Workmen's advocate., 1889-11-02

London dockmen's strike, addressed monster meeting of workingmen at Bristol It is reported that 6O,OOO peo- pie were at the meeting.
 Jay Gould is much gratifed with his recent trip. "Everything," he says, lis in most prosperous condition. The railroads are doing well and most of the companies find themselves without adequate equipment for the carrying of freight In other words, the fifty thousand wage slaves who earn pre- carious living on Jay Gould's railroads are just now working from twelve to twenty hours day at the average rate of ten cents an hour. This is prosperity for them as compared with the condi tion of many who, even in these times of unprecedented business activity, can get no work at all.
 London is threatened with another formidable strike. The journeymen bakers have organized on every hand, and they will be called out in November unless certain terms are granted. At recent mass meeting called in support of the bakers demands, John Burns said that his personal knowledge of the state of affairs justifies the assertion that there is no class of workers in London whose lot cries out for i'm. provement more than the journeymen bakers. Their hours of labor range | from 80 to 100 per week, and their phy- sique is rapidly deteriorating by reason of the surrounding conditions. The de- mands of the men are most reasonable. | It is asked that 60 hours be made the maximum number for a weeks work; that over time and Sunday labor be paid for at the rate of time-and-a half, with the customary allowance of bread and flour; that the scale of wages be six shillings per day for the foreman and five shillings per day for other hands. At present the West End bakers do not receive more than twenty-four to twen- ty-six shillings for their 80 to 100 hours of labor, while the East End men work 10S hours for from eighteen shillings to one pound per week.
 This being election time, we hear again of labor organizations "pledglng" legislative candidates of the old parties to support certain labor measures and endorsing those from whom such SUD- port is expected. The socialists have always maintained that little can be accomplished by such methods; that it requires independent political action to obtain effective labor legislation. Not only are the election promises of old party candidates frequently broken, but even when they are kept and labor laws passed, capital finds means of nullify- ing their effect. A case in point is re- ported by the Grand Rapids Workman: There is law on the Michigan statute book, passed in 1885, which makes ten hours legal days work. To get around that law, the Cable Street Railroad Company of Grand Rapids, corpora tion doing business under public fran chise, exacts from it's employees the execution of an iron clad contract, waiving "any and all benefit which they may derive from said law; that dur. ing their employment with said corpor- ation days work shall not be limited to ten hours, "but shall consist of so much time each day as the necessities or conveniences of the business of said corporation may require" That law is nugatory as far as the employees of this corporation are concerned. Other capi- talists in other States have defied labor laws by similar devices. To secure ef- fective laws and their enforcement, labor must become an organized political power. If it had been so organized in Grand Rapids, the franchise of the rec. reant corporation could have been with. drawn. As it is, the City Council elected largely by labor's vote, rewarded the company by granting it another franchise without dissenting voice.