Bisbee daily review., 1906-01-04
STRIKING PRINTERS.

According to previous announce ment many printers throughout the country have laid down their tools and gone on strike to enforce the eight hour day. The big printing es- tablishments throughout the country which are organized in what is known as the Typothetae have determined to make resistance, and where the strike will end cannot now be foretold, but it may be safely predicted that many printers will be without work lor a long time on that account, and when the strike is over there will be many more "open" print shops in the coun- try than heretofore. The International Typographical union has been making preparations to enforce its demand for an eight-hour day for a year and has, according to reports, accumulated a large fund for that purpose.
 It is the privilege of every printer belonging to the union to decline to work more than eight hours if he chooses, and it is the privilege of those who employ printers to insist on a nine-hour day if they think it a proper consideration of their business interests. .FHa
 Whatever the conditions may be in other parts of the country, certainly the condition of the printing business here would not warrant an assumption of greater burden in the way of labor expense. which is included in the eight-hour demand.
 President Wm. Green of the New York Typothetae has issued the fol lowing statement:
 The closed shop and the eight hour day demanded by Typographical Union No. 6 cannot and will not be granted. The question which this de- mand brings before the printers of New York is not one of hours solely The Typothetae has been acceding to one demand after another for a mum Der of years, always increasing wages, decreasing hours and suffering new shop restrictions, until now the limit has been reached.
 "As examples of these restrictions al the present time the employer can not put his own son to work at the machinery of his own composing room until that son after four years pro swears allegiance to the union, sub scribing to an oath that puts his duty to the union above his duty to fam fly, church or state The employer cannot hire or discharge his own men They must be hired or discharged by foreman. who must himself be 2 member of the union. An employer is not allowed any representation 1T his own composing room-cannot op crate the keyboard of a machine tha he has paid for, or set his own type The affairs of the composing room are run by a union foreman, assisted by a chairman elected by the men the chairman's duty being to see tha the foreman shall not for one momen forget any of the numerous restric tions which the union has placed ol the running of the shop.
 These and similar rules and It strictions have so decreased produc ton and have so hampered the COT duct of our plants that even with nine-hour day the shrewdest manage ment is necessary to show any profit whatsoever Upon all contracts Q importance We meet with competitio from points where the nine-hour an ten-hour day prevail, where the uI ion is not in control and the printe Is able to get the best results from hi men unrestricted The reduction C hours from nine to eight would mea a prohibitive increase in labor COS tfhe principal item in printing) an the demorallzation of the printing bu: mess in New York In 1898, with tenIhour work day, the minimum scale was SIS per week Since the the work day has been reduced { nine hours and wages have been thre times increased, so that the preser price for fiftyfour hour week is minimum of $2f--an increase in cos per hour of thirty per cent Wit this increase in wages taste has bee steady decrease ia hourly produ sion. ''''.'