Sidebilder
PDF
ePub
[graphic]

GRAND PRESIDENT JNO. J. CARRIGAN AT HIS DESK AT HEADQUARTERS.

there isn't any such thing as a happy bachelor girl, though there might be such a thing as a 'merry widow'."

Her argument, that if men would marry off working girls the positions they hold would be open to men, is sound. We also know that the American boy is not marrying as early as his father and his grandfather did, and we also know that there has been a decline in the marriage rate in several states.

Here again we hold the present system responsible. Every city has its tens of thousands of young men, working in shops and mills, who receive in wages less than ten dollars a week. Of course it is utterly impossible for them to marry under these circumstances.

The statement that there is no such thing as a happy bachelor girl will shock many men readers, but few women. The statement that there "might be such a thing as a merry widow" is generally conceded.

Despite all this talk we hear of women's desire to be free, we each and every one of us know that no woman can approach happiness and live unnaturally, that the truly happy woman of our acquaintance is not made so by independence of man, but is so because of companionship with man. Together they stand for each other and their own. Both are dependent, as a matter of fact, but when hearts are true such dependency makes for happiness-the most sublime and the most perfect happiness which comes to us in life.-Ex.

SLAVERY.

Slavery includes all other crimes. It is the joint product of the kidnaper, the pirate, thief, murderer and hypocrite. It degrades labor and corrupts leisure.

With the idea that labor is the basis of progress goes the truth that labor must be free.

The laborer must be a free man.

I would like to see this world, at least. so that a man could die and not fret that he had left his wife and children a prey to the greed, the avarice, or the cruelties of mankind.

There is something wrong in a government where they who do the most have the least. There is something wrong when honesty wears a rag and rascality a robe; when the loving, the tender, eat a crust, while the infamous sit at banquets.

The laboring people should unite and

should protect themselves against all idlers. You can divide mankind into classes-the laborers and the idlers, the supporters and the supported, the honest and the dishonest. Every man is dishonest who lives upon the unpaid labors of others, no matter if he occupies a throne.

We need free bodies and free mindsfree labor and free thought, chainless hands and fetterless brains. Free labor will give us wealth. Free thought will give us truth.

There will never be a generation of great men until there have been a generation of free women-of free mothers.

When women reason, and babies sit in the laps of philosophy, the victory of reason over the shadowy host of darkness will be complete.

The rights of men and women should be equal and sacred-marriage should be a perfect partnership-children should be governed by kindness-every family should be a republic-every fireside should be a democracy.-Robert G. Ingersoll in the Garment Worker.

LEARN TO FORGET.

Every night as the sun goes down let all the disagreeable happenings of the day slip out of your mind and sink into oblivion. Blot them out, annihilate them and permit no resurrection. Go to sleep with all thoughts of pleasant things in your mind, and begin the next day as though it was the first day in your life, the last day, the only day.

If

anything disagreeable intrudes at nightfall blot it out. Then if another day is given you make it better than the one before, remembering only those things that are lovely and lovable.

To forget that is what we need. Just to forget. All the petty annoyances, all the vexing irritations, all the mean words, all the rankling acts, the deep wrongs, the bittér disappointments-just let them go; don't hang onto them.

Learn to forget. Make a study of it. Practice it. Become an expert at forgetting.-M. L. Gates.

TRADE UNIONIST DEFINED. Some union men are born, some are made and others just unionists, that's all. The first is the man whom you will find a leader among his fellow men. He's the man who does the real work; he takes up the

battles of the unionists' principles and fights with all his might; he knows no fear; is always in the front rank when the general is needed and is devoid of all selfish motives in what he does. He is the strength of the union.

In

The made" union man is he who holds a card because he is compelled to do so. If he should lose his position he would be perfectly willing to give up his card. other words, he is satisfied to accept conditions as they are. Such a man is a fakir. He's a fraud. He carries a card under false pretenses.

The latter class is better out of the union than within its ranks. He is the man who pays his dues under protest; seldom if ever attends a meeting of his local; objects when called upon to pay a special assessment or donation to help his fellow men in trouble; and invariably grumbles about everything in general and is never satisfied with anything in particular. This class acts as the greatest handicap to the progress of organized labor.

Which class are you in?-Ex.

"WHY WE ORGANIZE."

Proficiency gives the happiness of achievement in work well done, but none of us work merely because we love it. We want some of the good things we see others enjoy. We want good things to eat, good things to wear and other recreation besides riding to and from work six or seven days a week. We want to look prosperous and not wait till we die before others notice that we lived. We want to enjoy the society of our kind and realize the joy of being a real live, active unit in the great social structure of our generation. We want pretty homes and want to provide them with all the little things that make for comfort and add so much to the sum total of human happiness. We want to start our children with natural surroundings and rear them to healthy maturity. We want them to look as neat and sweet as other children and have all the advantages of education and training which other men's children receive.

And when the heat enervates the body that has worked with mechanical precision for a year, we want to gather our loved ones and answer the call of nature which beckons us out into the open, where we

can

forget our cares and gather new strength from the fragrance of wild flowers and rest our weary eyes on the grassy stretch of a rolling country or perhaps lounge in the sands of the seashore and bathe in the salty breakers.

We are entitled to all of these things and the world holds abundance for all. When we ask for our own as individuals, we are scorned as beggars, but through our organizations our claims are successfully advanced.

The wage-earner is just as human as his employer and has all the emotions and all the capacity for enjoyment as has the man who lives off the industry of others. But before the wage-earner can get out of life all there is in it for him, he must conserve his energy and concentrate his demands through the union of his craft. It is the only agency that has ever reduced his hours to the point of getting a period of recreation out of every twenty-four hours; it is the one means of getting prompt action on a demand for better wages, and is the only institution to give him a feeling of security in his position because it sets up a definite standard of proficiency and protects that standard with a fair minimum wage.

The common ambition of men and the unnatural burden upon toilers bring them together under the banner of trade unionism to march against the hordes of privilege and regain what they have taken from us. -Ex.

The railroads of the country made a clear profit of nine-hundred million dollars during the last fiscal year-approximately every man, woman and child in the United States contributed ten dollars each in the way of profit to the railroads-yet in the face of this tremendous showing they object to paying the railway clerk an average salary of more than forty to sixty dollars per month, and are not content, generally speaking, with a reasonable day's work but insist on him grinding away to the very limit of his physical endurance.

The Organization is well rid of the member who deserts it at the first sign of trouble. Both the railroads and the Brotherhood gains thereby. The former in being thus shown the weaklings in their employe and the latter in getting rid of them.

[graphic]

A YOUTHFUL STATESMAN.

"Yes, my son."

"Do they make the political platform out of the presidential timber?"

"No

"Well, do they get stump speeches there?" "Not quite that--"

"Then, they don't feed the dark horses on the straw vote?"

"Hardly, my son."

"Then now I know that the farmers' vote has not made our stable government."Chaparral.

Little Louis was a solemn-eyed, spirituallooking child. One morning he came to his aunt, who was visiting the family, and

asked:

"Auntie, is this God's day?"

"No, dearie," replied the aunt; "this is not Sunday. It is Wednesday."

"I'm so sorry," said the boy sadly, as he went back to his play.

Each succeeding day he asked the same question of the aunt in his serious manner, and she said to his mother:

"Really, I don't think that child will live long. He is too good for this world." When Sunday morning came the question was repeated, and the aunt replied:

"Yes, my darling, this is God's day."

"Oh, goodie!" cried the boy. "Then where is the funny paper?"-New York Times.

The following Scotch tale is one of President Wilson's favorites:

A Scotchman was strolling through the market place in Glasgow one day and close at his heels followed his faithful collie. Attracted by a fine display of shell and other fish, the Scot stopped to admire, perhaps to purchase. The dog stood by, gently wagging his tail, while its master engaged the fishmonger in conversation.

Unfortunately for the bestie its tail dropped for a moment over a big basketful of fine, live lobsters. Instantly one of the largest lobsters snapped its claws on

the tail, and the surprised collie dashed off through the market, yelping with pain, while the lobster hung on grimly, though dashed violently from side to side. The fishmonger for a moment was speechless with indignation; then, turning to his prospective customer, he bawled:

"Mon! mon! whustle to yer dog!'

"Hoot, mon," returned the other, complacently, "whustle to yer lobster!"-New York World.

FOUND A FLAW.

Robert went to church with his mother one Sunday and was very much impressed by the remark of the minister that man was made of dust.

"Mother," he said that day at dinner, "was I made of dust?"

"Yes, my son," was the reply. "Well, I can't understand that, mother," continued the boy, thoughtfully.

"What is it that you don't understand, Robert?" queried the mother.

"Why, if I am made of dust," asked Robert, "how is it, then, that my birthday comes in January? There ain't no dust in January."

GEOGRAPHY.

It was a geography lesson, and the teacher had been asking what some of the different states were noted for. Looking at one of the little girls, she asked:

"Tell me, Florence, what Rhode Island is celebrated for?"

For a moment the child was silent, then an inspiration apparently came to her.

"Rhode Island," replied the little girl, "is celebrated for being the only one of the United States that is the smallest."-Harper's Magazine.

HE LEARNED HIS VALUE.

A tourist in Scotland came to a wide ferry. It was stormy and the wind was constantly increasing. The Scotch ferryman agreed to take the tourist across, but told him to wait until he had first taken a cow across.

When he returned and started across with the traveler the latter became curious.

"Will you tell me why you took the cow across and made me wait?" he asked.

"Weel, now," explained the ferryman, "you see the coo wur valuable, and I feared th' wind wud increase so th' boat might upset on th' second trip!"-Youths' Companion.

DIDN'T READ IT.

The mistress returned after her morning's drive and inquired if the postman left any letters for her.

"Nothing but a post card, ma'am," replied Lizzie, the new maid.

"Who is it from, Lizzie?"

"An' do you think I'd read it, ma'am?" asked the girl, with an injured air.

"Perhaps not. But anyone who sends a post card is either stupid or impertinent." "You'll excuse me, ma'am" returned the girl with a fine show of feeling, "but that's a nice way to be talkin' about your own mother."

He prided himself on his knowledge of baseball. At the end of the first inning he turned to the girl and very condescendingly said to her:

"If there is anything about the game you don't understand, ask me and I'll be glad to explain it to you."

"Just one thing," she replied. "I wish you would explain how that bush league

relic in the box ever gets the ball over the plate without the aid of an express wagon."

A man who had never been duck hunting shot at a duck in the air. The duck fell to the ground,

"Well, you got him," exclaimed the amateur's friend.

"Yes," replied the amateur, "but I might as well have saved my ammunition-the fall would have killed him."-Boston Post.

FRAGILE FATHER.

A man traveling in Maine met a middleaged farmer, who told him his father, aged 90, was still on the farm where he was born.

"Ninety years old, eh?"

"Yep; pop's close to ninety." "Is his health good?"

""Taint much now. He's been complainin' for a few months back."

"What's the matter with him?"

"I dunno; sometimes I think farmin' don't agree with him!"

A colored woman went to the pastor of her church the other day to complain of the conduct of her husband, who, she said, was a low down, worthless, trifling fellow. After listening to a long recital of the delinquencies of her neglectful spouse and her efforts to correct them, the minister said:

"Have you ever tried heaping coals of fire upon his head?"

"No," was the reply, "but I done tried hot water."

[graphic]
« ForrigeFortsett »