The Vermont watchman. [volume] (Montpelier, Vt.) 1883-1911, 1902-09-03
Mr.. Mcmahon said in part

the town, talked WIFI them, found !
out the conditions under which they |
were working, and they were anxious
to organize a Union ] was prepared
to help them and we got together and
organized a fairly good sized Union
here. They drew up scale of wages
and all agreement covering some of
the difficulties they were working
under, but thev met with no success.
We talked the matter over and decid-
ed to wait while and start up lit
tie quiet sentiment here through the
city, get other people interested, and
the thing was allowed to lapse. Last
spring they decided to press the issue
Previous to this union had been or
ganized over in Barre, scale of wag-
es was presented to the employers
over there and accepted by all. When
] came here last spring L drew up a
scale of wages and agreement exactly
the same as that in Barre and pre-
sented it t? the employers here but
they would not accept it. We held
meetings every noon and night for
several days, and finally we effected
compromise. The employers asked us
no to put this all in at once. They
said they had work OH hand that must
be completed and we finally decided to
help them out we would waive any
increase there might be in wages here
and accept the nine hour day for the
time being. We drew up an agreement
to that effect. That agreement stated
that the nine hour day should go into
effect the firts of July, and we agreed
we would not make any further de-
mands without giving three months
notice. At that time / do not know
-I,f@l tl,nr Ia1 Il xf
any machines in or not. If they had
had nobody here knew anything about
it. The agreement entered into at that
time did not apply to this case as it
exists at the present time, although |
see they are trying to make it hinge
upon that; but it is a lie; we had
no agreement that applied to this case
at all. The nine hour day agreement
went into effect the first of July
They say in their paper that the ma
hines have been in their Office a
month"; if that is the case the people
in the Office did not know it, They
suspected that these machines were
here, or were coming but they knew
nothing about it. The machines if
they were in the office, were packed
up and put away i'll corner and they
did not know they were here until
the machinist came here and set them
up last week.
In regard to the claim that the
Argus people make that running one
of these machines is an entirely new
trade: 1t is not new trade, it is a
part of the printers trade l am
machine operator myself. The type
setting machine is part of the print
er's business, it requires practical
printer to run one. The manipula-
tion of the key board can be learned
in three, four or five weeks, but the
little details necessary for printer to
know have got to be learned to oper-
ate the machine successfully.
Here in this town, these girls, to my
knowledge have done work where
they have got from nine to ten dollars
week, that if they had done the
have received much more. They have
received so much per thousand ems,
20 to 221s cents per thousand ems. In
other places they would have received
30 to 35 or as high as 80 cents per
thousand. They are paid here by the
Thousand, whatever they do they are
paid for. AS to this agreement, in
the claims they make, it says here in
the Argus of tonight, the following
agreement was drawn up and signed
Breads agreement which is printed
above. Signed by the president and
secretary of the local union and my
self. At the time this agreement was
entered into we discussed every pro-
vision that is in here thoroughly. This
agreement to make no further demand
without giving three months notice
applied simply to the rest of this
wage scale they had presented to
them at that time. 1t was discus sed
and thoroughly understood they would
not insist or ask for the balance of
this wage scale without giving them
three months notice. Nothing what
ever was said to enable them to hon
estly construe that agreement as APP
plying to this present case. When
they finally prepared to put these ma
chimes i'll operation the employees
were anxious they knew they were be-
ing Disseminated against, and they
talked among themselves and found
some of their numbers had been ap-
preached and told if they would re-
pudiate the union they would be given
opportunities to work those machines.
The management of the concern de-
MES that fact. but we have got it in
they made no attempt to injure the
union or to injure unionism in this
city. If this is not trying to injure
unionism | do not know what it is.
They further claim that the only sue
cessful operators of these machines
are green bands. Experience teaches
different from that. In every city in
the land where green hands or non
printers have been put on to run
those machines they have not been a
success. The reason they give for put
ting those green hands on is ridic-
ulous, and in the face of the claim
they make that green hands are bet
ter on those machines than experience
ed printers they have put on couple
of experienced compositors, compost
ors who have always refused to be-
come members of the union. They
were put on to those machines for the
simple reason that they have refused
to become members of this union.
The wages average between nine
and ten dollars week for those COM
positors over there that work all kinds
Nf nil AG / Cas1