The Oklahoma Labor Unit (Oklahoma City, Okla.), Vol. 2, No. 26, Ed. 1 Saturday, December 18, 1909 Page: 4 of 8
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OKLAHOMA LABOR UNI1
V cl un «< r M« i vmlvr. Independent)
non partisan new«p4per for
thc hom«-
Milt 11 -i i by the
I 4IIOH I MT *l HUMMING I O. |ln«->
IInhcII HIUK
(AddrtnK all eomn utilcullon« to The
OklMlH'tiKt l4«l « r Tnlt l
Ktiiercd at th* Oklahoma City. Okl -
horn.i. I' .Mofflce ;i necmul HaM mull,
until-1- ti ..f March X !*:
sriWItlPriON l payilble/ln advance.)
Jr.- year
/l\ months
*/hr«**' months .
Hcguhr contruct and flat rat**H for ftd-
vertUlntc application.
^ TRADEsJHyRFi [COUNCIL^
If the freeholders really want to j
away from tho mire of politics in j
■stabllsblim the commission torin of
government for thl city let tlieui
provide iu the charter for the pref-
erential system of voting upon the
ropeivisors. This will Insure the rule I
f the majority every time Instead
of a plurality. It is by dividing the
opposition and 1 -adlng at the polls
*ith a minority of the vote* that th* |
nrofeaaional politicians hope to down
tilt iieople.
TALES OF THE TATTLER
ill.I,IK H. W II.KO.N . . • Kdltur
HOWARD N. i' \MI«KH . Manager
♦♦♦♦♦♦♦♦♦♦♦♦♦♦♦♦♦
♦ ♦
+ HEAR WHAT THIS ♦
+ AUTHORITY SAYS +
* ♦
♦ "Printers' Ink," the reran- +
+ nlzed authority on advertising +
+ all over the civilized world. *
♦ after a thorough Investigation +
♦ on the subject says: "A laboi ♦
♦ paper la a far better advertising +
♦ medium than an ordinary new*- +
♦ pni>er in comparison with cir- +
+ eolation. A labor paper, for +
♦ example, hnvlng 1,000 subscrlb- +
+ era. Is more valuable to th'! +
♦ business man who ad\ertlses +
♦ in It than au ordinary paper +
♦ with 6.000 subscribers." +
+ + 1
++♦++++++++++++++
"VHAT THOMAS LAWSON SAYS
We have received a page of matter
printed hy the New York World, writ-
ten by Thomas Lawton. It bears on
the Into decision of the United States
ro.irt against the Standard Oil com-
pany.
Thomas seems to be very enthus-
iastic over thi« decision and insists
that it means the breaking up of the
Standard monopoly. If so we shall
be pleaded. We have no use for that
outfit and would be pleased to see It
ripped wide open.
Hut we have been reading after
Thomas for a good while and do not j
place the most Implicit confidence in
the correctness of his judgment or
reliability of his predictions. We have
as a matter of fact rather leas faith
in the predictions of Thomas than
we do in.the predictions of the weith
er bureau.
He may be right, but we don't pro-
pose to get enthusiastic until we see
more evidence of expiring agony on
the part of the Standard Oil trust
than we see at present.
Have you thought of the poor devil
who doesn't know where Christina.-
Is coming from? l)o yourself good,
bring Christmas cheer in'o your own
heart by helping bring It into the
heart of some unfortunate. If your
own heart is aching over the thought
of a lov le*s, cheerless Christmas,
the kind that plenty of money won't
help, try making some ope else feel
rueerful, l.nd see what effect It III
have on you. It won't hurt you. We
will guarantee that.
Cheer up! You will not have to j
ar bareheaded next summer because
vc u can't obtain a union-labeled straw-
hat. There will bo lots on the mar-
ket. Th? straw hat.nakers are organ-'
I/ins rapidly and are making a hust-
ling campaign to popularize tlielr!
label. The label is gummed, stamped j
and sewed in straw hats in the s.ime j
position as the felt hat label, and
comes in two styles, white for hand
finished hats and buff color for ma- ,
chine made hats.
There may hav t betn a time when i
politicians were slaves to public ,
opinion but thai, time is not now.
Long ago I he politician discovered ,
that the business of making public
opinion to suit their own cnd3 by mis-1
leading the peoplo as to real facts,
was a profitable one and they have
been at it ever since. In fact the art
«.f "making sentiment" is one of the
first things the modern politician
learns. With such a condition of af-
faiis our attitude toward the i>oliti-
clan should bo quite the contraiy from
one of amused Indifferenca. Politi-
cians tin lie honest and it Is our bus-
iness as citizens to nvake them so,
to punish breaches of fnlth and to
reward honest services
We w ill have politicises so long as
we have government and Uie way to
treat them Is. net through un appeal
to public opinion, but through orders
and demands that can be enforced
by our ballots and the law.
It should not alone be the objeo:
of any union to educate Its member-
ship, but also to strive to tench the
genornl public to have a clearer con- j
eeptlon of the ole cts of the orgatiiza-
tlon.
The Oklahoma City unions seemed
to go up against something real hard
in the new charter election, but. boys,
spit on your hands and go after them
again. Don't worry over small things
and don't get self conceited and be-
lieve you can lick the earth with a;
fence around it. Politics <s quite a
funny thing, and is liable to do most j
anything.—Guthrie Laborer.
l">on't worrj', brother, about the Ok-
lahoma City unions. They are there I
wnen it comes to matters of real im-
portance nnd while we haven't any
active labor men to represent us upon
the board of freeholders, we have nit
finger upon the trigger and are look
ing out for oer Interests. The union
men were lax In voting at the last
• lection but from conservative esti
motes it is flgur-d that about 500 ol
them did vote. The trouble was with
the democratic party, upon whose
ticket it so happened that the organ-
ized labor men were all placed. It Is
up to that political organization to
make th-> explanations.
Politics is n funny game, we'll ad-
mit. but we see no reason w hy it labor \
paper published ill Oklahoma should i
not lake a decided stand in defense |
of the constitution.
•let the Christmas spirit in your
heart an 1 you will find there are
plenty of ways whereby you can use !
it to the gladdening of the heart of
some unfortunate.
Lost wo forget, where does the
Farmer and Laborer of Guthrie stand
en the proiKKsisi amendment of Art.
!>, Sec. 3 of the Oklahoma constitu-
tion?
That we are not intended to tell
all we see is proven by the fact that
God gave us two eyes nnd only one
tongue.
Statistics shew that Americans are
the best-fed people In the world. Still,'
<ud to say, some of the them go hun-
gry. /
A terrible story of hnmau cruelty
is told by John Kenmth Turner in
the December issuJ of the American
Magazine. He describes the contract
laves of the Valla Naeiom'l, where
tobacco growers thrive on the heart's
blood of ihelr Mexican slaves. Turner
himself tcok a trip through the val-
ley. His companion was De Lara,
the Mexican Liberal and member of
the Socialist party of America, whom
the Mexican government tried to have
deported from this country on the
trumped-up charge of being an allen
anarchist, but who was released last
week a3 the result of an investiga-
tion made by the departent of eom-
mer<v and labor, spurred by the
workers throughout the country. Tup
ner's story of how young women are
e-aerifiood to lunstful human brutes
ought to a^ose sufficient indignation
to sweep th" bloody Dim and his
s'r.vedrivers into the gulf.
V tale is being published in some
papers about human vivisection being
practiced on children in orphan asy-
lums. charity patients in hospitals and
slum people in the large cities. The
physicians and scientists have been
giving them horrible diseases in or-
der to see how certain cures worked
—and didn't work. A very little In-
vestigation will show that these tales
which do sound a little rough, to be
sure—are of no interest to the aver-
age person, you kuow. TV1 victims
are all poor people, who don't count.
The American people are all rich and
prosperity has returned, except, of
course, for a few poor devils whom
(tod allows to exist in order to make
the prosperity of the others more en-
joyable!
If the freeholders do not write a
v ■ iple's charter they may learn that
the last is invariably the merriest ha.
ha.
Read the many now ads in the Unit
When you get ready to buy, patronize
these friends of ours and yours.
The Switchmen's strike, like al-
most all other strikes, abounds in les-
sens for the working class.
\ victory was never won by a sol-
dier who stopped fighting. Fight on,
if you expect to win.
Hv the roasting to death of sev-
eral hundred human atoms in a coal
mine at Cherry, Illinois, lest week
300 widows and 1.000 orphans are on
the verge of starvation with the
bowling blasts of winter whistling
through the doors of their cabins.
Now if these widows and orphans
were heathen. In the he:.rt of an Afri-
can jungle, the contributions would
pour in. As they are not heathen in
the heart of an African jungle they
will he forgotten in ti very short while
and the world will wag on as it has
wagged for thousands of years. And
the victims were to blame for the dis-
aster. Sure, whenever miners are
slain benerth th^ earth's surface,
they are to blame. Who else coti'd
be held resjionsible? Xot the mining
operators, who live far. far away; not
the mining inspectors. These are
men of prominence and influence.
Vet the law. The law is mute and
cannot enforce its own decree. Only
the dead, and they i ro dumb. They
must die in the long run and why not.
In a mine a blazing bell? Men are
cheap and bread Is dear. There are
others to take the places of those who
have gone before.
M. K. Akin of Shawnee, member Oi
the 8t.ro Federation auditing commit-
tee. a. hard worker In the ranks 3t
labor nd noted as being the Felev
tion's wit and story teller. i« plop*".,
with the Unit, and writes, in p*i*,
follows:
"I see by the way you are fh
ing the harpoon into some ctl'oused
hides through the 'Labor Unit' yo i .ire
not yet a corpse or neither .vivo ib<
got you in Jail but perhaps some of
them think you ought to be. " • •
Every union man who is a Afmor 'n
the ranks anil wants to see 'hi ""<ht*
of labor" win ought to support 10 ,
publications striving for the be 1 ■
iront of the rank and flic and up.Mli'.).
ing of the cause *• • • We are a
live bunch over here In r 11 trades aid
notwithstanding slack times we aic
fully organised and maintaining our
rights. • • • I am very much In-
terested in the inujnetlou' scrap at
Chickasha and hope it will be decided
in our favor."
Mont U. Powell, president of the
Trades Council, who Is becoming well-
known as a toast-master, in addition
to his work in labor circles, while
presiding at an open meeting of Okla-
homa City labor unionists a short time
since, sprung the following goo l one.
which he says came floating up to him
on a recent visit to a certain city in
a state considerabl> farther north
than Oklahoma:
"I had time to kill crae evening, and
bought a ticket for the show at the
"opry house," the only one the town
owned.
"Herman, the magician or one of
bin numerous imitators, was the at-
traction and some great stiints in
magic were being pulled off when I
slipped down the center aisle to m>
seat.
"When 1 got time to take stock of
my neighbors I noticed across the
aisle from me a fat negress. who. cou-
trary to the usual appreciation of her
race for entertainment, did not seem
to be enjoying the show to any great
extent.
"She squirmed in her seat and as
the tricks went along one after the
other, she gradually became more ac-
vous.
"At last the magician took a co- y
of the local paper, and placing a ♦hl.k
piece of flannel over it, ead it with
ease through the flannel.
"The colored woman on the "iglit
fidgeted violently at this display of 'he
conjurers power.
"Then the man folded the flannel
and again read a paragraph from the
paper through its doubled folds.
" i he negress started to rise, bi.t af-
ter a struggle subsided into her seat
nnd watched what was coming with
open mouth and staring eyes.
"The magician folded the flannel
four times nnd read some more of the
newspaper with the same ease as be-
fore.
"At this, the colored woman jumped
from her seat, and started to crowd
past everybody in her effort to get to
the aisle.
" Whats the matter, woman.' asked
a gentleman, as he pulled his patent
leathers from under her feet. 'W hy
don't you stop and s-e the show out?
"•Deed no, sir; 1 ain't gwine ter
s*op in no sech place as this. Ills
don't be no place for a 'specterbul col-
ored lady wif a thin calico dress on.'
"And out she went to the door at a
gallop."
THE REAL MERCHANT.
The holidays are near at haad, and
the time for the bargain merchant
to reap .a harvest is here. If Oklahoma
City does not soon have some Kind of
a fake bankrupt sale, assignee's sale,
fire sale, one of the numerous kind
of sales that "come" like a ship in
lite night, and nfter the holidays fade
away like the morning dew, we shall
indeed be fortunate. One of the
strange freaks of human nature is the
desire for bargains, real if they can
be secured, or fake if not too glaring.
The people will rush for a fifteen cent
bucket at ten cents, and crash a plate
glass vv indow in their efforts to se-
cure th-- bargain; and then spend a
lot of money that they never Intended
to spend, simply because they are
pleased with "heir bargain.
It is a matter that is legitimate for
Oklahoma City business ineu to offer
bargains, to the people; either as a
special inducement to them to come
to the store, or becae.se there is a
h,: a fide desire to make special dis-
position of the goods. Th-- one thing
I hat we think unfair, and that ought
to be remedied, is the traveling bar
merchant, who slips into a town
quietly, and secures a site; then with
a flourish of trumpets, and the use
of the sign painter, he makes the
whole town gape with delight at the
w onderful bargains that he is olfering.
The brass band and the noise of the
trumpet, is r. pleasant sound to the
ears of most of the people, and they
■ ,Toceed straightway to forget the
people with whom they liave been
dealing in the past, as the side show
pictures and glaring advertisements
<apture the traveling throng. They
stop, look and listen" and then pass
ill, and once again is exemplified the
well known quotation, slightly chang-
ed: "He was a stranger and he took
me in." Just a little argument as to
the ncrits of the case. In this city,
the merchants are men of character,
who serve their customers well for
!spvero! reasons. In the first plac \
THE GREATEST
Cash Producing Shoe Sale
OF OKLAHOMA, AT 119 WEST MAIN STREET
Having bought the shoe Business1
of Piersol, the Shoeman, The M.
F. S. Shoe Co., namely Chas. F.
Mahar, Frank M. Sherman and
Roy Fenster, must convert this
great shoe stock in-
to cash and do it
quickly. Every pair
pair must go. We
have cut the price
accordingly.
Come Today. This Means Money to You Now
MEN
WOMEN
BOYS AND
$7.00
Values now $5.40 A
$5.90
$7.00
Values,
now
$5.90
GIRLS
$6.00
Values, now
$4.90
$6.00
Values,
now
$4.90
$.>.00
Values, now
$3.90
S.j.OO
Values,
now
$3.90
Misses
54.00 Values,
now ...
$2.95
S1.00
Values, now
$2.90
$ 1 00
Values,
now
$2.90
Misses
$3.50 Values,
now —
*2.65
$3.50
Vcluee now ..........
$2.40
$3.50
Values.
now
$2.40
M Isses
$li.00 Values,
now —
$1.90
$3 00
Values, now
$1.90
|3.00
Values,
now
$1.90
M isses
J2.50 Values,
now ...
$1.40
Child a
$2.50 Values,
now —
$1.60
ALL
XMAS SLIPPERS AT GREAT
Childs
$2.00 Values,
now —
$1.30
REDUCTION.
Childs
$1.75 Valuer,
now
$1.15
UNION MADE SHOES IN
ALL
Childs
$1.50 Values,
now . .
.95
LEATHERS.
WE
CAN FIT YOU BY
MAIL.
Infants
48c up.
This Stcre
Open
Evenings
Until After
Xmas
The M. F. S. Shoe Co.
MAHAR, SHERMAN & FENSTER, Proprietors
Successors to Piersol, the Shoe Man. 119 W. Main St. Oklahoma City, U.S.A.
All Goods
Exchanged
or Money
Cheerfully
Refunded
it pays to be fair and honorable at
all times, and as a matter of busi-
ness policy customers get fair treat-
ment and honest dealing. In the sec-
ond place, the merchant knows that
anything that is unfair would mean
a loss of a customer's business, and
ultimately the closing of his store.
As a matter of self interest the deal-
er must be fair, for he knows that
unfair treatment would be fatal to his
business. Again the home dealer is
permanently located, and his expenses
of conducting the business is far less
than is the expense of moving into
a town for several months and pay-
ing one hundred dollars per month
license tax for the privilege of doing
business, as is required of transient
merchants in this city. There is ev-
ery reason to give the home merchant
the preference over transient. The
transient comes to town as describe!
and opens his place of business, and
the people who are ever looking for
bargains immediately flock to the
man who loudly declaims the merits
of his goods. The statement that his
goods are from a fire, or bankrupt ; or
that they are bought under extraor-
dinary circumstances is in nearly all
cases false. It is possible that some
of them may be old shelf-worn goods,
or goods that a re entirely out of
style; but the fact is that merchants
from all the cities and large towns
are constantly on the alert for any
bargains that may be obtained, of
goods that are worthy to be sold in
t ho cliiss of stores such as we have in
Oklahoma City, and when they can
be so obtained they will be ottered to
the people by our home merchants
at the prices that are in accordance
with the value of the goods under the
circumstances of their purchase.
The transient man will soon be
here, and we fully expect that when
he does come, there will be the usual
rush for the so-called bargains, but
the Labor Unit urges all its readers
to realize that these sales are only
for the purpose of disposing of a
class of goods that can be bought for
a less price in any store In the city
When you see the fake prices on
the goods that are exposed in the
windows, ascertain the real prices,
and then make inquiry in any legiti-
mate store in the city, and the result
will be that they can be duplicated
for less money here; and further, that
the same goods could at any time be
had for the price asked for them by
the man who "passed in the night "
There is no such thing as a "closed
shop," but there is a "union shop."
No shop is absolutely closed; all can
enter who are desirous of complying
with the conditions current in the
trade, and it is no more interfering
with a man's rights to say he ought
or must help to maintain certain
hours of labor or rates of wages than
it would be to say he must observe
the sanitary laws to prevent contag-
icu.
. .
I
k
Cj The Xmas Buying
is on a steady grind
and the advantage of
the Right Now buying
is where you save the
inconvenience of
crowded stores, tired
clerks and goods in no
showing display.
We handle Union
Label Merchandise
that will be appreciated
by Father, Brother,
1
Uncle
or bwee
theart.
7 he Man s Store where you find
the Man's Gift
Clothing priced at—
$15, $16.50, $18, $20, $22.50, $25
Collar Bags, Tie Sets, Traveling Sets, Bath Robes
Suit Cases, Smoking Jackets
lie will appreciate your patronage and we want it, hut we do suggest—BUY EARLY'
KNIGHT, BECK & CO.
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Wilson, Ollie S. The Oklahoma Labor Unit (Oklahoma City, Okla.), Vol. 2, No. 26, Ed. 1 Saturday, December 18, 1909, newspaper, December 18, 1909; Oklahoma City, Oklahoma. (https://gateway.okhistory.org/ark:/67531/metadc106858/m1/4/: accessed May 15, 2024), The Gateway to Oklahoma History, https://gateway.okhistory.org; crediting Oklahoma Historical Society.