The Topeka state journal. [volume] (Topeka, Kansas) 1892-1980, 1913-09-20
UNIONS in Topeka
Strength Includes One-Fifth
of Population Here.
Three Thousand Tradesmen
in Working Clothes.
GROWTH HAS BEEN STEADY
Sixty-Nine Delegates in Body of
Council.
Influence in Betterment of
Entire City.

Approximately 20 per cent of the pop
ulation of the city of Topeka, includ
ing the majority of the rank and file
| of the better class of tradesmen are
members and families of the Topeka
j trades unions.
Exact figures on the membership of
the various locals are unavailable at
TINS time. A year ago, however the
membership aggregated in the neigh
borhood of $500 men. Some of the
unions, noticeably the plumbers union,
have grown rapidly during the year
having doubled the membership. 1t is
believed a safe estimate that there are
5000 union men in the city, who, with
their wives and families, make close
to one-fifth of the citys population.
The growth of all unions in the last
year has been steady and noticeable
| it is said Hardly a local in the city
but has added a number of new names
to its roll. Some of them have gained
| ia pidly in strength.
Most of the unions are affiliated with
the Topeka Industrial council total
of SO delegates making up the body of
the council. The president of this body
| is w. I. Luce and the secretary is c.
o. Tresner.
Far from being merely organized for
the purpose of securing better wages.
although that is, of course, phase of
the work, the Topeka unions are at
all times working for better conditions
for their members and for the city as
a whole. Welfare committees are con-
lStantly at work, assisting recognized
authorities, and doing whatever they
find to do for the betterment of the
city and its people
The council maintains a special COM
mittee to assist in working out the So
clal survey that has been planned for
so long. 1t has a committee to work
with the Good Government clubs COM
mittee to secure a board of public well
fare. The unions, while they insist
upon living wages and reasonable
hours, go far beyond that and assist
in lettering the living conditions OF
their members.
| The strength of the unions is made
manifest only occasionally when some
matter of vital Importance, or some
candidate who stands, squarely for
their views, appears in the limelight.
Ordinarily their strength is not shown
publicly.
One of the strongest of the local I'M
ions is that of the plumbers, which
has been growing by leaps and bounds
during the last year. Everyone knows
that the printers are strong in their
| union work. But there are many other
classes of workmen who are banded
together in trades unions about which
little ever is said, and very little is
known. Yet they make up a part of
the daily work of the city, and their
work could not well be spared from
the aggregate.
The unions affiliated with the In
dustrial Council include the following,
all of which are in fine shape:
Bakers, BARRIERS, boilermakers, book
binders, carpenters, clerks, cigarmak-
ers, electricians, farmers, garment
workers, horseshoers, machinists, mu-
sicians, painters, printers, plum bers,
pressmen, pressfeeders, photo engrav-
ers, stereotypers and electrotypers,
stage employees, sheet metal workers,
tailors, and wood, wire and metal lath-
erS.