The labor journal., April 08, 1909, Image 1

About The labor journal. (Everett, Wash.) 1909-1976

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"A labor paper is a far better
advertising method than any ordin
ary newspaper in eomparisan with
circulation. A labor paper for ex
ample, having 1.000 subscribers is
of more value to the business man
who advertises in it than ordinary
papers with 10,000 subscribers."
VOL. XIX.
Everett's largest and most com
plete HOME FURNISHING
Establishment solicites your
patronage on the broad basis
of-
"Courteous Treatment,
Prompt Service and
Best Values Obtainable"
We trust all — Deliver goods.
Charges prepaid and guaran
tee satisfaction or your money
back.
Barron Furniture Co.
2815-17 Colby Aye., Everett
MURRAY'S SHOE STORE
Union Made Shoes
Huiskamp Bros. Shoes
For Women and Children
Brennan Shoes
HURRAYS SHOE STORE
1707 HEWITT AYE.
Call for them
Have You Tried the
Wm. Blackman
Cigar
It is ;m ideal UNION MADE cigar, as good us the name.
UNION MADE SHOES
A. J. BATES SHOES
$3.00. $3.50 and $4.00.
KNEELANDS SHOES
$4.00 and $5.00.
Alden Walker & Wilde Shoes
$3.50, $4.00 and $5.00
STACY ADAMS SHOES
$6.00.
UNION MADE WORK SHOES
$2.50 and $3.00
Home Shoe Store
"Owned in Everett"
R. E. BROWN R. W. MANNING
For the Whole Family
Ask For
Ask For
For Men
Phones; Ind. 29QY, Sunset 1162.
THE LABOR JOURNAL
Tke Official Paper of the Everett Trades Council
The
Largest
Stock of
UNION-MADE
SHOES
in Everett
DEVOTED TO THE INTEREST
EVERETT, WASHINGTON, THURSDAY, APRIL 8, 1909,
HONE AND
THE UNION
Organize and Educate the
Women.
There is one phase of the trade union
movement which is overlooked to a great
extent which if properly studied and
act I'd upon would be of inestimable ben
efit to the union cause. Wo refer to
the organization of the women of the
wage workers into auxiliary societies.
Many women do not understand the re
lation of the trades union to the home
throuzh a lack of education along
trade union of lines. They
know that the provider has a certain
income, a certain daily wage, with which
to clothe, feed and house those depend
ent u|M>n him for support. They know
that in most eases it is pitifully small
and inadequate, and they, poor souls,
scrimp and save and go without many
things dear to the feminine heart in
their love and loyalty to their homes
anil families, If wages are good nnd
work plentiful they are glad and thank
ful and correspondingly disheartened if
circumstances are the reverse. 'that
they themselves could help to hold up
wages, shorten hours of labor thereby
adding to the comforts and conveniences
of the home, does not enter their minds.
I have personally known of men who
were out on strike, the winning of which
meant a great deal to the family, who
were driven to scab by their wives who
wailed and pledged for them to accept
any kind of terms to get their jobs
back. Strikes arc, it is true particu
larly hard upon the women of the wage
earners, but they cannot realize that if
better conditions are obtained through
suffering temporary hardships, they are
worth the cost. Many women.- wives
of union men in some instances, patron
ize non-union firms, or buy scab made
good-, unthinkingly. Thus the very
people who are forcing misery into the
homes of the wage earners are being
kept in business. In time of war one
army would hardly be expected to keep
the other army in provisions and am
munition. And yet that is just what
these good women are doing. Willful!
ignorance .' Oh, no. The average work
ing; man's wile would make any sacri
flee possible to help her husband is she
only understood. If she would study
the economic principals underlying; the
trade union movement and how sho could
aid her husband in maintaining a high
standard of living, she would learn how
to help hint.
This brings me hack to the opening
sentence* of this little sermon. Organ
ization by the women for their own ben
(•lit. It is a noticeable fact that in
places where the women organise into
auxiliaries or label leagues, are found
tho best union conditions. They meet
and talk over the great problem which
they are facing every day of their lives
the maintenance of the homes. They
learn the relation between good wages
anil comfortable surroundings. They
learn that the greater the call lor union
goods the greater labor power of pro
during those goods is demanded. That
higher wages and shorter hours means a
new piano in the parlor, an education
for the son or daughter, many more
little household conveniences to light en
her toil. The purchasing power is in
their hands. Very few men by the nec
essities of life. They earn the money
and the women spend it. Merchants
everywhere know this ami cater to their
trade and when the women demand that
the union label must be on their pur
chases or insist on knowing that articles
they buy were made under union condi
tions, the merchants know that they
must handle those goods or go out of
business.
There is in this city at the present j
time a ladies auxiliary attached to one
of tin- large and powerful unions. These
women an accomplishing something.
They are alive to the situation and you
couldn't sell one of them v scab made
article if you tried. I venture every'
Oat o! them knows more about the nil-!
ion movement since the formation of,
this society than they knew in all their
lives before. It's just a problem of ed
ucation, of learning how they can help.
There ought to he thirty of these aux
iliary societies in this city instead ot
one. WTiy. just one good, live organi '
zation of this kind can do more to solve
the emancipation of women from drudg-
(Continued on Pago Pour.)
OF ORGANIZED LABOR
THE WAGE WORKERS OF
YESTERDAY AND TODAY
Conditions Bettered Only Through the Ben
efits of Organization.
illy dos. o. Rolger.)
When one considers the condition of
workingmen today contrasted with their
lot twenty-five years ago, it causes one
to wonder, thai in the face of every con
ceivable opposition, sUch great changes
have been brought ahout hit ween that
period and the present. The path has
been strewn with blood, anguish, disap
pointed hopes and sacrifices, yet this
path has led its travelers to a fuller
measure of enjoyment and much better
conditions, Hope has inspired the toil
ers to press on. and these self same toil
ers will continue to struggle and sacri
fice until correct and satisfying meas
ures are meted out, every abuse serv
ing as an incentive to greater efforts to
ward the attainment ol their aims. The
vast importance of organised lalior, its
power for good and particularly its bear
ing upon the industrial peace of the
World, is not a matter to treat
lightly. Its concern is serious. Its in
fluence is world wide for all must agree
that organized labor has won for its
members greater liberties and more in
dependence and has made of its mem
bers and the working class truer citizens.
—In a large majority of instances the
positions taken by organized labor have
been firmly held, in those where a re
treat had to be made the result can most
ly be laid to a lack of thorough organ
ization. When the union was new every
body was enthusiastic, meetings were
largely attended and members constant
ly on the alert for new members, the
"tide was at its flood." However, as
soon as the novelty of the situation
wore away, the enthusiasm began to flag,
attendance decreased until at times it
was almost impossible to secure a quor
um. It is to the unwarranted apathy on
the part of a certain proportion of the
membership in the movement to which
must be laid the responsibility for much
of the past failures as well as for the
unsatisfactory political progress of the
movement. Members seem to forget
that "eternal vigilance is still the price
of liberty" and they let the tide "at
its flood" pass by unnoticed, thereby
failing to icap any adequate reward
when called on to put up a struggle,
through their unpr, paredness. It is
now more than ever (when organized la
lior is abused and attacked as it has
never lieen before) the time to eradicate
this feeling of apathy or dry rot which
exist to a certain extent in the movement
There Is a dry rot which affects men just
as surely as there is a dry rot that
affects wood, the cause and effect being
much the same in both. It at
tacks wood that is unused or undis
turbed for any length of time and rend
ers it useless and unsafe, converting hard
elastic wood fibres into a substance dry
and brittle which tails to pieces in con
stant touch, while wood in constant use
is not much affected, as the vibration or
jar caused by constant use prevents the
growth of the fungus. Among men it is
caused by "apathy," which readily at
tacks those who ate satisfied with their
lot, or who fail to take interest in the
struggles against irksome restrictions
on their progress or welfare, or let un
scrupulous men work out their destiny,
so that in a short time they find them
selves unable to make any effective pro
test against injustice and oppression; be
ing weakened by dry rot.
We trade unionist I lndieve something
ami Mpire to get something; these as
pirations should never cease no matter
what existing conditions may bo, for
the moment that we become lethargic
we become subject to mental dry rot,
and endnnger whatever progress we have
made, weukening our union through
apathy, so that it can do no more than
possibly protest, and find ourselves
forced back from the conditions attain
ed to the step preceding them; as has
beW many times the experience of or
(inllsri lalior, I.ct us keep in mind
that the union that has no set pur
pose in view is in danger nf dcay, nnd
decay is death. I nions pulsating with
resolves nnd steadfast purposes aro in
very little danger of dry rot from with
in, nnd with unity and harmony in them
selves are indestructible from without.
When we are moving we grow, when
we agitate we get st rong. when we are
resolved on lines of actions we get life
leaves us just in proportion as we cease
to work. The object of our unity is
to concentrate our aggressiveness to
gether that we may have the strength
of the many when the few might be
weak. To (hat end the individual mem
hers should be impervious to dry rot,
be should discourage in himself and
others, unnecessary waste of time and
energy in petty discussions of little
moment, he should try to acquire in
others, a knowledge of conditions af
fecting him and his fellow workers, by
systematic reading and study of the
thoughts anil experiences of others who
have been or are struggling like our
selves. Why we organized': What I
do we know of the met hods of our cue- \
mies, of those who would enslave ns,
of manufacturers associations. To be
successful we must study the hands and
the moves of our enemies. As nuskin
says: "We suffer much from the faults
of others, but we lose much more by our
own ignorance." With the knowledge
gained we .should add action so that
our union may become very effective,
and taking [tart in the advance go for
fard, marching in a solid phalanx with
pulsating action. Then we will not
find on occasions that cull for strength,
that we are victims of dry rot. The
order among organized labor should be
at all times to 'close tanks and forward
march," for there will always be use
for organized labor, just as long as there
is a wrong to he righted, just as long
as there is one human creature who
has his rights curtailed or infringed
upon.
Trade unions are organized to se
cure industrial improvements in all di
rections, or anything; that they sec
clearly to be for the promotion of the
common welfare nnd the oppression of
years gone by should be a reminder to
us of the necessity of strengthening the
cause for which union labor stands to
day. For with all the agitation and
the calling of attention to the unfavor
able position of labor at the present
time, there is no getting around tin
fact that slowly, though unmistakably!
certain, the cause of men who toil will
triumph.
There is hardly any excuse for the
wage-workers of today to deliberate
ly vote against their own ami best in
terests by voting for those who have
deceived them and tramped on thai I
rights. The balance of power being on
our side through our right and [tower,
to vote, we should use it as we ought
to, and elect out own men and have our
own kind of government. And the
only hope of the laboring men to ac
complish those aims is to be
faithful to its principles, and be ever!
jealous in our efforts to swell its ranks
and advance its cause. For only by I
strict applications to the principles of
unionism can we hope to hold fast what
We have won in the past, and, only by,
protecting these principles can we ever,
expect to carry forward this gram! work
of the masses taken up by organized!
labor. Consequently it is the duty as
well as the plain interest of all work
ing people to organize thoroughly, meet
in council often, and take practical!
steps to affect the unity of the working
class, as an indispensable preliminary
to any successful attempt to eliminate
the evils of which we, ns a class, so
bitterly ami justly complain of.
To sum up. the work is in its in
fancy. Organized lalior is shedding its
swaddling clothes a nd i- growing into
youth. The evolving of public politics
of the future will be assisted in by tin
ion men. In great deliberations tlieir
voices will be heard, thhers have quid
Ed in the past, but organised labor will
have a hand on the steering gear. In
calm or in storm, we hope to do what
is right, pleading our cause, defend
ing our brothers and sisters, sacrific
ing if need be to demonstrate our fi
delity. ami hoping nevertheless, to win
to our banners, all who believe in jus
tice, hotter conditions, reasonable hours
and wages, and free citizens.
It will pay you to look ovei the ad
vertisements appearing in this paper.
You will learn where to go to purchase
union made goods.
The niereha.nl whe dots not ad
vertise at all may or may not he
your friend, fellow-worker, but it is
a foregone conclusion that he who
liberally patronizes the columns of
all other papers and refuses to ad
vertise In the labor paper, is not
looking fur the workingman's pat
ronage, does not wish it, and is not
desirous of your friendship.
MONEY WELL
EXPENDED
Single Men Will Now Be
Protected.
Seattle. Wash., April sth, 1900.
State Labor Press:
An editor of one of the Labor Press
of the state, in commenting upon the re
port of the state Federation of Labor,
relative to legislation secured during the
I recent session said "We can congratulate
ourselves that there was a return for
:t he money expended."
j Had we secured the enactment of but
lone of the ten measures reported - the
I right of dependent heirs to recover dam*
I ages for the death id' a single person.
|we would have gained fur the depend
ent heirs many times the cost ot our
Work before the session.
For ten years the employers of our
state have discriminated against em-
I ploy men t of married men in favor of
I siuele men because, if death came lo the
single man through conditions under
which tl mployer should be responsi
ble, no such responsibility existed, Mar
tied men who were not familiar with out
laws have often wondered whj they
were displaced by single men. Chambers
of Commerce, Commercial Bodies and
Roosters Clubs have spent hundreds of
thousands of dollars in advertising the
advantage of our state and urging 'men
with families to come here. The cor
porations have refused to employ them
after they came if single men could be
secured.
During the legislative ~,' inn.",
a large employer of labor, now a mem
ber of our State Senate, stated before the
Labor Committee that he had in his
employ 800 men. 799 of whom were
single. WHY. Because if any or all of
the 790 were killed under conditions
which, if married their heirs could re
cover, the fact that they were single
men barred every possibility of recov
ery.
Not a reader of this paper but ran re
call of reading or more intimate knowl
edge, of the killing of a single man din
ing the pa>t year who had aged parents
or minor brothers or sisters dependent
upon hint, who were deprived of means
of support. The writer recalls the death
of an engineer and fireman, caused by
an engine going through a defective
: bridge. The widow of the engineer re
covered a liberal amount for his death.
A mother nnd two younger sisters en
tirely dependent upon that fireman, a
single man, for support were left penni
less. The aged mother was compelled
to take in washing for a living while the
sisters secured employment iii a depart
ment store at lour dollars a week with
the usual results.
Men voted for this measure who knew
I that its paaaage meant thousands of
dollars additional expense to them in the
coining year. Why did they support it
Because through our efforts the unfair
ness of the present law had been rep, tl
I edly exposed and they felt compelled to
acquiesce in the demand of the Federa
Hon of Labor,
I To the attorneys of the siaie who are
j not owned by corporations, we owe
j thanks for assistance but to none oth
I ers. While it has taken ten years to
'right this wrong, nevertheless ii was well
j worth the effort and hundreds of aged
parents or minor sisters and brothers
| will be kept from hunger and want as
| well as the crimes they lead to in the
! fut tire.
* as, Mr. Bitter, l believe "we can eon
grntulate ourselves that there was a re
turn for tile money expended."
Respectfully submitted,
I"HAS. B. < ASK. resident.
W. S. K. Nt [*bor.
There are 28.1 factories in the I'nited
States that inanufaet tire union made
shoes. Is there any reason why you
should wear those non union made?
I
Organized labor in Portland is soon
|to have a home of their own if ores
lent plans do not miscarry. The pro
l jeet has been taken up b\ the IVntral
Body and much BWGSM is moot nig thcni
in their efforts. About $-20.1100 won!,
'of stock has already b»M suhserilied
for by the various unions of the city.
and the Portland unionists ; ,r mfident
that enough money will be secured to
; erect a building that will l>e a lasting
credit to the city nnd to organized la
bor. Buceess to you fellow unionists of
| Portland in this laudable enterprise.
No. 13.