The Washington Bee Newspaper, August 17, 1907, Page 1

VOL. 2 THE OIGNITY OF LABOR R VERNON TALKS ON ADVISES COLORED RICANS TO JOIN LA- ORGANIZATIONS. Kansas, August 9. eeting of the Tri-State La- ion | g, which has been in se t 4, and continues until the | 2+ W. T. Vernon, Senator Booker T. Washington and | Vernon, fol- | represent- stration, spoke as tizens:—I feel myself more | ed in coming to you as the | friend of labor, | Roosevelt, to of that tative Theodore my countrymen, and if pos-} to | ad- contribute in some measure idid efforts made by the man- your exposition. ss myself today not embers of my race on purely questions,but the presence of these to speak alone to | organizations impels me ni t and sme measure concerning labor anc for which labor stands. was in the history of the world | i to be the ime ° gentleman was saic hen labor was the ) did not work indignity ; word of praise for with and society, 1, had no 0 said sane age that the dig- knowledged and that laboring man. Be it t of r is ined to view with pity 2 ntempt that one who From he efforts of others tandpoint the ability to la- eat gift to man. That decreed that man inj} his face should earn his blessed him; for, from idual have strength 1 th l- mind, ar idleness roweth from the Stone pos i f | telligent | telligently can you demand and hope Human slavery and labor unions are 0 It was but a question of time that the free labor of the North, seeking to elevate itself to a position of competency, independence and ap- preciated citizenship, would find the Il- lium of its woes in the slave oligarchy of the South, The conscience of the abolitionist, the not compatible Christianity of the good men of Amer- ica who sought to do unto others as they would that men should do them, were reinforced by those who saw the utter futility of striving for lasting and industrial millions of American were but serfs and slaves. We are all ankful today that from these forces freedom came and that you of my race re today not serfs, but happy, in- unto commercial greatness while laborers are and prosperous laborers. Unity means strength. Organization means power; and your ability to know your interest, which is but the interest your country, is evidenced by your organizations. The trades and vocations embraced within labor organizations ex tend to all phases of labor. The earn- ings of labor are being augmented each day. As you labor effectively and in- to receive proper remuneration from your labor. Increased remuneration with economy means the acquisition of homes, the possession of land, bank ac- counts, education for your children, and comfort in old age, so that rather than | being a public charge you become a worthy, respected citizen, appreciated by fair-minded views impress all reasonable, Americans I would not have my you that labor can live alone, or that the power of capital should be under- I believe that a cultivation of the most friendly estimated or ignored. mutual understanding between la- nd capital will inure to the bene- fit of both. In this day of compromises, ation and reason, the wise, con- servative labor Jeader can accomplish thoughtful men agree lock- the part of the mar unions. to both c show that fron tatistics 1741 to 1880 were 1,491 t of tl compre leaving the t be In 1880 there can 1 ascertained. were 610 str of tl sequenc of world impr n that earlic d its birthplace w is and made It the Nile. The efforts Id’s great Pyram igil on the f his wn thread the wo: and have seen th frui- in the development of m. And today that who when he hes his c r and prepares them to labor intelli- Labor is not toil. Toil is the grind- servile task, the por n not be where men are taught Labor implies intelligent ef- ion of slaves, The laboring man thinks and rather than is worked. great of our countrymen lways be those who work with r hands. The safety of America with the intelligent laboring class; this reason the wisest statesmen, the mass patriots are those who strive for jucation, the protection and intel- t co-operation of the laboring class, re is much cause for congratula- the growth and development of rganizations. With the efforts political and religious liberty vn apace the efforts for indus- ment. The nobles and rulers extreme of human selfishness, down to the last extremity the class, but in the night of sion these struggled unceas- better day. of Constantine there were n thirty-five labor organiza- for their aim the doing the contempt and taint of came from the belief that had no souls. gh the intervening years the la- sses in secret wrought out a condition, and the cumulative ree of their struggle was seen by the lized world in that mighty struggle, french Revolution, which bade the world look up and hope for a better day. The stretch from Runnymede to the Declaration of Independence had meant uch in the lives of nations, but a re- rd had Been set in motion by the in- troduction of slave labor in Jamestown in 1619. 1881 there were but 47: 1900 t ments conc: a occurrences were | that period 6,105,694 employees were | ywn out of employment. During the} ume period of ars the were lockouts, |ten thousand establishments and throw- twenty-one y 1,005 involving nearly ing out of employment nearly a million Perhaps the greatest strike of years was the great strike of | 1902, when the United Mine Workers of America demarided an | wages and a decrease in time, and the | payment for coal by weight wherever practicable, instead of by carload, and| people. recent incrcase in at the same time hoping to secure rec- ognition of After inef- fectual attempts to secure these terms, their union. 147,000 abandoned their employment and remained idle until the appointment of the Anthracite Coal Commission. The strike lasted from May 12 to October 23 The shipment of coal decreased twen- ty-two and one-third millions of tons— per cent. of the shiment of the preceding year, or over $46,000,000, while the mine workers lost in wages $25,- ! 900,000, and $1,800,000 was expended by the mine workers of the country for the relief of the miners of the anthra- cite region. The railroad companies suffered a de™ crease in freight rates on larger sizes had it been sent to New York harbor of $19,000,000, and on smaller sizes of $28,000,000. This is the material part of the economic side. ‘The story of the intimidations, violence, boycotts, and all the accompaniments of a great labor war can not be told. It was at this point that the President of the United States, Theodore Roosevelt, came for- ward and conferred a blessing upon} the mine owner, the miner and the whole American people by a settlement of this great strike. It is the earnest wish of all that we may never again see a recurrence of such an event, and that all the ele- ments of our industrial life may un- derstand each better is our hope. I believe the Negro as a race can be much benefited by labor organiza- tions. His membership in the same means protection to him in the matter of property, treatment and remunerative wages. It is the duty of these organ- izations to protect him as are all the members protected. He should be al- lowed to join them, and when given a imion card should in no way be discrim- inated against by them. Forming as he loes a very considerable part of the laboring class of the country—thrown as he is into competition with other labor-| ers, without a spirit of helpfulness, sympathetic relationship and a definite understanding, these two classes of la- must be at variance with each other in their demands, which means in- jury to the work of labor organizations. As I have before said, I would have the Negro of this country fully appre- ciate the importance of labor. I believe that such expositions as this, showing borers the accumulatiors and the achievements | of labor, project the ultimate lasting good which is to be the portion of this race, We should congratulate ourselves upon this unity of effort—a unity not born of ¢ setive but of constructive work. I... cus unite in building our schools and in the education of the Ne- gro youth; unite in the advoca~ moral themes and the making of er life; unite in an intelligent deni for our rights as citizens; unite to mak DISTRIC GANIZER AMONG ODD FELLOY a} [f GRAND MASTER OF ENSLEY ODD-FELLOWS REBEL ADDRRESS TO ODD FELLOWS. \ Decatur, Ala., Aug. 10, 1907. |To the Members of the G. U. O. of | O. F. in America, Baek oe | Greeting: { From time to time nations, races | and individuals awaken to the fact that they are face to face with problems up- Jon the successful or unsuccessful solu- |tion means the advancing or retarding lof their civilization, progress, prosperity and happiness. Wise are the temporal powers who at such times are able to }read the handwriting on the wall, and We 23 of shape their legislation accordingly. |the members of D. G. L. No. find ourselves 4n just such condition and facing just such problems at the time present fidence has been shaken, and the peace and tranquility which the order has Pe order has been retarded, public con- i i y or 1 boasted of since its early organization, Alabama, as well as the order at large, | The material growth of | } the district with scandalous and libelous letters against the administration (the contents of some of which are too vile to be reproduced in public print) they hove up at the Grand Lodge sadly in the minority Just’a side glance at the real strength of these people will show the falsity of the claim that they are making, that they could have been elected if give fair deal. have is, that the committee ereden- ials consisted of fifteen meg, i want to say, as a member of that committee, that when [| shall have explained the real conditions that Florence, that it was a physical impossibility for five men to perform that duty for six hundred and ten lodges creditably,, with members there contending for seats and prevailed in not in possession of the second degree. | Proxies were put in the hands of every | man who would support their gang. We had ninety of these to come from one | certain source, which were secured by questionable methods. Even the so-call- ed D. G. M. C. F. Johnson and D, G. T. furnished the committee on creden- tials with proxies from lodges they did not even know, nor where the iodge was located, nor the name and number. I have in my possession now proxies that were presented at that Grand Lodge by men who had not been members of the The D. G. M., Bro- | ther Howze, knowing this to be unlaw- 's sake, order two months. | ful, seated these men for peac ‘ thereupon giving them the advantage of HOWZE, ALA. THE GRE THE SOUTH ST OR- VS IN ourselves worthy of these rights. We e a part of the national life of a great people. an indispensable This accom- part. | plished, the years that unfold will see the dawning of a brighter day, when those conditions which now distress and annoy shall see the minimum, and the maximum of our experience and conditions shall be satisfactory to our- selves and friends, and the so-called vex- atious race problem will be at an end. TEACHE The Board of Eduucation, it lieved, will adopt strictly business meth. is be- ods during its existence and place all the schools upon a strictly practical,bus- iness basis. The Board’s attention 1s called to the harrassing methods of per- sons who have been delegated a little authority and seem to exercise that au- thority upon helpless and inoffensive teachers, It is a common thing for Ne- gro supervisors to harrass teachers. It is hoped that Assistant Superintendent Bruce will see to it that the supervisors under him do their duty and respect their teachers. The next Congress will be asked to abolish the offices of supervisors. They are expensive and uanecessary. formerly of Washington, is visiting here She is stopping at Mrs. Babby’s, 2507 Seventh street, for a time, and from there she will spend part of her time BALTIMCRE & OHIO RAILROAD. Popular excursions to Niagara Falls, only $10 round trip; August 2 and 16; September 6 and 20; October 6, 1907. Excursion tickets will be sold on the above dates, good going only on Special Train leaving Washington at 7.45 a.m. arriving Niagara Falls at 11.00 p.m. Tickets valid for return ten (10) days, including date of sale, on all regular trains, except “Black Diamond Express,” READ THE BEE. Let us more and more become n rent asunder ie D. G. L. No. 23 of Alabama has been on the For nearly one verge of being torn to pieces by a set of officeseekers,, job- hu , grafters and corrupted politi- cians, who are trying to assume the reins of government without consent of the people Believing that we (the people) are right, and fully convinced that the laws of order vests the power of representa- tion, legislation and election in the sov- erign people, and not in the officeseekers and peace destroyers who would break up the peace and happiness of every lodge in Alabama for a few paltry dol- lars, we desire to be heard. Politics being foreign to our purpos:, only the greatest good to the people most in- terested is what we desire. To those who are groping in the darkness, let us lead you into the light by presenting these facts: We the members of Alabama, through unremitting toil, and years of great sac- rifice and the superhuman efforts of our matchless D. G, M. C. A. Howze, have built up an Endowment System that now stands out pre-eminently at the head of all beneficial and fraternal associations of Alabama, and is the pride of every true Odd Fellow in the State; in fact, so well was the grand old order pro- gressing that it attracted the longing eyes and itching palms of the politician. Six months before the sitting of the D }G. L. which met in the city of Florence, Alabama, August 6 to 10, 1906, there met in the city of Birmingham, Ala. a gang of politicians who styled them- selves as Odd Fellows, and organized a campaign; drew on the different candi- dates who were aspiring for office, and created a campaign fund, after deciding on the amount that each candidate must pay They hired men to visit all the lodges in the State where they thought they could predominate over the election in the subordinate lodges (without pro- test of the members) and see to it that men were elected that would support the gang at Florence. After the gang had exhausted the fund, sending men through the State, and flooded every lodge in possibly ninety unlawful proxies. A show of noses on a test vote showed Howze supporters to be 462 against the "s 112 other s Seeing they were hope” lessly their next step was that of n, which we needed for After the ad- Grand Ledge a howl went up all over the State, saying that Endowment was-defunct, and that he order. was no money to pay off claims. I false, has 3oard has paid out over seventy- there this been proven ight thousand dollars since they claim- ed there was no money But now we come to the most deplor- of the was able and disgraceful Our S. C. of M., Richmond, Va, methods of mos’ part which | | is ui } red into office at by the jany S. C nm planted on the trodden most questionable of M. ‘since American Continent’ gen- the order | have every constitution, eral law, decision, and precedent under to satisfy the whims of men of heir ilk. They have called an extra session of the. D. G. L. 23; which there is no law under the lids of the general law and constitution to justify setting a ba Fellows of Ala Now, brothers, this If the Odd {bama are made to swallow | | + precedent. heaped on injury, without being allowed {to themselves through all of the courts of the order, or even offer- vindicate ing a manly protest for their vested rights as members of this fraternity and citizens of this commonwealth, then we say that no district is safe from the merciless clutch of tl corruptionists. But we have not lost hope. We believe that there are members yet in the order who stand for right, justice, and equity to all men ,regardless of their personal ambition, and we to these brothers, us put down this hydra-headed monster who would destroy the principles that render us social and happy. Our modesty has caused us to refrain from saying much about this affair pub- licly. We had thought that we could save the great name and principles of this grand old order from disgrace by withholding this unholy affair from the public until the expiration of the terms of these politicians, but conditions have shaped the situation as they have (drag- ging the name and character of Ala- bama’s greatest Odd Fellows in the dust). We are determined, hurt whom it may, that the truth must and shall be told, and we say further that if these are the principles by which the order must be governed, then the teaching we had since our incipiency in the order is false and rotten to the core. Just how long the members of this fraternity will supinely on their backs and allow the cardinal principles of this grand old order to be stamped under foot it remains to be seen, but we say here that if members of the S. C. of M. are allowed to overstep the limitations of their power by legislating laws to suit themselves, assuming original jurisdic- tion in trial cases, coming into a dis- trict grand lodge and presiding, declar- ing certain men as officers against pro- test of three-fourths of the members, made contrary to Section 10 or Article 11, D. G. L. Constitution; Section 9, Article 4, D. G. L, Constitution, and Section 1 of Law 90 of the 1905 revised Continued to page four. has} to rise up in their manly vigor and help \ | Now it seems that the contention *h<¢7; 1 this insult i i. PARAGRAPHIC. NEWS 3Y MISS BEATRIZ L. CHASE. President Roosevelt has issued the La- bor Day Proclamation granting holiday tc all per diem employes and laborers he first Monday in September. Thomas A. Edison has plead suit against Thomas Mooore, of this city, for alleged infringement on his rights. Major Sylvester reported that the te- tal amount of money t.ken by James E. Kemp, the property clerk, was $3,475.13. The comet which appeared daily om the eastern has been named the “Daniels,” in honor of its discow- Professor Daniels, of Princetom University, Mrs. Louise Taft was reported last Monday as being critically ill at Wor- cester, Mass, Four women were hurt in a panic while leaving a blazing trolley car last Sunday afternoon at Atlantic City, NJ. Astronomers say that the stars which nearest to the horizon erer, ate brightest ave earth John H. Mitchell, skipper of the wa- ter tricycle: “Genevieve,” sailed from the coast of Coney Island last Sunday a.m The National Baptist Convention, hav+ ing a membership of 2,500,000 Baptists in the United States, will convene im this city September 11th. Last week fully two thousand persons were addressed at the University of Chi- cago by Abbe Felix Klein, who is im- structor in literature in the Catholic In- stitute, Paris, on “The Common Good of Christendom.” The National Association will hold their next session in Balti- more August 27, 28 and 29. Mr. Walter Shrivers, of Smithfield, Va., attended the fifty-first annual ses- sion of the Grand United Order of Gal- ilean Fishermen, which was held in this city. The United States Grand Jury was very much engaged last Monday in hear- ing the testimony concerning the hand- book work in the District of Columbia. Louis C. Bahan, an patient, who escaped from the State Hospital at Middleton, N. Y., on July and sent souvenir postal cards to the different officials of the hospital, has been cap- tured. A large crowd visited the new bathing beach at the site of the government's old fish ponds last Sunday. About twenty residents of the Chinese colony along Pennsylvania avenue near the Capitol went to the Congressional vot Medical insane g¥ Cemetery last Monday afternoon and conducted the semi-annual feeding the. dead.” Messrs. James Thomas, W. E. Atkins and Robert Curry, of Hampton, Va., at- tended the fifty-first annual session of the Grand United Order of Galilean Fishermen, A fair which was called the Tri-State Negro Industriai Exposition, was held by the colored people of Missouri, Kan- sas, and Nebraska, last week in St. Jo seph, Mo, The fortieth session of the R. W. G Council of the I. O. of St. Luke will be held in the St. Luke Hall, Rich- mond, Va., August 20, 21 and 22. G. W. Griffin, who was a prominent physician in Savannah, Ga., died last week, His funeral took place last Sua- day. The twenty-seventh session of Tuske- gee Institute begins September roth, Mrs. Rosa Graham, who jumped from the roof of her home in Philadelphia, to escape arrest, died last Monday in the German Hospital. Fredericl: Nye, assistant editor of the New York World, was struck by 2 car in Lexington avenue, New York, last Monday evening, and fatally injured. More than three hundred delegates attended the State Grand Lodge of Ne- gro Odd Fellows at Pine Bluff, Ark. Henry Lacy, a dark-skinned citizen of Kansas City, has built a motor car which is run by .a wood-burning engine. Prof. Frederick Starr, anthropologist of the University of Chicago, says that he believes Japan could whip the United States in war. The two companies of tke State Guard that have been at Tell City, Ind., since last Saturday, left Monday. It is stated that all has been quiet among the strik- ers. custom of BALTIMORE AND OHIO EXCUR- SION Sunday August 18, $1.09 Harpers Fer- ry and Martinsburg and return $1.35 Berkeley Springs and return. $2.00 Cumberland and return. Special train leaves Washington at 815 a.m. READ THE BEB. crawont epentyar ems meer