St. Paul daily globe. [volume] (Saint Paul, Minn.) 1884-1896, 1894-10-10
was afterwards transferred to POS Mic
ollet. where the watches were sold by
Blumenkranz
MRS. WALKER EXPLAINS.
She Indites az Open Letter to
the Printers.

She Indites an Open Letter to
the Printers.
At the meeting of the Minneapolis
Typographical union last Sunday after
noon the union printers of the city took
Mrs. t. b. Walker to task for certain
statements she had printed relating to
the habits of printers. The union
adopted resolutions condemning her
article. and now Mrs. Walker comes out
with a public letter, which she hopes
will conciliate the printers. 1t is given
below:
To the Minneapolis Typographical
Union-Gentlemen: 1t is matter OF
regret TO me that your action of Sunday
should have been 50 hastily taken as TO
give me no time 10 place myself right
before you ana the public. after the
publication Saturday night of the com.
munication upon which you base your
resolutions.
Courtesy would seem to indicate that
l was entitled TO the honor of hearing
before being condemned by unanimous
vote on the hearsay evidence of an IN
terview in the Penny Press. l have
never seen an official of your associa-
ton on this subject, or been accorded
the honor of question. The statements
i'll the Penny Press, on which you built
your resolutions" were published Sat
urday night. Sunday you took your
action. This left me no time for a cor
rected statement.
The Woman's Council, of which |
have the honor to be president, has,
since its first organization, been desir
Gus OF publishing magazine or paper
which should be devoted 10 its interests
. nd 70 off. oil bat i,os,
never felt financially strong enough for
the undertaking. Recently an offer was
received from the DeVeney Institute of
Printing, the conditions of which are so
favorable and so easily complied with,
that without any raising of the question
or thought or whether this was union
or non.union office, a contract was
executed and the appearance of the
first number of the magazine soon fol-
lowed.
Before entering upon this contract,
however, L made such inquiries con-
corning the company as to satisfy me
that our work would be properly placed.
Since the first organization of the coun-
Gil we have had more or less printing
done, and the question of union or nom
union labor has never been raised or
thought of. We have simply placed
our work with the firm that gave US
the most advantageous offer. After the
appearance of the first number the
Penny Press began the publication in
its columns of series of items pur-
porting In part to he the voice OF the
typographical union. calling upon the
council to recede from its contract. and
charging the employment of boy and
girl labor" the ''cutting down of
wages" ETC., and threatening that
the trade unions would meet the
council at the polls in the defeat of
Mrs. Golf as candidate for election to
the school board. AS l made no reply
to these items, they on Saturday sent
reporter to interview me, to whom |
said. as Mrs. Niles has said to you, that
the Woman's Council has no candidate
IN the field, the nomination of Mrs. Golf
having come from the mass meeting of
the women of Minneapolis.
In response to the reporters question
if it was the intention of the council to
withdraw from its contract, now that it
had been made known that the Office
was non-union, II said, "Most certainly
not. How could we do SO. or why should
we?" The threat being made that the
press union would refuse to do the press
work. said that was a matter to be
settled between the union and Mr..
De Veney, but was not for US to con-
slider.
The reporter made several attempts
to learn the conditions of our contract.
for all which information l referred
him to Mr.. De Veney, as considered l
had no ri ght to give them out without
his knowledge.
In reply to the reporters charge that
that institute of Printing was placing
more printers in a field which was
already overstOcked with workInen, l
said: "Will you tell me OF any depart
ment of trade or labor that is not in
these present hard times Overstocked?
But on that account shall our young
men and women cease to learn trades?"
Later in our conversation, and while on
entirely another subject, said, speak
ing OF the large number of unemployed
men upon our streets: sis it not
strange that the employment agencies
are unable to fill their orders from out
side the city and the pineries of this
state and WiscOnsin?''
The reporter saw tit to make a charge
rejecting upon our publisher, to which
l replied, Let US not 20 into discussion
OF the personal characters of the heads
OF any business or organization or we
may unearth more than we care to look
upon. Let US keep to the question be.
fore US, the right or wrong of the
WoihduS councll'S putting us Work Into
nOn-uniOn Office"
This is the extent of any charge by
me of drunkenness upon the members
OF the typographical union or the print
ing craft.
Touching the labor unions, l said
that there was an underlying principle
III the union of labor that was good and
right. and had seen the time when 1
thought all wrongs were going to be
righted through them. But of late
years. and especially the last year, ] had
come to feel that through mismanage-
ment and the tyrnaHical control of the
unions by outsiders and their delegates
more harm than good had come to the
members themselves, and that they
Carried few heavier burdens than those
imposed upon them by their own unions.
Concerning the general attitude of
this family toward trade and labor
unions. | may. perhaps. be allowed to
remind those interested OF the fact that
when the Lbbor temple was construct
ed. contribution that paid $500 of the
debt (being much the largest subscrip-
ton received) was made by Mr.. Walker.
Deeply regretting the occasion which
has made the above statement neces-
sary, and trusting that it may contribute
TO better understanding of this mat
tel. both as REGARDS the Woman's Coun-
Gil magazine and myself, remain very
SInpprAIv