The Owosso times. (Owosso, Mich.) 1897-1926, 1907-08-23

At New York nearly 5000 operators
quit, and more than 1900 were idle
throughout the country At the same
time the employees of the Associated
Press from one end of the country to
the other struck upon the refusal Of
General Manager Stone to Immediately
accede to their demand for increased
wages. Various local causes of. fric-
ton, combined with the general de-
mands previously made by the Teleg-
raphers' union for an eight hour day,
10 per cent increase in wages and the
furnishing of typewriters blythe COM
panies, afforded the motive OF the
strike when it came.
President Clowry Of the Western I'm
lon, on the other hand, insisted that
there was no adequate cause for the
strike and that it was precipitated by
hotheads, inasmuch as the Western I'm
lon was standing by its agreement
with Commissioner Neill. He also
claimed that the older and more re-
liable employees had not joined the
strike and that with the new men on
be able to handle their regular bust
ness. The strike leaders claimed that
most of the new operators said to be
at work in the telegraph offices were
inexperienced girls or boys drafted
from the telegraph and commercial
schools and used mainly for the pur-
pose of keeping up appearances. The
In af In taI
everywhere testified to the existence of
the telegraph strike.
The most alarming feature of this
great industrial conflict was the prob
ability of q sympathetic movement on
the part of the Railroad Telegraphers'
union in the event Of any of their
members being ordered to transmit
commercial business as a consequence
Of the strike. 1t appears that the tele
graph companies have contracts with
the railroads requiring the latter to
transmit any commercial messages Of
fered, and Western Union officials
made it plain they would insist upon
Realizing the seriousness of a sympa-
thetic strike by the railroad telegra-
piers, the managers Of the railroads
were disposed to ignore the contracts
with the telegraph companies or by
other expedlents to avert the actual
clash with their own telegraphers. In
any event, it was declared by the strike
leaders that the railroad men were pre-
pared to lend financial and moral aid
to the strikers, and IL was asserted
further that President Gompers had
pledged the support of the American
Federation of Labor Requests made
by the boards of trade of several west
ern cities upon President Roosevelt to
use his personal influence toward set
llement were referred by him to the
commissioner of labor without COM
ment.
Newspapers Consume Vast Forests.
A bulletin recently issued by the
census bureau at Washington on the
printing and publishing industry
shows that this line of activity pre-
sents striking exception to the pre-
vailing tendency toward consolidation.
rhe number Of establishments In 1905
vas 26,422, q number larger than was
reported for any other industry. The
Increase reported from 1900 to 1905
was proportiomately greater than from
1890 to 1900. A notable feature was
the increase In the number Of pounds
Of paper used, more than 100000 tons,
or almost one-third of the entire out.
put Of the paper4mills Of the United
States, being used for newspapers and
periodicals in 1905 TO make this
paper required IL services Of nearly