St. Paul daily globe. [volume] (Saint Paul, Minn.) 1884-1896, 1890-01-12
MINNEAPOLIS COMMENT.

HOW long 1TOT. EOlWell INTENDS TO IN
fiict upon patient public his lecture
entitled Good and Bad Socialism,"
The working people have for years
been familiar with it, and as it had not
been heard for several months they
cherished the fond hope that perhaps
the good professor had lent it to Nc
Ginty. and maybe the weight OF the ar
gument caused his prolonged stay at
the bottom of the sea. The hope has
vanished, for lately the professor re-
cites the curiosity at least once per
week in the parlor of some church or
before the innocent and unsophisticated
7. NJ. G. A. societies with which the
city is honeycombed. But the brain
fibre of such auditors is such that no
sort of socialism could permeate them.
So long as the professor continues to be
harmless. Anxious Inquirer" will have
to be patient.
Speaking Of Y. NJ. G. A. societies and
their management, a young man well
known in K. of l.. circles, vouches for
the following, he says: II came to the
city stranger and dropped into the I.
NJ. Z. A. rooms in the Syndicate block.
l was sitting at little table in one cor
ner OF the room with my head upon my
hands. The superintendent came along,
aHectlonately grasped my coat collar,
and said: Young man, what are you
doing here?'
Only thinking replied.
Well, move on rcioined the super
1ntendent; we don't allow people to do
any thinking here.' | did move down
to the Labor Temple, joined an organi
cation there, and have enjoyed the lux
ury of thinking undisturbed." The
young man evidently doesn't know that
I. NJ. q. A. members never indulge in
anything so pronounced as individual
thought. Probably most of them are
incapable of the effort. At any rate
they just drop nickel in the slot and
get ready-made, patent inside 'think"
in the form of tract. A labor-saVing
invention, as it were.
The trade and labor assembly, by the
aid of the officers of the bureau of labor
statistics, made good start this week
toward Wipng out the abuses that exist
In the management of employment
bureaus in the Twin Cities. The COM
plants have been mdny and varied.
The most common being, that employ
ment bureaus are in the habit of taking
the fee and sending large numbers of
men out of the city, only to find no
work on arriving at their destination.
On several kinds of work in and ad-
| Jacent to the cities, the men would
pay the fee for the situation, work a
few hours and be discharged without
any apparent reason. AS high as four
| crews per day have been hired and dis
charged by one firm during the past
summer. The only reasonable ex-
planatiOn being that the employ
nd
the spols. In the employment of girls
the abuses were still worse. One of
the proprietors arrested last week has
for years been known to. send unsus-
| pectiug and ignorant girls to houses of
ill-repute, on the pretense of finding
| them employment. 1t was almost i'm
| possible TO get these victims to testify
| to the facts in court, as that would mean
entire social Ostracism, and when ques-
toned about such cases, the employer
would coollY reply that he was not re-
| sponSible for the reputation of women
| sending to him for servants, ard that
the girls should protect themselves by
| not going to places which were not re-
! spectacle.
These are a few Of the complaints
made to labor organizations, but hereto
fore it has been difficult to punish the
pr0prietors of these agencies, although
| there was no doubt but that
| many of them were carrying
| on systematic course of fraud.
The arrest of two in Minneapolis and
one in st. Paul during the week was
the initial step. 1t was found that the
state law provides that each proprietor
shall give bond or bonds of $4,000.
In both cities the city attorney had over
| looked this law and let the council pass
q lax hn bond otG Il
| cision of the case in st. Paul compells
| all employment agencies to conform to
| the state law by Feb. l, 1890. 1t is prob
able that the result will be the same in
| Minneapolis and that those doing bust
ness without a license will be required
| to procure one. OF course, the first eff
feet of enforcing the state law will be
to wipe out all agencies unable to fur
niSh the required bond. and of those
remaining, it will probably be more
healthy for them to transact
legitimate business. Their bonds
men will be interested in seeing that
they do. But the problem is far from
| being solved. If the number of agen-
| cies is lessened there is no legal reason
| why, with the aid of contractors, they
may not form a trust controlling many
avenues of employment and eXacting a
| much heavier fee than that now
charged. However the labor organiza-
tiOns are only beginning their work in
| this direction, and feel encouraged by
the success of the first step. They
| think public opinion will aid them IN
putting these employment agencies on
proper basis as soon as the facts are
fully known.
A company for the manufacture of ar
ticles from fax fibre has lately been in
cOrpOrated in Albert Lea, and the local
papers speak highly of the new field for
| the products of labor which it will open.
| A change seems to have come over the
| spirit of their dream. Less than a year
ago labor organizations looked up the
utility of fax fibre and recommended its
use in giving employment to the con-
victs at Saltwater, and not even the
philanthropiSts who deplored sthe idle
ness Of the prisoners could be induced
to speak word in its favor. But then
! states prison board and stock COM
pany are different in character and the
advantages which appeal forcibly to the
latter might not be visible to the former.