Kansas agitator. [volume] (Garnett, Kan.) 1890-1905, 1899-03-31
Labor Notes.

| bONdi wv. cois ~ Ni W. ~ &ess
at Ben Air, Tenn, appeals for finan-
cial aid, having been locked out since
February l.
Governor Johnson of Alabama has
won the praise of the labor press OF
that state by vetoing bill exempting
cotton factories from taxation.
Park laborers of Albany, N. T., now
get $3.50 per day of eight hours
through efforts of organized labor
there. They formerly received Sl.Ao
per day for 10 hours work.
The legislature of Missouri has bill
under consideration making it unlaw-
full for any person or corporation to
compel or permit miners to work I'M
derground longer than eight hours a
day.
The assessment levied by Typograph-
ical union, No. so, Kansas City, Mo-,
for shorter workday purposes Will
realize about S175 per month. 1t Will
continue until the nine-hour day is put
into effect.
The term of a prisoner in Mexico Is
divided into three periods. The hrst
is occupied with penal labor, the sec
ond is spent in the training school,
with small pay, and the third is pre-
paratory to freedom, with paid work
and many privileges.
| The eight-hour day experiment IL
the Thames iron works, London, still
continues to be great success, says
| hA h4,
be turned out on an average of II ana
Is per cent less cost than before the
eight-hour day was introduced.
The Great Southern railway has
granted a s per cent increase in wages
to all machinists, and as soon as the
roads business will warrant an addl-
tonal advance of per cent asked Tor
will be granted The increase benefits
1000 men on the entire system and VITA
aggregate 100000.
The Sedalia, Mo-, divisions OF the
Brotherhood of Locomotive Engineers
at joint meeting recently passed res
| olutions protesting against the pro-
posed action of the Missouri legislature
| having for it's object the reduction OF
| railway fares in that state. The en-
gineers contend that if this legislation
is enacted it will result in either re-
duction of their wages or material
reduction in working forces.
Often the trouble between employer
and employe is not one of wages nor
Of hours, but of treatment accorded
the workingmen and working women
by the employer, both within and with
out the place of business. Courtesy
and kindness on the part of the en-
ployer is an incentive to the best pos
sible work of the employe. Working
men and working women like TO feel
that they are something more than
mere machines in the estimation OF
their employer.
EMPLOYERS of labor in the United
States, or of any other country, VINO
have adopted the eight-hour system, all
bear testimony to the general goou
resulting from the change. IF the
results were different, if business dld
not easily and readily adjust itself to
the change to an eight-hour work day
is it not strange" says an economic
writer, that there is no one who has
ever given the system fair trial
say of one year-who would be desir-
Gus of or willing to return to the old
regime of "a nine-hour or longer work
day. Those who have carefully OBJ
served the changes which have come
to the workman from a reduction In
the daily working hours have marked
most gratifyingly the fact that they
have become most temperate in the
liquor as we'll as in other habits"