The times. [volume] (Richmond, Va.) 1890-1903, 1899-05-07
THE WORLD OF LABOR

Manchester Eng. corerakers get :"
shillngs week.
Toledo carpenters demand the nine
hour day, and % cents per hour.
Tho wages OF Pittsburg street railway
employees have been advanced 10 per
cent.
An agitation IS gradually rising anu
swelling out among tho iron and steel
workers OF Great Britain for an lneIoaSe
I'm wages. II will be remembered mat
,beir s-roat dlspute In 1878 was over
question Of hours. Now, especially on
the northeast coast and on the Ciyde
they arc putting IN claims for usually
q Ave percont increase I'm wages. Inc
engineering trade employers have refused
"a grant this. owing TO the excessively
high price Of material. which. they x
clare Is making the trade very unpront-
able. a conference OF representatives OF
EMPLOYERS and workmcn IL 10 be held IN
London soon 20 discuss the question IN
all its bearings.
Secretary Deller, OF the London
Plasterors' Union, expresses himself as
immensely satisfied with the way things
have gone In the dispute in the builolns
trades. In the place Of intimidating the
men. II has given them new idea on
their power. OF the upward OF Z.VV
plasterers who were locked out, large
numbers have obtained work elsewhere.
Attempt after attempt on the part OF
the employers in the building trades 10
import labor from the continent mas
failed. the immigrants being met AT the
railway stations and persuaded into going
back TO their own countries by the
nicketing officials Of the National As
from
the Master Builders Association are or
frequent occurrence. and the whole dis
pute looks suspciously like petering out
Members Of the Executive Board Of
the Federation OF Trades and Labor
Unions visited Lincoln. y. j.. on sat
urday for the purpose Of inspecting the
proposed site for the location Of a home
for aged and infrm union workngmen
The plan had been under consideration
for some time. and considerable cores
pondence has passed between silas
Dewey Drake. Mayor Of Lincoln. and H.
!. Gottlob. chairman Of the Executive
Board OF Federation. Tho committee APP
pointed 10 inspect the site has made a
favorable report. The homo viii be
modelled after tho Childs-Drcxel Home
for Union Printers. at Colorado Springs
col. and Will be three stories high. with
all the latest sanitary arrangements and
an electric light plant. It will be OF brick
and will cost not less than $4,000.
The Welsh tinplate industry has been
for a considerable time past in bad way
In this respect Il has only followed the
example Of others OF our standard in
dustres I'm the last decade. Industry
after industry has. as It were. got strung
ND to such n pitch Of intensity, owing to
the competition Of TRADE rivals that
profits are reduced to the vanishing point
and wages shrink to the starvation level
Tho birmingham brass trade was most
notable case in point. Not so many years
ago the men were working sixty hours
a week for about $3.50 MS their weekly
stipend. The brass-trada masters were
scarcely better off. Acute cutting had
brought down profits to ~ per cent, and
I'm some cases I per cent. The alliance
between employers and employed. which
was at last evolved from tho minds Of
few brainv men. has paved the way out Of
this slough Of despond. It's mode Of
operation was and IS. this: The en-
plovers united into 4 trade association
and agreed TO drop cutting and put up
prices TO n paying. and considerably
higher level. Then TO guard against I'M
derselling either by an employer who
"ratted" from the alliance or an ON
ployer who stood outside the alliance,
the wOrkmen We're approached. The al
lance engaged itself 10 employ none
other than union men. and it engaged IT.
self 20 pay them higher wages and give
them shorter hours. besides many other
durable advantages. In return the work.
men were to pledge themselves not to
work for any employer who sold his bed
steads and other brasswork under ALI
anco rates. There was OF course a host
Of minor conditions and benefits. and the
idea IS developing in many ways Not
withstanding obvious defects. the alliance
and fits system Of Observation-Disclosures
that IS what 1t amounts to-has become
very popular in a whole group OF metal
trades and 10 IS proposed 10 extend it
now to the decrepit tinplate industry.