The Bridgeport evening farmer., 1915-09-09

 street. opened yesterday afternoon, the various points made. in his ad- dress in the forenoon by President Julius C.. Stremlau of sMeriden were taken up and some of them acted upon The first point made by MT. Strem1au was that the. work of the federationgs committee in. the 1egis- lature had been s.uphill .as the com nittee- that had to do with the mea- sures put forward was composed of men representing small .constituen- ecies rather than the large industrial centers. He showed that most of the men on these committees were far nners, mechanics, etc. This was the result of the election of members of the general assembly by the -'bor- ough"' system, and a change in the constitution was necessity to put aatters right
 In the course of discussion severe criticism was offered by speakers in the convention. as to the manner in which the labor measures had been dealt with. It was pointed out that the labor bills were killed so effective ly. in the assembly that not even a roll call was. taken on many of them
 Eventually the ideas of the conyen- ton crystalized themselves into the following resolution, introduced by the Central Labor union of Stamford, which was carried unanimously:
 Population Representation 5 ssWhereas, The present law of the state of Connecticut permits small minority of citizens to send represen- tatiyes of rural districts and thereby empowering them to legislate laws for, the majority of our citizens;
 '<Whereas, We believe this to be an unjust form of representation and in conflict with, the fundamental princi- pies of the republican form of gov ernment:
 we. the delegates. of the Central Labor union of Stamford in regular. session have; and do hereby instruct our delegates to the Connecticut Fed eration Of Labor to submit and work for the adoption of the following reso- luton;
 .sResolved, That the incoming off cers of the Connecticut Federation of. Labor be and are hereby instructed to us4 the power and influence of their offices to bring about the introduc- ton and passage of an amendment to the constitution of the state of Con necticut that will give representation by population in our state legislature, 4hereby4 giving the working hpeople a more equitable voice in the form of government which, as American cita- zens, they have to live under, and if need be. fight to maintain
 Another important resolution i'm troduced during the afternoon was by the Typographical union of Hart ford favoring the permanent ap- pointrner1t of a special organizer by the American Federation of Labor and naming as such, appointees Sol Sontheimer, president of the Hartford Central Labor union and now employ ed as special organizer for the Con necticut Federation of Labor. This was also passed unanimously
 old Age Pensions.
 The Central Labor union of Bridge port introduced the following:
 ssResolved, That a campaign be. in augurated by the Connecticut .Fede- ration Of Labor. through its executive council, for the establishment of an old age pension law in the state,"
 It was pointed out in connection with this resolution that the teachers, Aotter carriers, and other classes are. either already provided for by fthe government in this respect or are about to be, but nothing in the way of a pension had been provided for old men in the industrial walks of life. The resolution was adopted.
 Want Labor Commissioner
 The following favoring the appoint ment of a labor commissioned from the ranks O1 ldpOTs was CdIf16Q- 9 sA
 Whereas, the time has arrived in this city that it is absolutely neces- sary to have some official of the state empowered by the statute law to def fine and enforce labor laws that areN at Ipresent on the statute books, and of labor laws that may from time to time be enacted;
 Whereas, it is also necessary that the labor commissioner of the state should have a competent assistant who can travel over the state and en- force said laws. and
 t.Whereas. we believe that the in- spector should be a good, competent who should be taken from the ranks of organized labor, therefore.
 <-Be it resolved that we respect fully request the general assembly to enact such laws will make it. pos sfble for the workers in this city to protection as is given in our sister states. Be it therefore
 Resolved, that all laws affecting labor be in the hands of a labor com missioner for enforcement"
 In the discussion on this subject the fact was mentioned that many cI1il- dren of school age were employed during vacation time in various estab- Hshments, and when the vacation per iod was over these young people did not return to school It was suggest ed that the inspector attached to the bureau of labor should look after this work.
 Mrs. ScuIIy Speaks.
 About o'clock, by invitation of the Federation,s Mrs. scully, an or gantzer of the American Federation of Labor, who has been doing work in the Bridgeport factories for the past four weeks, and succeeded in bringing about better conditions in quite a number of them, appeared and told of some of her experienc ces. Mrs Scully explained that she found a system in vogue in some factories whereby the employees were made to pay for many of the things that en- tered into the article they produced She found that charges were made for defective work anywhere from 25 kn I1er cenf The system of firas