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The Commoner;
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yoi.af no. 43.
BoHOl
14 -
IN THE FIELD OP LABOR. I WHAfTRJUSTS ARE DOING.
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Laundry workers at Denver, Colo.,
have organized. .
Mill workers aj; West Duluth, Minn.,
will form a union ' . :
Employes of ladies' custom tailors
of Boston liavo organized. t
Hamilton (Canada) printers and
- briclciayors are asking for an incrcaso
of" pay.
Prospect of higher wages is causing
Belgium glassworkors to emigrate to
this country.
A movement for a nine-hour day will
bo inaugurated by the machinists at
Richmond, Va.
Stavemakors at Memphis have de
manded an increase from $3 to $3.50
a hundred.
Tlr6 Russian finance minister, Witte,
has recommended that strikes should
""legalized in Russia.
Tinners in the Central railroad
shops at Macon, Ga., are on strike to
enforce a demand for an Increase of
CD cents a day.
Russian and Italian tailors at New
Haven, Conn.', who have banded to
gether for their common interests?
have gone on a strike.
In the silk factories of Italy the us
ual working hours are from 4 jn the
morning until 8 at rnight, and the
wages are 10 cents a day.' ' :
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Difficulty in securing the services of
men to act as arbitrators, has long de
layed the settlement of the plumbers'
strike at Kansas City, Mo.
Strained relations between about 4io
female workers in the "various boolc
binderies and ' their employers., at
Toronto, Canada, may result in a
strike.
A new scale calling for $2 a day, in-.
stead of $40 and $50 a month, will v be
presented by, the hack, Cab and coupe
drivers union at Chicago. 111.
A settlement of the coremakers'
strike at Buffalo, N. Y., has been
reached by arbitration. The trouble
arose ""over a demand for an increase
In wages.
Union rope makers at San Francisco
have been granted a 20 per cent in
crease of wages. The advance was
given voluntarily by the employers.
The local carpenters' union, of Colo
rado Springs, Colo., has decided to
have made a request for 40 cents an
hour. At present the wages' are 35
cents an hour for the men on the
wharf and 37 cents an hour for the
men in the holds of the vessels.
All the electrical workers In Okla
homa City, O. T, are out on- strike.
They have been working 10 hours a
'day and receiving $2 to $2.25 a day.
They aro demanding a nine-hour day
and $2.50 a day for ovory linoman.
Inmates of an instituto for the blind
at Sunderland England, have struck,
after having duly communicated with
.the national league of the blind, bo
cause the wages they received for mak
ing ship cord fendors have been re
duced. All railroad companies running
trains west ofChlcago, 111., Will bo
asked by the brotherhood of locomo
tive ""'engineers to increase, the wages
of the engineers, to $5 .for each 100
miles on freight trains. They now re
ceive from $4 to $4.60.
Seven hundred men have stopped
work at the coal mines located at
Mineral, near Parsons, Kas., because
the company refused to pay the engi
neers according to the union scale.
The mines! are controlled by the Mis
souri, -Kansas & Texas railway.
Members of the bowling alley em
ployes' union at San Francisco, Caj.,
are out, the demand of the union for
an inoroa.se; of wages from $1.50 to $2
for a day of 12 hours, with extra pay
at the. rate of 25 cents an hour for
overtime, having been refused.
At Cincinnati 500 coremakers struck
on account of a misunderstanding
about apprentices. There is no de
mar . for more wages or less hours,
but less apprentices and it is thought
the difference will be adjusted. The
strike affects over 5,Q00 Iron molders.
At Topeka, Kas., the organization
of car painters has made a demand on
the Santa Fe for an increase in wages.
They-claim that ' the increased price
for all living necessities makes an In
crease in wages hecessary in order to
enable them to provide for their fam
ilies. The .new wage scale adopted by the
Chicago elevator starters and conduc
tors' union provides 25 cents an hour
for starters, 22 cents for conductors,
pay and one-half for overtime 4 and
holidays, nine and one-half hours to
be a day's work. The, Chicago feder-
build a $200,000 memorial hall in honor ation of labor will be asked to indorse
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or the late multi-millionaire. W. S. the scale.
Stratton.
Expert coal miners In the Macon
county (Missouri) shafts make from
$2.50 to $4 'a day, working eight hours,
and still from 800 to '500 more men
are needed. .
By a readjustment of wages miners
Papermakers at Ottawa, Canada, are
dissatisfied with their present hours of
labor, and want a 65-hour week while
working at night, Instead of 78 hours
of labor, as now. The men aro said
to be well organized as members of
the international brotherhood of pa-
The state of Illinois has brought
suit against 110 fire insurance compa
nies, charging them with organizing
and maintaining a trust, contrary to
the laws of the state.
An effort is making in Tennessee,
Mississippi, Louisiana and Arkansas to
organize every sawmill firm of any
importance "into the hardwood manu
facturers' association of the United
States. The indications aro that this
hew association will organize""so thor
oughly as to be able to overcome the
Wholesale' dealers.
. The International Harvester com
pany, with a capital of $120,000,000,
and which is intended to control the
world's output of harvesting machines,
is being put into shape rapidly. All
of the details have been arranged and
all of the various plants are now the
property of the International Harves
ter company. In its "general agents"
department -the force will be reduced
from 300 to 75, effecting a saving of
$5o0,000 annually.
A gigantic coal trust Is to be
launched in Indiana. It will include
the leading mines In the state, the
big operators being allowed to take
stock In the new trust and be re
tained as officers of the corporation.
John W. Gates and a man prominent
in th tlnplate trust have cash options
on practically all the mines in the
state. It is not the purpose of the
new trust to include the Illinois mines
in this new organization, but that will
doubtless follow.
About a year ago United States Cir
cuit judge Morrow of San Francisco
broke up the tile, mantel and grate
trust and the local coaltrost as being
organized in violation of the provi
sions of the Sherman anti-trust act
A few days ago United States Circuit
Judge William B. Gilbert, acting for
the United States circuit court of ap
peals, dissolved a gigantic shingle trust
that had been doing a big business in
Washington.
The United States Mill Flour Wnn
company,' recently incorporated under
a capitalization of $15,000,000, Is erect
ing one of its plants in Washington,
D. C, and several in New York and
Pennsylvania. There will be 200 man
ufacturing concerns established all
over the country. The purpose of this
new combination Is to manufacture
"milk flour" from fresh milk. It is
claimed it will entirely' supersede con
densed milk. A vigorous crusade will
bo waged against the condensed milk
trust, which now controls all theJead
ing condensed milk factories in the
United States.
The .proposition to form a combine
of all the larger forge companies in,
the -eastern part of the country has
been revived. The plan is to unite
about eight of the leading companies
in one general corporation and carry
on the business in a manner similar
to that of the United States steel cor
poration. The financial plan -carries a
capital stock for the combination of
$7,000,000 of common stock, with
which it is proposed to pay for plants
-to be merged. In addition it Is pro
posed to issue $7,000,000 In "bonds to
redeem all outstanding obligations of
the subsidiary companies and to pro
vide working capital.
It is estimated that the capital stock
.of pending consolidations will .aggre
gate a billion dollars. The launching
of these enterprise will naturally nec
essitate the employment of a consider
able amount' of- cash, but less than
would have been the case two years
ago, when the industrial consolidation
craze was at its height The largest
of the pending consolidations is the
packers' combiner- While the amount
of its capital stock has not been defi
nitely fixed as yet, reports say it wjll
be in the neighborhood of $400;000,
000 or $500,000,000. "The lead combin-;
ation, which is backed by the Rynn-Whitney-Guggenhelm
Interests, wjU
have a capital stock of $60,000,000.' The ,
combination plans of the flint, glass-?
bottle manufacturers will reguireJt is
said, fully $30,000,000. The capital of
the combined zinc interests has been
placed at $30,000,Q0JL while $25,000,000
is named as the capital of the com
pany which will combine the chain
manufacturers. Other proposed con
solidations, with their capital, are:
Forge plants in Pennsylvania and Ohio;
.15,000,000; crane manufacturing
plants, $40,000,000; blast furnace inter
ests in the Mahoning and Shenango
valleys, capital not given; malleable,
iron combination, $25,000,000 to $30,
000,000. There is also talk of adeal
involving a consolidation of the steel :
plate concerns. .
'MssMvoSsissr wltt a totttl mom1)er8hlI,
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Fuel & Iron company will procure in a
numuer oE cases advances of from 10
to 25f per cent'
At Everett, Wash.,, a strike of the
International order of electrical work
ers for more pay "has been averted by
the granting of the, demands of the
men. ' linemen wJJl receive $3 a day.
..King Edward 'of England once
learned the printer's trade. Alfred
Borckel, a librarian at Mayonce, has
compiled a list of 30 members of Eu
ropean royal families who have
learned to print
' Union labor men at Chicago will en
deavor to elect a mayor of their own
and control" the city council. They
have a platform which is built upon
the foundation -principles of trades
unionism.
Shook handlers at Portland Me.,
Drivers and helpers in the employ
of tho American, United States, Adams,
Wells-Fargo, National, Pacific and
Northern Pacific Express companies
at New York city have made demands
for an increase in wages, a ten-hour
working day and pay for overtime,
and aro preparing to organize to en
force the granting of these demands.
When they-complete organization the
men will insist upon recognition of
their union, in addition to their other
demands.
' What nethuenynissed.
Lord Methuen, who was licked
twenty-seven times in as many consec
utive, days by Cronje, has been made
a G. C. B. If his lordship had only
allowed himself to be taken prisoner
he might reasonably have hoped for a
dukedom. Chicago Chronicle.
Caught In The Falsehood.
The claim of the beef trust that the
exorbitant prices were due to scarcity
has been completely punctured by the
report of the treasury bureau of sta-"
tlstics for September. The report
shows that in September, and for the
nine months ending with September,
the traffic In live stock had been much
greater than for the past two years.
The figures for September, 1902, show
a gain of 12,38 per cent over Septem
ber, 1900. The" figures for the nine
months compared with the same per
iod two years ago reveal an Increase
of nearly 500,000 head of cattle. Tho
trust has maintained that the high
prices for dressed beef are due to a
heavy decrease in the cattle supply,
but the unimpeachable statistics of
the department show that there has
been, in reality, a heavy increase. The
trust Is now figuring on reorganiza
tion upon a half-billion basis, and
when this is accomplished the prices
for dressed meats, will bo screwed up
another notch. Then the trust man
agers will offer some excuse and if
there is anything in. precedent the ma
jority of the people will accept It as
valid and submit without any consid
erable show of opposition.
Don't Get Rich Papa.
The children of a certain - family,
during its prosperity, were left ir the
nursery in charge of servants. Wh,en
adversity came, the servants were; dig
charged, and the parents lived with;
the little ones. One evening, when.,
the father had returned home after a
day of anxiety and ""business worry,
his little girl clambered upon his knee,
and twining her arms around ; his,
neck, said:
"Papa, don't get rich again. You
did not come into the nursery when
you were rich, but now we can come
around you, and.get on your knee and
kiss you. Don't get rich again, papa."
A man whose wealth keeps him from
his family, sleep, healthy recreation,
or the time to enjoy the legitimate
pleasures of life, is managed by mon
ey. Success. v
A
The Senator Sees Clearly.
Senator Hoar seQS in trusts the de
struction of competition, the manage
ment of industries by absentee capi
tal, fraudulent capitalization, secrecy,
management for the private benefit of
tho officers, the power to corrupt elec
tions and the courts and indifference
to public sentiment Certainly, thero
is nothing; the matter with- the ven
erable Massachusetts statesman's eyesight-
St Louis Post-Djspatch.
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