or con trol the direction of mining affairs from the capitalist's standpoint in the event of a general shut down , por tends a victory for the workers. But the fact that an election is fast approaching and that a general tie-up of traffic would disturb prosperity will asset in favor of the ;ages and immense be the greatest miner^ because the government itself 1 cannot interfere on the side of cac j tal, as has always been, the case in j the past, without losing immense | prestige, I I' 1 the present situation, the politi | cal party in power will serve a moral | purpose as well as play good politics by lending its support to the aid of the miners should that be necessary. Because the miners deserve Why? than they are asking and be more cause in politics the forces working against the best interests of the work ers are certain to line up solidly against the pretensions of any Dem ocratic candidate for the Presidency and a great majority of Democratic aspirants for congress. In an election the Democrats have everything to gain and nothing to lose by lending their influence toward assisting their open and defiant stand on the other side would not gain them the support of a monopolistic power in finance and industry. There is a .time when it is both good politics and statesmanship to come out boldly and aggressively on the side of the forces of organized labor and the coming campaign of the miners for justice offers an opportu nity on the part of the Administration which T believe will not he over looked. the mine-workers because PREPAREDNESS PROGRAM Consistent argument is all on the side of the men who oppose an in crease of our military armament be cause the situation created by the present struggle makes attack from j n t j le j gucidal to oppose some greater in , crease j n our military strength, Europe preposterous, but as common sense is the most uncommon thing orld is it both impolitic and The most powerful elements in fa vor of greaf preparedness are the ; g rea t, robbing, plundering monopolis j jj c croaks who have gro . n fat thrif j S p ec ;^ privileges and th spokesmen of this class, the politi >1 party ro j sponsible for the existen e of money ] ed despotism, modern Republican ; leadership as represented by Root, I | Roosevelt, Taft, Hughes, Fairbanks, j Lodge and numerous others must be kept out of a voice in our public af fairs. This is all that is necessary to prevent the change in our {orm of government and curtailment of suf frage to the masses, The men who preach no prepared ness and the men of extreme advo cacy are both unconsciously damag ing their own cause. It is all right for such a man as Henry Ford, who has never been a responsible leader to work for a no preparedness pro gram and much good will come of his great advertising in the near future. Ford is a man of great intellect—he sees the folly of war as an arlyter of disputes and further sees the cer- | THE 8-HOUR DAY CAMPAIGN Organized Labor, operating thru the Labor Center Association in New York City, is sending to labor unions throughout the country over ' 5,000, 000 stamps, each meant to carry a special publicity message. The stamps are to be affixed to fetters after the manner of Red Cross stamps and stamps advertising na tional expositions. Each stamp car ries the slogan, "For the Eight-Hour, ■Day—A ' Movement Nearer to Jus tic«." A portion of the stamp's de sign shows a day split into eight hour periods, one for work one for sleep and one for recreation. \. It is the plan to distribute the stamps to all friends of the eight v • « m / 'v hour movement, whether employers, union members, or sympathizers. Besides sending them out on letters, union members receiving them are asked to paste them on mirrors in the shops, on literature distributed to workmen and on bills and letters that go directly to business men. The idea of using, the eight-hour stamps in a Nation-wide publicity campaign was worked out after the Industrial Relations Commission had developed the fact that the Rockefeller interests were paying Ivy Lee $10,000 per year to act as CONTINUES THE WHINE AGAINST BRANDEIS die's Weekly, I that pictorial muothpiece of Mammon, is still whining at the probable confirmation of Mr. Louis D. Brandeis as a Su preme Court justice and resorts to throaty whispers of warning, among which the most conspicuouse is, "the lack of judicial temperament," There is nothing on tap in the vo cabulary of the ham-fat reactionary which oozes out more frequently than this misomer, "judicial temperament." nient." No one really can explain it but ll m MERELY MARY ANN* WILLIAM FOX PRODUCTION* MAJESTIC THEATRE, MONDAY AND TUESDAY tain conversion of Europe. The peo ple tomorrow will be solidly for what he advocates today. | settle their political differencs at the ' But the one great preventive agianst the use of force against labor will be the. re-elèction of Woodrow Wilson, if he lives, or some man who is de termined to keep us at peace with the world. When the American people the Rockefeller press agent. It was suggested that Organized Labor had concentrated its energies so com pletely on Wage tights that it had neglected educational opportunities such as organized capital employed with great skill. A stamp by the use of which every union member could constitute him self* "an Ivy Lee of the labor cause" was the. result. Children will be asked to paste the stamps on their lesson papers with this note to their school teach-, ers: "Teacher, teach us these truths." Members of church congregations will be asked to send a stamp to their priest or preacher suggesting a ser-, mon: "Nearer to Justice—the Eight Hour Day." Organizations, societies, and pub lic officials who express sympathy with the eight-hour cause are to be supplied with the large quantities for use on all their official correspond ence. The campaign for the nation-wide use of an eight-hour stamp is meant to be the opening wedge for gen eral education movement as a per manent feature of the labor cause. Local unions are taking an active in terest. many of us know too well what it has done in the past. That is one of the reasons why the lack of it in the minds of innocent bystanders who have noticed that the judicial temper ament does not synchronize with con structive legislation which has too long been delayed. The passing of several more judicial temperaments thru earthly demise will finally make of our highest tribunal a human in strument for the benefit of the Amcr ican people. polls in November they will have also solved the menace of militarism. If Republicanism under the leadership of a Root or Roosevelt wips either wi|l find some way of involving u& in war in order to create a situation which will offer them an opportunity of launching an attack against popu lar suffrage. ' HELPING UNEMPLOYED New Bill in Congress Will Help the Individual Settler on Land Among the things connected with our Government for which we should be thankful are two that now and again arrest the attention of the demo crat. Onè is the fact that when the bill was drawn creating the Depart ment of Labor it was made so broad and so definite that those in charge of the Departmeint were free t<j shape almost any course; and the other is the, fact that the men chosen to shape the course of the new Department should have been William B. Wilson and Louis. F. Post. Precedents have «feat weight, and it is fortunate for the people that the president established in this Department, which so directly concerns so many of the people, should he laid down by men who un derstand democracy, and who know how to apply it. The Department of Labor may in after years be filled with reactionaries, with lawyers, ban kers, and all sorts of men f>f affairs who know not the mass of the people, but the precedents now established will ever be a restraint upon efforts to turn the Department from its pur pose. In response to a recommendation in the recent report of the Secretary of Labor for the relief of the unemployd, Congressman Robert Crosser—an other man who is setting democratic orecedents—has introduced a bill •reating "a special administrative board of three members, to be known •is the National Colonization Board, to consist of the Secretaries of the Departments of Labor, of the Interior, and*of Agriculture, of which the Sec retary of Labor shall be chairman"; but it is provided that "either of the said Secretaries may designate an As sistant Secretary in his department to act on the said hoard in his stead." The bill is broadly drawn for the pur pose of giving the Colonization Board ample power to do all that is necessary to carry out the idea of putting the •'conic on the land under such oondi OH, THE JAP IS SURELY SOME BARBARIAN (By Witten W. Harris) While some of our ardent patriots ■.re stirring up enthusiasm to the end that this nation prepare against that day when a barbarious foe will menace pur western shore and are broadly hinting that that mythical foe will probably be Japan, we would like to . all attention to one fact which may offer a measure of consolation of their fears. The consolation which we have to offer is not much but it at least in dicates a small amount of lninian itaranism and may in some measure assttge fears that cannibalism and all ■the other attributes of savages belong to that probable foe which certain interests in California insist in hold DETROIT RAILROADS SCORED BY COURT Detroit, Mich.—In sentencing two strikebreakers to jail, Judge Connelly scored corporations for importing these men into the city. The accus ed were employed by the Michigan Central RailroaH dui'ing its recent' strike of railroad clerics. When the strike was settled they were discharg ed. and then they stole from the com pany. In sentencing them to nine ty days in the house of correction the court said: "When a corporation brings an ar my of strikebreakers, many of them men with criminal records, to a city and then turns them loose on a city and the criminals steal from the cor poration, I can't see why the officials expect the court to become wrathy because of the criminal'* misdeeds. "I can't work up much enthusiasm is 0 Marcus Day of Meridian was a bus» iness visitor in Boise yesterday. Judge J. D. Flenner who ha# been quite ill is reported much better. tions that the individual settler will enjoy the full product of his toil, and the Vublic will retain its rights in the common inheritance of the race. But there is a fly in the ointment. 1 here generally is a. fly, in ointment prepared for the people, ser's Labor to Mr. Cros-, bill authorizing the Secrteary of co-operate with other de partments of the government jn de veloping the welfare of th ers of the United States by "creating, new opportunities for permanent and profitable employment." use deals with the two factors of duction : e wage earn The meas pro labor and land; and it might he referred either to the Committee on Labor or to the Comnrittee Public Lands. on *.ie purpose of the . hfll. as shown by every section, is to, serve lagor; hut the near-statesmen in the House referred it to the Com mittee on Public Lands, the danger of the bill. Herein lies It is through the r oip tee on Public Lands in the past that has come the infamous legis lation that gave away the people's do main to build up the timber trust, the steel trust, the oil trust, and now is acting as wet nurse to the even Public. The committee water-power trust, is weighted down by the tradition of spoiliation and stupidity. The Com mittee on Labor, however, represents the new order. It has not, as yet, sol idified into an agency for giving, corn to the few and husks to the many. Had the members of the House under stood the bill and desired its passage, they would have referred it to the committee in sympathy with its pur pose. Since they did not. the infer ence to be drawn is that they did not understand the bill, or do not wish it to become a law. Tn either event it will be incumbent upon all democrats of whatever party affiliation to write their Representatives, urging them to take advantage of this opportunity of doing something for the people—The ing before us in the light of an enemy and in no other light. Japan has estblished law. Children shall not be exploited in the factories of Japan. Miserable barbarians! Heathens! That act in itself is sufficient insult to the United States to invite and deserve a declara tion «f war. While we great and Christian are enslaving our children in mills and factories and at the very time that our Senate is about to sit down with its great righteous might upon a child labor bill, these impudent Japanese barbarians offer the affront to us to put into effect such a law. The Japanses have insulted our flag and our country. They will pay for it. —Union Labor Journal. child labor over this case. It is simply a case where the criminal bit the hand that fed him or the biter was bitten. It is only a natural course of develop ment. The only good thing about the matter is that the corporation is the sufferer in this case and not some innocent citizen." The Detroit News makes this edi torial comment on Judge Connelly's views: "The men were brought to Detroit by a corporation as strikebreakers, at high wages presumably, and were dis charged when the strike was settled. "Imported strikebreakers are not noted for self-control, nor for any precious respect of law and order. The eotirt's disposition to blame the importer together with the hirelings is logical.' A. F. Boot was fined $2 and costs Tuesday for allowing a vicious dog to run at large within the city limits. It was alleged thqt-the dog had bitten several people recently.