Los Angeles herald., 1909-05-02
kLTTTLE LABOR LEAFLETS
| " BY WE,MsLERNON. ~

same building in a few days they will
receive 50 a day for eight hours.
At the convention of the National
Consumers league, which has just
closed its labors at Providence, 1t was
decided to revise its methods of pro-
cedure which heretofore has been con-
fined to sweatshops and their products,
to the exclusion of the question Of
wages. The league is now organized
in twenty states, with hundreds of
subordinate bodies. Composed princi-
pally of society and professional
women who have become interested in
the labor question, it is branching out
and taking in women of all stations
1t has now decided to make a careful
investigation of the piece-work system
in the manufacture of women's under
garments and devise plans to establish
wage boards for the purpose of par
ticipating in the adjustment of work.
ing conditions and the solution of other
problems which arise between employ
ers and employees. In other words, the
league, representing the purchasing
public intends to have something to
say regarding labor questions. In the
different states the league will demand
that laws be enacted prohibiting man
ufacturers, jobbers, merchants, etc,
from sending goods into tenements for
any process Of manufacture, in the
hope of smashing the sweatshop evil.
Judge Lands, widely known as the
jurist who assessed the Standard Oil
company $4,000, 900 for violating the
law has upheld another law which
is of interest to the railway teleg
raphers all over the country. This is
what is known as the "hours of labor
law" in which the Santa F'e railroad
was the defendant. The case is the
first one to be tried under the nine
hour section of the statute and is to
be tested.
In the present case the government
charged the railroad With employing
telegraph operators for a longer period
than nine hours in the twenty-four.
The proof in the case was that the
operators worked in the aggregate only
nine hours out of twenty-four, but
they worked in broken shifts of
twelve hours each, with a rest period
Of three hours in each twelve. Judge
Lands, in his decision, said:
Having in mind the purpose of the
law from the title, I am of the opinion
that the law means that an operator
cannot be on duty for more than one
four and that the period starts when
he begins work and ends when he is
finally dismissed for the day."
Printers, cigarmakers and all other
unions which use labels are interested
in the tariff bill now before congress,
as there is a clause in the tobacco
schedule which makes 1t mandatory
that no package of tobacco or cigar
cites shall have attached thereto any
article or thing" other than the wrap
per of the manufacturer and his labels.
Should this provision be adopted, the
union label on tobacco will be prohib-
tied as will also the label of the allied
printing trades, which appears on the
tobacco pastors. Congress has been
petitioned to eliminate this objection
able clause from the bill, and a deter
mined fight is being waged by the trust
for its passage.
Up in Manitoba the court Of appeals
has just decided that the machinists'
union must pay $25,oo0 for picketing
during a strike. Not satisfied with
this sum, it has gone further and as
sessed the organization $4,000 for dam
ages to a concern against which the
union had a grievance which culminat-