St. Johnsbury Caledonian. [volume] (St. Johnsbury, Vt.) 1867-1919, 1901-07-24
GENERAL NEWS.
Two New Trusts.

During the past week two new trusts
have been added to the already long list
of like combinations. consolidation
in the oil cloth industry was completed
last week with the perfecting of the or
ganization of the Standard Table Oil
cloth Company. All but three small
plants have been acquired by the new
company, and together the plants alb
sorbed have capacity of nearly double
the amount consumed by the whole coun-
try. The capitalization is $1,000,000,
of which half is preferred and half COM
mon stock. Four millions of each stock
was used for the acquisition of plants
and furnishing working capital for the
new company.
The salmon trust, which has been food
for rumor and counter rumor for several
weeks, is now an assured fact 1t was
incorporated under the laws of New Ter
sey Thursday. 1t will be called the Pa
cifc Packing and Navigation Company,
and it's capital stock is $50, 100000, half
of which will remain in the treasury for
the purchase of additional plants and
the erection of new ones.
The salmon trust is not an easy one to
form. In the first place the Western sal
mon Gamers were not intimately ac-
quanted with trusts. To them it was
a new idea and one which caused much
excitement on the Pacific coast.
Another difficulty is said to have been
due to the efforts Of the Alaska Packers
Association to prevent the combination.
This association, with headquarters in
San Francisco, has been working for
| - 6 . h.
try. For several years it has practically
been able to regulate prices. The out
side canneries, those which have now
been merged into the trust, did not stand
together and for that reason they were
powerless.
Collapse of the Machinist Strike.
Just as the great steel workers strike
was beginning the strike of the machn-
lists of the country which had been in
operation since May Goth virtually col
lapsed without gaining any of the
unique from the fact that it was ordered
on behalf of non. union as well as union
machinists.
OF the machinists, union and non.
union, throughout the country sixty
thousand were employed by the mem
bers of the National Metal Trades AS
ISOLATION, and ninety thousand by non
association employers. The National
Metal Trades Association and the In
ternational Association of Machinists
entered into an agreement about two
years>ago by which year later the ma
chinists who were then working under
the ten hour system were to be put
under the nine and one-half hour work
day and on May 20 of this year the nine
hour workday was to go into operation.
The question of wages was not consider
ed in the agreement, the machinists be-
lieving that the wage question would
adjust itself. Some time before May 20
of this year, when the niue-hour work
day was to 60 into effect, the Interna-
tional Association of Machinists decided
to make a general demand all over the
country for the nine hour workday, to
60 into effect on that date, with 1872
per cent increase Of wages. The increase
of wages was to bring up their earnings
per day to the level of their earnings
under the nine hour and half basis
Contrary to the expectation of the ma
chinists, the National Metal Trades AS
ISOLATION, as a body, refused to meet the
demand, with the exception OF number
of individual members, who found it ex-
pedient to grant it. A general strike to
enforce the demands was then ordered
against all association and non-associa-
ton employers throughout the country
who refused them. There was general
belief that the macbinists had big strike
fund before the strike was ordered, as
they had been preparing for it for year.
1t was soon discovered that the actual
fund was very small, and before long the
men began to return to work few at a
time and finally the scheme went under
completely.
Great Mortality among Pensioners.
Despite the dropping OF 3S,0 82 names
from the pension rolls through the deaths
of that number of pensioners during the
fiscal year ended June 80, there was net
increase OF 4, 1906 names to the rolls by
the granting of new pensions, and the
number of names carried on the rolls on
June 80 was 997, 1874.
2 There was an increase of 2,273 in the
| number of pensioners who died during
1 the year, as compared with the record OF
e the previous fiscal year. The total ex-
penditures on account of pensions and
administration was $139, 531 ,494, being
an increase of $69,353 over the dis.
bursements of the previous year.
The number of claims filed with the
: Pension Bureau on account of disabilities
| incurred in the Spanish-American wal
aggregated up to June 80, 1910, o
which 7,0S6 were granted and 7,059
, were re ected.
Fifteen Negroes Killed in New Mexico
There was pitched battle and whole
: sale killing between Mexcans and
negroes, who are working on the new
Rock Island extension in New Mexico
, recently. The trouble originated in the
killing of a Mexican by negro some
weeks ago. The authorities undertook
to arrest the assailant, but his friends
: intertered and they were obliged to with.
draw. Some thirty five or forty Mex
= leans armed themselves with Winchesters