The Forrest City times., 1906-10-26

christian unions and independent unions
 In 1882 there was a ten-hour move ment among the shipwrights and caulkers of New England, and sev- eral strikes resulted, which proved successful.
 A recent decision by the department of justice is to the effect that railroad workers are in the unskilled labor class and cannot be imported into the United States under the alien contract law.
 In Germany there are old age pen sions and insurance against accident In the latter respect Austria-Hungary follows the lead of Germany. In Ger | many 1o.224 ,297 persons are thus in- sured.
 The International Building Trades council has placed itself on record as favoring arbitration as a better meth ed of adjusting differences between employees and employers than the usual plan of strikes and lockouts.
 After discussing the subject at con siderable length, the Utah State Fed eration of Labor decided against en- tering the field oi politics as an or | ganiZation. The matter was left to the central bodies and local unions.
 There is at the present time a dis tinet movement all oyer the continent of Europe in favor of one days rest in seven, and the proposal usually is to
 make the day of rest the first day of the week, instead of the seventh
 which is still observed by the Jews in all countries in which they reside and | labor.
 There is a movement afoot to have | the label exposition which will be a | feature of the next convention of the American Federation of Labor re peated in several of the larger cities the convention, which will be held at Minneapolis in November, the ex- hibits will be taken through a circuit of cities. The exhibition will consist of union-made, label-bearing goods
 and will be international i'll extent. l. Germany had III courts of indus 1 trial arbitration in 1905. to which 165 applications were made, and these courts were able to effect 142 settle ments Holland had 90 courts: they 1 interyened in 13 cases, and only ef- 1 fected five settlements. In Belgium there were 75 councils of industry
 and labor, but little appears to have hanr, hNr f,f hn, fA "a | labor disputes. In Italy there were
 a9 courts at date of information: they l intervened in II cases, and effected settlements in 10 of them. In France there were I'll oonciliation commit | tees. and they effected settlements i in 10f disputes.
 While we are rejoicing at our splen- did record of over a million and a i half trade unionists. and over 90 1 labor NJ, P.'s represented at our rec | ord" congress at Liverpool, we cannot 1 ignore the fact that trade unionism
 is increasing at a greater rate in Ger
 many than it is here. In Germany
 trade unionism ha increased from l, : l 466 625 in December. 1905, to 1922 ,343 1 in December last, There was, therefore,
 an increase of s?55,71S, or nearly 25 l per cent. in 12 months. The large ma | joEity of the German unions are so-
 cial democratic. Last year they had
 a total income of sG, 300. 900, and spent l 2,400,000 on strikes and unemployed
 allowances The accumulated funds
 amount to nearly a million.-Rey- l holds Newspaper, London.
 Theatrical employees of large cities
 are formulating plans to oppose the l importation of foreign skilled and un-
 skilled labor for American theaters
 and will ask all theatrical organiza- l tions to oppose the importation of for
 eign chorus girls by sympathetic
 strikes.
 The railway mail clerks want the
 eight-hour day principle adopted in l that service. and at meeting at Chi cago indorsed petition asking the 1 postmaster general SO to rule. Inas. | much as many of the runs" cannot
 be shortened within that period, the 1 petition asks that in such cases the 1 men be allowed cumulative credits for overtime. which they can draw in
 excess salary or with pay substitutes
 It was decided also to submit a bill
 for retirement of clerks who have grown gray in the service and are no
 longer able to work. The funds for this will be derived by withholding two dollars from the regular salary
 to witch each man is entitled The
 measure provides that any man who
 has been in the service 25 years may
 draw pension which will range from
 $40 to S360 year. according to the
 number of years he has been in the
 service
 Officers of the National Association of Master Sheet Metal Workers have been elected as follows President Ed, win L. Seabrook, Camden. N. j.. first vice president. Paul l.. Biersaeh. Mil waukee. Wis; second vice president. J. A. Pierpont. Washington, D. C: third vice president, Charles A. Gauss.