The Indianapolis journal. [volume] (Indianapolis [Ind.]) 1867-1904, 1886-01-09
LABOR AND LABoRERs.
Matters of Interest to Employers and EN-
ployed-Knights of Labor Notes.

ployed-Knights of Labor Notes.
Philadelphia Record.
The three strong points in the labor problem
for 1886 are the eight-hour question. the increas
ing demand for labor. and the quiet movement
among employers toward arbitration methods.
The eighthour movement lags, but it will gain
strength as agitation increases. The Chicago
bricklayers have taken the lead in the North
west, and the furniture workers In this city
have taken initiative steps In furtherance OF the
movement The hating is due to the probable
20 per cent. reduction in earnings. and to the ap-
prehension that others will be found to take the
places of the eight-hour strikers.
Machine-shop work will be more abundant
during the winter than for the past eighteen
months, because of the expected activity in all
industrial channels. Many mechanics are re-
turning from Western to Eastern States. Four
locomotive works have put on 600 men. Loco
motive builders expect orders within thirty days
for one hundred engines, in lots of from three
upwards.
Professionalism is gaining ground because OF
the prospects of more work at better pay. En-
ployers generally more favorably inclined TO
it than they were year ago The unions are In
some crafts paying more attention to the skill OF
initiates, and also to the quality of service the
members render-that IS, they are endeavoring
to remove the cause of complaint by employers.
that unionism allows poor workmen to be paid
as much as tie more skilleul, and compels the
employers to retain them.
cashire goods because of oversizing and are TAX
ing, as our exports show. large quantities of
American goods fact which American manu-
facturers are quick to note. u In India, native
manufactures are rapidly superseding English
cotton piece goods, but the per capita consump-
ton is not large. as piece of cloth two and one
half inches wide and twenty-fo inches long is
the only clothing worn by East Indian fald
laborers An American meachant named Oar
ragh sees wide field there. and has built cot
ton-mil at Alleppy. with e, 600 splndles, and is
trying to borrow money enough in London to
build two more large mills
Another enterprising American, who ran the
pad craze until he made a small fortune is
now in London importing American confection-
cry. and selling it through branch houses in all
the leading cities of the United Kingdom. Phil
adelphia confectioners furnish him the bulk of
his stock, and the trade ia growing to immense
proportions. as is shown by Local and New York
customs records.
Silk manufacturers at home and abroad are
looking for an advance in prices which will slim
ulate production Half the silk raising proper
ties of France and Italy are under heavy mort
cages All large stocks have disappeared. A
powerful syndicate has taken possession of the
European market. Silk has advanced abroad 10
vance further, and pure black silk, it is decreed,
is to be the fabric of the future
A Boston paper says we'll educated and we'll
dressed girls work in dry goods stores at from SO
to Sc per week, while in the manufacturing cen
tiers of New England girls are earning from $40
to $50 per month.
Dr. Woodward, of St Louis, epitomizes the
whole question of technical education when he
tells manufacturers that 1--WE send the whole
boy to school and not part of him" when we
send him to a school for manual training.
The ten-hour law went into effect In Rhode
Island yesterday. but employers will not allow
any washing up on their time
Some manufacturers in New England have
fitted up reading rooms for their employees. The
matter has been talked over here. but TO steps
have been taken. In Germany. female factory
hands are to be exempted from night work, and
children are allowed to work only through o
physicians consent
The Carnegies. of Pittsburg have set good
example to employers generally in admitting to
partnership their leading superintendents num-
beriug seventeen in all. ranging in capital from
$105, 900 TO SIS, 900. The next step of these pro-
gressive brothers may be to admit every work
man to the partnership in sums of 5000 to ST. GOO
Not little trouble would be obviated if this
course were pursued.
Fifteen hundred tons of Orders were shipped
to the United States few days ago by an En-
glish firm. Only two firms in England are able
to compete with German makers. The wages of
the Sunderland ship-builders will be reduced 10
to 12a per cent. on Wednesday. A Scotch firm
has just taken order for five ships for South
American parties. Last months tonnage con-
tracts for new ships foot up 10000 tons. A
Glasgow locomotive maker has just booked an
order for thrty-two locomotives for export.
Recent strikes have resulted in the starting up
of several cooperative establishments, with the
help of outside capital. Three cooperative nail
mills are under construction. Cooperative shoe
shops have been started, and other trades are
agitating for sucn experiments.
Michigan workngmen are focking into the
knights of Labor order. Green Island, n. Y,
will soon have fourteen assemblies and district
assembly. Assembly No. 442l has been organ
lied at Salem, Ore. One assembly in Lewiston,
Me-, has ], 200 members. and another 525. Troy,
N. Y, has twelve local assemblies Durham.
N. g., has over 1000 knights. In Rhode Island
the membership is 5000 Around Louisville,
KY, the order in growing rapidly.
The census shows the membership of the fol-
lowing crafts: Miners 234, 228; boot and shoe
makers, 194. 079; blacksmiths 172 726; cotton
mill operatives, 169. ILL., painters and varnishers
I26, 500; iron and steel workers. ia, $50; machu
ists l01. 100. In England 32l, 59l persons are
working in leather.
The brush makers will organize a national
union. The one hundred cigar makers who
started from New York on Dec. IS picked
up two hundred more along the way. At Chi
cago one hundred men had broken up house
keeping to go along. but there was room for
only twenty fve The train was due in San
Francisco last night The trades unions were to
give them grand welcome.
The proper housing of employees is receiving
the attention of investors in New York, who
propose to build large tenements. upon which
architects are now at work. One-thIrd of the
earnings of the New York city workers go for
rent; in England, one seventh Steinway, the
piano man. says the horror of living in tenement
houses is only equaied by the rent extorted for
them. Storm, the cigar manufacturer, says
most of the tenement-houses in New York are
not fit for human habitation
The committee of five of the National Asso-
citation of Stove Manufacturers has issued cir
cuiar to the stove manufacturers CONCERNING the
domination of labor unions. 1t was found rna,
20 per cent. of the stove works are Controlled by
union rules. and 80 per cent are not. There
are about 100 establishments in the association.
Thirty-fve employers favor the apprentice sys.
tenn s"enty-one are in favor of square fight
and twelve favor cancellation The com
mittee advises every employer to rid his estao-
lishment of 'disorganizers" and to crowd in ap
prentices
The Pennsylvania State Miners Association