Nebraska Newspapers

    Loop City Northwestern
J. W. BURLEIGH, Publisher.
LOUP CITY, - - NEBRASKA.
Incredible as It may seem, there
Is no such place as Chow-chow on the
map.
It’s a wise husband who lets his
wife make all the arrangements for
the summer vacation.
Rev. Dr. Locke says that only the
good are brave, but fortunately others
besides the brave are good.
It is sad to hear that Bill Nye’s
widow is in want. That is too fre
quently the legacy of humorists.
We don’t know where the fly has
been all winter long, but it was some
where where he got nicely rested.
After all is said and done the dis
ease microbe still remains the most
deadly implement of modern warfare.
In Korea they sell the offices to the
highest bidder. They could hardly be
expected to let them go to the lowest
As no news is reported from Brazil
or Peru, it is supposed that war is
going on there in the same old monot
onous way.
An English parish church has
changed its hour of service to suit
the golf players—including the par
son, perhaps.
The eighteen miles between Nan
shan hill and Port Arthur is generally
recognized as the longest eighteen
miles in all Asia.
One of the club women at St. Louis
declared that “Good pies will not hurt
any one,” but she didn’t add that she
could make them.
A fashion journal declares that the
summer girl this year will wear sus
penders, but unfortunately neglects to
say whose suspenders.
In Korea widows are not permitted
to remarry, but there are no statistics
to show what effect this custom has
on masculine longevity.
An Ohio justice of the peace makes
every couple he marries promise not
to seek divorce. Don’t have to “seek
it”—it just comes natural.
A passenger brakeman who Is
around depots a good deal says no
man is so ornery that somebody
does not want to kiss him.
Why is it that every successful test
of a flying machine ends with some
disablement of the machinery that pre
vents further experimenting?
A Baltimore man has been fined
$100 for kissing his typewriter girl.
The dispatches don’t say how much it
cost him to square it with his wife.
“In these days,” said Prof. Burleigh,
“too many society women bring up a
child in the way the nurse girl says it
shall go—when they bring them up at
all.”
In a New Jersey town the mayor re
cently cut out an appropriation to buy
pocketknives for the aldermen. They
probably found their own pocket
books.
The General Federation of Women’s
Clubs has gone on record in opposition
to divorces. This is a magnificent
compliment to the husbands the ladies
now possess.
A Baltimore preacher has been sued
by his brokers for the “commissions”
on a recent “flyer” in the stock mar
ket. What might be called a “high
flown” preacher.
A Milwaukee contemporary says
that “the man with a small income is
passing through a trying time.” The
trouble is that so many never get
through, but get stuck.
One of the Indian chiefs on exhibi
tion at the St. Louis fair wears eye
glasses. This is perhaps the strong
est possible indication that the noble
redman can be civilized.
Now it is settled that the insurance
companies do not have to settle the
policies of men who have been hanged
or committed suicide, who is going to
take chances on paying premiums?
It has been discovered by an emi
nent Boston authority that Paul Re
vere’s morals were far from being
what they should have been. This
renders it impossible for us to revere
him as we did.
Letters from Mr. Perdicaris say
that his health is good and that he is
well cared for, but there is no post
script to add that he is really enjoy
ing his outing in the hills with the
Moorish brigands.
Rev. Dr. Parkhuret, the New York
slum expert, spent a whcle night re
cently visiting saloons in Gotham, and
unlike many otners who did the same
thing he had no trouble in getting Us
hat on in the morning.
The Boston Globe states that there
is a sad-eyed man down in hiaine
whom the neighbors call “Mrs. Capt.
Johnson’s husband.*' Some men
have greatness thrust upon 'em.
"Capt. Johnson” might never have
been heard of if it wasn’t for this bor
rowed radiance.
A Boston paper recently published
some illustrations showing the atti
tudes “struck" by President Eliot of
Harvard while delivering an addres3.
We should now have something show
ing the attitudes of the student who
has just struck the old man for
another remittance.
In New York a justly indignant beg
gar knocked down a woman who had
had the effrontery to offer him a
quarter. Few of the fair sex seem
able to realize how much it takes to
keep a man of the world up, anyhow.
WITH THE WOOD’S
WRITERS
“HIGH FINANCE.”
In his most Interesting testimony
at the gas hearing, Thomas W. Law
son testified that he and his friend
Rogers had for nine years been on
very intimate terms. Business trans
actions aggregating more than $100,
000,000 had been carried on without
any writing having passed between
them. There were $46,000,000 made
without a stroke of the pen.
That so little gas escaped with such
a careless leaving open of the win
dows is the real wonder. Such con
fiding brokerage has seldom been on
record. By a sort of wireless telegra
phy these great sums of money seem
to have been passed around while the
real thingness of the thing remained
a profound mystery.
The Becrets of reorganization thus
grow more and more profound. Trans
actions can be made out of wind and
gas so fine that they transcend the
science of accounts and intricacies of
bookkeeping.
Those who attempt to make some
thing out of nothing naturally find
themselves encumbered with such dif
ficulties. That in the midst of their
toils they 6mite so serenely and carry
so supreme an air of innocence only
shows the high financial strata in
which they live, move and have their
being.
How “high finance” can thus re
solve itself into grotesque shapes and
give to airy nothingness a local habi
tation and a name is perhaps only
for adepts to know.—Boston Globe.
ACCIDENTS ON THE RAILWAYS.
Granting that there is a greater
mileage of railroad in this country,
the proportionate travel is probably
greater in England than here. What,
then, is the explanation of the fewer
fatal accidents, or, rather, the almost
total lack of accidents in that coun
try as compared with the frightful
mortality on our American roads? The
exact solution is probably not easy,
but the most natural explanation
that will come to the mind is that the
British roads are better managed and
that they are held to a much stricter
accountability by the authorities. An
other reason also is the total absence
of all grade crossings in England and
the universal employment of the best
of safety devices and signals, the
block system being practically uni
versal.—New Orleans Picayune.
OUTWITTING THE SANDS.
In his article “From Coast to Coast
in an Automobile,” in the May World's
Work, M. C. Krarup describes how
the motor car was gotten over a sand
hill. The means devised for this emer
gency consisted of two strips of can
vas, six feet wide and twenty-four feet
long! Where the sand is round-grain
ed, loose and dry the driving wheels
of a car can get no hold, but spin
around as in water or slimy mud. Our
strips of canvas, laid on the ground
for the wheels to run over, held tne
sand together, and then the motor
power was sufficient to drive ys ahead.
In this manner the two strips, each
laid down three times, took us over
Wadsworth hill, much to the astonish
ment of a number of citizens who had
assembled there with a team of horses
and stout tackle to help us.
CURE FOR CONSUMPTION.
Motor-car exercise will cure con
sumption, says Dr. Blanchet, of Lyons,
lie speaks from personal experience,
having recovered his own health by
regularly covering about a hundred
miles a day in an open motor car.
He avers that by this remedy the
cough of tuberculous patients is grad
ually abolished, or greatly diminished,
and healthy sleep and appetite pro
duced. It is most essential that the
body should be duly protected from
cold. The elements of the cure are
the long stay in the open air and the
Increased atmospheric pressure due
to the rapid motion, which expands
and strengthens the lungs.—London
Mail.
CITY AND COUNTRY LIFE.
The average young man or woman
who has to work for a living would
rather live in the turmoil and glitter
of the city than to enjoy the far
more healthful, if less exciting, less
“stylish,” perhaps, life of the country.
We do not know by what means the
surplus unemployed labor of the cities
can be restored to the farming com
munities. It is certain, however, that
an adjustment of the existing false
and abnormal conditions—scarcity on
the farm and oversupply in the towns
—would operate to their mutual ad
vantage and benefit. There seems to
be need of a campaign of education
and enlightenment.—Rochester (N. Y.)
Herald.
TO KILL DANDELIONS.
In regard to the trouble owners of
(awns and grass plots have in keeping
(hem free from the pestiferous dande
lion, a benevolent citizen who has ex
perienced lots of this trouble writes to
Che Oregonian to say that many peo
ple brhig more t>f this trouble on them
selves by trying to exterminate dande
lions by cutting the plant off just be
low the ground. A great deal of this
is done early, in the spring by people
collecting young dandelion plants for
“greens,” they being an excellent and
wholesome pot herb. This, it is said,
does not kill the plant, but causes
each root to throw out several shoots,
and thus multiplies the number of
dandelions.
The correspondent mentioned writes
to impress his fellow sufferers that iff
when they cut off the dandelion plant
below the ground they will drop a
pinch of salt or a teaspoonful of coal
oil on the root left in the ground it
will effectually kill it. This may seem
a troublesome job, but to one who is
set on keeping his grass plot clear of
dandelions it will in the end save a
lot of trouble.—Portland Oregonian.
CAN “GOOD” MEN CORRUPT*
The ease with which good men, and
men who are reckoned honorable In
respect of their private lives, find ex
cuses for doing wrong in their public
action has been a marvel to the ages.
It will continue a marvel for long
years to come. But it is not nearly so
marvelous as the perversity of human
nature that enables men to imagine
they are moral and devoted patriots
and faithful Christians while they are
bending their talent and influence tc
increase their riches by bribing legis
lators to do for them what they would
never do except for a corrupt consid
eration or through fear of a dominani
influence.—Boston Herald.
LOSS FROM TYPHOID.
The Michigan physician who put*
the annual money loss to the United
States from typhoid fever at $50,000,
000 is far from setting forth the full
truth. He reaches his estimate by
assuming $1,000 as the average valu6
of the lives sacrificed and he omit*
all account of the money spent in th«
care of non-fatal cases. The real val
ue of the lives lost—so far as suet
value can be expressed in money—
might more properly be rated at $5,
000, and at least $100 on the average
must be spent on victims who re
cover. On this calculation, assuming
that the Michigan physician is correct
in his number of cases, the annual
loss to the country from typhoid is
nearly $300,000,000.—Providence Jour
nal.
DIFFERENT MACHINE GUNS.
The first machine gun of any note
was the Gatling. The original Gatling
had ten barrels placed in a circle
with a breech mechanism bo arranged
that by turning a crank these barrels
were successively fired, the cartridges
being placed in a small hopper situ
ated on the top of the gun.
The Hotchkiss was a similar gun
having a similar arrangement of bar
rels, but a totally different mechan
ism. The Hotchkiss system, however
was used for a larger type of ammu
nition than the Gatling. The French
mitrailleuse had thirty barrels. They
were all loaded at the same time and
all fired simultaneously. The recon
was so great that It had to be mount
ed in the same manner as a fieldpiece.
on a heavy carriage, requiring six
horses. The apparatus was clumsy,
diflicult to operate, and had a com
paratively slow rate of fire.
The Nordenfeldt gun consists of a
series of barrels arranged side by
side, like organ pipes. The Norden
feld gun generally has five barrels
and the meehauism is worked by a
lever, the cartridges falling down
from a hopper on the top of the am.
into position, where the mechanism
thrusts them into the barrel, fire?
them and extracts the empty case
This gun is of great simplicity, a^d
for a time went into extensive use.—
Harper’s Weekly.
SAFETY ON THE HIGH SEAS.
In the times of Henry Morgan and
the other buccaneers of the sixteenth
and seventeenth centuries the name
of a Spanish galleon was always sign!
cant of a treasure-ship conveying al
most incredible wealth across the At
lantic. How eager was the quest of
the British freebooters for the vessels
which were laden with precious car
goes of silver, gold and gems consign
ed from' the old world to the new!
Those were days of daring adventure,
of slaughter and massacre, the Span
iards almost invariably becoming the
prey of the British vikings. Nowa
days many millions of gold are sent
over the ocean in a single steamship
without dreaa of peril. Upon the At
lantic ferry a leviathan of the deep
may at any time transport gold bars
worth a dozen millions of dollars and
the captain of the boat does not lose
a wink of sleep because he has such
a store of riches on board. His ship
and his cargo are fully insured and
there are none to molest him or to
make him afraid.—New York Tribune.
TRIALS OF ARTISTS.
Artists will tell you it is no easy
thing to paint a man in a frock coat
so that he shall appeal picturesquely
to the casual wayfarer. The modern
habiliments affected by the male per
son do not lend themselves to artistic
reproduction on canvas. There are no
scintillant colors, no fine lines of form
in a trousered poseur, and to achieve a
successful portrait of a man is to spell
the artist’s capabilities in capital let
ters. With women models—well,
there the story is of a different cast,
just as woman herself is so wholly
different, so enchantingly complex.—
Metropolitan Magazine.
A FILIAL SON.
M. Curie, the discoverer of radium,
not long ago declined the red ribbon.
This at first was taken as showing
•xtreme republicanism. He refused
because his father, a meritorious doc
tor, who has always practiced in the
poorest part of Paris, is still undeco
rated. M. Curie would be pleased and
proud to enter the Legion of Honor
after his father had become a mem
ber. At the same time he does not
see how with any fairness he could be
decorated if his wife were not simi
larly honored.—Paris Letter to Lon
don Truth.
machine-shop marvels.
It is now possible with high-speed
steel to turn and machine steel at a
rate up to 400 feet per minute and
also to drill cast iron at twenty-five
inches \er minute. These are indeed
rema^able speeds when it is remem
bered that only a comparatively short
time back with the ordinary crucible
steel's a cutting speed of thirty feet to
fifty feet per minute was more like
the limit.—Page’s Magazine.
■ t „ , j /,
By Earl Pratt, Oak Pa$i. Illinois.
How the Employe is Personally Benefited
by Being Careful with the Employer's
Stationery.
The manager of the purchasing de
partment of a large concern, was tell
ing me about his troubles and I was
sitting on a high stool by his clerk’s
desk. I was also on the pay roll of
the concern and studying methods.
The manager said something that
made me think of something, ami I
grabbed a finely engraved letter head
to write my thought on.
“You had better not let the general
manager see you do that—he would
go for you if he knew that you used
that sheet for pencil paper.”
Then I began to think about such
things if done by many people, and
decided that if all the employes were
as careless as I in the use of expen
sive paper the destruction of station
ery would cost the house more than
my idea was worth.
While speaking to a group of em
ployes a manager asked me to men
tion the waste of stationery. It is
not much for one, but there are large
concerns which could afford to hire
more help and pay larger salaries if
the employes would be more careful
and earnest in their work.
Being careful with the property of
others is an exercise in better meth
ods, and a source of personal improve
ment. To use stationery carelessly
because it costs us nothing injures us
more than it does the person who
pays for it, because it lowers our
individuality, while it injures only
the other person's profits.
Some ten years ago, as an employe,
I asked for a few things for my desk
and was surprised to have the man
ager hesitate over furnishing them,
but I found he was not thinking of
my desk only, but of dozens of other
desks, and the total cost of little luxu
ries.
If every employe could be an em
ployer for about twenty minutes,
when troubles bunch themselves, it
would be very useful in helping the
employes see forever better for them
selves, for the employer and for the
customer.
Now, Mr. Mrs. and Miss Employe, if
you will remember this letter you may
give me subjects on which to write
something to the employer and the
customer.
| Couldn’t Sell Her Doll |
It is said that conditions and one’s
station in life create the difference in
the sense of appreciation of men, and
this morning this was plainly demon
strated when Constable P. D. Doyle
conducted an auction for some time
in front of the office of ’Squire Wil
liam Sellers, selling the trunk and con
tents of Mrs. Mollie Smlddey. This
woman lived in a suite of rooms in
the vicinity of Vine avenue, with her
little girl, a bright-eyed child with
waving curls of raven black, and
every one who saw the child was at
tracted by her happy disposition and
beauty. The woman started to leave
the city a few days ago for Augusta,
Ga., it is claimed, leaving a number of
unpaid bills, and an attachment proc
ess was procured before ’Sqjiire Sel
lers, and Constable Doyle was given
the paper to serve. He attached a
trunk and published the sale for to
day before the magistrate’s office. He
began the auction wtih a small bevy
of court officers, lawyers and casual
passers, and the officer rapidly dis
patched the business. He sold several
articles of wearing apparel of the
woman, many articles of furnishings
for the mantel and parlor, and when
nearly through, or to the bottom of
the trunk, he grabbed down and se
cured a bundle of clothing which the
little girl had worn.
9
“This looks hard, boys, but I have
to sell ’em, so how much am I bid?”
Onevof the constables bid them in,
and the crier proceeded with the sale.
The next article sold was a pair of
shoes that the little girl had worn,
and the officer obdurately sold the
goods without remark.
The next sale was one that stagger
ed him. He found a large and beauti
ful bisque doll, carefully wrapped in
a silk cloth. He hesitated a moment,
and said:
“This must be sold, too, so how
much am I bid?”
He held the doll over his head, and
repeated:
"How much am I bid. boys?”
That the officer was affected was
visible. Ike De Marcus was on the
point of making a bid, but the officer
precluded him with:
“Boys, I can’t do it—I have a little
girl at home, and I know how she
loves her doll I will send this doll to
that little Smiddey girl in Augusta if
it is the last act of my life.”
The officer wiped the tears from his
eyes, laid the doll aside and proceeded
with the sale.
But there was little animation
thereafter in his conduct, and it seem
ed that the ardor of the crowd in bid
ding had been smothered.—Knoxville
Sentinel.
Gould's Corner on Gold
There are several Black Fridays in
history, but the blackest of all is the
Black Friday of Sept. 24, 1869. Fred
Eberlin. the noted sign painter, arch
aeologist, antiquary, sage and pantolo
gist has dug up a lithograph of the
quotation board of the Gold Room as
it appeared on that fateful day, says
the New’ York Press. It is a solemn
black-and-white affair—black board
and white chalk figures. But it is a
vivid picture of the most terrific day
in Wall street history. According to a
chronicler of the time, old operators
lost their heads and rushed hatless
and half crazy through the streets,
their eyes bloodshot, their brains on
fire. New street was so jammed that
it was a dangerous place to stand inv
President Grant broke the corner by
directing Secretary George S. Bout
well to telegraph: “Sell $4,000,000
gold and buy $4,000,000 bonds.” Says
the chronicler: “No avalanche ever
swept with more terrible violence
than did the news of this telegram
into the Gold Room.”
The treasury policy was to suspend
the sales of gold. Jay Gould, having
advance information, determined to
corner the circulation, arguing that a
premium would “help the farmer” by
increasing the exports of wheat. At
8.50 a. m., an hour and ten minutes
before the opening of the room, 144%
was bid for gold, and the price stead
ily advanced with the excitement,
jumping a point at every quotation,
until the gong rang at 10, when the
first sale was made at 150. At 11:36
the price had reached 162%, the high
est of the day, from which it fell to
133% at the close, 3 o’clock. Some
of the drops were paralyzing. At
11:58 the price was 150, and at 11:59
it was 160, only to go down to 148 at
five minutes after twelve, and to 140
at 12:07. An hour after the close the
bid price was 134.
The gold transactions that day
amounted to about $410,000,000. As
the Gold Exchange bank w-as unable
to handle the business, clearances
were suspended for a month and deal
ings for one week. Gould employed
fifty-six brokers in his operations. One
was Albert Speyers, whose contracts,
amounting to over $37,000,000, were
repudiated. It was shown by a com
mittee of the Gold Board that Gould,
Smith, Martin & Co., received $20,630,
,000 in gold and delivered $7,500,000,
leaving a balance of $13,130,000
against them.
- - - -■ ■■ — ■- " — - ■ ■■ - - — - — - -
His Life for Duty
Last of all they told the story of
old Captain Conkllng and the Holyoke
dam—a story known to every diver.
It seems there was a leak in this dam,
and the water was rushing through
with so strong'a suction that it seem
ed certain death for a diver to go near
enough to stop the leak. Yet it was
extremely important that the leak be
stopped—in fact, the saving of the
dam depended on it. So Capt. Conk
ling, who was in charge of the job, in
duced one of his divers to go down,
and reluctantly the man put on his
suit, but insisted on having an extra
rope, and a very strong one, tied
around his waist.
“What’s that for?” asked Conkllng.
“That’s to help get my body out if
the life line breaks,” said the diver.
“Go on and do your work,” replied
Conkllng, who had little use for sen
timent.
It happened exactly as the diver
feared. He was drawn into the suc
tion of the hole, and when they tried
to pull him up both hose and life line
parted and the man was drowned, but
World’s Biggest Ports.
Antwerp, according to an official
return recently published by the de
partment of commerce, and labor at
Washington, stands third on the list
of the world’s ports, with a total ton
nage of 16,721,011 tons, entered and
cleared. London. is first, with a to
tal tonnage of 17,564,108 tons, and
New York the second port in the
world, with a total tonnage of 17,
39S,058 tons. These figures refer to
ocean-going traffic only.
■ " ..~7"‘-——
It isn’t always the tailor who makes
the gentleman.
they managed to rescue his body with
the heavy line, just as he had planned.
Then Conkling called for another
diver, but not a man responded. They
said they weren’t that kind of fools.
“All right,” said the captain, in his
businesslike way; “then I’ll go down
myself and stop that hole.” And he
called the men to dress him.
At this time Capt. Conkling was 75
years old and had retired long since
from active diving. But he was as
strong as a horse still, and no man
had ever questioned his courage.
In vain they tried to dissuade him.
“I’ll stop that hole,” said he, “and I
don’t want any extra rope, either.”
He kept his word. He went down,
and he stopped the hole, but it was
with his dead body, and ..o-day some
where in the Holyoke dam lie the
bones of brave old Capt. Conkling, in
cased in a full diving dress, helmet,
hose and life line, buried in that mass
of masonry. No man ever dared go
down after his body.—From Cleveland
Moffett’s ‘Careers of Danger and Dar
ing,” the Century Company.
LABOURS"
IMHIX11Y
No Shrine Desired.
"For that I may not wear my rose
Full-cheritihed on my breast,
I leave my rose upon the stalk.
At honor’s high behest.
"For that I may not show my pearl
In orbed moonlight Are,
I leave It gleaming, fair and far,
Unflawed by my desire.
"For that, through ban of cynic Fate,
Mv love may not be mine
In face of day, I go away.
And leave my saint in shrine."
Thus spake her love ere that he went;
The loved one bent her head
And. shivering, "A shrine is cold ’
'And desolate," she said.
—Smart Set.
NEWS OF THE LABOR WORLD.
Items of Interest Gathered from Many
Sources.
Window glass factories aggregating
in capacity 1,500 pots have suspended
operations until September, in Indi
ana.
The call has been issued for the
second annual convention of the Com
mercial Telegraphers’ union, to meet
in St. Paul, Tuesday, July 19.
The Chicago Marine Council has
elected the following officers: Presi
dent, James E. Dwyer; vice president,
William E. Bain; recording secretary,
W. Kane; financial secretary, William
Murphy.
The International Printing Press
men and Assistants' union holds its
annual convention this month. Martin
P. Higgins of Boston, international
president, will have "Larry” Birming
ham of Cincinnati and Frank Pam
pusch of Denver as opponents.
Thirty-five hundred union machin
ists and other employes in machine
shops affiliated with the Chicago Metal
Trades association are on strike. The
strike is directed against the associa
tion’s new working schedule of fifty
four hours a week and a half holiday
on Saturday.
Machinists at the Inland Steel com
pany plant at Indiana Harbor, Ind.,
made a compromise settlement with
the company. After June 1 machin
ists will work ten hours for $S a day
where they now put in nine hours at
that rate. The new scale will be
$2.88 for nine hours.
The American Smelting and Refin
ing company, through one of its of
ficers has announced that within a
few days it will divide among its most
valued employes something more than
$100,000. This is in accordance with
the profit-sharing plan which the com
pany worked out some time ago.
The management of the Chicago
and Northwestern railroad and a com
mittee of machinists, the latter repre
senting the 950 machinists employed
by the system, have reached an agree
ment on the wage rate for this year.
Last year’s rate, with slight changes
benefiting the men, was agreed upon.
To create a strike fund, the Chicago
Metal Trades association levied an
assessment of $100,000 on its 100
members. Half the money will be
called in within ten days and will be
immediately available. The fund is
to be used to defend the association
in the fight which the International
Association of Machinists is forcing.
The Window Glass Workers’ asso
ciation was notified by J. L. Bodine
of the American Window Glass Com
pany that, beginning June 1, wages of
flatteners will be increased 28 per
cent. The company also announced
that it will not close its plants May
28, but will continue operating the
machine factories during the summer.
After months of fruitless effort to
reach a satisfactory agreement war
has been declared between the Chica
go Metal Trades association and the
International Association of Machin
ists in district No. 8. From present
indications it promises to be a long
and bitter struggle, and is in many
respects the most serious labor trou
ble of the year in Chicago.
The activity of the Denver Citizens’
alliance has resulted in bringing the
two central bodies of labor there to
gether under one head. Two central
bodies have been in existence in that
city for three years, one fighting the
other. The recent meeting of the
executive council of the A. F. of L.
paved the way for an amalgamation
which was brought about last Sun
day.
It is believed that a strike of con
ductors and trainmen on the Roches
ter and Buffalo division of the Buffalo
Rochester & Pittsburg railroad will
soon be called unless concessions
asked by the men are granted. The
exact nature of the difficulty cannot
be learned, but it is known to involve
an increase in wages and a shift of
the •working forces of the two divis
ions that was made a few weeks ago.
A referendum vote of the members
of the Amalgamated Woodworkers’
International union has decided in
favor of a convention this year, and
New York has been selected as the
city in which it will be held. It is
the first convention that the organi
zation has ever held in the East.
Thomas I. Kidd, general secretary of
the organization, will arrange for a
headquarters and hall in which to
hold tlfts convention.
From an article in an English paper
on co-operative distribution and pro
duction in 1902 it is shown th£t the
1,964 societies making returns had a
membership of 1,978,495, share capi
tal of £32,883,329, insurance and re
serve £2,293,804. The sales in that
year amounted to £94,606.480, and a
profit slightly exceeding 10 per cent
on three sales was made. The total
number of persons employed by these
societies is 93,881.
President Gompers of the American
Federation of Labor, in commenting
upon the labor situation in Colorado,
gives to Gov. Peabody the sobriquet
of “Colorado’s Nero.” He asks that
if the contention of Gov. Peabody Is
accurate, that is, that the latter can.
at will, declare martial law, defy and
Bet at naught the civil law, even so
far as to refuse to recognize the writ
of habeas corpus, then why not have
the legislature clothe the state official
with absolute despotic authority?
At the convention of the Brother
hood of Locomotive Engineers the in
surance rerort showed that during th®
operat'on of the insurance plan $12,
500.000 has been paid out in benefits,
averaging at the preseat time $100.
000 monthly to beneficiaries and dis
abled members. The insurance re
port showed & greater advance in that
branch of the brotherhood’s work dur
ing the past biennial than at any
time in its history.
Chicago local No. 21 of the United
Garment Workers has contributed
about $16,000 in the last eight months
to assist members of that trade iD
Rochester, N. Y., who have been os
strike. Each member of the loca'
organization, the total being less thaD
600, has contributed $1 a week to the
fund. An order has been issin d by
the general executive boar;! of th*
national body that each of its < '
members contribute 50 cents a v ■ ■ r
to the fund.
District Judge Smart at Ottawa
Kan., denied the application of t> •
Atchison, Topeka £ Santa Fe Ra
way company for a permanent ir; ra
tion against the striking machinists
The opinion said that no evidence o>
an intention to commit a disturoanct
was shown, and “government by in
junction” would not be permitte
until need for issuing a restrain;n*
order to protect property or the men
who took the strikers’ places wa«
demonstrated.
The Italian labor organizations ol
Greater New York have formed s
joint trade council of delegates from
each of the unions. A weekly officia.
organ for this council. The Union;sta.
has also been started, with Tito Pa
celti as editor. Pacelli is president ol
the Rockmen and Excavators’ union,
with 16.000 members, and one of the
organizers for the American Federa
tion. He has also been appointed as
a special organzer for the Garment
Workers of America to unionize the
Italian tailors in the large clothing
manufactories of New York city.
One of the most Important and far
reaching steps contemplated In the
world of labor is the movement oi
the Amalgamated Meat Cutters and
Butcher Workmen to establish a uni
form agreement for all packing houses
in the West. As it involves at least
40.000 workmen, It will readily be
seen that it is a vast undertaking.
President Donnelly of the butcher
workmen has looked forward to such
a step ever since he became head of
the organization five years ago. Even
two years ago it looked like a dream,
but through hard and persistent work
Donnelly has brought the organiza
tion of the men to a point where it ll
.possible.
Judge Orr. in the District court ol
Ramsey county (Minn.), overruled a
demurrer of the Bookbinders' union
to the petition of the St. Paul Typo
thetae. The action brought by the
plaintiff a feature of the bindery
girls’ strike, and demanded damages
of the defendant, alleging a breach of
contract. The main question argued
was the right and authority of the
union to enter Imto a contract, and it
was asked by the counsel for the
plaintiff: “What possible benefit can
there be in such an organization un
less it can make a contract?" The
overruling of the demurrer means
that the union has the right to make
contracts.
Chicago Typographical union No. 16
has telegraphed International Presi
dent James Lynch to come to Chicago
to consider a contemplated sympathet
is strike of printers employed by R.
R. Donnelley & Sons Company, Rand.
McNally & Co. and Poole Brothers. A
committee of bookbinders, headed by
Secretary Otto Wasem, attended the
meeting of printers and requested that
the strikes be called. During the de
bate several favored calling the strikes
at once, but by the agreement under
which the printers work it is said tc
require thirty days’ notice before sucb
action could be taken. President
Lynch will be asked to decide if the
strikes can be called immediately
The reasons given by the bookbinder?
for asking the support of the printers
was that the concerns affected had
declared war upon trades unionism
The bookbinders, they said, were the
first to suffer from the war. but that
the printers would certainly be at
tacked in a short time by tbe same
crusade.
The Labor Gazette, published by the
Board of Trade of London. England,
the recognized mouthpiece of the Brit
ish government on industrial condi
tions in Great Britain, gives a sum
mary of interesting conditions In the
affairs of the workers “across the
pond.’’ The March issue indicates that
employment in Great Britain in March
showed a slight improvement over th€
previous month, due to seasonal
causes, but as compared with a yeai
ago it still shows a decline. In the
221 trade unions, with an aggregate
membership of 667.232, making re
turns, 35,950 (or 6 per cent) were m
ported as unemployed at the end o;
March, as compared with 6.1 per cem
in February and with 4.3 per cent it
March, 1903. The mean percentag*
of unemployed returned at the end o'
March during the ten years 1894-190;
was 3.9.
The struggle between the Lake Car
riers’ Association, the allied vessel in
terests, and the Masters and Pilots
association, composed of practical)}
all the men holding government
licenses on tne inland seas, has now
prevailed for about a month—it be
ing nearly that length of time sine#
It would have been possible for a fleei
of steamers to have forced their pas
sage through the Straits of Mackinar
to the lower lakes. The direct flnan
ctal loss entailed by the tie-up of full}
three-fourths of the vessel tonnage ol
tho lakes is almost incalculable. Com
petent authorities estimate that fully
160,000 men who depend upon com
merce of the lakes for a livellhooc
have lost perhaps six weeks’ salary
and that tho crews of the boat*
which have not turned a wheel this
spring lose in total upward of $1,500/
000 in wages during the month ci
May.