Evening star. [volume] (Washington, D.C.) 1854-1972, 1907-12-08
APPROVES OF UNIONS
Speaker Cannon Talks to
Plate Printers.
TELLS OF HIS VICTORY
In Last Election Had Larger Labor
Support Than Ever.
VAIN EFFORT TO DEFEAT HIM
Believes in Organization, But OPP
poses Attempts to Arbitrarily
Control the Votes of Men.

Speaker Cannon had little heart-to-
heart talk with some members of the
plate printers union of this city yester-
day afternoon, and tolo them he was glad
to learn that plate printers could not be
influenced in their political preferences
by the president of the American Fedora
ton of Labor, even though they remained
perfectly loyal to the federation. 1t was
a happy occasion, and ended most ap-
propriately when the Speaker closed the
interview with the remarh: That's all
right, boys and then told them he knew
just how they felt about it.
incidentally the Speaker said something
that will doubtless surprise those who
know him as the greatest protectionist of
them all. He said in his young and CAL
low days he was a believer in free trade.
Popular With Plate Printers.
Mr.. Cannon is very popular with the
members of Local No. of the Inter-
national Plate Printers Uniop who are
employees of the government in the bu-
reau of engraving and printing. Chiefly
on account of his efforts as chairman of
the committee on appropriations the
House passed bill, which afterward be-
came law, in 1898, requiring that all
United States notes, currency notes,
bonds, etc, thereafter be printed from en-
graved plates on hand roller presses and
the next year passed another measure re-
quiring that all of a certain class of reve-
nue. stamps be printed in the same man
ner in the bureau of engraving and
printing. These measures according to
the plate printers of the bureau, have re-
suited not only in maintaining a high
standard of printing for the government
securities, but have given to the craft of
plate printing a uniform and unbroken
prosperity for almost decade
The local plate printers give Speaker
Cannon the major part of the credit for
this. Besides. at the behest of the plate
printers executive board. Mr.. Cannon,
February %, 1903, submitted an amend
ment to the deficiency appropriations bill,
then pending, which was adopted. and re-
suited in the removal of what the plate
printers refer to as grave taxation on
their earnings
Never has this been forgotten by the
plate printers, and at this time, when a
new Congress is being organized and
politics are beginning to warm up a Bit
with Speaker Cannon in the midst of the
fray as usual, they took it into their
heads to call upon him and tell him how
well they think of him. That the whole
International Plate Printers Union feels
the same way about it is evidenced by
the fact that the recent International con-
vention authorized the executive board of
Local No. 2 to express to Mr.. Jo-
seph G. Cannon our appreciation of the
unfaltering interest he has manifested in
the welfare of our craft and union"
The executive board called upon the
Speaker in his office at the Capitol about
3 o'clock yesterday afternoon. Those in
the party were William D. Leissler. pres
dent and spokesman: George P. Foster, r.
L. Lace, Jeremiah 2. Murphy, Samuel F.
McCully, w. D. Clark and Charles T.
Smith. Mr.. Leissler made a speech and
presented the resolutions adopted by the
committee.
The Speaker was very much pleased.
and he told the committee SO. After that
he made little speech.
Growth of the Country.
Il have been SO busly engaged in the
effort to organize the House." he said,
that 1 have paid little attention to any
thing else, and cannot do so until that
work is performed, so that the House may
begin it's labors in earnest.
THE country grows so fast that it is
almost beyond the conception of any OF
US, and is exceedingly difficult to keep
up with. Take Washington and your
work as an example. l do not know how
many shifts are worked at the bureau of
engraving and printing. | have not been
there recently because of the lack of
time. But fancy that your work has in
creased SO fast that you are cramped for
room, although it has not been great
while since very marked additions were
made to the plant. Take the great De-
partment of Commerce and Labor and
the Department of Justice. both of them
without house or home. except for rented
quarters; their business grows to such ex-
tent that they are always crowded. All
these things deserve early and earnest
attention, and not only is it so here in
Washington, but it is so all over the
country.
The Visit Appreciated.