The Montgomery advertiser., 1908-12-07

thority 'confederacies'' were formed by English workmen for their own pro tection and improvement labor organ nations have stood for the things that would tend to the uplift of themselves and their neighbors. The Amerlcah Federation of Labor. the order of Rail- way Conductors, the Brotherhood or Locomotive Engineers, the Brotherhood of Railroad Trainnen, and the Brotner- hood of Locomotive Bremen, are all working toward the same great end the uplift of the working man, ana through him, the nation. Said Samuel Gompers at a labor meeting In New York few weeks ago: we have the right ss an organization to promote mems betterment in iife". And again: We are optimists'. These two remarks are keynotes to the work of organized labor.
 The first great work of organized labor was to minimize the necessary effects of cnt-throat efforts at com petition among working classes. They have demanded and received living wage and better hours. They have es- tabllshed in many instances benevolent funds. They are working for better citizenship by educating their children and training them for useful callings.
 One of the finest and biggest things in the history of organized labor IS that when its members have urged leg islation and argued for better working and living conditions. it has not been solely for themselves. The majority Of the beneffciaries in most instances are non union people. It has worked most consistently for new or better laws thet will protect children in fac- tory, mill. mine or sterre work, ana yet large number of the benencfaries are in southern states. where organ n l.. ..s@4 avAA strength, and where the children are rarely ever of the family of union l man.
 The efforts of organized labor to les sen the hours of women's work. ana provide better working conditions Tor them is based on no selfish motive, for only a negligible portion Of women wage earners belong to u2lehs- m certain mining distrie living sn West | Virginia and Pennsylvania the union | miners work ed zealouslY for the install | lation of new safety devices. and yet l the majority of those who were bene" | fitted by such measures were uon-union men, while the union men were the I smallest part of the mining force in | that particular territory. Maintaining | legtslattve committees at the various state legislatures. union men have agitated earnestly for labor legisla- tion that will effect the great mass Of laborinE people,
 The international Typographical | Union has lead in the great uplift l among organized labor in America | It's members have established nome | at Colorado Springs for their aged and | indigent. with a hospital for those af- | hicted with tuberculosis, perfecting the | Idea that they had first advanced at | New Orleans meeting in 1S57 They spend nearly S700,o00 a year on the | home and it's maintenance, it having been decided in 1891 that each memoer | of the International Typographical Union pay ten cents a month toward the homes support. The hospital was built by assessing each member fifty cente. This organization maintains burial fund, ands a pension fund for
 members over sixty who have been in good standing for twenty continuous l years. who can find no employment and | who have no other means of support.
 The work of the Typographical TInion in inaugurating supplemental | trade. education, Is one of the biggest in the whole story of union labor up- lift work. In the first three months | after its inception ITO pupils were eh- rolled in the printing course and T0o inouiries were received. It is due to l the work of a union printer here m Washington that the Government Frlht- l more employees, has been equipped with an emergency hospital, with physic- 1 ian and nurses a plan that has the en- | dorsenoent of the President, and that will doubtless lead to the opening or such rooms in all large government buildingsl -,
 zation of railway employees, the nation- | al trades unions of this country did not have the beneficiary and friendly relief society idea as the primary one. This idea has been developed. however l in the general order of things. Strength and greater stability nave come as a result of friendly society benefits and fully half the American unions now conduct systems of benevo- lent relief, chiefly in the shape Of dis ability and burial funds.
 Death benefits range from fifty dol lars paid by the Watch Case EngraVera to S5dc paid by the Glass Bottle Blow CTS Association. A few of the Ameri- can, Trade Unions have out-of-work benefits and travelling loans: "U0em' nloyed men cannot, live on sentiment"
 is their assertion, and led by tho Cigar
 Makers Union and the German Typog-
 raphia these benefits were established by few other bodies of organized 'labor. In the first year that the CiSal
 Makers Union tried this helptulness
 lessthan one per cent of the members
 anplied fer aid at a. total cost to tht
 order of s22,720, or ninety-two centi
 ner member The travelling loan wat
 instituted for the purpose of letting
 the unemployed move on into othel
 sections of the country and so equaliz'
 the labor demand This loan must b'
 repaid when. work is secured.
 The Cigar Makers Internationa
 Union was the first American nattona
 trade union to grant sick benehts tt
 members. This was begun in the early
 eighties, and up to now nearly Ss,OOO,
 0O0 has ben paid out in benefits. Int
 smount for 1907 was S473.27O. Thi'
 union has been doing excellent worH
 in tn anti-tuberculosis crusade among
 the forces of organized labor. Know
 ing that long hours at their work were
 in a great measure responsible Tor th'
 disease. they secured an eight-hour law
 in lgse. where, in 1888, the average
 length of life. for the union cigai
 maker was a trine over thirty-on'
 years, it Is now forty-six years th'
 gain having been made because oi
 shorter hours and general improve
 ments in working conditions.
 The International Association ot
 Machinists has for eighteen years con
 ducted q magazine given to discusion'
 of the topics of social economy anc 1 trade agreements, with pages devoted
 to technical education for the mem
 bers. This organization came into ex'
 istence in Atlanta, Georgia in May
 1888, and the first members were nV'
 machtnists who talked the matter ovei
 as they were at work beneath pig
 Locomotive in tho shops of the E. T. V
 & c. R. R. They organized that night
 Today there are lodges in every citI
 and town of importance in the United