The Knoxville independent. [volume] (Knoxville, Tenn.) 1894-current, 1918-05-25
General News Gathered From All
Parts of the World, and
Condensed.
THREE-YEAR SCALE SIGNED
Chicago Carpenters District Council
and Employers In Agreement
Alarming Shortage of Farm
Labor in Virginia.

through Its arDltratlon poafu, has
signed three-year agreement with the
Carpenter Contractors association. 1t
will terminate June !, 1921. The wage
scale will be 90 cents an hour. The
present scale is 70 cents. The outside
carpenters. employed on building con-
struction, have a membership OF a.
600. The arbitration board of the mill
men also signed an agreement with the
will owners for three years, with
wage scale of 80 cents for the first
year, 55 cents for the second, so cents
for the third, and an eight-hour day.
The present day is eight and one-half
hours.
In an effort to stem the flow OF valu-
able and much-needed Virginia farm
labor into the army through the draft,
Governor Davis of Virginia has for
warded a letter to Provost Marshal
General E. H. Crowder asking that
some steps be taken to relieve the situ-
alton. The governor states that I'M
less prompt and effective means of re-
lief are had there will be q great short
age of crops produced In the state this
year.
England and France have gone even
further than the "'storation of old la
Dor standards &. are planning new
systems Of continuation schools and
additional opportunities for Industrial
education. Part-time school attend
ance of boys and girls now exempt
from compulsory attendance laws
will be required. In England 1t is rec
commended that the school-leaving age
be raised to fourteen years without ex-
emptions and that all other young peo-
pie under eighteen be enrolled In part
time classes. France proposes to re-
quire part-time attendance Of girls I'M
der eighteen and boys under twenty,
after they finish the prescribed num-
Der of years of full attendance.
The plumbers of Lancaster, Pa, after
a three years struggle to obtain an ad-
vance Of wages, have at last been sue
cessful, the new scale accepted by the
master plumbers giving the men 60
cents an hour, an advance of Is cents.
The advance was granted to keep many
of the men from going to Hog Island
to work.
Stamford Comm Sheet Metal
Workers union has secured a wage
increase OF As cents day. The union
has an agreement with employers
which does not expire until June 1
next, but the employers accepted the
claim that continued increase in the
cost of living made higher rate nee
essary.
One hundred and fifty clay workers
at the plant of the Robinson Clay Prod
ucts company, near New Philadelphia,
walked out. Company officials said they
had received no demands from the
men. Clay miners employed by the
company continued to work.
The mines of the Georges Creek and
Upper Potomac (Md) coal fields were
tied up as the result of a strike Of g..
600 men. The men want better work.
ing conditions. Recognition of the
miners union was one of the principal
demands.
East st. Louis (nl) organized mer.
chants accepted an arbitration sugges
ton of the Retail Clerks union, which
has been on strike since last June to
enforce 20 per cent wage increase
and nine O'Clock closing on Saturday
nights.
Urgent calls have been sent out by
the anthracite coal operators for more
mine workers In an effort to increase
the present army Of $4,000 men up tC
the normal force of 1915 when there
were 177;000 mine workers in the re
gions.
Nine states have adopted constitu
tional amendments for the statewide
recall and are In the order of adoption
as follows: Oregon, Colorado, Arizo
ma, California, Nevada, Washington
Michigan, Kansas and Louisiana.
Fines of 500 to $1,000 may be i'm
posed at Winnipeg, Canada, on bar
bers who use eggs for shampoo.
takes three eggs to prepare a sham
poo, and yolks are wasted.
Professor Baldwin of the Michigan
Agri cultural college Is of the opinion
that women can assist production b!
| relieving men In cities rather thar
themselves working on farms.
Policemen and street car conduc
tors in Munich, Germany, are provided
with protectors which they may at
tach to the dangerous end of women'
hatpins.
Two young girls We're fined So eacl
at a Midland (Eng.) court for altering
their birth certificates in order to b.
employed at larger salaries.
Experimenters In New Zealand hav'
succeeded in producing pig iron on
commercial scale from iron sand
found in that country.
OF the 100000 members of the Brit
ish National Union of RaiIwaymen nov
serving with the forces more than 3,
900 have been killed.
Employment offices to provide posi-
lions for women have been opened II
10 cities by The United States employ
ment service.