The Seattle post-intelligencer. [volume] (Seattle, Wash. Terr. [Wash.]) 1888-1914, 1891-06-08
TRADE AND LABOR.
Cigarmakers' Union Defending
Its Label.
MANY counTERFEITs ABROAD.
Plumbers Settle Disputes without
strikes-shipwrights Troubles
workmen's Reading Room.

The cigarmakers' local union is taking
steps to prevent the counterfeiting of its
cigar label by bringing an action in the
courts against the dealers and manufac-
ttirers who use 1t. Just what kind of an
action it viii bring has not yet been de-
cided upon, but an attorney will be en-
ployed and the case pushed to the end.
The tsunion label" is mark adopted
by various labor organizations to be placed
upon goods manufactured exclusively by
members of those organizations. Differ
ent unions or organizations have differ
entity designed labels, that of the cigar
makers being Of light blue color, and it
is pasted on the outside of each box of
union-made cigars. Each label is stamped
with red ink by the local union when
issued, so as TO prevent counterfeiting.
this stamp being to the effect that the use
of the label has been duly authorized by
the union.
The object of thus making the product of
union labor Is to enable the members Of
the various unions and others interested
TO distinguish il from non-union goods
and buy it in preference, even though the
price at times is higher than that of the
non-union product, which is frequently
made by cheaper labor. In this way they
encourage the employment Of union men
and the maintenance of high wages.
Another argument used especially by
the cigarmakers is that the cheaply made
tenement house cigars of New York and
other Eastern cities, and those produced
by Chinese labor on the coast, contain the
germs of disease. and are made of rubbish
ofevery kind, from refuse tobacco and
corn husks to the old rags that fall from
the backs OF the poor wretch whose labor
produces them. In these tenement houses
In New York, it is stated on good author
ity, that whole families--father, mother
and half n dozen or more children fire.
quentIy live in single room, and all work
ut making cigars. The label is the only
thing to distinguish the superior product
of the regular journeymcn cigarmakers
from this class of goods.
But it frequently occurs that dealers,
and employers as well, want the advantage
OF the increased patronage given the union
goods, but do not want to pay the price
required for the goods nor the wages de-
mandcd by the union workman, so they
find an equally INSCRIPTIONS creature, who
makes his living by selling counterfeit
labels, and they buy stock of them. They
then have a rubber stamp made to cores
pond with the one used by the local union
and stamp them, thus practically it is
claimed, committing forgery, for they forge
the seal of the union which corresponds to
a signature 1t is almost impossible for
any one but cigarmaker to detect this
fraud, as only those well acquainted with
the industry and the union can tell
whether the various manufacturers whose
names appear on the boxes are employers
OF union men 81 lsst.
This question has now been taken into
the courts in almost every state in the
Union. ans in some states the courts have
decidsss IN favor of the union, while in
Others they have rendered adverse de-
cisiDns. In Minnesota the local union was
Incorporated under the laws of the state,
and in 1883 the question went to the SUI
preme court on an application for an in
junction to restrain certain jobbers from
the further use of fraudulent labels. But
the supreme court decided against the
union, holding that the label of a union
was not trademark, though two of the
judges dissented from the decision.
A bill was then prepared and passed the
legislature, iegalizing the label and pre-
serihiDg q penalty for counterfeiting it.
Another action was brought under this
law, and an effort was made by the defense
TO have the law declared unconstitutional.
but without avail. The union then took
steps to bring heavy damage suits against
all the manufacturers and dealers who had
continued to use the spurious labels from
the time the law became operative. The
outcome OF those suits is being watched by
union men all over the country