Kansas agitator. [volume] (Garnett, Kan.) 1890-1905, 1905-05-19

coming greatly improved. Hundreds
of new mines are being established
and foreign railway systems ere lay
ing rails to this great source OF sup
ply. Some of the finest hosting and
mining plants Of the modern day are
now being located in Williamson and
Saline counties, where the veins are
all the way from six to twelve feet
thick.
William D. Haywood and William
E. Trautman, chairman and secretary,
respectively, of the Industrial Union
Movement Of America" have forward
ed circular letters to the labor organi
cations throughout the country re-
questing contributions Of money to
defray the expense incident to the
printing and distributing Of nantes
toes and literature and arrangements
for holding a convention at Chicago
on June 81 next.
Speaking of the actual physical
work of building the Panama canal
John F. Wallace, chief engineer of the
Panama commission, said that an or
ganization had already been formed
embodying a total Of 5000 men. OF
this number 5000 men are engaged in
equipment and construction work and
1000 men are engaged in policing the
canal zone, and in sanitary work
and in cleaning up the isthmus. This
organization is being increased al
the rate Of 800 to 1000 men month.
Arthur E. Ireland. national organic.
er for the American Federation of La
Dor, was sentenced in the district
court at Winfield, Kan, to six months
in Jail on conviction of a charge OF
assault on ]. B. Harrity, a nonunion
machinist, at Arkansas City, Kan,
last July. Six months in Jail was the
lowest sentence the court could i'm
pose on Ireland. Ireland's motion for
a new trial was overruled and his at.
torneys filed new bond for him and
gave notice of an appeal to the SUI
preme court.
Suits for damages aggregating 81,
100000 have been filed in the Colo
RADIO state and federal courts by q
number of Cripple Creek mining com
panies against the Western Fedora
tion Of Miners and its officers. The
complaints are all of similar nature
They charge the defendants with I'M
lawfully conspiring to injure the
plaintiffs by preventing the mining
and shipment of ore. The suits are
an outcome of the strike which was
ordered in the Cripple Creek district
in August, 1903
No doubt agreement evasions and
subterfuges reward, more or less
those INDUCING in them with the self
satisfaction that they got the best OF
the other fellow. but the practice is
invidious and is simply carrying on
the strife in another way that the
agreement aims to get rid Of. Wheth.
err INDUCED in by workers or employ.
ers, agreement evasion and subter.
fuges are not only wrong but injuri'
Gus, and often cost more than the
gain expected from them.-Shoe
Workers Journal.
The Amalgamated Sheet Meta
Workers International association is
taking a referendum vote ON the ques,
ton of holding convention this yeai
in June to strengthen the financial
policy of the organization. The pres.
ent per capita tax Of twenty cents a
month, of which one-half goes into a
defense fund, has been found entirely
inadequate to meet the growing
claims on the national organization.
Death benefits and general expenses
have to be paid out of a tax Of ten
cents a month, and the plan proposes
to increase the revenue, both in the
defense and in the general funds.
In the clothing trades the sweat
shop is simply the open shop, for the
sweatshop is the small contractor
with fresh immigrants, long hours,
and minute division Of labor, crowd
ing into the market and underselling
the shops where wages, hours and
conditions are better. Such would
have been the out
come in the building trades had the
unions not been able to enforce the
closed shop. No amount of good will
on the part Of clothing manufacturers
or master builders can stand against
a market menaced with the product OF
open shops. 1t was through the open
shop that the American born tailor
was displaced by the Irish and Ger
man tailor; that the Irish and German
were displaced by the Jew and by
Polish women, and that the Jew is
now being displaced by the Italian.
In the building trades the Irish, Ger
man and American have stopped this
by means of the closed
shop. The Jew is vainly trying to
stop it, and the Scandinavian in Chi
cago until recently had stopped it in
one branch of the clothing trade. Each
has substituted a race
with lower standard of living. AS
soon as race begins to be American
lied and to demand a higher stand
ard, another still lower standard
IN through the open shop. This