The Labor Dispatch (Galveston, Tex.), Vol. 6, No. 26, Ed. 1 Saturday, July 8, 1916 Page: 1 of 4
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Elje latter Dispat
Educate
Agitate
Organize
Fraternize
t
Official Organ of the Galveston Labor Council, Dock and Marine Council of Galveston and Vicinity,
GALVESTON, TEXAS, SATU RDAY, JULY 8, 1916.
VOLUME VI
NUMBER 26.
APPROVED BY
INDEPENDENCE DAY ADDRESS
GOVERNORS
FREIGHT TRAIN CREWS
to an
-
sa
339
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3
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-0-
MACHINISTS GIVE WARNING.
“The principle of justice, as ap-
receive
Friends of Amendment Insist Proposal
Not Intended to Prevent Extra Com-
pensation for Superior Service.
21st and
Market Street
21st and
Market Streets
A. P. Normam.
Vice President.
From Hon. M. Alexander;
Governor of Idaho:
OPERATORS’ SHERIFF
OUSTED BY HIGH COURT
A. P. Nermas
Vice PresBomt
From Hon. Frank B. Willis,
Governor of Ohio:
American Bank
and—..
Trust Company
From Hon. Woodbridge N. Ferris,
Governor of Michigan:
From Hon. Samuel V. Stewart,
Governor of Montana:
From Hon. William C. McDonald.
Governor of New Mexico;
From Hon. James E. Ferguson.
Governor of Texas:
From Hon. Locke Craig,
Governor of North Carolina:
American Bank
........and- .
Trust Company
“The principle upon which the
eight hour day is founded, is right
and just, and the practical opera-
tion , in Montana by men working
eight hours a day has been such as
to convince us all of its expediency.”
From Hon. George W. P. Hunt.
Governor of Arizona:
C. W. Clawson, 3
Cashier, j
W. L. Moedy, I
President
| w. L. Needy. II
| President
Was Charged With Fraud and Corrup-
tion and’ Supreme Court
Took Action.
STOP WATCH SYSTEM
REJECTED BY HOUSE
From Hon. G. W. Clarke,
Governor of owa:
“The men who do the work of
the great railway lines of the coun-
try should receive ample compensa-
tion for good, faithful work and
ought not to be required to.devote
such a number of hours to the work
as would impair their efficiency or
in any way impair their physical
fitness or the efficiency of the ser-
vice to be given to the public by
railway companies.”
“In my opinion, eight hous of
faithful service is sufficient for a
day’s woork in occupations that de-
mand constant attention and exer-
tion.”
NELSON PHILLIPS,
.Chief Justice, Supreme Court of Texas
From Hon. Frank M. Byrne,
Governor of South Dakota:
an eight hour day. It will make stronger
healthier and more efficient citizens.
are now required to
work from twelve to twenty hours and
less wages per hour than most
any other trade"—their occupation is more
hazardous and their working lives shorter
Fan and reasonable is their demand for
EIGHT HOUR DAY
(BY THE BROTHERHOOD)
C. W. Clawaon,
Canhier.
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Freight train crews
‘ I am thoroughly in accord with
the movement to limit the working
hours of train men and other rail-
way employes, to eight hours a day.
Eight hours a day at hard, exacting
work, demanding close attention, is
all that should be required or ex-
pected as a regular day’s work. The
man working a shorted day will
have more energy and enterprise, a
clearer head and a better spirit, and
will do his work safer and better,
and probably accomplish more than
the man working more hours. This
is especially true of the train man
whose work is of such a peculiarly
responsible and important charac-
ter. The eight hour day should be
adopted generally."
’For the best interests of rhe
State, I am in favor of an eight
hour day law, especially for the
toilers in occupations where it re-
quires keen perception and steady-
nerves, as in the occupation of lo-
comotive engine drivers, and if I
had my way about it, no one would
be allowed to labor more than eight
hours a day in any occupation and
such a law would ultimately result
in greater efficiency.”
Milwaukee, July 7.—A machinists’
“Long hours of strenuous toil do
not necessarily mean greater effi-
ciency. The conservation of health
and happiness is worthy of the first
consideration. An eight hour day
of toil for railroad employes means
a larger degree of efficiency both
for the railroad companies and the
public.”
§026**9 3
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“I am perfectly free to state that
my sympathy is, as I have frequent-
ly expressed it, with the man ‘who
sweats.’ That is, the man who la-
bors with his hands, because the
protection of these men lies at the
foundation of the prosperity of the
country.
“I believe that eight hours of in-
telligent, constant work is as much
as the average man ought to per-
form in one day.”
“I am heartily in favor of the
movement for a shorter working
day for the railroad men of Texas.
I will be glad to see the time come
when they will have eight hours
work, eight hours play, eight hours
sleep and eight dollars a day.”
plied to workers, no less than the
public interests, are factors in sup-
port of the eight hour day campaign
in behalf of railroad train men.
- Efficiency and achievement are not
to be measured solely by hours of
employment.
“The healthy, contented workman
who works not more than eight
hours daily, is a more valuable ally
of industry than is the worker
whose vital forces are depleted by
excessive hours of toil.”
Indianapolis, July 7.—“The govern-
ment of the United States, through
congress, has said that ‘the labor pow-
er of a human being is not a commo-
dity or article of commerce,’ ” says
the United Mine Workers’ Journal.
“But, while this human labor power,
which includes the worker himself, is
conceded by the federal government,
not the property of any except the
workers himself, to grant or withhold,
singly or collectively, as he decides,
many of the judges of state or district
courts still hold the contrary to be the
Delivered by Chief Justice Nelson Phillips
July 4th, 1916, at Request of Galves-
ton Bar Association.
States 'as only applying to property
disputes when irretrievable damage
may, b done, and for which there is
not other redress, is based on what is
known as the common law, based on
the laws of chancery of the monarchial
governments.
“We hold that the expression of the
government of this country on the
status of a citizen within this country
must be binding in every state.
“We have always maintained that
the writ of injunction when applied to
the labor power of human beings was
only based upon usurped power; yet
it was found necessary to enact a sup-
plementary law to wrench this usurped
power from the hands of venal, igno-
rant or subservient federal judges. It
may be best to demand laws, conform-
ing with the law of the country, in all
of the states.
“In the meantime we do not believe
s it best to submit to injustice through
usurped power.
“We hold it is the right and duty
of all the workers to disregard the
claim of property right in labor power
even when allowed by the ermined
servitors of the employers.
“The man who toils will do more
work and better work in EIGHT
HOURS than in fourteen; it will
mean greater ability, greater ener-
gy and greater enthusiasm. for his
work. Let us not forget the men
whose hands are on the throttle,and
those who have actual charge of
the trains hurrying through the
night'to their several destinations.”
Walsenburg, Col., July 7.—Sheriff
Jeff Farr, procurer of strikebreakers,
pet of coal operators, gunman and
‘king of Huerfano county” for 16
years, has been ousted from office by
the state supreme court because of
illegal election practices.
It was proven that Farr’s election
was made possible through the es-
tablishment of voting booths in isolat-
ed places and in camps controlled by
the coal companies. Farr and four
associate officers, who were also oust-
ed, were charged with fraud and cor-
ruption. It was shown that no one
could approach the booths in the min-
ing camps controlled by the Victor
Fuel company and the Colorado Fuel
and Iron company without permission
of the coal company officials. The
supreme court declared that in these
camps unqualified voters were allowed
to vote and legal voters were denied.
The court refused to consider the vote
of "the closed camps and held that
Farr’s opponent was elected because
of pluralities he secured in the uncon-
trolled camps. Practically every poll-
ing place was in a building or on land
controlled by the operators.
“Thus,” said Supreme Court Justice
Scott, “-were the public districts and
the public election machinery turned
over to the absolute domination and
imperial control of private coal cor-
porations.”
The passing of Farr will bring lit-
tle regret to trade .unionists and other
citizens who made continued protest
against the tigerish ferocity of this
official during the recent miners strike
in southern Colorado.
far West that beckoned it to more na- ,
tiveshores, a land set between the roll-
ing oceans that each night furnish a
highway to its doors, stretching from
the zone of winter to the region of per-
petual summer sun, fashioned in na-
ture’s fairest forms and imbedded with
nature’s riches, in promise of man’s
best abode. Virgin and veiled it lay
from human knowledge, saved from all
the turmoil, the strife and conflict of
the old world for its mighty part in -
Washington, Jcly 7.—After a spirited
‛ debate last week, the house, on a roll
, call vote, accepted Congressman Tav-
• enner’s amendment to the fortifica-
’ tions appropriation bill which prohibits
any money in this budget being used
for “stop watch,” speeding up or pre-
mium systems. The vote was 197 to
■ 177.
Friends of the amendment insisted
that the proposal is not intended to
prevent extra compensation for su-
perior service, and that only bonus and
premium systems are attacked.
Congressman Van Dyke called atten-
tion to the order of May 25, 1915,
signed by J. P. Johnson, general su-
perintendent of the railway main ser-
vice, in which speed tests were discon-
tinued as a part of “our efficiency rat-
ing system.”
Despite these statements, petitions
of both skilled and unskilled workers
against the system, and the published
records of hearings held on this ques-
tion, several congressmen made strong
objection.
In the opinion of these patriots, the
Tavenner amendment was fraught
with evil possibilities. Congressman
Madden of Illinois said the amendment
would place all men on a level, and in
an eloquent outburst he declared that
workers would be sent back “to the
Paleozoic age where everybody was a
savage, where civilization was un-
known, and where progress was nev-
er thought of.”
Congressman Moore was also alarm-
ed at industrial prospects if the amend-
: ment passed. The Pennsylvania law
maker believed it would “reduce work-
men to a common level and prevent
any one from rising above that level
in compensation.”
Congressmen Tavenner, Nolan, and
Keating insisted that the amendment
was no barrier to efficiency methods
and was only intended to check “stop
watch” practices. The two first named
representatives read petitions from
skilled and unskilled employes of the
Watertown arsenal to prove their point
and Congressman Keating declared
that those who oppose the amendment
“want to use the ‘stop watch’ on other
men and those that are supporting the
amendment had the ‘stop watch’ used
on them.”
Later, the house placed the “stop
watch” amendment in the army appro-
priation bill.
LADIES AND GENTLEMEN:
I desire to make my acknowledgement to the Galveston Bar Association
for its kind invitation to make this address in commenoration of this, the
one hundred and fortieth year of American Independence; and, in turn, to
the State Association for‘generously interrupting its proceedings that a
brief time might be given to such occasion. In particular am I glad to pay
my devotion to the heroic memories of this day at the alters cf the heroic
City of Galveston. As was true of the Thirteen Colonies, she has known
the travail of suffering. She has exemplified the nobility of self-sacrifice.
Out of that cruel and bitter experience, as the reward for that splendid vir-
tue, she stands today pew-born and consecrated to a larger future.
which it flows. In the past peoples
have been lifted up to play their part
in that great work; they have lived
their brief day in its fulfillment; and
then, when they had served out their
end, they have been suffered to perish
utterly from the earth. In that we
see the reason for Babylon, for Nine-
vah, for Tyre, and why their ashes now
repose in the sepulchres of an almost
forgotten time. The Greek was one of
the most powerful influences the world
has known, as was the Roman in his
day. One typified the genius of intel-
lect, and the other symbolized human
power. Yet “the glory that was Greece
and the grandeur that was Rome, are
no more.” Each nourished and for-
warded civilization, but their mission
was an individual one, and when it was
finished, they were done. Later, came
those masterful races that first con-
ceived the notion of individual free-
dom as we know it. They in turn pro-
duced the Anglo-Saxon, who first pro-
claimed that man possessed certain
fundamental rights which no govern-
ment could impair, and to whom we
owe the imperishable charters graven
with that eternal truth.
But the spirit of liberty had not yet'
found its abiding place. There lay a !
midway between the far East and the
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The chief executives of the great States
of Michigan, South Dakota, Texas, Ohio,
Montana, New Mexico, Idaho, North
Carolina, Arizona and Iowa endorse the
right of
RIGHTS OF AMERICANS
DENIED BY INJUNCTION
fact. In no state in the Union can
there be any written law to justify
such a position; the laws of equity,
confined in every other country, and
Siow by the government of the United *
KI
—---0--
)
AS OTHERS SEE US.
New York, July 7.—Otto H. Kahn
has published, in pamphlet form, an
■address he delivered at the annual din-
ner of the American Newspaper Pub-
lishers’ association and in which he
made this reference to labor unions:
“I would urge upon business men
to cultivate and demonstrate but a
little of that cohesion and discipline
and subordination of self in the fur-
therance of the common cause, that
readiness to back up their spokesmen,
that loyalty to their calling and to
one another which working men prac-
tice and demonstrate daily, and which
have secured for their representatives
| the respect and fear of political par-
ties.”
IQ
j the advancement of the happiness and .
elevation of the effort of the human,
race. In the fullness of time came the
dream of the Italian sailor; then the
voyage of his miniature ships across
the trackless waters, “where the winds
had never fanned a fluttering shroud
and the waves had never kissed a
prow;’’ then the discovery; and Ameri-
ca had come into the world.
The sovereignty of the Spaniard,
the Frenchman and the Englishman
were inturn set up, and endured for a
season. Those three hundred years of
early growth were but for the mould-
ing, the making, the maturing of the
American, who in ’76 threw off all
other character, stepped forth full-
grown, raised the flag of independence
and created a nation beneath its folds.
Upon this day, therefore, it is the
mighty Spirit of America which we
here evoke. It. is the voice which
would speak to us. Its message is
that which we would hear. It would
remind us—first—I think of the les-
sons of our history, then impress our
present duty, and finally point us to
our future.
In that presence our natures are sur-
rendered to the noble sentiment of
Ameican patriotism, and our minds
yielded to the proud recollection of
National career. We are lifted to the
contemplation of the heroic sacrifice
of the martyrs of American freedom,
to the willing pledge by the fathers of
the republic of their lives and sacred
honor that this might be a land of lib-
erty, and that we, their children, might -
enjoy the priceless blessings of a free.
government. Our vision turns to all
that train of varied, fteful history,
the most splendid annals of the human
race and freighted with the largest des-
tines of this world. From out the dim
shadows of that earlier time come the
great figures of Washington, the per-
fect symbol of American character,
who stands among the men of all eras
like a towering shaft with its summit
lost in the heavens, to point us to hon-
or and courage, the virtue of lofty con-
duct, the nobility of unselfish service;
Jefferson, the oracle of wisdom, the
apostle of Democracy, the pen of the
Revolution, as mighty as its sword,
whose imperishable words in the im-
mortal declaration woke the slumber-
ing ages, and whose faith in the right
and capacity of men to govern them-
selves has inspired a new hope among'
the nations of the earth.; Patrick
Henry, whose thundering challenge
quickened the birth of freedom, and
made tyrants tremble on their
thrones; the beloved Franklin, devoted
patriot and philosopher, to whose wise
and patient counsels the constitution
is largely due, and for whose gift to
the world America, if she had done
nothing else, would merit the eternal
gratitude of mankind; James Otis,
with his burning speech: the bold and
dauntless Sam Adams; the brilliant
Hamilton, with his inexhaustible and
pervading genius; Lighthorse Harry
Lee and Mad Anthony Wayne, Greene
and Marion, Stark and Putnam, and
all their brave compeers who fought
without quailing the long eight years
war; the Minute-man of Lexington, the
ragged Continental of Valley Forge,
(Continued on Page 4.)
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strike that will involve practically ev-
ery plant in this city is threatened.
These machinists are now working 55
hours a week. Employers recently
urged the state industrial commission
to make an investigation of labor con-
ditions in nearby localities and in the
middle west. The machinists charge
that this is an attempt to postpone ac-
tion and declare they will act regard-
less of the commission’s report.
“We are determined to get a shorter
working day without wage reductions,”
said General Organizer Emmet Adams.
“We now have the necessities of life,
but we also want a few of the trim-
mings. The whole matter is now up to
the employers.”
The machinists will hold a mass
meeting, July 7, when final action will
probably be taken.
*
I have been assigned a very large
subject, though I do not assume it is
’upon such account that you have asked
me to speak upon it. And yet it is
not a subject beyond any man, because
all men must own, I think, the influ-
ence of its compelling power. It is the
power which lifts and inspires any
man, whatever his station, however
dull his mind, however crude his
speech when liberty is his theme, for
that, to me, is what America means;
and because it does mean that is why
we commemorate this day.
That liberty might be our lot and
portion, this republic was born; and
that the holy thing of freedom may
survive among all the children of men,
this republic must endure.
No man can think on the history of
this world without the recognition
that “through the ages one increasing
purpose runs, and the thoughts of men
are widened with the process of the
■suns.” Nations are but the instru-
ments of that purpose, and thoughts
* of men are but the channel through
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Young, J. W. The Labor Dispatch (Galveston, Tex.), Vol. 6, No. 26, Ed. 1 Saturday, July 8, 1916, newspaper, July 8, 1916; Galveston, Texas. (https://texashistory.unt.edu/ark:/67531/metapth1447726/m1/1/: accessed July 6, 2024), University of North Texas Libraries, The Portal to Texas History, https://texashistory.unt.edu.; crediting Rosenberg Library.