The Topeka state journal. [volume] (Topeka, Kansas) 1892-1980, 1905-04-26
TO BE OPEN SHOP.
State Printer viii Not Officially
Recognize Union.
McNeal viii However Pay the
Scale.
ON EIGHT HOUR PLAN.
That Is How the Plant Will Be d.
Conducted.
President Of Union Says Ar
rangement Is Satisfactory.
Rumors of Trouble in Topeka
Job Offices.

In the operation Of the state print
ing plant, I do not believe it will be
possible for the state to officially
recognize the existence of the Typo
graphical union. I do not believe we
can make a contract with the union
such as is made by private concerns
This is the statement Of T. A Nc
Neal, the man who on July / will as
sumo the Office OF state printer under
the new law which makes him one of
the state officials on a salary of s2,5OO
a year
Under the law. State Printer Nc
Neal has the full charge of the print
ers employed by the state, The law
does not specify what kind of printers,
or how many printers he shall en-
ploy. It does not say how much they
shall be paid He is allowed to run
the plant to suit himself and it will
be, theoretically, at least an "oDen
esta ablishment in the city which will
not recognize the existence of the
printers union.
In practice, however, the new shop
will comply with union regulations.
Mr.. McNeaI asys:
1T is my idea that the state should
pay the union scale OF wages to all its
printers. The union is none too hiah
I
the union says he shall be paid.
don't think that in these times a man
can live comfortably and support =
family on any less than the union
printers get. Therefore I shall pay
the union scale in the state plant. But
the state has no right to enter into a
contract to pay union. wages and en-
ploy union printers any more than II
has to enter into a contract to employ
none but Methodists, or Scottish Rite
Masons."
Eight Hour Day Already Fixed.
So far as the length of day is con-
for all employees of the state. Eight
hours constitute a days work for all
classes OF labor employed by the state,
or by contractors working for the
When asked whether. or not the re-
| cent decision Of the United States SUI
prene court declaring void the new
York ten-hour law would affect the
states law on the subject Mr.. AdcNeal
said:
Il have not read this decision in
full, but my understanding is that the
supreme court held that a law could
not be enforced which interferes with
a mans right to contract to work as
many hours as he sees fit, so long as
this contract does not interfere with
his health or the welfare of his fam
lily It applied to a certain condition
peculiar to the New York law It
does not interfere with the Kansas
state eight hour law in the least.
There is nothing to prevent the state
Of Kansas doing as it pleases concern
ing the laborers whom it employees. If
the state wants to limit the hours Of
its employees to eight hours, it can 10
so. Whether it could 90 outside of its
own employees and regulate the hours
of all laboring men is another ques-
ton
Charles E. Sutherland. president OF
the Topeka Typographical union said
0f inn
taken by T. A. McNeal:
There will not be any trouble with
the state printing plant. If it pays the
union scale and follows union rules
do not think there will be any dfsposi-
lion to require a contract. It is alto
gether probable that the state printing
plant viii be conducted on the same
plan as the printing plant Of the gov
ernment at Washington which is not
nominally a union shop, but which is
practically controlled by the unions just
the same.'
The union figures that if thew have
the foreman of the state printing plant,
they can practically control the per-
sonneI of the force which works at the
plant. At Washington, the printing
plant is governed by civil service rules.
Anybody who can pass the examina-
tions and get the appointment can go
to work. After he has commenced work
he is invited to join the union, in case
he does not already belong. If he de-
clines to join the union people in the
shop have a way of making things so
unpleasant for him that he is very like
" to throw up his job.
There was a strike in the government
book bindery at Washington last year
because a nonunion bookbinder named
Miller was put to work, and could not
be diSlodged. President Roosevelt in
sisted that the government could not
recognize the right Of the unions to
dictate the appointments in the gov
ernment service. and the result of it
was that the union lost their fight
A Big Fight Brewing.
There is now big fight drawing
near between the employees of the
union job offices and the job Office
proprietors who have organized
themselves into a sort of protective
association known as the Typothetae-
The International Typograph union
and the Typothetae are making all
their plans to resist the reduction
from the present nine hour basis. This
difficulty may break out in Topeka
some time during the summer, and it
may be postponed until January I,
1906, when most of the contracts be-
tween the unions and the local en-
ployers of job printers expire
When this issue is drawn. it may be
of considerable backing to the union
printers to have the state printing
and for this reason. the unions viii
not antagonize the state printing plant,
even if it is run as an "oDen shop"
At a recent meeting of the Typo
thetae in Kansas City, Willard N Hall
of Topeka was selected chairman of q
committee, which is supposed to have
general charge of the preparations for