Kansas agitator. [volume] (Garnett, Kan.) 1890-1905, 1903-07-31
IN THE WORLD OF LABOR.
Items of General Interest to the
Worklngman and His Friends.

Worklngman and His Friends.
The convention of metal polishers,
buffers, and platers. also brass work
ers and molders, will meet in Cleve-
land, Aug. 18.
The call has been issued for the
general convention Of the Brotherhood
of Electrical Workers, which will meet
in Salt Lake City, beginning Sept. IA.
According to the state factory In
spector there are somewhat over
1900 girls in the Pennsylvania mills
between the ages Of 10 and IL. Of
this number approximately 1000 work
at night.
A labor union which will comprise
stenographers and typewriters OF the
feminine persue sion is being organ
lied at Worcester, Mass, to regulate
hours of work and secure shorter
working day.
Edgar T. Davies, Illinois factory in
spector, is vigorously enforcing the
new child labor law and the result is
that about $500 children In Chicago
have been taken out of the factories
and workshops.
Federation of the employers of the
country to resist the aggression OF
organized labor, backed by $1,500,0O0
is urged by the committee on con-
stitution of the National Manufac-
turers' association.
The master tradesmen OF Charles
ton, s. c., have posted notices In oil
buildings which they are constructing
that they will not hereafter employ
any workman who is member OF the
Building Trades Council.
It is reported from Oporto, via LIS
bon. that the strike is about to De
terminated in the former city. IL
began at a cotton mill, where only a
few hands were employed, and even
tually included 10000 workmen.
The board of arbitration selected
to fix the wage scale for the bottlers'
union of Chicago agreed to $15 a
week scale, with eight hours work
and time and a half for overtime. The
workers were asking 40 cents an
hour. Their former wage averaged
1925 a week.
Labor unions must live up to their
principals, if they expect to DO re-
ceived upon the basis of their proch-
nations. But all this is equally true
of the other side. If employers want
the confidence and support OF the
public, they, too, must live up to
their professions.
The United Association of Plumb
ers. Gasfitters and Steamfitters has
increased by seventy locals and 5000
members in the past six months. In
seventy general strikes that have been
settled this year sixty-eight have been
won, one lost and one compromised.
Fifteen strikes are still pending.
The National Trades and Labor
Congress of Canada has issued an APP
peal to organized labor to join with 1t
in advancing the interests of Cana
dian labor. The congress is new
body, resulting from the action of the
Dominion Trades Congress in favor
ing international as against national
unions.
One hundred and fifty women gar
ment workers have been locked out
at Chicago because they demand an
eight instead of a nine-hour day.
general strike is threatened. The gar
ment workers had an agreement ex-
piring on July 1. They asked for re-
duction of hours on that date without
loss in pay.
The strike at the bicycle shops Of
E. C. Stearns & Co., Syracuse, part of
the American Bicycle Company, is
reaching an acute stage. One OF the
pickets Of the Molders' Union, Geo
Moore, was shot and perhaps fatally
wounded from ambush near the shops,
and the strikers called upon the po-
lice for help.
TIE June issue Of the New York La
Dor Bulletin states that in the past
three months the state board OF medi-
alton and arbitration interviewed In
twenty-six disputes, in which eight
were settled as result. The board
also assisted in preventing a strike
of the elevated railroad employees in
New York City.
Henry Fisher, president of the To
bacco Workers International union ID
in Chicago, and there is possibility
of fight being inaugurated there
against the tobacco trust. Fisher says
that at the plant Of Spaulding & Mey-
rick workers are being discharged as
soon as the firm finds out they have
become members of the union.
All mills in Japan run day and
night, and change hands at noon and
midnight. The vast majority of mill
workers are children, who work II
hours at low wages. In one mill at
Osaka $500 workers are under IL
years of age and operate only $500
spindles. In this country 300 per-