Strike bulletin., April 09, 1913, Image 1

About Strike bulletin. (Clinton, Ill.) 1913-1915

Image provided by: University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign Library, Urbana, IL

                
STRIKE * BULLETIN 3.
Ratarad aa aaroivl rlaaa maltat Jaa. 3. in*, al I ha po«t offlra at CUB Ion. Ill uttdar Ota art of Mart It 1. II7». V- '
_————— __a
Ml CLINTON, ILLINOIS* APRIL t, ISIS N*tU
*
At Oaklawn
The Chicago and la'lrrn Illinois railroad recently installed at their iJanville
Oaklawn shops, an acetylene welding device. With this new mcclianical agent they
decided to obviate Hie standard rate of wages pud to skilled labor, and put an op- I
erator on this machine at a wage tar below the scale pawl to men whu had juris- I
diction over this class of work.
The lk ilcr Makers' union demanded ilut tin inanagetnent (say the operator
of this machine the standard rate of wages and that tlie operator should lie one of
the men w ho had been doing this class of work. Hut, as in previous instances,
the management |>aid little attentsin to the demands of the men and their grievance
was placed in a pigeon liole.
The men, after waiting for more than a reasonable length of tune for a rq»ly
to their demand, went on strike.. The revolutionary sprit had l*en developed and
|>laced in action. A practical stqi was inaugurated to convey to the conqiany that
they meant business. They left their work with a wonderful degree of solidarity,
and the management realized to its own astonishment that it would take something
more than mere promises to check further rebellion among the other trades which
were also making arrangements to leave their work. The c<nn|iany therefore com
|>lied almost immediately with all the demands of tlse hoilrr makers.
The boiler makers took the necessary stqis to get action from the manage
ment, who had considered their grievance so unimportant as to be unworthy of
consideration. When all other actions fail, direct action has a right to take its
course, and w ill do so as a natural consequence w here the working class is edu
cated. The boiler makers decided that they had been flirted* w ith lung enough, that
respectability had been abused and a principle intruded upon, and so, as a last re
sort, they laid down the gauntlet to fight.
Let the spirit of the Oaklawn boiler makers live; let the agitation for action
develop; make a few demonstrations such as this when the opportunity presents
itself at your shops and you will be respected as a working class. It win convince
the masters that you are alive, and that you will igkt for your rights. Quit send
ing shop committees repeatedly to the occupants of the stuied chairs for non-ac
complishments, or a business representative praying for admission to the general
manager’s office. Do Idea the Oaklaam boiler makers. Pinch yourselves and nt
if yon are awake, and then get tip end fight for your rights, and you will get the
desired retails. r
Quit taking up your petty grievance with some of your divine leaders, or let
ting them play with it until k hat rotted away. If yon cam thimk. yarn know
Mot ter Nature
. ‘ ... ‘ -• V , ■■
In the last few weeks tfci lain asetkn at the American contfcmt has exper
ienced excessive rains. This h i caused the rivers to go wild, and their ■flastsrili
to overflow. Thousands of fro Is have been drowned in the low lands, —d entcM
thousands have been made horn ess by the raging wSMf from the mad man. To
day along the shores of the old ^Mississippi and on thttfanks of the Ohk> and their
tributaries, poverty and destitution are more apparent than ever before.
It was merely another recurrence of precedent; just another catastrophe that
l could have been avoided, if the fivers which empty into the gateway of everywhere
I had been homessed.
I Of course Grandma will tell yon that it was the sturdy hand of God Almighty,
■ who because he had some grievance against the poor people in the valleys, wanted
I to break up their homes and wreck their houses, drown their children, and spread
want and poverty among those who survived; but this, like Grandma, be
U—a tersfac past, and we radlllC to accept it
Thb-sixgrs overflowed their banks years ago, performing their mission of de- !
struction. Tntyhave done it now, and they will continue to do so in the future nh- *
til something practical Is adopted. The responsibility must fall upon the govern
ment which is still so unconcerned about the welfare of its constituents who live
in the low lands and along the rivers that it t*tIt not harness the channels of Mother
Nature for their protection
i If money and labor can drive a channel into Mother Karth like the I'anama
Carnal for commercial purposes, it can also dredge out the botUmts and wall up the
edges of the Mississippi and Ohio and their tributaries so that the drainage of the
, eastern section of the American continent can he conveyed into the gateway of
\ everywhere wit If Hit wrecking the homes of the poor people in the river valleys and
1 frequently sending a portion of them to watery graves.
1 But to harness the wild streams just for the purpose of protecting the in
I habitants of the valleys and their homes, is a poor investment Human lives are
ft quoted at such low figures on the commercial markets that it is cheaper to allow the
rivers to overflow their banks and perform their mission of destruction than to
k dredge their bottoms and wall up their edges. And furthermore there is no great
V demand among those who suffer for anything practical, or for any real protection,
■ as the majority can still be lulled into a sense of satis factum by Grandma’s old he
yrafioN.
% We have labor and money in super-a bund once; there are thousands of men
■begging for a chance to work. Money is so plentiful that in order to get some .
t jf,f it off their hands, the government made old China an abnormally large loan.
mf the government wishes to avoid future recurrences of the recent disaster which
I Wvns experienced at the price of human Ihes. let it get down to something practical.
\ Sat it dredge out the river bottoms and wall up their edges.
1 The rivers are all right, but they are wild, and like other wild organisms,
\ Mill spasmodically kick up and abuse everything within reach until they are trot
S M]| the pious prayers on the altars of ecclesiastic ism will be of no avail in tat
L'* |p>m You will have to get down ♦ something practical, and slip the hat
J j Ion the streams of Mother Na
A Few Quotations.
Illy Karl C. Bundy.)
I hate heard the wail of angutvh,
I have heard the bitter cry:
I have »cen men, bowed and broken
In the cau«e of profit* die.
1 have seen the weary children,
I have seen the bleeding feet
And I don't believe the ina-lcrs
When they tell me, "toll is sweet.''
I have seen the soldiers marching,
I have seen the banners wuve,
I have heard them tell what glory,
Tis to fill a soldier's grave.
But I've heard the war drum's rumble,
And the shriek of shot and shell;
I have seen them, torn and bleeding.
And I know that “War it hell."
I have seen the giant, labor.
Toiling, slaving for the few,—
I'nrrsitting, unresenting—
Doing what he's told to do;
Build the world in all its beauty.
Asking little for bis toil.
For the money-king it victor,
And, “to the victor goes the spoil.”
But 1 sec a crimson emblem
Floating in the morning sky;
As I look the dawn is breaking
And I hear a mighty cry;
We are coming, we arc coming.
We are ready for the fight—
They have told us—we shall prove it—
We arc strong end “might is right."
We arc workers, we are brothers.
And to at belongs the world. .
No more shall the war drams call os;
And the bottle flag* are faded.
We shall rale and troth shall Irjamph
And the wrowg shall ha made right:
We are comiagy-Joia no, brothers.
Workers of the world write."
If Yo* Dart.
ttom to travel on the etrack rand* mi to
make this possihla pen ahaald sot to It that
a copy of the Orava Yard la placed la every
business house of ymw dtp. Yaw wfH surety
pees np a good chance In advertise the wrack
roads, if png dent
CTATtMCNT, v
Statement of the ownership, management, cir
culation. rlr. of the Strike Bulletin, published
weekly at Clinton. Ill-, aa required by the net
of August Itth. 1*11:
Keillor—Carl K. Person Clinton. 111.
Managing KM I tor—Carl FI Person. Clinton, IU.
Business Manager—Carl A Person. Clinton
111.
Publisher—Illinois Central System Federation.
Owners—Illinois Central System Federation.
i Kirn, .!> Carl FI Parson, Editor.
Sworn and auhacribed before me. this first
•lay of April. ISIS
f HKAI.l RATm'RS h. wii-son.
Notary Publl<. Clinton, IU.
ns ivtvarxxnnirr.
A r*p raws* tat tv* wanted la arary faetwry aad shop
fs writs accident snd slcknsss lasursaca Msathl*
pnv meal sins (IwhI money can Pa mads Sartas spars
lime Twn machinists Wavs left tha shops wtthla
the last year aad secured pood paytas poalneaa
Writ* m* St oars far parti, nlsrs—ASv.
J. Stump. Jr . visa Aft-. Melissa. IU
A Little Energy.
At thu time we have one dozen jet. „f
•tereopticon slide* working, and com* 15 ap
plication* on file fur the elide* Our finance*
are limited and * e mu«t ronfevs that just now
we cannot aff< rd to invest any mc»re money
m slide*, but. nevrithrle**, you mu-t get them.
»o here I* our proposition to you.
If your union it not dead, appoint come one
to call on the moving picture men of your
city and tell them what you have. If your
union ha* already died a natural death, ap
point yourself a> a committee. Contract with
the picture house* to run the slide* on a per
centage ha tit. and the first week c business
will more than pay for the slide*.
There will Ire some 100 slides in the outfit,
and they are the lien thing yet in the way
of an advertising medium. Tbty will not cost
you me-e than $25 at the most. We will send
you a brund new outfit, and you run them for
one week. If you boost them well, your per
centage should be tie Then remit us the
price of the vlidet and we will vend you the
manufacturer's original bill for them, to that
you can not entertain the idea that we arc
working a bunco game on you. You will find
that at the tad of your first week’s business
you will put some in the treasury of
a set of slides of
in all
the > show
bouses chance
before
of the strike.
Mr. Steadman it one of Chicago's moot tnc
cctafnl lawyers, aod if the railroad company's
representatives, sent to the legislature by thu
working men. ere not strong enough to have
this resolution pigeon-holed, tome good re
sults may be looked foe. end it will be shown
that millions of dollars are due the state ae
e part of the I per cent of groat earnings
which was to be given as compensation for
the land given the railroad for a right of
way from Cairo to Freeport. The many strik
ers all over the country, and especially in
Illinois, arc delighted to know that Steadman
it after the I. C
Union of All Employes
OKI STROMO ORGANIZATION UROND BY OUBF OF rUHBI AND
gNttlN—BN.
N’EW YORK. March 31—Union of all railroad employes in one strong or- *
ganizntion was predicted last night by W. S. Carter, president of the Brotherhood
of Locoomtive Firemen and Enginemen. in a speech to railroad men brought here
by the firemen’s wage arbitration. “I predict that we soon shall see the day when
ail railroad employes shall unite in one strong organization." said President Car
ter. “In my opinion, the rank and file of the organizations would unite today if
pemiitted to do so bv certain of their leaders and if these leaders prevent the union
much longer, new leaders will arise under whom all differences will be settled and
one big brotherhood former!. 1
“There are four railroad organizations in the West that are constantly hint
ng that the firemen have had the center of the stage long eo'Sigh. Each of these
•rganizations will take up the question of w and working cond:tions in turn,
nd each will require a year's time in whid *le their questions with their
•mplovers. Why can’t they get together * all the questions of all ia one
ear instead -nding four years on the at?"—St. Louis Globe Demo
rat.