Evening star. [volume] (Washington, D.C.) 1854-1972, 1905-02-22

resolutions Will be presented to the Iegisla-
ture now in session, together with the prac-
tically unanimous Endorsement OF every
union man in Kansas. Those favoring the
state ownership of printing plant advance
the logical argument that 1t will take the
office out of competition with legitimate
commercial trade; that it will put 1t beyond
| reach Of contractors and combines that may
make fortunes at the expense of the peo-
pie, ana that the state can do the work
at the same cost as the individual and save
the profits. The secretary Of state favors
the plan. as did his predecessors In Office,
and a strenuous effort Is being rae by the
labor men and that official to have Kansas
own and operate Its own print shop.
An agreement recently made between the
Carcass Butchers Association and the
Amalgamated SlaughtererS' Union of New
South Wales shows that wages and labor
conditions are much better there than IN
this country. The hours of labor are forty
| eight week, distributed over six days, not
! more than nine hours to be worked In any
one day. Double time is allowed for all
work over nine hours day. The minimum
rate of wages for sheep butchers Is SIS
week, while cattle butchers are paid S1I.5o
The maximum number of sheep to be killed
and dressed by one man must not exceed
$50 week, or more than seven and one
half an hour. The minimum scale pro-
vded for any butcher workman is $3.50 for
eight hours
One clause in the agreement would not be
liked very much by employers IN this
country. 1t provides that each employer
shall keep a tally sheet showing the num-
| Der of sheep lambs killed daily by each
employee who shall sign it daily A wage
| book must also be kept in which all wages
and overtime paid must be entered and
signed by the employees. and such DOCK
must be open to the secretary of the union
| to inspect at reasonable times.
One unique clause in the agreement pro-
vides that any employee falling to report
! for work at the time agreed, or who Is
! five minutes late, shall be fined 60 cents,
and such fine shall be paid to some local
| hospital in the name of both associations.
The announcement Is made that the next
convention of the National Association of
| Bureaus of Labor Statistics will be held IN
| San Francisco next spring, when statis-
ticians from throughout the United states
will meet to consider labor and economic
questions The California bureau recently
affiliated with the national organization and
It's application for membership was ac-
companied by invitation to hold the
next convention In San Francisco
The injunction recently granted by the
United States court to prevent interference
with the return of deported miners in Col
| orado, the commissioners say, may bring
| up the whole question of the right to de-
port, whether deportation Is CRIME
| under state or federal law.
| President Eliot of Harvard University in
| q recent address before the Economic Club
| OF Boston gave his idea the danger OF
socialism to the trades union movement,
| and the most effective way, In his OPINION,
| TO check the radical tendencies or some
leaders on both sides. He said, In part
| EMPLOYERS must be better and more
| strongly organized. and unions must be
| better and more strongly organized, in order
that the needless part or the lnuus'[ n1r
| policy toward the existence of trades unions
| Is at best not more than neutral. l urge
with all my power that the time mas come
to change this policy to one or oenhlte
| purpose to make the unions better by en-
| couraging our best and most valuable EN-
| ployes to join them and to become actiVe
| members in Them.
| The manifesto issued by leaders of the
American Labor Union, calling for a con
vention to be held in Chicago June -, TO
launch an ideal labor organization, ooeS
not seem to be meeting with the approval
Of even the most radical element III the
trades union movement
| Although the movement is sociaiist
proposition pure and simple, the socialist
organs throughout the country are repu-
dating 1t, The Cleveland Citizen: edited by
Max Hayes says that not one of the sign
ers of the convention call is actively ldenu-
| fed with the socialist party This is
pretty unkind cut to A. M. Sfmons and
Ernest Untermann, both of whom signed
| the call But the Milwaukee Socialist DEM
ocrat Herald, another socialist organ, Is
even more pronounced in its condemnation
of the move. Its, editor. Victor L. Berger,
says: For us blindly to begin fight
against the American Federation of Labor
| at this time would be crime against the
| trades unions and fatal error in the So
cialiSt propaganda He scores Eugene V.
| Debs for sanctioning the step, and says he
| has done so on his own responsibility, and
| that the socialists will not follow him. On
| that point Berger says:
| milwaukee, which Gene himself calls his
second home. has always highly esteemed
| Debs. but with US it is not that 1 love Gaze
| sar less, but that / love Rome more The
American labor movement would suffer
great injury If any appreciable number of
| progressive trade unions should allow them
selves to be mised into joining this move
| ment. and we will not join it,
Members Of the United brotherhood of
Carpenters and Joiners in Wilkesbarre, who
have been on strike against the open shop
policy of the contractors for some time,
have started a cooperative building So
ctety. Papers of Incorporation have been
secured from the state, and the strikers
hope to attend to the greater part of the
building business without the aid of the
contractors.
The National Civic Federation will widen
Its zone of usefulness, and to accomplish
this end 1t has divided the United States
Into seven districts, in each of which head
quarters will be opened. The seven head
quarters will be at New York, Boston,
Pittsburg, Chicago, Denver, San Francisco
and New Orleans. A new department of
the federation has been organized, that of
industrial economies. This department will
hold monthly meetings to discuss matters
of Importance to the industrial world The
first of these meetings will be held on
March 20.
Much interest Is being manifested in the
Retail Clerks International Protective AS
ISOLATION. This organization was formed at
a convention held in Detroit in 1890 At that
convention there were but seven delegates
in fact seven local unions represented
the strength of the organized retail clerks
at that time. The organization today has
1O54 local unions with a membership of
about $1,000. Eighteen months ago its
membership was around Go 600 but like
most of the unions of a similar character
it has suffered with the decline of the or
ganization boom. Two years ago the re-
tail clerks had an organization of over q
600 in Chicago, but within the past year the
interest seems to have died out and the
membership has fallen off to about one
third of what it An effort is to be
made. however, by the international or
o. a III a oott