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Show I UTAH LABOR NEWS Page Four. 3Ubor tltalj Jlctos Published every Saturday by Federation of Labor. by the Utah State Federation of Labor and the Salt Lake Building Trade Council. A. F. Moore Editor and Manager W. M. tiain. Advertising Representative Balt Lake A. E. ea Bn-dore- BOARD OF CONTROL IIAltVEY Barbers No. S77. 0. E. ASHBHIDOU Plumbers A Steamfltters Chairman Director No. 19. Director LEWIS Brewery Workmen No. 752. Director H. KLKNKK Musicians No. 104. Director J. J. CUSHMAN No. 194. Carpenters J. S. DIXON. Utah State Federation of Labor. .. .Cooks and Walters' No. 15 JAMES HALL.. Building Trades Council Building Laborers No. 79. Subscription, $1.00 a year In advance. Advertising rates on application to Business Office, Labor Temple. Phone Wasatch 19JL Correspondents alone responsible for views and statements in signed communications. D. F. Entered as second-clas- s matter July 14, 1916, at the postoffice at Salt Lake Citv, Utah, under the Act of March S, 1179. TO SUBSCRIBERS. Hardly a day but one or more should be getting Labor who f regularly complain that it f News Is not being delivered to them. 4 Those who subscribe through A 4- their union officials rather than 4 directly to this office should 4-take It up with their secretary. 4-Wo have no way of knowing that 4- - you want the paper or how to 4-deliver it to you unless we are furnished your name and ad- - 4dress. We want every union man In f4- the city to read Labor News, but 4- we cant undertake to get the 4- paper to you if someone else on whom you depend falls to send in 4- your name and address and the f - f 4-4- - - - - - 4- - 4 money. If you 4- - are paying for It and dont get it. call or phone and we will try to locate the trouble. X 4-4- - T1IH TAX AMENDMENT. On page one of this Issue is an article on a matter that Is of much interest to every resident of Utah. While it is a long time before the opportunity will be afforded to vote on this amendment, still it is not too early to begin to study this ltal question. We take this occasion to Inform the many interested visitors to the conference in the hope that they will carry 'the news back to their neighbors. The organized workers appreciate that it is neeossary only to get before the rest of the working people true statements of conditions to enlist cooperation that will enable us to combat intelligently the big interests that are throttling our great state. The farmer is but a working man, and works longer hours in many instances for less than many other laborers receive. The press that it has been our wont to believe in implicitly has been constantly on the job in the Interest of the big corporations to make the farmer believe that organized workers are undesirables and to create the impression among us that the farmer is getting rich from the high prices we are paying for the things raised on the farm. The working people have awakened, and we know that the farmer is not the recipient of the high prices that we arc paying, nor are we the beneficiaries of tho high prices that he must pay for the manufactured articles. We have been holding a grudge against each other because the public press has played the part of an old gossip going about causing dissension among those who otherwise would be the best of friends. Nabor News doesnt desire to influence anyone in his or her opinions, but does want them to have the facts, confident that they are capable of acting intelligently and for the best In terest of the worth while people of , the community when In possession of them. this reason we are distributing several thousand copies of Labor News to conference visitors so that they may know the source of the oppression Inflicted upon them In the way of ex- -, cessire taxes. We hope to have their in getting this Information before every voter In the state In time that they may make Investigation and satisfy themselves that what we say Is true. That the mass of small property owners, and particularly the home builders and fanners of Utah, have been hoodwinked during the past Is twenty-fiv- e years apparent . to all who have watched developments during our recent legislative session. The constitution as framed was designed to encourage poor prospectors to locate and develop mines, and accordingly a limited taxation of mineral lands was provided a small acreage valuation was provided and a tax fixed on the net proceeds derived from mines developed. After the lapse of years the discovery was made that nearly all the coal lands of Utah were owned by the Denver A Rio Grande monopoly, while the people were receiving no benefits in exchange for their liberal constitutional exemptions, which operated to enable the easy acquisition and retention of such extensive areas as to practically forever exclude competitive relief which would have existed under a different system of taxation. the beneficence of the state was not even acknowledged by a grunt of the coal hog corporation, and the only recognition given the public has been In the shape of an Increase in coal costs to the consumer. Our great state was too unwieldy to remedy the situation, the daily newspapers were too cowardly to expose the facts. Only Labor News had the courage to attempt the task of giving publicity to the rankest tax discrimination extant in any state in the Pr Union. Labor News obtained the facts and utilized Its limited space and small means in order that the public and the lawmakers might know the truth. For several weeks our efforts seemed productive of no results other than an increase of lobbists employed to keep the Legislature on the side of the coal corporations, but there was some intelligence and a great deal of honor among those members who were the peoples representatives, and when these legislators read our arraignment of the Utah Fuel octopus they went after that blocfd-suck- er in dead ear- nest and nailed its hide on the state capitol before they quit. The big corporations skulked behind the state constitution and talked about just taxation being the equivalent of confiscation, but the governor and honest lawmakers went busily ahead with the proposal to amend the constitution, and if the voters do their part next election day the Utah Fuel company will be In much the same position as the ordinary taxpayer about the time values are being fixed. Privilege is a wonderful thing the czar and his predecessors enjoyed it for a long time and the Rio Grande has cleaned Utah of many millions through that medium. The people have lost tho money besides encouraging every form of loot and crookedness devised to keep the privileged concerns entrenched. Great managers of great corporations would in many instances be recognized as cheap bribers of the most mediocre caliber If their relations with public officials were fairly Inquired into. This condition was due to the ignorance of the public and not to any other cause. The dear public has relied upon the statements of corporate and political bosses and believed what the corrupt mouthpieces of wealth print in influential newspapers. ' When the corporations-oUtah are influence undue from using estopped on lawmakers and public officials and to pay taxes as the poor are required f Saturday , April 7, 1917 to do, the taxes of the men who toll and furnish the sons for the nation's h of the defense will not be main. If the allies win, when they have a moment of sober thought, they will realise that we hare treated them, shabbily by overcharges for the thing necessary to preserve their countries. Without going into the merits of the circular, Labor News has little sympathy with those who stoop to hiding thoir light under a bushel. one-fift- present amount So the lawmakers being deceived and their voting constituents permitting the deception, Increases the burden of the poor about 500 per cent and the deception is only possible because of general public Ignorance of the methods big business employs. Labor News took on the coal monopoly and when the public gets through Shaking the stolen gold from cong tho clutches of that cern we can see about forty millions of dollars restored to the state of Utah and Its people. We intend to look Into several more public benefactors in the future, since find wo are right in our assumption that the people of Utah are honest enough to pass wise laws when they become sufficiently informed to JURISDICTIONAL blood-suckin- w-- e recognize thcJr need. WERE ALREADY AT WAR, There came to the editor4K this week an envelope containing a half dozen copies of a circular purporting to be an open letter to the governor and to Mayor Ferry and others. The circular was unsigned and the printing olfice that did the printing either had no right to use the printers label or did not use it according to the rules under which the label is loaned. The circular open letter Is intended to be an argument against the United .States catering the world war. sent to Labor News It no dcubt known because of the objection of the war of any kind. to movement labor or authors seem to . But the author in be awry their reckoning. The organized labor element is against war and against the system that causes war, and we are so opposed to it that we have been fighting for many years to eradicate it, and will continue the w-a- s battle. are If our ration is threatened in duty bound to fight to preserve this nation. This nation was constructed on a foundation that is the very embodiment of the organized labor movement free speech, majority rule, etc.No one should be afraid to express his sentiments, no matter how much they differ from the sentiment or opinions of others. If he is afraid he has little courage and none will respect his opinion. While we have majority rule the majority will rule. Just at present the majority is in favor of allowing a minority to rule, so that is the rule of the majority. What the organized workers are endeavoring to do Is to convince the majority that it should to the ruling instead of voting to allow the minority to rule. No other government has the freedom that we can have under our government if the majority should decide to do the ruling instead of voting that power to a minority, and so for what we may be able to accomplish in the future we will fight to retain now by giving our services if need be to preserve the government that will permit the practice of those principles at any time the majority of the people decide to jractice them. We have been engaged in war since the very day our munitions manufacturers sold the first dollars worth of munitions to belligerents. We have allowed these manufacturers to take advantage of the exigencies of the occasion to charge an exorbitant pricev The nations composing the allies have drained themselves of all the gold they possessed, with the possible exception of England, and American manufacturers have gotten it. When it is all over, if we keep out of it to the end, we ought to have every nation of the earth that has been embroiled at our throats. We certainly would be entitled to get ours then, for weve been getting ours since the trouble started. If German arms should prevail she would have Just cause against us for having furnished munitions that allowed her adversaries to kill most all d of her men and cause intense suffering throughout her do w-- e able-bodie- . SQUABBLES. From the best information obtainable in Salt Lake both Styleplus ft Strauss Bros, clothing .are fair to union labor. The union men of the western part of this country are getting out of patience with that class who are merely pulling back in harness when a pull altogether would majte the going easier. Thejrflicy of the American Federation arLabor to allow ambitious labor lifers who care more for their personal advancement than they do for the .advancement of union principles to use the parent organization and the rank and file to vent a personal grievance has about run its course. The real leaders today are the ones who are endeavoring to avoid industrial strife and attempting to place labor on the high plane on which it is entitled to stand. We are advised to reward our friends ard forget our enemies, but that doesn't mean reward the particular friend who is friendly to some labor leader and make the going hard for some other employer who Is friendly to other organized workers. We have seen strikes pulled on fair employers who have been compelled to sit bj and see competitors who prefer to hire scab labor go right along with their work, and the strike was pulled because this same unfair employer wa3 hiring scabs. Who was injured? Not the unfair employers, but the employer of union men. The wonder is that these men who are sometimes so sorely trieddou not refuse thereafter to treat with the men, who have injured them when their friendliness. they hhv-prc- n The jurisdictional strike and the ' strike generally do sympathetic more injury to the union mens friends than to their enemies. And in most instances it is a demand that should not be made of an employer of union men. If we can stop the work being done by unfair employers, all well and good, but when we stop the w ork being done by .employers of union labor and the unfair employer goes along as wrell as before, we certainly are giving a mighty poor exhibition of the benefits to flow from employing union men. There have been instances brought to light in the labor movement where labor leaders kept employees of their employers competitors from becoming members of the union in order to have a field for his goods from which his competitors product was excluded. If that is the ideal of the labor movement there are many who have been misled. As said last week, we believe there should be no dual unions. However, a labor union is little if any different from a nation. When tho recognized representatives of a nation are overthrown by revolution other nations recognize the revolutionists as being the representative' of the government. So when the men and women engaged in an industry successfully revolt against the ones who heretofore have been their representatives they likewise should be recognized as the ones in charge. If the American Federation of Labor has not the power to compel all parties to bury the hatchet and make peace without inflicting injury on employers it is not in position to give the service it should give. The time is ripe for the use of brains in the conduct of labors struggle as well as brawn. As the pen has triumphed over the sword, so have brains triumphed over brawn. Weve got the brain as well as the brawn, lets use both. |