Denver labor bulletin., 1915-06-05

tive. Music dies on the air, or at best
exists only as memory. Oratory ceases
with the effort; but books burned by
fire still live in the knowledge of men,
are reproduced ten thousand times ten
thousand, and lodge their appeal with
posterity. Printing the handmaiden. of
literature, dedicates itself to Time
Early Records of D. T. U. No. 49.
In going over the early records OF d.
I. U. No. 40, leather bound copy OF
which is kept in the safe at union head
quarters, we find this paragraph in the
minutes of June 4, 1861: Reading of
the minutes of the previous meeting dis
pensed with. they having been lost in
the recent flood. The secretary was in
structed to make a record of the loss OF
our charter and papers. and to request
the national union to furnish duplicate
of the old charter"
As an indication that the spirit OF CO.
operation was then alive, at this same
meeting a motion prevailed that NO.
40 Will sustain the action OF union print
ers in the mining towns of Central City
and Black Hawk in any action they may
take in regard TO better wages
These valuable records show that No.
40 was organized in 1859, soon after the
first issue OF the Rocky Mountain News
in the spring OF that year. Apparently
things ran along nicely until on the
night of May 10. 1864, Cherry creek
flood swept away the News office and
all the unions records, as stated in the
meeting referred to- 1t is further re-
corded that "all funds of the union then
on hand, amounting to about sl20. also
disappeared in the flood of waters"
On the Fourth of July. 1864. a scale
of wages went into effect which called
for ~ cents per | 900 ems on morning
newspapers and bookwork. and 65 on
evening papers. Time compositors and
pressmen were paid SPA per week and
foremen s2d.40. ON a ten-hour day basis.
/ The following year a raise Of 10 per cent
was secured.
Unity of Action and Purpose.
4 resolution adopted at that time pro-
vided that All iourneymen employed by
I the week are required to work their ful
/ ten hours each day. from a. m. to y
noon, and from l to o p m, and that
all time lost between said hours shall
| be deducted from their weekly wages
Another resolution adopted provided
that members "shiTking on solid copy
should be fined
On February I. 1865. \. w. Barnard
was installed as president. and his ad-
dress was considered of sufficient mo-
ment to be transcribed in the minutes.
II may be well TO quote a sentence
therefrom. President Barnard said:
There is a trite axiom that in union
there j. strength II has been proven
to us in the present necessities of our
country. and repeatedly by our own ex-
/ perience a. a union OF workers. But in
order to make our acts effective. it is
absolutely necessary that we should have
unity of action and purpose; that all
/ personal lealousies and petty animosi-
ties should be laid outside. and each one
of us labor for the elevation of the craft
and the welfare and good being not only
of the union, but for each individual
member thereof"
Union Grows From II to 500.
That splendid truism spoken by the
president of No. 40 over half a century
ago, is just as essential to union progress
today as il was then.
A report made TO the national union
on April !. ls65. shows the total mem
bership of No. ~ at that time was L.
three OF whom were enlisted in the war
Some of those whose bodies rest peace
fully in this beautiful plot were among
the pioneers who fought the good fight
and made possible the organization of
which we are today so proud. Brief
quotations from the records Of fifty
years ago enable those who enjoy bet
ter conditions now an opportunity to
make comparison of what has been ac-
complished by the union printers of Den
YER
And il may be said in the craft dia-
/ lect of their day that those members of
No. 40 whose bodies sleep here and in
| other cemeteries have emptied their last
stick and measured their last string.
Perhaps all the lines were not evenly
\ spaced and there may have been errors
caught by the proof reader, but the proof
of their lives has been read and correct
ed. the forms made up and sent to press.
and the complete printed sheet of their
lives now lie fully exposed before the
Great Master Printer
The Happy Hills of Rest.
How sweet it is to think that they
rest here in peaceful sleep and in ry,h-
mic lines of the poet it is meet to say
on this Memorial day that
Beyond the last horizons rim.
Beyond adventures farthest quest
Somewhere they rise, serene and dim
The happy. happy Hills OF Rest.
Upon their sunlit slopes. uplift
The castles we have built in Spain.
While fair amid the summer drift
Our faded gardens flower again.
Sweet hours we did not live 90 by
To soothing note on scented wing;
In golden-lettered volume lie
The songs we tried to sing.