The labor world. [volume] (Duluth, Minn.) 1896-current, 1906-09-29
SOMETHING ON ACE
LIMIT Of W0RKMEN
Chicago Delegates plan Of Set
Ting Mixed Question Taken
Up BY the Press.
Novel Plan Of Large Machine
Shop to Displace Men Who
Are No More Useful.

Several years ago there was a dele
gate who attended a meeting Of the
Illinois State Federation of Labor who
suggested that a man at the age of As
years should be taken out and shot,
says an exchange.
The suggestion had been brought
forth from the fact that some of the
large corporations Of the country had
drawn. what was called the dead line
In the employment Of labor. Nobody
who had passed the mid-life period of
IS years, it had been decreed, should
be taken in their employ.
The long-expressed idea that when
an article is half worn out the best
part Of its usefulness has passed pre-
vailed among the manufacturers. A
man, they argued, at 45 had spent the
years of his usefulness. It was in op-
position to such a drastic and 1nhu-
man pronunctamento that led to the
discussion referred to.
The Chicago delegates method of
settling what promised to be a vexed
question in the Industrial world at
once was taken up and commented
upon throughout the country. In other
lands the subject was discussed and
general surprise was expressed that
such things should exist In the "home
OF the brave and the land Of the free -
Now let us consider what this
means. Presenting a manufacturing
plant should desire to employ several
machinists. You and I, reader, make
application. An affailable head Of one
OF ten departments meets us. You're
mach1nists," he says. Then he pro-
ceeds to catechise us on our qualtf1ca-
t1ons Everything being satisfactory,
he announces that the company will be
pleased to take us in their service.
But" he remarks. I almost forgot
TO ask your age. What! 40 and 81
years old? I'm extremely sorry, gen.
tlemen, cannot take you on. The
TACT is, our company will not employ
man over IS years of age"
Dishearted and chagrined, we take
our departure. Probably in an ante
room we find several men waiting ia
be ushered in. We tarry and hear the
conversation that takes place. The
applicants we readily learn are for
e1gners, scarce in the country more
than few months. They are under
80 years Of age and readily are taken
to fill the positions we have asked for
AS we pass out from the office the
thought occurs-scarce reached mid
life and yet we are thrown upon the
scrap heap of humanity. All the years
that have been spent in perfecting our
selves in the work we have followed
must come to naught; IL we would
hope to live, then we must descend
the ladder; we must crowd someone
else out Of their place. Every man
prefers to work at the business he has
been educated to in life. It becomes
a second nature to him. The trusts
and corporations know this, and wher
they discriminate by an age limit
against the work1ngman they do sc
Understandings. It is done for the
purpose Of flooding the labor market
with a class Of workmen which will
be compelled to go outside of the un.
Ion line to secure employment, "A
hungry stomach" Jim Spangler Zone
OF the conspirators who was inveiRhet
90 VA SoAAopAA oSy W dSSdSSlndCe Lin.
coln), said, caused him to aid In
striking down President Lincoln" L
Is not the workers hungry stomach
but those of his family, that modern
conditions conspire against. The mar
who falls to care for his family is hello
up to the community. One who viii
Wantonly disregard the demands made
upon him by wife and children de.
serves the hardest condemnation.
But what measure Of sencure art
we to give those who would make sucf
a thing possible? In the days Of
slavery the bondsman was always as.
sured Of being cared for in his old age
and many are the stories told OF the
kindly consideration bestowed upor
the black aged toilers in the ante.
bellum days. The proclamation o.
emancipation had scarcely been mad,
when a Southern statesman prophet.
ically remarked, Ere two generation.
are passed the slavery Of the South
will be transferred to the whites o.
the North" How true that prophec,
has has been verified.
Today with the ocean greyhound
bringing thousands. upon thousands O