The Farmington times. (Farmington, St. Francois County, Mo.) 1905-1926, 1920-10-15
POLITICAL POINTERS As;gW iau
VI FROM STNrEl CAPITAL
nv A.,TI EdmDnston.1

a.
Jefferson City,oMo9t Oct. 14.--Un.
ion printers an oyef"i Missouri are
working overtime to bring about the
reelection r6f Secretary of'State John
L. Sullivan because of friendly turn
he did for members of the craft I'm
the capitol city through which last
summer they secured an increase In
wages of SIS week. The contract
held fby the State printer, covering
six years, has still two years of life
before it terminates. Wien it was
made four years ago the cost of liv-
ing was many degrees lower than it
is now. Paper, printers inks and
other supplies were fully fifty per
cent cheaper. Skilled men such as
printers, pressmen, proof readers and
book binders then were able to work
for lesser wages and make ends
meet
A year ago the price of printers
supplies SCARED to where they are
now and it also became necessary to
increase the wages in all branches of
the trades, for both skilled and I'M
skilled toilers. The state printer
quickly found himself up against a
heavy losing contract, from which he
could not break away but neverthe-
less he granted a slight increase in
wages to all employees. The advance
was not, however, sufficient to enable
working printers and other toilers to
live without getting into debt and
they made demand for further re-
Enumeration. 1t was then that Secre-
tary of State Sullivan came to the
relief of the State printer and his
200 employees through agreeing to rec
ommend to the next Legislature that
an appropriation be made to meet all
actual losses incurred by carrying out
losing contract.
Hackman Out of Line at First r.
The Republican State Auditor, Geo.
+. Hackman, who is running on the
"gop" ticket to succeed himself. for a
long time did not hold the same opin-
ion on the subject Of the next Legis-
lature reimbursing the State printer
to the exact amount lost through car
rying out Missouri's printing con-
tract, and, finally, only came across in.
the eleventh hour, and, then, not I'M
til heavy political pressure had been
brought to bear on him by some of
his st. Louis friends. -
When Auditor Hackman refused to
listen to the appeal of the printers Of
Jefferson City to join Secretary of
State Sullivan in the proposed reiIn3
bursement recommendation to the in
coming General Assembly, the matter
was taken up by these union workers
with Charles Hertenstein. President of
the big powerful St. Louis typograph-
ical Union No. s, who also holds the
lucrative Republican position of chair,
man of the Efficiency Board. the City;
of st. Louis, at salary of $4,000 a
year. This influential, well knoWHs
printer took up the matter with law
yer Edward W. Foristel. who is g.
powerful Republican leader in st,
Louis, and the later communicated
over long distance telephone with Aus,
ditor Hackman, advising that Off.
cial it would be master stroke, q
regular coup de grace, for him to sign
up with Sullivan, pledging himself to
urge the next Legislature to appro-
pirate enough to reimburse the State
printer for all losses incurred in car
rying out his Missouri printing and
publishing contract. It was pointed
out to Auditor Hickman that the
move would win him the Endorsement
of organized labor of the State in his
candidacy for Auditor. And it did
win him the labor Endorsement. but
labor, then, like it does now, did not
know the facts in the case when the
Endorsement was given or the Repub
iican State Auditor would not have
gotten it so easily. Hackman did not
come across with his sanction of the
reimbursement proposition until It'll
was convincingly shown him that it
was to his political advantage to make
the move, this being pointed out to
him by both Lawyer Foristel of st.
Louis and Charles Hertenstein, the
big Typographical official and st.
Louis Republican office holder. ID
Sullivan Acted Immediately
Not so with Secretary of State John
L. Sullivan, who agreed to take the
reimbursement proposition up with
the next General Assembly mainly
for the reason that he saw that the
capitol city printers were not being
paid living wages and that such &C.
ton on his part would help them Sc
cure the meagre increase of So a
week for each man and woman en-
ployed by the State printer.
On September %. Jefferson City
Typographical Union No. 119 met and
resoluted, as a matter of gratitude
and appreciation. to work day and
night to bring about the reelection
of Secretary of State Sullivan. State
Auditor Hackman is not mentioned in
the resolution or in the circular letter
wbieh is now being sent to every un-
hob man in Missouri by Sec. Grin H.
Shaw of this jefferson City typo
graphical union, asking each and all
in the name of organized labor of Mis-
souri, to rally solidly to the support of
Secretary of State John L. Sullivan
on election day. Here is the circu-
lar letter just mentioned, briefly re,
produced: =
jefferson City Typographical Un-
ion N. 119: Jefferson CitysMo., Geo.
H. Edwards, President. Herman Bosse.C
Vive President; Grin H. Shaw. Secre-
Treasurer. Sept. 20, 1920. =
"My Dear Sir: At our regular meet
ing which was held ON the first SUM-