Kansas agitator. [volume] (Garnett, Kan.) 1890-1905, 1905-04-14
NEWS OF THE LABOR WORLD.

Items of Interest Gathered from Many
Sources.
The Ohio Valley Trades and Labor
Assembly has Endorsed the woman's
suffrage movement
The 5000 carpenters in Chicago
voted to demand an increase in pay
from SO to SO cents al hour after
April 1.
New England bakers convention
has Endorsed the proposal to have an
international convention at New York
not later than October Is this year.
Coal miners at Canton, Ill.,, cele-
brated the Inauguration of an eight
hour day April /. In the mining COM
munities of the state the day was OBJ
served generally.
The machinists on the entire sys-
tenn of the Grand Trunk railroad have
asked for an increase OF 20 per cent
in wages. The men are well organ
lied. A strike will result, it is said,
should their request be refused.
Two hundred weavers of the Gran
lite cotton mills, at Fall River, Mass.
have struck. The corporation oper-
ates three large mills and employs
about 1900 men. The grievance is
understood to be the number and
method of running looms.
The bonus above the regular 10 per
cent advance netted the anthracite
miners $3,500,000 in 1904. The 10 per
cent was based upon scale of nearly
% per cent above that of 1899. The
average earnings of $4,000 adult mine
workers in 1894 was about 5000 more
than in 1901.
The hardest worked women in Eng
land are the chain-makers of Cradley
Heath, Staffordshire. These women
have been known to work at the anvil
for fifteen hours and then go home
to do the housework and the wash
ing. They get As. or 5s. for every
hurdredweight of chain they make,
which usually takes day and half.
The biennial convention of the In
ternational Association of Machinists
will be held Sept. II next in Faneuil
Hall, Boston. James OConnell, inter-
national president of the association,
who is also second vice president of
the American Federation of Labor, re-
ports that 700 delegates, representing
500 lodges, will be in attendance.
National letter carriers association
annual convention. which was sched-
uled for Portland, Ore, will probably
not be held in that city owing to the
excessive rates insisted upon by the
railroads. Minneapolis will be the
place of convention meeting. probably.
1t is expected that Boston man, Jere-
miah D. Holland, will be the new
rational president.
Thirteen proposed amendments to
the international constitution regard
ing the union label are now being
voted on by the cigarmakers' unions.
The amendments, if adopted, will still
further protect the unions much adj
yertised label from being counterfeit
ed, and also will hold the officials of
locals handling labels and manufacture
ers to a stricter accountability.
The annual convention OF the sew
enth sub-district of the United Mine
workers, which includes twenty-one
counties in southern Illinois and has
membership of more than 10000
men, met at Murphysboro. The fol-
lowing officers were chosen: Presi-
dent, James Kelley, Carterville; vice
president, Guy Rodman. Du Cuoin;
secretary and treasurer, P. II. Straw
han.
Ii has been given out officially at
Scranton, Pa, by the operators that
they would agree to an eight-hour
work day for the mine employees if an
eight-hour day is demanded by the
union. A condition to be imposed is
that all underground mine workers
are to report Tor work at certain
hour to be agreed upon, and that no
shall he hoisted to the sur
face until eight hours have elapsed.
A dispatch from Minneapolis. MIMI
is to the effect that the latest limo.
walton in the grain line is a union la.
bel on sample wheat. The sample was
received by commission house, with
an offer to sell carload at $1.20, the
minimum scale of the farmers union.
The union consists, so il is said, of
farm owners and fixes minimum
price, below which no grain can be |
Sold The price on wheat is $1.20
bushels; corn. so cents; barley, So
cents, and oats, 40 cents. The union
Is known as the National Union of
American Farmers, and the literary