The Kenosha telegraph. [volume] (Kenosha, Wis.) 1860-1888, 1883-08-31
NEWS OF THE WEEK.
BY TELEGRAPH AND MAIL.

Strike and Labor Investigation
Session in New York City Of the United States
Senate Subcommittee on Labor and Edu-
cation.l
90 the 23d Charles Frederick Adams, a
Brooklyn lawyer, appeared before the com
mittee. He said he was of the school of econ
omists led by Profs. Fawcett and Cairns.
He proposed 10 prevent absolute depend
ence ON wages by restricting monopolistic
franchises. such franchises should be given
for fixed terms, at the end Of which they
should be thrown open to competition. me
witness favored the establishment Of postal
savings banks and the sale by them OF small
annuities to poor people
Edward King, OF the Central Labor Union,
said that, as a rule, the law was always on the
side of capital. He thought it would only be
fair to allow labor and capital to hight their
own battles, like pugilists in the ring, and
without Interference.
The testimony of P. II. McLogan, repre-
sentative of Chicago in the Trade and Labor
Union then in session in New York, was given
on the 24th. Mr.. McLogan said twenty-four
trades we're represented in the Trades-Assem-
bly,, embracing seventeen thousand work.
ingmen; that he had been really benefited
by trades-uniOns, and was now receiving one
dollar more per day than before the forma-
ton OF unions in Chicago. The wages of the
NbipO5lbOI WtIc lOWeT budu LuCy were Ten
or twelve years ago. Witness opposed the
conyict-lab0r system. In Chicago a number
OF children are at work, he said, who should
be at school. Higher wages tend to produce
q better and more intelligent class of citizens.
There was general feeling among laborin9
men that capitalists were trying to grind
them down. In answer to question by Sen
atOr Blair, witness said that the disbeieVers
in evangelical faith largely outnumbered the
believers.
M D. Connolly, a printer President of the
Trades Assembly in CINCINNATI, spoke against
the employment of children of tender years.
Trades-unions benefited not only their mem
bers but all engaged in work, and witness aid
not think it an infringement upon the rights
of any one for trades-unOns to prevent him
from learning trade. If all were permitted
to learn certain trades, the result would be
highly injurious to every one working at
them.
William c. Palmer, Of Cleve land, a cigar
maker, testified: In 1880 the cigar-makers Of
Cleveland were getting from six dollars to
seven dollars a week. The union organized
and wages were raised to an average of nine
dollars week Palmer did not think it for
the interest Of morality that men and women
should work together in the same shop, and
the trades-unions are now endeavoring to
bring about a reform IN that respect. The
hours Of labor should be reduced, and the
workman should receive the whole of the in
creased value Of the product of his labor, de-
Quoting from 1t only the cost of the raw ma
terial and fair interest on the capital invested.
A. ID. Brock, of Washington, printer, and
President of the Confederation of Trades
Unions In that city, testified at length as to
the evils resulting to the laboring classes from
the custom of watering stocks by the railroad
and other corporations. The pool system, as
in operation in the case OF the trunk lines, he
regarded as robbery of the people on a gil
gantc scale, He advocated strongly the
remedying of this evil by legislation, and the
imposition Of progressive income tax which
should make it impossible for man to have a
larger income than $50 900 year. The Eight
Hour law he thought should be stringently
enforced and protective tariff abolished.
On the 25th Robert Howard, of Fall River,
Mass, ootton-splnner, testified that he
served one term in the National Legislature
in 1881, and was renominated, but declined
There were eight hundred and forty mule
spinners in Fall River and three-tifths OF all
the calico produced in the United States came
from that city. There'had been many strikes
since the organization of the operatives but
their condition had been greatly improved.
Many recent difficulties had beer adjusted by
discussion and arbitration. The wages
Inc operators in the Lowell mills were the
worst paid of any in the United States: the
%iT ines had never heard Of bat one instance
there was rise in the market withnrl+ the
direct request OF the wOrkingmen. This was
in 1880, when the operatives had been working
at a reduction of thirty per cent. since 1878.
The witness was firm believer in high wages
and high prices. In answer to an inquiry
from Senol OF Bl0lr, Witness stated UnaJ III the
tariff was removed from foreign goods he
thought hat there might occur slight reduc-
ton at II tst in the wages Of operatives but the
ultimatl result would be to raise them.
The committee was addressed at some length
on the 2Tth by Frank X. Foster, Secretary
of the Trades Union Federation. He held that
the worldngmen had just as much right to or
glnize and fix the value of the price of theil
labor as the Standard Oil Company, grain Oh
other merchants had to set price on oil OF
other commodities. He thought the eight
hour system would work great benefit fol-
laboring classes.
Lyman Phillips, Cincinnati, delegate to the
Trades Union Federation said the cigar
makers strongly denounced the custom OF
employing children in the manufacture oil
cigars. He said that in Cincinnati ten pei
cent. of children, ranging in age from eight
to twelve years and upward, We're engaged il
this business This, he said was a bad state
OF things, as children so continuously EN-
ployed, when they grew to manhood or WON
anhood, were not good members of society
If Congress could pass law to prevent this
it would be doing great benefit to the coun
try at large. The witness said, further, that
the hours of labor should be generally estab
lished at eight hours.