Kansas agitator. [volume] (Garnett, Kan.) 1890-1905, 1905-02-24
NEWS OF THE LABOR WORLD.
Items of Interest Gathered from Many
Sources.

tIGUlS OI tUkCTCSt SdkuSiSS ~ w.
Sources.
II has been estimated that there are
seven times as many wage earners III
America as there are employers.
The San Francisco street car men
and the United Railroads have enter
ed into another agreement to last TWO
years.
The reports of the mine inspectors
In fifteen districts comprising the en-
tire anthracite region shows that DUR
ing the year 1904 564 mine workers
were killed, leaving 272 widows.
Labor unions are slowly making
their way into Mexico. The larger
railroad brotherhoods have lodges in
that country. and the machinists and
Others are now following their lead.
About $4,000 Belgian miners have
struck for higher wages. The Ma
tiona Congress of Miners has been
appealed to and will meet to discuss
plans for a general strike.
The Butcher Workmens union in
Butte, Mont, has recently been char
I6Teu Iuc ooiho'SN AASs~s
Cutters and Butcher Workmen OF
North America. Another detection
from the ranks of the American Labor
union in the city that was formerly
it's onghold-Chicago Inter Ocean.
The Brotherhood of Railroad Train
men closed the year 1904 with men,
bership of $4,000 in good standing and
its finances in better condition than ct
any time in its history. During the
month of December the organization
paid out in death and disability bene-
fits S162,S17, making total of SlO,-
491 1920 paid in benefits since the
system began.
The members of the Milwaukee
cigarmakers local will ask the inter-
national union to support resolution
calling for the biennial election OF
delegates to the American Federation
of Labor convention. The present
delegates, with one exception, were
elected eight years ago and are hold
ing over because no convention mas
been held since then.
Members of the United Brotherhood
of Carpenters and Joiners in Wilkes
barre, who have been on strike
against the open shop policy of the
contractors for some time, have start
ed cooperative building society
Papers of incorporation have been
secured from the state and the strik-
ers hope to attend to the great part
of the building business without the
aid of the contractors.
Serious labor trouble is threatened
at the mine of the Consolidated Coal
company, near Peoria, Ill. The mine
owners objected to the check weigh
man for the union, claiming his work
was not satisfactory, and demanded
that the miners furnish another man
in his place. This they refused to do.
whereupon the operators closed the
mine for an indefinite time. Two hun
dred miners were thrown out of en-
ployment.
C. C. O'Neill of Indianapolis, fifth
vice president of the Cab Drivers
union, is at Philadelphia, directing the
strike of cabmen, and says the drivers
want more pay and fewer tips. He
said: 1--WE condemn the custom of
tipping but must accept tips because
the wages we receive are not suffi-
cient. 1t is unjust to the public to
continue the tipping habit, yet what
are we to do? We much prefer fair
and reasonable wages and no tips"
The American Sheet and Tin Plate
Company, that part of the operating
department of the United States Steel
CORPORATION that produces sheet steel
and tin plates and controls the bulk
of the trade in that line in this coun-
try, is now operating every mill it
owns. This is the first time in the
history of the corporation that 100 per
cent of it's capacity has been operated,
and there are so many orders on
hand, it is said, that every plant will
he able to run for some time.
There will be no strike on the Inter
borough IN. W Rapid Transit Com
pany's subway and elevated lines. This
decision was reached at conference
between General Manager Haley of
the marlborough company and repre-
sentatives of the employees. At the
conclusion of the conference it was
announced that all the demands of the
men had been granted and that the
old trip schedule would be restored
providing for six local and seven ex-
press trains in a days work in the
subway.
Alleged discrimination by the Fall
River cotton mill owners in the re-
employment of the striking operatives
ms the basis of a conference held be- |