Pine Bluff daily graphic., 1907-02-17
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Salem. Mass-An increase of five per cent in wages was announced in the mills of the Naumkeag Steam Cot effect on December 31, and applies to about 1,500 employees.
 Louisville, Ky-A peaceful boy. cott'' has been declared legal by Judge Kirby in the chancery division of the circuit court. The case came up on complaint of an employing butcher who sought to have the members of the butchers union restrained from circulating notices that his plant was hostile to the interests of organized labor.
 Washington.-The undue prevalence Of tuberculosis among Workingmen, which has led pretty nearly every na- tional union in the American Fedora tion of Labor to consider plans for the establishment of homes for their con. sumptive members similar to that maintained by the printers, is illus trated in the quarterly report of the Amalgamated Association of Street and Electric Railway Employees just issued. The mortality record for the past three months showed that one- third of the entire GO deaths was due to the great while plague.
 ington.-Condtions through. out the country in the trades unions are generally good, according to re. ports received at the headquarters of the American Federation of Labor. Among the national organizations sending in reports are the asbestos workers, billposters, brushmakers. carriage workers, cigarmakeys, horse. shoers and hotel employees. In the last named nine new unions have re- gently been organized and $1, ,500 paid out in death benefits. Lace curtain operatives in Philadelphia have se- cured a 43-hour week for shift work. CTS and 50 hours for day workers af- ter four weeks strike.
 Chicago go.-Announcement was made to 13,000 employees of the Illinois Steel company that they would receive 10 per cent wage Increase. The same
  plants of the company on the North Side and at Joliet and Milwaukee. It is expected also that the increase will be extended to all the plants of the United States Steel corporation.
 hington.-Reports of the state labor bureaus show that capital and labor in many important industries are working in closer harmony and that trade agreements have in numerous instances supplanted the strike and lockout methods of settling industrial disputes.
 Chicago Roosevelt anti. race-suicide theories are to receive the hearty indorsement of Chicago's union labor. An organization is being per fected which will place premium on child birth. One hundred dollars is to be paid to the wife of each member of the association at the birth of a child. Should the stork leave twins at the home of the union man the pre-. mium will be raised to $250, and $500 will be paid cheerfully in the event of triplets. There is a twofold purpose ill the object of the proposed bene- ficiary organization, one of which is to insure the father and mother of a stated sum at the time when it is greatly needed, and the other is one which has back of 1t purely union principles-to remove women from the field of labor and place her where she rightfully belongs, in the home.
 Boston.-President Gompers, of the American Federation of Labor has received an appeal from the working men of Porto Rico asking aid in stop ping the abuses suffered by them. It IS stated that while the invasion of the American Federation of Labor into that country has secured for the work ingmen many Improvements in labor conditions it is necessary for the Amer 1can authorities to take hand. The employers in that island, according to the statement, hold the laborers in little esteem. There is contempt for thelr work and thereby the eeonom- ic and political power of the working men is extremely limited. The enl- ployers, it is charged. maintain a be- nevolent despotism over the laborers.
 New York.-The Bookbinders' Inter- national union is arranging for the es. tablishment of the eisht-hour day The employers, however, are combining to contest the move. International Presi- dent Robert Glocking has sent warn ing letters to all local unions inform ing them to be on their guard.
 
 General Labor News.
 International Lathers' union has 201 locals in the United States and Can