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The Commoner;
14
Vol. ai, No. 44.
IN THE DOMAIN OF TRUSTS.
lW ! I I I I' WP P " I II
IN THE FIELD OF INDUSTRY.
E
Motal spinners throughout Connecti
cut are organizing.
Birmingham (Ala.) trades unions
will erect a labor tomple.
Commercial telegraphers at Colum
bus, 6., havo formed a union.
. Embalmers and funoral directors at
Chicago, 111., have, formed a union.
f " Iron moldors at Beaumont, Tex.,
have asked for an increase- of 25 cents
a day. .
Union nanorhancors at Cincinnati,
O., will ask for a 20 per cent increase
in wages.
An amicable adjustment of the tail
ors" strike at New Havon, Conn., has
been reached.
Grocer clerks at Richmond, Va., will
orgr.nize with the intention of demand
. Zing shorter hours.
., A bill will bo introduced in tho next
Massachusetts legislature looking to
f the Incorporation of labor unions.
r Overworked seamstresses in Berlin
are to benefit by a. legacy of $25,000
left by a German bookseller named
Balm. .
. The western federation of miners
, may .erect a building at Denver, Colo.,
for the use of the federation in that
city.
Seven thousand fishermen on Puget
Sound have organized a trades union
chartered by the' American federation
of labor. ,
A Milwaukee (Wis.) tobacconist has
. been fined $35 and costs for using the
; union label on cigars not made .by
'-'union labor.
Chinese girls are being employed in
San Francisco as telephone operators,
for the accommodation of Chineso
merchants.
A movement for a semi-monthly ,pav
day of city employes has been indorsed
by the Quincy (111.) trades and labor
' assembly.
Canvassers in Ohio and Indiana will
organize a labor union. The pioneer
ing of the new union is being done at
Indianapolis.
Differences between brass buffers
and polishers and their employers at
"Waterton, N. Y.-, will probably be set
tled by arbitration.
No strike of bookbinders at the gov
ernment printing office at Washing
ton, D. C,.is contemplated, notwith
standing reports to the contrary.
Painters in tho employ of the board
of education at Los Angeles, Cal., have
had their pay .increased fro.m $3 to
$3.50 a day, and laborers from $2 to
$2.50.
In 1879 the cigarmakers worked
from 12 to 14 hours a day. .Since then
their hours have 'decreased to eight
per day and wages havo Been in
creased 50 per cent.
The allied printing trades council at
Boston is making a vigorous flgh't to
have its union label placed on all. text
books used in the public schools of that
state.
Paper box makers at San Francisco,
Cal., have submitted a new wago scale
to their employers. They demand a
20 per cent Increase in wages and. a
nine-hour day.
Union shipwrights and caulkers at
Norfolk, Va., have rejected the propo
sition for a nine-hour day. They de
mand a day from 7:30 a. m. Until sun
down, an average' of eight and a half
hours.
The dispute in tho Welsh tinplate in
dustry has led to the appointment of a
committee of inquiry. If those ap
pointed fail to agree an umpire is to
be called to arrange matters and make
an award. .
Cigarmakers of Troy, Albany, Glens
Falls, Saratoga', Hudson and Amster
dam, N. Yv, have formed a joint con
ference board for tho advancement of
organized labor. f '
A deputation of government canal
lockmen- from tho Wolland canal has
asked Canadian cabinet ministers for
an increase of pay from $1.25 to $1.50 a
day and shorter hours.
Injunctions havo boon jssue.d against
the striding machinists and folders at
Birmingham, Ala., restraining them
from in any way interfering with tho
operations of the plants.
Striking machinists at Bath, Mo.,
who havo been on strike since March
25, havo returned to work without any
concessions. The local union has been
made to surrender its charter.
Linemen locked out by the Pacific
Railway company at Los Angeles, Cal.,
because their demand for shorter hour?
and more pay was not acceded to have
returned to work on their former
terms.
Cloth spongers at Greater Now York
are making efforts to organize a na
tional union of that particular indus
try, and are appealing to their fello.w
workers In other cities td assist in the
attempt.
The number of strikes ordered by
organizations increased, with qeyeral
iregularlties, from 222 in 1881 to 1,164
in 1900, while the percentage of failures
also increased, though-very slightly,
from 28 to 30 per cent
A conference between, the building
contractors at Denver, Colo., and tho
building trades council, representing
the stone masons, will be arranged Tor
the settlement of the trouble between
the masons and bricklayers.
In England the unions provide ap
propriations for their representatives
in commons, the boilermal$ers paying
their member $2,000 a year and provid
ing a house, while John Burns "gets
from his union only $1,250 a year.
English trades unions are for direct
labor representation, in, ' parliament
The eight-hour day, nationalization of:
land, railways and mines; old age pen
sions, temperance reform, courts of
arbitration, are among the principal
demands.
Some of the bills which the" labor
unions of New Hampshire are desirous
ture are the 58-hpur law, the median-,
ics' lien law, the5 employers' liability
act, factory inspection laws and a law
In regard to corporations or emplpy
ers discriminating against members of
trades unions.
Typographical and pressmen's
unions at Hartford, Conn,, have asked
for an increasejn wages. Some months
ago a reaucuon or tno dally Hours of
labor, was requested and granted by
employing printers, and the present re
quest for an Increase in wages, . if
granted, would be equivalent to an
advapce of the daily wage of 25 per
cent or more within less than a year.
.Boot and shoe manufacturers at
Montreal, Canada, havo adopted a
scheme to adjust all future differences
between themselves and their em
ployes. The workmen are to estab
lish a board of complaint, and their
employers wlll.appolnt a board of con
ciliation, and in .case these fail to
agree tho matter, in dispute is tp be
decided by a court of 'arbitration, to,
consist of three members,' one repre
senting tho employes, ono the employr
ers and the third to be. chosen by the
other two.Pittsburg Dispatch,
Tho projected combination of west
ern pulp and paper mills has been
abandoned.
Four hundred and fifty cigar and to
bacco dealers' of Omaha will mako a
fight on trust-made goods.
Within three and one-half years 82
trusts havo been formed, having an
aggregate capital of '$4,318,005,646.
Of the 3,400,000 telephones in tho
UnitedStates about 2,000,000 aro oper
ated independent of tho Bell company,
Several attempts havo been made
-during the last year by English and
American capitalists to form a trust
of tho breweries in Mexico.
A new syndicate is to be formed to
take over and reorganize the Atlantic
Coast Lumber company and the Ex
port Lumber company of America.
An American trust is negotiating
with the Canadian government. to pur
chase the 3,000,000 acres of. forest and
agricultural land in the new Ontario
regions. .
Stewart & Menzies of Glasgow and
Lloyd & Lloyd Of Birmingham, two
of the largest steel tube firms in the
United Kingdom, have amalgamated,
with a capital of $7,500,000.
Preliminary papers have been signed
for the consolidation of tho Haugh
Noelke iron works and the Indiana
ornamental iron works, the first step
in a gigantic combine of structural
iron plants.
The National Candy company, bet
ter known as the candy trust, has been
authorized to do business in Indiana.
This, corporation has a capital of $9,
000,000; 'and has property in Indiana
to the" value of $300,000:
Tho Valuation and Acceptance com
mittee of the Fries' cotton mill merger
plan authorizes the statement that of
the 140 mills under consideration 40
had been accepted in the merger and
these 40 have in operation 4,000,000
spindles.
An American syndicate is negotiat
ing for the purchase of a number of
electric lighting plants in tho northern
part of - Mexico. The plants involved
in the proposed consolidation deal are,
.located at Tampico, Victoria, Monte
morelos and Linares.
The plans of counsel to obtain, a ju
dicial decree for the sale of the as
sets of the Asphalt trust have received
the approval of the committee on re
organization, and the receivers believe
thai' tne sale will be consummated
early in the new year.
A syndicate, headed by A. M. Todd
of -Kalamazoo, Mich., has secured 95
per cent of the peppermint and essen
tial oil crop of the world, amounting
to a practical corner. The price of
peppermint' oil, which a month ago
was $2.50 a pound, is now $5. As the
total crop this year is about 190,000
pounds, .tho total value will be $900,
000, and the advance amounts to near
ly $5J)0,000: r'
The Standard Oil company is busily
employed in investing its surplus capi
tal in heating and lighting plants. This
condition of affairs, it is said, is tho
result of tho fuel scarcity, tho com
pany recognizing in It a profitable fiela
fammmtmtmmmmmmmmmmammmmmmmmtaemammmmmmmmt
HEADACHE
Ai tM drug atofts.
25'Dmm 25c.
both for its money and its product
crude oil. '
Director Baare, ono of tho greatest
iron experts in- Germany, say the Ger
man iron industry is approaching a
serious period of its existence. He
says there exists danger of the dis
solution of the steel rail syndicate, in
which event there would begin a prico
war between everybody in the business.
P. H. Valentine of. Armour & Co.,
who engineered the packing merger!
is to bo the potent figure in the pack
ing world under the new regime. The
various companies in the merger have
already paid out more than $30,000,000
in absorption of the smaller plants,
and by January 1 tho trust will bo
doing business.
The Consolidate Naval Stores com
pany, the giant combine controlling
the turpentine industry, has now ar
ranged to purchase the business of tho
American Naval Stores company of
Mobile and New "Orleans. By this deal
the consolidated company will practi
cally control all the business of tho
gulf except that of the Union Naval
Stores company at Mobile.
Vienna Is called the birthplace of thj
trusts. They first saw the light there
in 1873, and cartels regulating vproduo
tion, restricting competition and gov
erning prices now exist in steel rails, l
iron, petroleum, sugar, alcohol, plate
glass, glassware, paper boots and
shoes and textile fabrics; A compre
hensive iron "and steel trust covering
the entire empire and consciously mo
deled on "the American .steel trust' has
lately been formed. Even in the pro
duction of honey a cartel obtains; and
on occasion the busy mountain' bee. is
practically put upon short hours. "
The members of the laundry trust in
Kansas City are making great efforts
to get the four independent laundries
into the combine. It is estimated that
1,000,000 clean collars are worn by
men and boys of Kansas City every
week, and when- the trust raised the
price half a cent it means an Increase
in their revenue of $5,000 'each week.
The number of shirts soiled is not
quite a million, but the increase in
trust laundry charges of 2 cents
works a big hardship on the poor, peo
ple and pulls in about $20,000 a month
to tho treasury of the laundry trust
The organization of the Cincinnati
Terminal company and the combina
tion of the Ohio traction lines of the
Mandelbaumn-Pomerov svndicata in
dicates the approach of a great trac
tion syndicate, comprising, those Hne3
and the Indiana properties of the
Widener-Elkins people. This, with
proposed extensions, would give trac
tion connections between Indianapolis,
Cincinnati and Chicago, and a network
of lines throughout tho country adja
cent to Cincinnati and Indianapolis,
making it tho largest traction trust
in the country.
In the suit which tho Continental
Wall Paper company has pending
against the Lewis Voight & Sons com
pany of Cincinnati, tho defendant has
filed an answer in which the anti
trust law figures to a marked extent
It is alleged that the plaintiff is a
combination or trust organized spe
cifically to control tho wall paperbuBl
ness of the country, restricting the out
put of paper and raising the prices of it
and regulating everything connected
with tho business, obliging retail buy
ers and jobbers to buy only tho paper
sold by the trust and to deal with-no
other outside the combine. It "is al
leged, too, that the trust put up the
prices of paper one-half over what
they had been and that competition
waa atiflod.--PIttaburg Dispatch.
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