Below is the OCR text representation for this newspapers page.

VOL. VII. LABOR AM) INDUSTRY SOME ITEMS OF INTEREST TO UNION WORKMEN. Superiority of Amerlcau Workers—Some Commendable Tilings Done at the Con¬ vention of Machinists—lie Sure Right Before You Go. to Cuba. Uncle Ike on Foreign Missions. So you're wantin'- my subscription tor the missionary cause, And you say that Uncle Ike is one o' them that never Jaws When he's asked to do his duty, sendln' out the gospel light To the far-off, savage^ heathen gropin' In tlie gloom o’ night. Yes, I've done my duty, Parson, payin' all that I could stand, For "from Greenland's icy mountains" and “from Indy's coral strand." I could hear them heathen callin' for the gospel's savin’ power, And the missionary service seemed a blessed, holy hour. But this year It seems so dlff'rent and things seems nil turned around. And old "Greenland's ley mountains” has a queer and funny sound; For them heathen don't seem willin' to be gospellzed by us. And we've got to chnnge our methods and we're in an awful muss. And it seems, we've been ml (taken and have lost a .lot o', time, might In And our sentimental foolin' fact be called a crime; For a hundred years' of preachin' 'pears has done but ,l!t»le good And our missionary teachers might ns well been sawin’ wood. While our pious Yankee preachers with their blbles and their schools Count a hundred Christian converts made by simple gospel tools. England with her shells and cannon on rich "Indy's coral strand" Counts her millions and repeats it down In "Afrlc's golden sand." This I’ve getherod from your sermons and from ones I seen In print. And I guess our "scribes and elders" have at last took up the hint That the big commercial bosses that are usin’ English means Have been givtn’ them list lately over in the Philippines. So no missionary money comes this year from 'Uncle Ike, Only what he pays as war tax. No. I’ve not "gone on a strike.” But If Gatlin guns Is better than the story of the cross. Then your missionary preachln’s nothin’ but a wicked loss. No, I'm not a glttln’ stingy on the mis¬ sionary line. For I’m jayln' more'n I used to, but this queer old heart o' mine Goes out more to them "home missions” that are doin' all they can To convert our llghtln’ Christians to the brotherhood o' man. —George McA. Miller. m - American Superiority. The recent orders for American iron bridges for the Soudan, and American locomotives for railways In England, given against British competition, have caused the Englishman to stop and take his bearings—find out where he is at. Mr. Barnes, secretary of the Amalgamated Society of Engineers, has been issuing to the press state¬ ments showing that English output cannot be increased at present, and that all the orders given to American arms are simply surplus. But what Mr. Barnes does not take Into consid eration In his statement Is the fact that English mechanics working the same number of hours per day and the same number of days per month, don’t accomplish much more than half the work done by American mechanics in the same time, not to mention the loss of time by numerous holidays. Marshal Halsted, American consul at Birmingham, England, In a report to the State department, points out that the American workman should not fall Into the error of the foreign workman, but should hang on to what he has gained abroad, for England is on the fair road to taking all that America can deliver to her. Mr. Halsted says: “Some time ago,' when reading in American papers the accounts of the annual meeting of one of our national labor organizations, and noticing the friendly way in which British labor leaders were received, I hoped, yet did not at the time feel that I dared ex¬ press -the hope—it is so easy to be misunderstood—that all the views of these British labor leaders would not be accepted by the American workmen, and that their Influence would not have a pernicious effect upon our industries as my observation here leads me to believe they have had on their own British industries. Now that our ex¬ port trade has become so important a factor in our prosperity American Rhpr unions will find it, I believe, to their <jvn advantage to consider care¬ fully the ett et any union act may have on that tr.de. It Is a tribute to the faithfulness and energy of American workmen t( it American manufactur ers can coii ete in the world’s market while payiii for the highest priced labor in thiivorld, but this is at the same time cheapest, for American workmen and give good value for the mone^liey receive, taking few holidays, and do not shirk during working hour Muchlot’* Convention. A few daysygo the eighth biennial Eession of the'nternational Associa¬ tion of Machlni.- ordel was held at Buffalo, N. Y. The th\^vantages flourishing, and the reports show of organ¬ ization in a stn^ light Sixty-nine s r M HH o o 73 a DEVOTED TO THE INTEREST OF JOHNSON COUNTY AND MIDDLE GEORGIA. WRIGHTSVILLE. GA.. THURSDAY, JUNE 1899. lodges were organized in the last two years, and 8,629 names were added to the roll; 125 lodges gained an increase in wages of 10 per cent; 35 prevented a reduction averaging 10 per cent; 42 pre¬ vented the introduction of the running of two or more machines; 32 prevented introduction of piece work; 39 secured time and a half for overtime, and double time for Sundays and holidays; 22 prevented a reduction of overtime from time-and-a-half to time-and-a quarter and single time. Nearly an lodges secured benefits to machinists in unionising shops, regulation of ap¬ prenticeship questions, recognition of shop committees, etc. There was paid in sick benefits, $11,053; loaned to members, $3,806; personal loans to members, $2,838; paid in local benefits, contributed to local lodges, to organ¬ ization other than machinists, $12, 981.62; hall rents, salaries, supplies, per capita taxes, etc., $108,161.56; funds in local treasuries, $47,793.70. This is a good showing, and of itself proves that the machinists is a business or¬ It took action at the meet¬ ing that even more strongly proves that it is in the field for business pur¬ poses only. The old-time secret work —ritual, manual, etc.—was almost all abolished, and, as one delegate ex¬ pressed it, ‘‘the usual socialistic reso¬ lution for the ownership and control of the universe was sand-bagged.” I have repeatedly argued that the “se¬ cret work” of most trades unions is one of the things that keeps men from joining them, and I am glad to find my opinions on this subject shared by at least one of the great unions. And when the machinists "sandbagged” the socialistic resolution they simply but decisively announced that their organ¬ ization is In existence for certain pur¬ poses, and that support of or hostility to economic or political theories is not one of them. He Sure You’re Right Before You Go. Many mechanics are considering the advisability of seeking employment in Cuba and Porto Rico. Those islands hold out great possibilities, that will be realized. But just now they are no place for a man who does not exactly know what he must meet, one who is not sure that his Income will enable him to pay his bills and lay up some¬ thing. Here is a case in point. Eight Chicago plumbers are hammering away at pipe and dabbling In solder down In Havana, and spending their leisure time in writing letters to their friends at home, bemoaning their luck. The eight went to the Cuban metropolis about April 1, under contract with one Connolly, a Chicago man. Connolly agreed to pay their transportation there and back and to pay them the union scale of wages—at that time $3.75 a day. With visions of a happy life in tho tropics, where no one had to work hard to save oceans of money, they departed. The state of their feel¬ ings at this time may be explained by the following abstract from a letter re¬ ceived from one of them the other day by Secretary Ben Abbott of their union in Chicago: “I guess we are up against it, good and plenty. We didn’t do so well as we thought when we signed that contract with Connolly. Board Is $10 a week, and pretty bad at that, and we find that a bunch of plumbers from Denver and New York are getting $6 a day and board and lodging. We have asked Connolly for our return fare, but he won’t give it to us, and I don’t see how we are going to get it until he gets good and ready. We are working in a building erected In the year 1600, which is in a fine state of repair to this day. It is very close to where the Maine was blown up. Connolly prom¬ ised us work for a month, but, as It is a $35,000 Job, I think we will be here for some time—getting $3.75 a day and paying $10 a week for bad grub.-is so homesick that we expect him to jump off the dock any day and try to swim to Tampa.” Healing by Color. This novel system is a mode of heal¬ ing which is much vaunted in certain quarters of India. This may be called ^“color istering healing.” It consists in admin¬ water in glasses of different colors, from which color the draught obtains its properties which are mag¬ ical in their effect—provided the pa¬ tient is endowed with sufficient faith. Water in a red glass will cure-epilepsy, insomnia, nervous diseases, the plague, fevers and agues, and half a score of the other diseases which mortal flesh is heir to. In a blue glass it is a sov¬ ereign remedy for the palsy, for falling sickness, for typhoid and for numerous other allied and nonrelated complaints, while in a green glass it is a specific for other complaints, and in yellow for yet another batch. An Awful Fling* Mrs. Styles—Fd have, you understand that I know a good many worse men than my husband. Mrs. Myles—My dear, you must be more particular about picking your acquaintances. An Unpleasant Thought. Fred’s Father (sternly)—My boy, you don’t know the valilB of money. Fred —Yes, I do, father; only t don’t like 1o thjnk about It, I IS NOTHING WRONG? REV. T. DE WITT TALMAGE ON MONOPOLY. A Sermon Filled with Hot Shot for the Plutocrats — Monopoly the Brlbe Glvcr, the Thief, the Wholesale Op¬ pressor. The Rev. T. DeWitt Talmage weekly preaches to a larger congregation than any clergyman on earth, owing to the fact that his sermons are published In full by thousands of American newspa¬ pers. One of the great dailies that has not failed for years to print Talmage’s weekly sermon is that bulwark of plu¬ tocracy,'the St. Louis Globe-Democrat, and the following extract from one of Rev. Talmage’s recent sermons was clipped from that paper. Never before did the Globe-Democrat admit to its columns such a scathing denunciation of monopolies and the monopoly rule which it is that paper’s chosen policy to uphold. / Rev. Mr. Talmage said * * ‘‘In the first place, lr : aark: There is a greedy, all-graspll lt , monster who comes in as suitor seeking the hand of this republic, and that monster is known by the name of Monopoly. His scepter Is made out of the Iron of the rail track and the wire of telegraphy. He does everything for his own advan¬ tage and for the robbery of the people. Things went on from bad to worse, un¬ til in the three legislatures of New York, New Jersey and Pennsylvania for a long time Monopoly decided ev¬ erything. If Monopoly favor a law, it passes; if Monopoly opposes a law, It Is rejected. Monopoly stands In the rail¬ road depot putting Into his pockets In one year $200,000,000 In excess of all reasonable charges for services. Mon¬ opoly holds in his one hand the steam power of locomotion, and in the other the electricity of swift communication. Monopoly has the Republican party in one pocket and the Democratic party in the other pocket. Monopoly decides nominations and elections—city elec¬ tions, state elections,national elections. With bribes he secures the votes of leg¬ islators, giving them free passes, giv¬ ing appointments to needy relatives to lucrative positions, employing them as attorneys if they are lawyers, carry¬ ing their goods 16 per cent less if they are merchants, and If he find a case very stubborn as well as very Import¬ ant, puts down before him the hard cash of bribery. “But monopoly Is not so easily caught now as when during the term of Mr. Buchanan the legislative committee in one of our states explored and exposed the manner in which a certain railway company had obtained a donation of public land. It was found out that 13 of the senators of that state received $176,000 among them, sixty members of the lower house of that state received between $5,000 and $10,000 each, the governor of that state received $50,000, his clerk received $5,000, the lieutenant governor received $10,000, all the clerks of the legislature received $5,000 each, while $50,000 were divided among the lobby agents. That thing on a larger or smaller scale Is all the time going on in some of the states of the union, but it is not so blundering as It used to be, and therefore not so easily exposed or arrested. I tell you that the over¬ shadowing curse of the United States today Is Monopoly. He puts his hand upon every bushel of wheat, upon every sack of salt, upon every ton of coal, and every man, woman and child In the United States feels the touch of that moneyed despotism. I rejoice that In twenty-four states of the union already anti-monopoly leagues have been es¬ tablished. God speed them in the work of liberation. "I have nothing to say against capi¬ talists; a man has a right to all the money he can make honestly—I have nothing to say against corporations as such; without them no great enterprise would be possible, but what I do say is that the same principles are to be ap¬ plied to capitalists and to corporations that are applied to the poorest man and the plainest laborer. What is wrong for me Is wrong for great corporations. If I take from you your property with¬ out any adequate compensation, I'am a thief, and if a railway damages the property of the people without making any adequate compensation, that Is a gigantic theft. What is wrong on a small scale is wrong on a large scale. Monopoly in England has ground hun¬ dreds of thousands of her best people into semi-starvation, and in Ireland has driven multitudinous tenants almost to madness, and in the United States pro¬ poses to take the wealth of 60,000,000 or 70,000,000 of people and put it In a few silken wallets. “Monopoly, brazen-faced, Iron-finger¬ ed,vulture-hearted Monopoly, offers his hand to this republic. He stretches it out over the lakes and up the great railroads and over the telegraph poles of the continent, and says: • “Here is my heart and hand; be mine forever.” Let the millions of the people north, south, east and west forbid the banns of that marriage, forbid them at the ballot box, forbid them oh the plat¬ form, forbid them by great organiza¬ tions, forbid them by the overwhelm¬ ing sentiment of an outraged nation, forbid them by the protest of the church of God, forbid them by prayer to high heaven. That Herod shall not have this Abigail. It shall not be to all-devouring Monopoly that this land is to be married.” The editorial columns of the Globe Democrat and every other plutocratic newspaper in America habitually de¬ nies that there Is any foundation for such Populistic talk as the above by the great preacher. Yet a large major¬ ity of the voters, and thousands of Re¬ publicans, will affirm that all of Tal mnge’s charges against monopolism arc true, and that the situation is fully as serious as he represents. The asser¬ tion of the monopoly-owned daily newspapers that ‘nothing is wrong” is not accepted by the masses of the peo ple. But what is to he done? Can Dr Talmage and the rest of the America! citizens reasonably expect a political party controlled by such bosses at Hanna, Platt and Quay, and which In eludes in its membership every largt monopolist, to destroy monopoly? Car we expect any help from the pot-hous* and gambling house politicians of Nevi York and Chicago, by whatever polit¬ ical name they may call themselves' Shall we allow Wall street to draft th« plans for our campaign against mon¬ opoly? Pin Such men as Dr. Talmage, Gov. gree and Mayor Jones of Toledo all vote the Republican ticket—as yet. II they are honest and Intelligent men they can never vote it again, as the monopoly control of that party Is be¬ coming too apparent. Next year is destined to he a Populisl year. The anti-monopoly forces will not everywhere carry the Populist flag, but the battle all along the line will bo for Populist as against plutocratic prin¬ ciples, with Bryan as the popular lead er. And it will be a winning fight. The tactics during the coming year o( the combined usurers and trusts will make a political ground swell inevi¬ table. Civilization's Weak Spots. A Polish laborer in Honolulu writes a socialist paper in Austrian Poland how he and forty others fell the legal slavery—sanctioned by U. S. senate—of the Sandwich Is¬ labor liws. The German agents at Bremen, he said, sold them to the Austrian consul at Honolulu. When they proved unable to do the work they were imprisoned. On the plantations they were starved, housed with the horses, beaten and driven back to work by dogs. The men beg to be rescued.— London Clarion. Lawrence, Kan., has just been touch¬ ed lightly on the fifth rib again by the trust. They had a horse collar factory there. The trust ‘offered to buy the owner out, but being an enterprising gentleman who still believed In com¬ petition he refused to sell. He pro¬ posed to do business In spite of the trust. He would show them a few tricks with holes In them, so he would. And In the midst of his defiance the trust gently but firmly laid him down upon his back. In other words, after the gent refused to sell to the trust, he could buy no more material to make horse collars. So he had to close up, and didn’t get a cent. The National Harness Review of Chi¬ cago, May 13, says that a large traffic has grown up In England in tanning human skins for belts, card cases, etc., and is obtained from the unclaimed bodies of the poor. Here is an open¬ ing for the American capitalists. Many people suffering from an abundance of prosperity produced by competition might get a few pennies by selling their hides. And we live in the most civil¬ ized epoch ot the world's history! Perhaps the reason why Aguinaldo and his Filipino brethren kick so hard against the march of civilization 1b be¬ cause they see poverty, starvation, dTudgery, the vagrant’s cell, drunken ness, crime and prostitution Coming hand in hand with It—Pueblo Courier. The Wrong Pig by the Ear. The statesman was In an agitated frame of mind. So was the exploiter. Both paced uneasily up and down the corridors of time. a “What’s troubling you?” asked tho statesman. The exploiter leaned against the wall. ‘‘The unemployed!” he gasped. The statesman turned pale. “What of them?” he cried. The exploiter recovered the use of his limbs with a mighty effort. He said: “What will we do with the unem¬ ployed?” bitterly. The statesman laughed “You’ve got the wrong pig by the ear,” he replied. “What will the un¬ employed do with us?” - The New English Policy. The British government has given an American firm the contract for a large bridge to be erected in the Sou¬ dan. All the locomotives for that coun¬ try will be built in American shops. The process of making America the “workshop of the world” and England the paradise of the rich is setting in.— Appeal to Reason. A TRUST OF TRUSTS. NEW SUBSIDY BILL A GIGANTIC STEAL. It Will KnrleU the Great Corporations by Hundreds of Millions of Dollars— A Hanna Republican Plan to laoot the United States Treasury. The ship subsidy bill, fathered by Senator Mark Hanna and Congress¬ man Payne of New York, was favora¬ bly reported to both the house and senate of the last congress, the lican managers are committed to passage of the measure, the daily has been muzzled by the great porations whom the bill will enrich hundreds of millions of dollars, and large portion of the Republican paign fund Is to come from the source. The provisions of the posed subsidy law are thus ized by the most influential labor ganizations engaged in the ing trade: The Proposed I.aw. ‘‘The Hanna-Payne hill, officially en¬ titled S. 5024, is one of the most un American bills ever presented in the Interest of foreign corporations, being practically a free-shlp bill, with suffi¬ cient Americanism held in reserve to enable its progenitors to loot the United States treasury, and even bar¬ ring itself from being compelled to em¬ ploy American crews. It asks for the admission of foreign ships to our regis¬ try in the ratio of two to one; it asks for a bounty to owners of these for¬ eign built vessels of the larger and swifter class of approximately 4% cents per gross ton on every 100 miles sailed, leaving a small inducement to the owners of lesser craft. "Its provisions would debar the ships constructed by its requirements in American shipyards from employment in our coasting trade, and the bill Is so covertly worded as to mislead all but those who are thoroughly acquainted with matters marine, and is intended for the beneflt of gigantic corporations 4 which are largely alien. * * * We denounce in the most emphatic terms the bill commonly known as the Han¬ na-Payne shipping bill.” Endorsed by Hanna's Ohio Convention. Yet, this infamous measure was en¬ dorsed last Friday by the Republican State Convention of Ohio. The in¬ dorsement misrepresents the measure, and Senator Hanna engineered the scheme. The exact words of the reso¬ lution are; "For the National defense, for the reinforcement of the navy, for the en¬ largement of our foreign markets, for the employment of American working- 1 men In the mines, forests, farms, mills, factories and shipyards, we demand the Immediate enactment of legislation similar to that favorably reported to sach branch of the Fifty-fifth congress at Its last session, so that American built, American-owned and American manned ships may regain the carrying bf our foreign commerce.” In this resolution there Is a delib¬ erate concealment of the facts which the labor organizations engaged in the ihlp-bulldlng trades have set forth. In detail, the principal evils of the Hanna-Payne ship subsidy scheme are is follows: A Billion and a Half In Taien, The bill provides for a subsidy or bounty to ship owners which, during the life of the franchise—20 years— will amount to so'methlng like one and ane-half billions of dollars. The pres¬ ent tax receipts by the United States government are about one-half billion dollars or about one-third the amount which it is proposed to give to the men whose vessels shall fill the require¬ ments set forth in the proposed law. And right at this point the monopoly feature of Senator Hanna’s bill ap¬ pears: The Monopoly Feature. It provides for a government bounty U(mn each mile traveled by the ships which meet the requirements of the law, the rate to be proportioned to Yhe size of the vessel and the rate of speed, BEING GREATER FOR THE LARGER AND FASTER SHIPS. This would exclude all sailing vessels and the small steam vessels, and concen¬ trate the entire ocean trade of the United States In the large steam ves¬ sels owned by the gigantic corpora¬ tions which combine the railroad busi¬ ness with that of steamship lines. Then with the competition from small corporations effectually shut off by the discriminatory rates in the sub¬ sidy law. the whole carrying trade on land and sea would, in the hands of the few corporations, soon be merged into what may be very properly termed a trust of trusts in freight and passenger transportation. The btlllon-doUar steel trust is a much more difficult combination to effect. The Friz* at Stake for Monopoly Baron*. In the ship subsidy bill the prize at stake for Senator Hanna and the other monopoly magnates is so mammoth in its propprtions, and if secured will, in combination with the other trust of trusts which will result if the proposed law for a banking monopoly is passed, lead to such far ; reaeh!ng results as to make all lovers ot popular government NO. 15. shudder. If this consolidating process through private corporations ever goes so far as the passage of the ship sub¬ sidy bill and the bill for branch, banks, the result will be that to protect the ensuing monopolies, '.he men in charge of them will, aided by the governments of Europe "to protect investments," take formal possession of our govern¬ ment. IT IS INTERNATIONAL LAW THAT A FOREIGN STATE MAY, AT ITS DISCRETION, ENFORCE THE CONTRACT RIGHT OF ITS CITI¬ ZENS AGAINST ANOTHER STATE OR ANY PORTION THEREOF. In pursuance of this provision of inter¬ national law, Egypt is being managed bv an English army for the benefit Of humanity, of course, and the taxes col¬ lected are turned over to the Roths¬ childs and their fellow monopolists. India is likewise managed by the Eng¬ lish, and the French government has several pieces of territory in its hands as receiver for its Monopoly Barons. Germany is likewise in the control of the money power, and Russia is fast extending her power through financial operations in China. A combination of these foreign powers can so back up the monopoly power in this coun¬ try that the government can be held firmly in hand even to the extent of declaring invalid the election of a president and congress pledged to cor¬ rect the monopoly abuses. All that is necessary is that these foreign states declare that the contract rights of their citizens are in danger of being violated. Tlie Jgftue. Is it not clear that every American should turn in and strive to de¬ Senator Hanna's ship subsidy bill, Hanna's bill for branch bafiks, the retirement of the greenbacks and the turning over to the banks the en¬ tire power to issue paper money and withdraw it, and help to defeat the ex¬ isting combination of trusts and other monopolies fostered by the men whom Mark Hanna, as campaign manager, placed in power at the last national election? The Ohio state convention, with Sen¬ ator Hanna in command, declared in its resolutions for: "President McKin¬ ley, the best exponent of Republican¬ ism and true American ideas and poli¬ cies, the friend of every American In¬ dustry, and the wise and patriotic de¬ fender and advocate 'of honest money. Under his splendid Republican admin¬ istration the prosperity of the people has developed, ' our commerce has grown great, our trade, domestic and foreign, has increased to a degree never before known, and the people are looking with confidence for greater things to come.” Note well the conclusion: “Are looking forward with confidence for greater things to come.” On tne other hand Head Professor Small of the de¬ partment of Sociology in the Univer¬ sity of Chicago declared recently that the remarkable growth of uncontrolled monopoly is the greatest menace to civilization since the Huns descended upon western Europe. Practical busi¬ ness men, he says, are asking “where will it all end? G. H. SHIBLEY. Investor* Becoming Wary. From the Denver Post: There are already apparent encouraging signs that the country has reached the flood tide of the trust movement. Human greed is destroying the gorgeous com¬ mercial structure which was being built with such pains. To buy a prop¬ erty for $1,000,000 and then to stock and bond it for $5,000,000 was an ex¬ ceedingly brilliant stroke of enterprise so long as the investing public eagerly bit at the bait. More and more daring schemes were projected and more and more watered stock was'issued, until the public began to be surfeited. Later the Investors will begin to look for their returns, and they are not going to come with the expected unanimity. It Is true the trusts may control the output; it Is true that they may, through concentration, reduce the coBt of production and raise the price to the consumer as high as our protective tariff against foreign producers will permit, but in the end the matter must regulate itself. The thousands of men who are thrown out of employment by the system cannot continue to be large consumers of trust products, particu¬ larly those which are classed as luxu¬ ries. The very system Itself destroys the consumers, which are so necessary to its continued profitable existence. When the Investing public gives the trusts a cold shoulder, when many of them realize they have been robbed, when the consumers buy as little as they possibly can (and many of them even now cannot possibly help them¬ selves) there Will be a crash in “indus¬ trials.” Clean Sweep Neeeuary, From the New York Times: There are trusts that are vulnerable and fit for destruction. We refer to. the com blnations that carry on business with¬ out competition under ‘the shelter of tariff protection bought-of- a Repub¬ lican congress. They are the true oc¬ topus; they indeed are a public, enemy. But it would be impracticable to sin¬ gle out these tariff-made trusts for. campaign attack. The ax must strike at the root of their life and strength— the gold standard.