davidaulloa/AmericanStories huggingface dataset:
The Connecticut labor news., 1922-09-08
|orkers Made Notable Headway In Past Year Despite Attacks

In the Truax decision, December Io, 1921, the Supreme Court held that 1t was unlawful to picket if an em- ployers' business IS injured thereby. The Arizona state supreme court up- held picketing on the ground that a state law debars the issuance of an in junction against peaceful picketing By a vote of five to four the United States Supreme Court set this law aside and held that picketing deprived the employer of his property without due process of law and can not be held valid under the I4th amendment
 During the year the Supreme Court defeated the second attempt by Con- Congress debarred the products of child labor from interstate commerce. Defendants of this law insisted that if the court permits the debarment of lottery tickets in interstate commerce it should uphold the child labor law But the court decalred the law un- constitutional.
 Congress then passed law in 1919 taxing the profits of employers of child labor. Congress had been up- held by the Supreme Court in its oleomargarine tax, which was levied for the acknowledged purpose of de- stroying that industry. But the tax on child labor profits was set aside in decision that called for the finest and closest reasoning by the court to reconcile its present position with former decisions.
 Convinced that Congress can not pass law that will be favored by the Supreme Court, the American Fed eration of Labor, together with sev- eral other organizations, has launched a movement to amend the Constitu- ton so that Congress will be given that power. A bill to that effect has been introduced.
 The Supreme Court handed down its famous Coronado decision on June 5, 1922 That decision holds that trade unions, though unincorpor- ated, may be sued for damages.
 The property bits of the federal judiciary has been most pronounced during the year. The purposes of Congress, as expressed in the Clay ton law, have been nullihed by the Supreme Court, which has reinstated the theory that the public's patronage is property, and that if workers at tempt to persuade this patronage in to other channels, same can be en- joined because 1t IS a violation of the I4th amendment. The courts insist that the voluntary act of person patronizing a store constitutes a property right
The Connecticut labor news., 1922-09-08
UNIONS VICTORIES
 BRING PAY RAISES
 TO NON-UNION MEN
Steel Trust and Open Shop Mine Owners Increase Wages of
 All Workers.

Further proof that organized labor has checked the "dehation" campaign inaugurated by large employing inter ests shortly after the signing of the armistice that ended the World War is found in an announcement by the United States Steel Corporation of a 20 per cent increase in the wages of its I56,ooo workers.
 The Midvale, the Schwab compan- ies, and practically all other indepen- dent steel companies have followed suit with similar increases.
 Voluntary" wage increases averag- ing AZ per cent to 10000 non-union bi- luminous miners in the Pittsburgh district and several thousand in West Virginia are additional evidence that the employers have had enough, and that the wage tide is now running in favor of the men.
 - Organized labor regards these in
The Connecticut labor news., 1922-09-08

attempts at adjustment. I refer to the warfare on the unions of labor"
 Durnig the year the various religi- ous denominations have increased their interest in and their value to the trade union movement. In the three church movements known as the Federated Council of the Churches of Christ In America, the National Cath olic Welfare Council, and the Central Conference of American Rabbis are men of keen sympathy and broad wis ion who are educating their fellow communicants to the pagan, immoral, and unethical policy of industrial autocrats. These churchmen are standing with the trade union move ment in its demand for the right to bargain collectively and to be repre- sented by persons of their own choos- ing
 The workers have emerged from numerous attacks against their move ment with morale that has not been equaled in the history of organized labor. The workers are convinced that their movement can not be de- stroyed because of it's economic foun- datlon. Any other movement would long since have sunk beneath the broadsides leveled at the trade union movement Instead of being discour- aged or downcast, the workers are more enthusiastic and determined than ever. Their solidarity is shown in their resistance to demands for lower wages and debased working conditions, which, if successful, would extend throughout industry and into every calling.
 The workers are taking an in creased interest in education The labor press IS being given better sup port. The American Federation of Labor has strengthened its publicity forces, and the last convention gave alrge powers to the executive coun- cil along this line. Labor, published by the railroad organizations, is credit to the movement, and it's fear less expose of railroad manipulations has been of incalculab1e value in de- veloping the morale of the striking shopmen, every one of whom Is now thoroughly acquainted with the meth ods of those opposed to them
 In conclusion, let me urge the workers to agitate, organize, educate. It IS in their power to bring about a better day. It can be done If we but will 1t and If we are determined to remove, one by one, the many ob- stacles and barricades that greed has erected along the road to stay our onward march.
The Connecticut labor news., 1922-09-08

year include the papermakers em- ployed by the International Paper Co and several other concerns, which locked out their employees on May I 1921, because they refused to accept 30 per cent, wage reduction and abandonment of the eight-hour day This strike area is Maine, New Hampshire, Vermont, and northern New oYrk For Is months these workers have fought against lowering working conditions and are still de termined The strike has been mark ed by a large number of especially vicious 1nJunctlons.
 California oil workers called of their strike against wage reductions at the request of the federal Depart ment of Labor on November I, 1921 More than 5o,ooo workers were in volved This strike ruined many small merchants who took the side of an anti-union organization known as the Better American Federation" that assisted the oil companies.
 The past year has been a stormy one for the Granite Cutters Interna- tional Association of America. In California these workers on building work were locked out in the spring of 1921, and other workers struck on September I of last year, with gen. eral strike in the east starting April I. A number of firms in the New England states and some in the south and middle west have reached an agreement with the association.
 The Quarry Workers International Union of North America Is facing an alignment of employers in this indus try who are demanding the anti union shop and wage reductions that range from 20 per cent upwards. Three associations of employers have pooled their forces and have created a "board of control" with full power to conduct the fight against the guar ry workers This fight is still on and is being waged with spirit and deter imitation by these trade unionists.
 During the past year the United States Supreme Court has dealt hard blows at organized labor.
 On December 5, 1921, in the Gran ite City case, 1t ruled that courts can take charge of picketing and suggest ed that pickets be limited to one for each factory entrance and exit. The court reaffirmed it's smashing of the Clayton law when 1t ruled in the Duplex case ''that the irreparable in jury to property or to property right, in the first paragraph of Sec ton 20, includes injurey to the busi- ness of an employer"
The Connecticut labor news., 1922-09-08
War Wages Not High,
 Says Church Service

New York, Sept. 8.-"High wages during the year were by no means so general as believed" says the com mission on the church and social service of the Federal Council of the Chur ches of Christ of America, in its Labor Sunday Message, 1920"
 "The demand for a reduction of wages in proportion to the reduction in living costs" it is stated, "has been made without reference to the fact that wages prior to the war, were too low, and cannot be fairly used as basis of wage determination Some employers recognize this. The out standing crises of the year-the coal strike and the railway strike-have grown in the main out of inadequacy of earnings The plight of the coal miners, due to scant employment, is at last receiving public recognition The reductions in the earnings of railway workers have placed many of them in almost a desperate situation" !"
The Connecticut labor news., 1922-09-08

The Supreme Courts annulment of laws such as the child labor act have aroused labor and other citizens
 against the steady encroachment of 1 the courts, which were referred to by Jefferson as ''sappers and miners" If
 courts are to be restrained they must have a check on them as have Con- gress and the chief executive Now the Supreme Court is an oligarchv responsible to no one. Labor insists that the courts only use the injunc- ton as originally intended, and where the Supreme Court sets aside an act of Congress if Congress again passes the law 1t shall stand as the law of the land
 The present Congress has passed little labor legislation, and the pros poets are that this record will be
 maintained until final adjournment, March 4, 1923. The list includes the
 maternity and infant protection bill,
 extension of the three per cent inmi- grafton law until 1924, and applying state workmen's compensation laws to 1ongshoremen.
 The past winter was marked by the largest unemployment army in the history of this country In the latter part of last year the President called conference of representative econ omists, trade unionists, and business | men. In its report in October the conference stated that the number of
 unemployed was estimated at be- tween 3,5oo,ooo and 5,5oo,ooo, with a greater number dependent upon them. The conference made recommends tions, but Congress failed to act, and the narrowing experiences of last winter seem to have been lost on our
 national lawmakers.
 On August 18 of this year the President addressed Congress on the coal and rail strikes Frank advocacy
 of compulsory arbitration was made
 in the case of the railroad workers,
 and similar policy was less direct
 ly advocated in the case of the
 miners. In view of vehement denials
 by Big Business and it's spokesmen
 in the daily press and elsewhere that
 there IS no intention to attack trade
 unions, the following statement by
 the President in his message is sig
 nifcant:
 ''In the weeks of patient conference
 and attempts at settlement 1 have
 come to appraise another element in
 the expressing industrial dispute of
 which 1t IS only fair to take cogniz- ance. It Is in some degree responsi- ble for the strikes and has hindered
The Connecticut labor news., 1922-09-08
FOR ARMY LIEUTENANTS
 ON OCTOBER 23

The examination for appointment of second lientenants in the regular army, scheduled for September 4, has been postponed by the War Depart ment until October 23rd. It is also announced that preliminary physical examinations will be held periodically from August 18th until a few days prior to the final test, in order that venient to themselves. Although ap- plications already received by corps area commanders indicate that the sentative both in quality and num- bers, it is believed that all qualified applicants will receive commissions
 In an effort to procure as many young men as possible who are fitted for the army by education and traip- ing 1t has been decided to grant ex- emptoins from the mental examina- lions to especially recommended members of the Reserve Officers Training Corps at institutions which are designated as distinguished col leges" by the War Department. The number of these exempted applicants is limited to 25 per cent. of the total number of this years graduates who completed the second year of the ad- vanced course in combot unit of the R. o. T. C.
 Colleges and universities which are not designated as distinguished" after their inspection by the War De partment representatives will be per mitted to name I5 per cent. of this years graduates who have completed the second year of the advanced
The Connecticut labor news., 1922-09-08

course in a combat unit of the R. O. T. C.
 The recommendations of exemp- tions will be made by the professor of military science and tactics at the various institutions. These officers have been instructed to select only men whose attainments in scholar ship and efficiency in military training have been marked.
 The following are the distinguished colleges:
 Agricultural and Mechanical Col lege of Texas, College Station, Tex. j; Alabama Polytechnic Institute, Au- burn, Ala; Clemson Agricultural College, Clemson College, s. C.; Col orado Agricultural College, Fort Col lins, Colo; Cornell University, Ithaca N. Y; De Pauw University, Green castle, Ind; Georgia School of Tech nology, Atalnta, Ga.; Indiana Uni versity, Bloomington, Ind; Lehigh University, South Bethlehem, Pa; Louisiana State University and Agri- cultural and Mechanical College, sity, Northfeld, Vt; Ohio State Agricultural College, Corvallis, Ore gon; Purdue University, Lafayette, Ind; State College of Washington, Pullman, Wash; The Citadel, Charleston, s. C.; University of Cali fornia, Berkeley, Calif.; University of Illinois, Urbana, H.; University of Maryland, College Park, Md; University of Missouri, Columbia, Mo; University of Vermont and State Agricultural College, Burline ton, Vt; University of Washington, Seattle, Wash; University of Wis consin, Madison, Wis; Virginia Agri- cultural and Mechanical College and Polytechnic Institute, Blacksburg, Va; Virginia Military Institute, Lex ington, Va.
The Connecticut labor news., 1922-09-08

,creases as the fruit of the long and bitter struggles waged by the coal miners, railroad and textile workers and other groups against attempts of employers to lower their living stand ards
 The union view is expressed by J. J. DermDdy, vice-president of the Brotherhood of Railroad Telegraph CTS, with headquarters in Washing ton.
 Significance of Action.
 "Organized labor fights not for it. self but for all workers" said MT. Dermody Had the great strikes of this year been lost the Steel Trust would not have raised wages. The unions are the guardians of American standards"
 MT. Dermody points out that these wage announcements follow on the heels of the smashing victory of the organized, miners, who for 20 weeks fought successfully against wage cuts.
 The Steel Trust increase brings the wage of common labor back to $3 Go day, 10 cents below the 1921 level. The 1915 rate was $2 a day. The highest point reached-in Io2o-was $500.
 The minimum 36-cents-an-hour rate established by the Steel Trust compares with minimum rate of B cents set up by the Railroad Labor Board, with an average rate of 32 cents for all maintenance of way workers and railroad shop workers.
 The Wall Street Journal the day after the announcement said it would be embarrassing to the railroad presi- dents, but later revised tis view and accepted the increase. as another body blow to the unions. "The rais- ing of wages of unorganized workers while those organized are resisting cuts will not fail to carry it's lesson," says the Journal.
 This is not the judgment of other conservative journals. The New York Evening Post, which represents the employers point of view, regards the advances as ''sound economic moves based upon a timely recognition of existing conditions" The Steel Trust it adds, "realized that it must raise wages in order to keep its men from shifting to other shops and other lines of production where wage schedules are being maintained"
 The New York Globe declares "the adjustments in the coal industry may have stimulated the corporation to this enlightened action"
The Connecticut labor news., 1922-09-08
REVIEW OF UNION ACTIVITIES SHOWS
 STIRRING RECORDS OF RESISTANCE

During January and February o1 this year textile workers suspended work in Rhode Island, New Hamp- shire, and Massachusetts because o1 repeated wage cuts and an attempt to lengthen hours in Rhode Island and New Hampshire. In Rhode Island troops and machine guns have been called out. The usual iniunctions and evictions have also been resorted to in the strike area. The workers soli- darity is proving effective, and at this writing peace talk is more general than heretofore, and some settlements have been made These workers com prise many nationalities which have heretofore been used against each other. Their solidarity in this in stance, however, is surprise to the employers and marks a new era in this industry that has so shamelessly exploited it's workers.
 The coal strike, which started April I last, and the railroad shopmen's strike, which started July I last, are too we'll known to the readers oi Labor and extended reference to same in my limited space is unneces- sary.
 There are several significant fea- lu1C WILL tllCSC lWO 1llONC- ments tha it will be we'll to bear in mind. Here are two strikes, waged simultaneously, and involving 1000, 900 men with a record of violence that is nil, all things considered. The law observances of this vast army has forced a hostile press to depend on one Or two instances of violence.
 Another significant feature is that more than Ioo, o,ooo non-union miners joined their organized fellow work CTS. In the railroad strike, shops that were classed as 100 per cent non union joined the strikers. Railroads like the Illinois Central, the Southern Pacific, the Santa Fe, the Louisville & Nashville, and other roads that fought and in some instances defeated the shopmen in the last decade found their employees lined up with the striking shop men,
 Both of these instances testify to the solidarity of the workers.
 Other strikes waged during the
The Connecticut labor news., 1922-09-08
SHOPMEN IN RIGHT, SAYS CHURCH BODY:
 SCORES RAILROADS
Los. Angeles Federation Calls Upon Ministers to Give Support
 to Strikers.

The railways of the nation have paid many thousands of their em- ployes less than a living wage, de clares the Los Angeles (Calif.) Church Federation, in an exhaustive report on the nationwide rail strike. The men, in all justice, could not do less than strike, the report says, and calls. upon the public to give them full support"
 After reviewing the work of the Railroad Labor Board since it's crea- ton, the report says:
 "The disregarding of the findings of the United States Labor Board by the railway executives IS so frequent and fragrant as to make the attitude of the railway employees toward the labor board docile by comparison.
 ''The first claim on any industry is the welfare and living wage of work CTS in that industry. Many thousands of maintenance of way men have not received a living wage, nor has the labor board given adequate thought to the wage question. This whole wage question must be judged in the light of the tremendous over-cap- italization in railroads lest the divi- dends on such over-capitalization be wrung indirectly from wage-earners, their wives and dependent children"
 The attitude of the railroad execu- tives on the seniority issue is said to be "offensive"
 The federation asks permission to send a letter to each pastor in Los Angeles calling on him to secure gifts from his congregation for the relief of striking shopmen of that city.
 This strong stand is particularly significant in view of the fact that Los Angeles is regarded as the fore most anti-labor city in the country.
The Connecticut labor news., 1922-09-08
Baerfacts By J. M. BAER, The Congressman Cartoonist.
 International Labor News Service YOUR CHANGES S-LIKE FEM

The following is from the \ actual life experience of one hundred men compiled by the American Bankers Association; not to show the failure of the present economic system, but to encourage people to save their money and put 1t in their banks SO they can further use you and your misery for their profit.
 At age of 25: 100 men all strong and vigorous with good mental and physical capacity.
 At the age of 35: 5 have died, 10 are wealthy, 10 are in fair circumstances, 40 have just moderate means, 35 have saved nothing
 At age of 45: I6 have died, 3 are wealthy, 6 are just self supporting, I6 are no longer self-supporting.
 At age of $: 20 have died, I is very wealthy, 6 are self supporting, 54 are defendent upon children, relatives, or charity for support.
 At age of 75: 63 are dead, 60 of these left no estate, 5 are
The Connecticut labor news., 1922-09-08

wealthy, 34 are dependent up- on children, relatives, or char ity for support. Ninety-hve per cent of these will not have sufficient means to defray fune- ral expenses.
 You will note that according to the American Bankers Asso- ciation, o4 of this original one hundred strong, vigorous men at the age of 25, after so years of labor had nothing, a burden to their relatives, Go died and left nothing, 34 still alive had less than nothing, a burden to their children relatives or char ity, only 3 men out of this one hundred had been able to save anything out of their miserable wages, while 3 had become wealthy.
 A system that dooms o4 men out of every one hundred to poverty after 50 years of toll and struggle, can hardly be considered a bowling success. . Would 1t not be better for o7 out of every one hundred to be happy and comfortable than three be wealthy?
The Connecticut labor news., 1922-09-08

ditions. Since then both parteis to this dispute have strengthened their friendships and have a joint commit tee established for the purpose of stabilizing this industry.
 To resist wage reductions the or ganized meat cutters and butcher workmen suspended work on Decem- Der 5, 1921, at the plants of the Big Five" packers-Armour, Swift, Will son, Cudahy, and Morris. In the late summer of last year the packers be- gan organizing company unions," which were launched amid whirl wind of propaganda on September I5, when an agreement between the two parties 'expired. The public was assured that the packers books were investigated by the ''company unions" !" which declared in favor of wage re- auctions. The strike of the bona fde union of workers in this industry was nation wide The packers refused to arbitrate, and after a two months struggle the employees returned to work
The Connecticut labor news., 1922-09-08
Seniority Defended.

Washington, Sept. 8.-"When strikes are won or compromised, the first point is that the men are given their jobs back again." says the de partment of social action, National Welfare Council, in its latest news sheet.
 "In the coal strike the miners will be taken back and given their old jobs. Even when strikes are lost, it is usual for the strikers to be return ed to their old positions. In strike the men do not so much give up em- ployment as insist upon better con ditions. The restoration of seniority rights to the shop men merely means the restoration of their old jobs, and is the usual end of strikes"
The Connecticut labor news., 1922-09-08
AMEND COMPENSATION LAW

Atlanta, Ga, Sept. 8.-The state legislature has strengthened the workmen's. compensation law. The death benefit has been increased from $3, 900 to $500; maximum benefit from SIP to 15 weekly and the waiting period shortened from A days to sev- en days. The full disability benefit has been increased from $4ooo to $5,ooo.
 The legislature refused to pass an anti-picketing bill, and took the same position toward the repeal of the barbers' license law.