Valentine Democrat., 1906-08-16

1 upOu elSHl-uDuT Ody III eV-
cry part of the country.
Leather workers in New York and
| Brooklyn have won the nine-hour day
| and Saturday half-holiday.
The United Brotherhood of Carpenters
| and Joiners of America has increased its
| years.
The annual report Of the Piano and Or
| gan Workers Union shows that during
1905 benefits aggregating So, ,2S2.96 were
| paid.
1t is reported that every city in Canada
! is preparing to place labor candidates in
! the field at the next general and provincial
| elections.
A new law has been passed in Iowa
which prohibits the employment of chill
| dren under 1S in any gainful occupation
| which would injure health.
Carpenters are on strike in Boise, Ida.
| against the Master Builders Association.
| They are demanding an eight-hour day,
| 10 cents per hour and the closed shop.
The latest addition to labor's ranks is
! the United Brotherhood of Rural, Horti-
cultural and Agricultural Wage Farmers
of America. The headquarters is in Dal-
| las, Texas.
Several thousand miners at Spadra,
Hartman, Coal Hill and Russellville,
Ark, have been ordered back to work,
the scale prevailing in 1908 having been
agreed upon.
The Labor News of st. Louis has start
| ed crusade against the leasing of convict
labor by the State of Missouri to be used
in competition with manufacturers who
employ free labor.
The Irish laborers' cottage bill passed
its second reading in the British House
| of Commons recently. The bill authorizes
a loan of $22,5O0,OO0 to provide Irish
| Iaborers with cottages.
Streator, ILL.,, elected eight new Alder
men at the recent election. Two OF them
were union bottle blowers, two union min
ers, one union carpenter and one union
printer-six out of eight.
Butchers at the Chicago stock yards
| report the dullest season for years. Cat
tie butchers are working only % hours a
week, and most of the other departments
only work two or three days week.
The Brotherhood of Railway Trainmen
has been in existence tWenty-three years,
has 72S local branches, with 900 mem
bers, $1,560,000 in its treasury and pays
out $4,000 every thirty days in claims.
There are 800 shoe factories in this
country using the union stamp, according
to a report recently issued. These fac
tories give employment to 10000 union
shoemakers. Most of the best and largest
shops are organized.
The advancement of wages in the tex
tile centers is becoming general, and the
employees in every city are benefting. AL
ready wage increases benefting more than
100000 textile workers have been granted
in New England centers.
The death rate from accidents at coal
mines in the principal coal-producing
countries in 1904 were Austria, 90
Belgium, .93; France, 10Y; Great Brit
ain, 124; Germany, 100, and United
States, 3.35 per 1000 employees.
Returns relating to the state of en-
ployment in Germany during the first
quarter of 1906 were supplied to the i'm
perial statistical Office by trade unions
with an aggregate membership of 1921
76O. Of these, 1855, or IL per cent,
were described in the returns as unem-
ployed.
For the first time since May 1 the 81
affiliated unions of the Boston Carpen-
ters' District Council have not a single
man on strike. The wharf and bridge
builders strike for the eight-hour day is
not yet settled but all the men who struck
have been placed at work under union
conditions.
Of 1864 children under 16 years of
age employed in the Belgian textile indus
tries, 3,2S2 earned 1 franc 90 cents),
1860 earn q franc (141a cents), but less
than 1 franc, and 2,454 earn 1 y francs
or more daily. The most general length
of the working day, exclusive of intervals,
was eleven and one-half hours.
The child labor law of Illinois will be
enforced in all of the coal mines in the
State. Under the Interpretation of the
law made by Factory Inspector Edgar 7.
Davies and sustained by the courts no
boys under IS years of age will be permit
ted to work in the mines. 1t is estimated
the enforcement of the statute will take
$500 boys away from employment under
ground.
Colorado Springs, at which the home
for union printers is located, has offered
inducements to the Brotherhood of Rail
road Trai1lmen to locate its proposed in
stitution for incapacitated and INDECENT
members there. The brotherhood has now
been in existence % years and has 72S
lodges, with total membership of $4,000
and a treasury of $1,560,00O. 1t pays
out about $4,000 month in claims, has
over 100000 insurance in force and
has paid out since its foundation S11,-
100000 in benefits.
After fighting labor organizations for
years, r. r. Ford of Rochester, n. Y,
who conducts a plumbing establishment,
has come to terms with the Plumbers
Union and, in order that the men who
have been in his employ may become mem
bers of the union, has given the union a
check for $4OO to pay fines imposed upon
the men by the union. The union asked
$500, but finally compromised and accept
ed $4O0. Eight men from the Ford shop
are to join the union and the shop is to
he mt on the fair list