business. - But they are still doing
business.
The accused iron workers have
been charged with the crime of hav
ing destroyed the Times Building and
the, lives of twenty-one people
Months after the tragedy, with a gro
tesque and sensational setting, ar
rests have been made, and tle col
umns of the press have ben bulging
with assertions of what is to follow,
with the evident intent and studied
purpose of inflaming the public mind
to the point where the reprehensible
acts of detectives and their allies may
be lost sight of.
No good citzen, be he a member of
a labor organization or nof desires
crime to go unpunished. If the men
charged with this terrible catastro
phe be proven guilty then punish
ment should be inflicted.
To the minds of labor men experi
enced in the struggle for the right
there is a conspiracy interminable in
its ramifications, and mora danger
ous than is generally believed Or
ganized labor's sphere of influence
has rapidly and potentially increased
in the past half decade, and in this
land or dollars the captains of in
dustry realize that the men of labor
are becoming an ever increasing force
for the amelioration of all forms of
abuses against humanity. With the
steady advance of this humanizing in
fluence greed and avarice must re
cede and more equitable relations
established. Organized labor is in
nured to hardship, the justice of its
creed is unquestionable and its cour
age undaunted. The men of labor
protest that special innovations be
inaugurated in an effort to cast
odium upon it, but it is willing and
every ready to meet in the open
every antagonist, with hope and
faith firmly imbedded that justice will
eventually prevail. .
RAILWAY MAIL CARS.
First Law for the Protection of Mail
Clerks Will Become Effective
in About Sixty Days.
Two legislative acts relating to the
mail cars in use by the railways will
become operative next July and on
July 1, 1916. The first law going into
effect provides that after July 1. this
year, the government will not accept
or pay ior the use of wooden railway
mail cads used between steel cars, or
between a locomotive and a steeJ car.
The other act, which in effect will
compel the use of steel mail cars on
all main lines, provides that after
July 1, 1916, the railway companies
shall not be allowed to use wooden
mail cars in trains in which a major
ity of the cars is composed of steel.
The railway mail clerks have for
years made vigorous protests to the
government against the use of woods.
en cars. They have insisted that the
wooden cars were the most dangerous
in the trains, the balance of the train
usually being made up of steel cars,
the result being that in any wreck
the mail cars were splintered and
their occupants almost inevitably
killed or wounded.
,f -
None to Do the Chorea.
More than four million people are
estimated to attend moving picture
Bhows in the United States every day.
No wonder it is getting so hard to find
somebody willing to do the chores.
i t V
UNION RECOGNITION.
The demand for recognition is
H one which a union cannot com- J J
promise if it is to be anything
I more than a society for the ex-
change of Individual commisera- .
1' tion. Concessions made to indi- '
; viduals are easily withdrawn
. I after strikers return to work and I J
are restored to a pacific mood. '
. . Gradually the men find them-
II selves being discharged, always
. for "cause," but actually as a
I' punishment for having struck
- and as means of substituting .
I other men willing to work for
wages and under conditions .
I which provoked the strike. Thus J
i the price offered for the sacri-
j flee of the union principle often, j
if not in a majority of cases, i
turns out to be Dead sea fruit. jj
Dallas News.
LIABILITY PROBLEM.
Provisions of tho Law Enacted In New
Jersey.
In the course of a lecture on "New
Liability Laws' In New York city
Edgar M. Atkin declared that such
laws were antiquated and unjust in
every state of the Union except one.
Then he said: v
It is possible that the solution of
the difficulty may be found In the sen
ate act of the state New Jersey which
recently became a law. This law is
in three sections. The first part of
the law states that the employee can
recover compensation for Injuries un
less he was guilty of willful negligence
and definitely abolishes the defenses
that the accident was caused by a fel
low servant or that the employee as
sumed the risk of bis employment.
Section 2 of this law Is based upon
the draft, of the late New York com
pensation act. It seeks to avoid the
barrier of the constitution by provid
ing that it shall be presumed that the
law of compensation as therein set
forth is a part of every contract of
employment entered Into after July 4.
1911 truly, a good day upon which to
declare independence of antiquated
theories of government unless either
employer or employee states In writing
that he does not wish to abide by its
liberal provisions. Men employed
prior to that date may affirmatively
signify their desire to avail themselves
of its definite provisions rather than
to remain subject to the uncertainties
of litigation under section 1. The at
titude of the employer cannot as yet
be determined. He must abide by the
most stringent liability law heretofore
enacted, or he must pay to his in
jured employee varying amounts in
proportion to the seriousness 4 of the
Injury. Common sense will show the
employee that the compensation act is
the better for him to work under.
The schedule of payments is complete
and ranges to 50 per cent of his wages
during fifteen weeks, but not to more
than $10 a week.
In case of death from injury pay
ments to dependents run for a period
of 300 weeks. The percentage of his
entire wages to be paid range from 25
per cent to a widow to GO per cent
where a widow is left with five chil
dren. These payments are to be made
without regard to question of negli
gence and can only be defeated by
proof that deliberate failure to act.
intoxication or recklessness caused the
accident. .
Strictly Union.
The Bricklayers' union of Sacra
mento has adopted a law by which any
member who neglects or fails to at
tend the regular weekly meetings will
be fined 25 cents, and if not paid this
win be charged up as dues.
WORK WITH DEATH!
Child Labor Near to Tragedy In
Cotton Mills.
PERIL OF THE BACK BOYS.
i
Compelled to Clean Spinning Mules
; While Machines Are In Motion,
i Shop Rules That Are Meant to Be
Broken.
The work of a boy in a cotton mill
can't be as pleasant as a fishing trip,
but it might be made just as human.
There are a few laws regulatiug the
toil of minors which are aimed toward
the safety of child laborers. In
"Through the Mill," in the Outlook, Al
Priddy, who worked when a "child in
a southern manufactory, gives the fol
lowing peep into child life among the
spinning mules:
For the protection of minors like my
self two notices were posted in the
mule room and in every room in the
mill. They are rules which if obeyed
would have reduced the dangers of my
mill work. The notices read:
The cleaning of machinery while it is
in motion is positively forbidden.
All minors are hereby prohibited from
working during the regular stopping hours.
If I had made any effort to obey the
first law I should not have retained my
position. The mule spinners were
working by the piece and would stop
their mules only under exceptional
stress. The back boy who demanded
that the machinery be stopped while
he oiled the spindles was deemed in
capable. It was even expected of me
that I should with a hand brush clean
pulleys whirling hundreds of revolu
tions a minute at the risk of having
my hand drawn over the belt. I had
to clean fallers, which if taken at the
wrong minute on the change was like
putting one's hands between the clos
ing teeth of some wild creature. In
cleaning the front spindles or oiling
them I was in constant danger of be
ing crushed between the carriage and
the iron posts, which when they met
left hardly an inch of space. Alfred
Skinner, a close friend of mine, did
get caught one day, and his body was
pinned close and was crushed badly,
but not too severely to keep bim from
his work at his own expense for
more than four days.
The most dangerous cleaning I had
to do was the cleaning of the back
wheels of the mule carriage. The car
riage runs forward for about three
yards on tracks. It starts from the
frame and spins the cotton thread as
It moves ahead at a slow paci Then
when the thread is spun the carriage
darts back swiftly and gathers the
thread up on the spindles. This back
motion is a swift rebound, just like a
rubber ball which we throw and draw
back by an elastic cord. The wheels
are about ten inches In diameter, and
the tracks on which they run are sharp,
like knives. It was dangerous enough
to try to creep after these wheels while
they were in motion, for the waste was
always wrapping around the axles or
being lumped under the wheels, and
there was the added danger of not
crawling back swiftly enough ahead of
the rebounding carriage.
I had to creep, almost at full length,
under the frame and a long steel $ haf t.
and crawl back out of the way of the
returning carriage. I had to estimate
Just how low to duck and be careful
not to back Into a post or a box which
would block my retreat Yet that was
the process, and no spinner would stop
his mule for me.
If I let the waste lump under the
wheels it-"would lift the carriage out
of gear and break a thousandfrxeafls.
When t h a t o cc u rri xl There" were oaths
from the spinner, a lecture from the
second hand and'all sorts of disagree
able criticisms from the hands who
were called upon to piece the broken
threads together. One day I had
my little finger dragged on the track
and the end nipped. Almost every
back boy of my acquaintance had had
one of his fingers either nipped or cut
off altogether. Once in awhile one of
them would be caught as he backed
and be severely maimed.
The only consolation we got in case
of these accidents was a few days'
"layoff," always delightful; free treat
ment by the "company's butcher," as
we called the surgeon, and a loss of
so many days' wages.
If a boy was absolutely bent on
keeping that rule in regard to the
cleaning of machinery he bad to leave
that part of his work until the mill
was stopped for dinner or do it be
fore the mill started in the morning.
This, however, was Jumping from the
frying pan into the fire, for It led to
nn Infraction of the second rule. "All
minors are hereby prohibited from
working during the regular stopping
hours."
It was absolutely impossible for me
to do all my day's work in the ten and
a half hours of the regular working
day. I did not shirk my work nor was
I lazy, i Neither was I undertaking
more than would bring me an average
wage. My weekly pay' for the foul
mules was $4.50. Not only was much
of the dangerous cleaning left till the
noon hour or the hour-before starting
ir the mornings, but there Was always
some unfinished chore ahead to be
done before the mules started. In ad
dition to all this, the spinners hired
me to work for them during the stop
ping hours. They gave me a quartei
for cleaning a mule head and so mucfc
a week for keeping their rollers in or
der, for helping -them in piecing ut
whatever broken threads "ere found
and for work at many other details
which they could leave until the nooi
hour.
LABOR IN HISTORY.
8ecial Progress of America Traceable
to Trade Unions.
A. M. Simons, editor of the Coming
Nation and author of several treatises
on American history, lectured before
the Socialist Literary society in Phila
delphia recently.
His subject was "The Workers In
American History." He said:
"Progress in America has come al
most entirely as a result of the strug
gle of the working class. To the
working class movement of the thir
ties we owe more than to any other
cause our common schools, our right
of trial by jury, universal suffrage,
abolition of imprisonment for debt and
a large number of other things that
are commonly supposed to have been
obtained by the Revolutionary fathers,
but which these fathers were quite
generally opposed to. :
"Since the civil war social progress
has been even more distinctly trace
able to working class organizations. '
Take any one of the things that are
said to mark the advance toward de
mocracy in government or greater en
joyment for the masses of the people
and you will find that long before it
was created into law or incorporated
In the platforms of any of-the old par
tie?? it was announced and defended
for years in the 'councils of the work
ers. "There is no power on earth that
can stop this conscious movement- ex
cept labor itself. Labor has fought all
the battles of the past, but a i ways
fought them for some one else. Now
that it is fighting for itself it is cer
tain of victory." -. j
