Wood County reporter. [volume] (Grand Rapids [i.e. Wisconsin Rapids], Wis.) 1857-1923, 1906-10-11
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furnaces and rolling mills.
The British admiralty is instituting a
universal 4S-hosr week for the employees
IN the government dock yards.
There were 1,204 labor unions char
tered in America last year, embracing q
total membership of 100000.
Strikes of coal miners are on in Wales
Hungary, where 1000 are out.
In Canada locomotive engineer gets
$3.50 for 100 miles. In the United States
he receives $5.25 for 100 miles.
1t is estimated by competent authority
that the number of child laborers in the
United States to-day is close to 100000
The conditions and standard of labor
in the cotton mills in Bombay, India, are
the lowest, at least in any Asiatic coun.
try.
Chicago railroad rate clerks must make
good from their salaries all losses to the
roads occasioned by Incorrectly quoting
rates.
Memphis, Tenn. will make a strong
effort to get the 1907 convention of the
United brotherhood of Carpenters and
JOiners of America.
The first national union to be entrench-
ed in the government service was recently
organized among the clerks of the Post
office Department of Chicago
The filming of a contractor for working
an employe nine hours by the lower court
was upheld by Chief Justice Gabbart of
the State Supreme Court of Colorado.
Five thousand male wage earners are
out of work at the present time in Mel
bourne, Australia, and $4,000 people in
Victoria are existing below poverty line.
The Department of Justice has decided
that railroad workers are in the unskilled
labor class and cannot be imported into
the United States under the alien contract
law.
Chicago switchmen are threatening
strike if recent demands are not COM
piled with at the expiration of thirty
days. Twenty-seven railroads are in
volved.
All of the gold heaters in America are
now out on strike for an increase of
wages from $1S to $21 week, to elimi-
nate the outside shop system and to bring
the bosses into the union.
As result of being organized into a
union, the milkmen of Chicago in four
years have cut the hours of labor in two,
and have secured a net increase in
wages amounting to % per cent.
The Illinois free employment offices
have issued the seventh annual report of
their operations, and the record for 1905
shows an increase in number of positions
filled of 1874 as compared with 1904.
The average wages of American work
men is double that of the Englishmen
and nearly treble that of the German
wOrkmen, according to statistics published
by the Department of Labor, covering the
year 1903!
An international exposition portraying
the life of the laborer for the past 1000
years, showing conditions surrounding
him from the time of feudal slavery to the
present time, is contemplated by the
French Parliament.
Word comes from Hawaii that there is
a well-defned scheme on foot by the plan
tation owners to get laborerS from Eu-
rope. Already a thousand Portuguese
families are being imported by the Sugar
Planters Association.
Mayor John F. Fitzgerald of Boston
has issued orders to all of the officials
in the various city institutions ordering
them to see to it that the eight-hour day
law in so far as it relates to Stationary
engineers is enforced.
The bill in the French Chamber of
Deputies, making it compulsory for en-
ployers to grant their employees one days
rest in seven, was passed with only one
dissenting vote. The Senate has also ap-
proved of the measure.
Gov Curtis Guild of Massachusetts, at
the close of the Labor day parade in
Boston, said that in no other country in
the world, and in all probability any other
State in the Union, could be seen such a
wonderful, display of loyalty to a cause
as was presented by the paraders, who
marched past the State House that day.
This was the unanimous opinion of every
person who witnessed the great demon
stration and will mean much 10 labor
unionism the coming year.
There are five miners who are candi-
dates for Congress under the American
Federation of Labor plan for tt entrance
of trades unionists into politics. They
are: w. B. Wilson, national secretary
treasurer, of Blossburg, Pa; John Walk
er, vice president of the Illinois district !;
T. d. Nichols, Scranton, Pa, president
of the first anthracite district; w. H.
Ia If hn
seventh anthracite district. and John Fa-
hey, president of the ninth anthracite
district.
The assessment levied against the mem
bership of the International Topographic
cal Union for the support of the eight
hour day strike in book and job offices
has been reduced to per cent on the
money earned 1t had already been de
cided at the Colorado Springs convention
to reduce the assessment from 10 to per
cent. Further reduction will be made as
the situation warrants, but a fund of
not less than 100000 will continue to be
maintained in the International treasury
as a necessary safeguard.
Kewanee, H.. claims to be the banner
union city in America. Every store in
the city is 4 union store; the policemen
carry union cards and so do the street
cleaners. The Mayor is a union man
and the sexton of the cemetery also car
ries a union card.
The industrial and labor conditions
throughout Canada are considerably more
active than during 1905 This is largely
the result of the extensive railway con-
struction work in progress in Quebec, On
tario. ald the western provinces, which
affected the unskilled labor market over
a very wide area.
Statistics show an increase in wages
for the toilers. during the past twenty
years, of from 10 to 30 per cent, with
shorter working hours. better clothing,
feeding and housing for their families,
and better education for their children.
Reports of the State Labor Bureaus
show that capital and labor in many i'm
pOrtant industries are working in closer
harmony, and the trade agreements have