The commonwealth. (Greenwood, Miss.) 1896-1923, 1906-10-05
The Song of the Blouse.

Body and soul together,
WI rise from sleep, at the first gray peel
OF dawn, in the wintriest weather.
The hum Of the bees and the breath o
the cows,
The hedgerows all fragrant and green
Are for Others-her lot is the cult of tn,
blouse
And the song of the sewing machine.
No time to laugh and no time to weep
with ~her-none to trouble how fares it
For the blouse was cheap, and the stairs
too steep
To climb, says the woman who wears It
All the day long the rattle and click
In the heat and the glare and the dust
Till body and brain and heart are sick
(On a cup of tea and a crust;
For there's rent to be earned and, you
may be sure,
Little to spare when she's paid it
Oh, the difference sore twixt the woman
The blouse and the woman who made it.
An effort is being made to estab-
ish closer relations between the
Canadian eastern labor unoins and
those on the Pacific coast.
President Samuel J. Small of the In
ternational Union of Commercial
Photographers is in Chicago to take
charge of the trouble between the
operators and the Postal Telegraph
Cable company.
A referendum vote is being taken by
the members of the International
brotherhood Of Shovel and Dredge.
men on a proposition to increase the
death benefit to 81, 900 on a yearly
premium of $40.
After an all days session, the Broth.
erhood of Locomotive Firemen
changed the name of the order by a
practically unanimous vote to the
Brotherhood of Locomotive Firemen
and Engineers. The reasons leading
up to this change are that fully rs
per cent. of the members of the order
are engineers.
The Columbia Typographical union,
oil washington, voted to eXpel 10
members who refused to continue the
payment of the assessment levied for
strike benefits, on account Of the
strike against employing printers in
the District of Columbia, which has
been on since last January. The
members dismissed from the union
are all employed at the government
printing office, and it is said that
the number to be expelled may reach
ESQ before the matter ends.
Engineers on the Chicago, Burling-
ton & Quincy railroad, who are pro-
testing against the recent order ex-
GLIDING men who have to wear eve
glasses from running passenger en-.
gines, from the suburban service and
from freight locomotives at congested
terminals have refused to submit the
question to the interstate commerce
commission. Officials of the com.
p2ny suggested that as the safety of
the travelling public was concerned,
the interstate commerce commission
should be allowed to pass on the rule.
About 1000 workmen engaged in
rehabilitating the street railways of
San Francisco and changing the cable {
roads into electric systems, went on a :
strike. The United railways started +
the trouble by discharging workmen {
because of their utilization with the :
union, and the strike was called to en-. r
force the reinstatement of the men at a
increase in wages, and the demand d
Tor an e%ight-hour day. A great num- n
her OF the men belonging to the union f.
are foreigners brought wei by the +
United railways. u
The zone armed mems" union was
founded at Chicago. Its principles +,
essentially are humanitarian, it being RI
revised with special regard for the E
200 manned, legless, or armless f.
'wi~tchtenders, flagmen and crossing q
men employed by the railroads in and fe
lear Chicago. II
h. w. Wilson, representative of the In
Association of Machin- D,
sss, has returned to Milwaukee from CT
;hicago, where he attended the con-
'ention of the Metal Trades associa- of
ion. The result of the meeting may ic
the amalgamation of all the metal in
rade workers in the country, an Or mr.
~anization which, if perfected, will be. p,
ne of the strongest labor bodies in Ri
world, having a membership of r,
early $4,000 workmen. The crafts ri,
epresented were the p~attern-makers' tn
ssociation, machinists, iron molders,
and helpers, boiler max. Go
RS, iron ship builders, metal polish of
buffers and platers, electric work te,
rs, stationary iremen, and steam en- us
The executive boards of all er,
these organizations have been petit. sic
Oned and it is probable that a refer no
,dum vote will be taken on the sub TIL
ct of amalgamation by each organ. fet
alton. in
The cigarmakers Of New Haven,
adopted a novel method of win Cit
ng their fight against their en- pri
oyers. In most instances, the things Ma
ruck against are usually boycotted wa
the strikers, but not 80 in this sea
Sc. Instead, they demanded nothing mo
a cigar made in one of the fac
ries struck against. This was done str
the purpose of exhausting the sup We
of stock as quickly as possible, ILL.,,
d then to leave the manufacturers to
The ruse has worked sue. doy
and it is nov extremely hard get
get anything but outside cigars in az
w Haven, qua
A labor dispute has broken out in s
, Maitland (Australia) coal fields, for
a result of which 1t is feared that boa
90 men will be idle. viii
rhe Building Trades council, of ma,
q Francisco, has had plans drawn T
a new labor temple to be erected Sou
that city, which will be one of wor
h~andsomest and best equipped graz
UCtures of its kind in the TTpitad don