The Connecticut labor press., 1919-03-29
GENERAL LABOR NEWS.

Philadelphia has over 100000 textile workers.
 Canadian railway workers number over 15O,OOO.
 The total alien immigration in 1914 was 1,21s, ,49O; 1915, 326 TOO; 1916, 29S,- 826; 1917, 295. 5.4O3; 1918, 11O,61S.
 Louisiana has appOiated state com mission to study the labor of women and children, with view to maximum hour and minimum wage laws.
 Wage advances affecting 5,557, ,OOO British railway and engineering work CTS total $1O,591, 800 weekly; other workers, S4,55S,5 weekly. making yearly total of about $78O,OOOOOO.
 Four thousand employees of the General Electric company plant at Pittsfeld, Mass, started on 40-hOur- week working schedule. Officials of the company said the curtailment was made necessary by business conditions.
 The Welsh Tinplate Cancellation board at Swansea, Wales, has granted a further increase bonus throughout the trade ranging from 15 to 20 per cent on present bonuses, which already amount to 95 per cent.
 Of the 3,348 locomotives built by the Baldwin Locomotive works last year 62 per cent were for the United States, France and Great Britain for war pur- poses. The average weekly number of men employed during the year was 19,C32. exclusive of the subsidiary com panies.
 The Pacific Mills print works at Lawrence, Mass, reopened. This plant employs over 2OOO operatives, who have been out of work because of the walkout of the boiler firemen, who are returning to work on the same basis as before the strike. Seven soup kitchens also were to be erected in the city, the sum of $4.OOO having been col lected for this purpose.
 Notice of a further reduction of 25 cents a day in wages at the mines of the Utah Copper company at Bingham, 40 miles west of Salt Lake City, was posted. The reduction is effective March 1, according to the notice, and is based upon a price of IS cents a pound for copper. A reduction of 75 cents a day announced several weeks ago was based on 20-cent copper.
 A strike of the employees in 85 shoe factories in New York city, having a combined output of 5O.OOO pairs of shoes, is on. according to Raymond P. Morse, chairman of the Labor Board of Shoe Manufacturers. Fifteen thousand employees are affected by the strike, Mr. Morse said, although only 4,OOO be- long to the unions, which are demand ing a 40 per cent increase in wages.
 Members of the Postal Employees association who have been in cOnvei4- tion at Saskatoon, SaSk., have by resO- lution placed themselves on record as demanding the following: Right of free speech in it's entirety: minimum wage of S24 weekly; abolition of all work in basements; abolition of wooden mail cars; adjustment for seniority and monetary losses five day week of six hours day.
 Judge John R. Mccall. of the federal court. handed down decision at Mem- phiS. Tenn. in the case of H. P. Coke against the Illinois and Mississippi railroads in which he held that switch men were not entitled to pay on basis of eight hours a day under the Adamson act. Judge McCall'S decision was based on the theory that only actual members of train crews are en- titled to pay under the eight-hOur plan and that this provision does not in- rlude those individuals whose sole service is to throw switches.
 The Brotherhood of Railroad Signal Men of America, representing nearly IL. 4 4N0o Williamsport, Sunbury X Elmira divi- sion of the Pennsylvania railroad. are strongly in favor of government owner ship of the rails.
 Following considerable agitation. the admiralty has decided that men in the British navy should have higher pay, and committee has been appointed to take, evidence 'nd report recom- mendations. A substantial increase. though not approaching the American standard of pay, is expected to be granted.
 Tn response to a demand from the textile workers for an eight-h0ur day, the proprietors of the United Hosiery and Allied mills at Chattanooga, Tenn. announced recently thaes they would voluntarily institute a Six-h0ur day. which decision will affect about ,40C workers.
 Workers employed by the Associa- tion of Western Manufacturers will work A hours a week in the future, according to an announcement by the manufacturers. who said th2t the adop- tion of the new time schedule was vDi untary and that sanitary conditions in shops would be improved.