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for night work; book and job printers, $18 per week of forty-eight hours.

SECRETARY WILSON, of Port Arthur (Ont.) Union, writes, under datę of December 22: "We have all the offices signed up, so Port Arthur has now three union shops. We expected to have a fight for it, but it came to us as a surprise,"

A THREE-YEAR contract has been signed with Typographical Union No. 463 by the employers of Middletown, N. Y., the new scale being $13 per week the first year, $14 the second year and $15 for the third, a forty-eight-hour week to prevail. * **

ON December I a new scale for book and job printers went into effect at Everett, Wash., calling for an increase of 50 cents a day over the old scale. Everett now enjoys as good wages as any place on the coast$24 per week of forty-eight hours.

AN agreement has been signed by the employers of South Bend, Ind., whereby the book and job printers, admen and machine operators of No. 128 receive an increase of $1 per week. The scale was signed by all the proprietors and covers a period of one year.

THE hand scale of Somerville (N. J.) Union has been advanced $1 a week and the machine scale $2. After next year the handmen are to receive a further increase of $2 a week. The eight-hour day will prevail, with price and one-quarter for all overtime.

*

SECRETARY WEBB, of Rome (Ga.) Union, under date of December 18, writes: "No. 371 has just made a new contract for 1908, which calls for a raise of $1 a week for admen, $1 for foremen and $2 for machine operators, which will go into effect January 1."

THE general introduction of the eighthour day should be the goal toward which we should steadily tend, and the government should set the example in this respect. -President Roosevelt.

UNION PRINTERS HOME CORPORATION.

COLORADO SPRINGS, COLO., December 7, 1907. The annual corporation meeting of the Union Printers Home convened in the city of Colorado Springs, Colo., on Saturday, the 9th day of November, 1907, at 7:30 P. M., in accordance with the provisions of article ii of its by-laws, due notice of said meeting having been given all the members; but no quorum appearing, either in person or by proxy, the meeting adjourned to December 7, 1907, at 7:30 P. M., at which time the following members were present, or represented by proxy: James M. Lynch (by proxy), J. W. Bramwood (by proxy), L. C. Shepard (by proxy), W. J. White (by proxy), Thomas F. Crowley (by proxy), T. D. Fennessy (by proxy) and Thomas McCaffery.

The minutes of the last regular meeting, held November 10, 1906, were read and approved.

The annual report of the board of trustees, which included reports from the various standing committees, Secretary-Treasurer Bramwood and Su perintendent Deacon, was submitted, read and ap proved.

The terms of office of Messrs. Thomas F. Crowley and T. D. Fennessy having expired, their res ignations were tendered and duly accepted.

The following communication was received from J. W. Hays, acting secretary-treasurer of the International Typographical Union:

"INDIANAPOLIS, IND., November 5, 1907. "To the Corporation of the Union Printers Home: "GENTLEMEN-This is to certify that Thomas F. Crowley and T. D. Fennessy received the endorsement of the International Typographical Union at the referendum election held May 16, 1906, and are hereby declared the nominees of the International Typographical Union for membership in the corporation known as the Union Printers Home, for the term beginning November, 1907, and ending November, 1910. J. W. HAYS, "Acting Secretary-Treasurer International Typographical Union."

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In obedience to the instructions of the International Typographical Union, as certified to by its acting secretary, J. W. Hays, Thomas F. Crowley and T. D. Fennessy were unanimously elected members of the Union Printers Home Corporation for the ensuing term of three years (1907-1910).

The obligations of Messrs. Thomas F. Crowley and T. D. Fennessy, properly signed and attested, as required by law, were then presented, read and accepted, and ordered placed on file.

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Officers were elected follows: President, James M. Lynch; vice-president, Thomas McCaffery; secretary-treasurer, J. W. Bramwood.

The following gentlemen were then declared to be the duly elected and qualified members of the board of trustees of the Union Printers Home:

James M. Lynch, J. W. Bramwood, L. C. Shepard, W. J. White, Thomas F. Crowley, T. D. Fennessy and Thomas McCaffery.

No further business appearing, the meeting of the corporation was declared adjourned. (Signed) THOMAS MCCAFFERY," Attest: Vice-President. (Signed) J. W. BRAMWOOD, Secretary-Treasurer.

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GETTING TOGETHER A SUCCESS.

The joint conference board, as provided for in the agreement between the five international unions of the printing trade, met at the headquarters of the International Typographical Union during De cember. Several complex questions were satisfactorily adjusted, and progress was made in the effort to secure a better understanding between all artizans who follow the printing trade for a livelihood. The joint agreement, during the years of its tenure, has justified the assertion of those responsible for it that if given a fair opportunity its provisions would bring peace and harmony among the printing-trade unions. But it has not only accomplished this; it has established faith in each other among these unions. It has created a feeling of confidence and trust-a feeling that no one international was attempting or would be advantaged by trespassing on the rights and prerogatives of any other internationa!. There has been practically no friction in the local allied councils; there have been differences, but these differences have been adjusted under the provisions of the agreement. Under the old tripartite contract there was endless bickering and trouble; under the new agreement the business of allied councils is transacted and the worker's cause advanced. The joint conference board adopted a resolution formally proclaiming that the eight-hour day is in effect in the printing industry, and also a resolution calling attention to the depredations of the white-paper trust. The white-paper resolutions will come before local unions for action, and should have serious consideration. The white-paper trust not only affects the publishers, but is indirectly and disastrously affecting the craftsmen who are employed on newspapers. In the campaign against the trust's exactions, every newspaper worker, from employer to the last employe, is an interested combatant. The joint conference board will supply the resolutions, in printed form, to all affiliated local unions for action, and notification to representatives in congress and

United States senators.

TO SUPPLY TECHNICAL EDUCATION. During December the technical education commission met in Chicago and outlined initial plans for work. The report of the commission will be found in another column, together with letters from the commissioners. These presentations should be carefully studied. It is important that a correct idea of the commission's intentions shall be formed at the outset. In order that the fullest success may come to the commission's work, the active co-operation and assistance of the members of the International Typographical Union are a prime necessity. No other international union has attempted the line of work that the commission has in mind and intends to make effective. If the venture is successful, then another great step in the progress of society will have been achieved by the International Typographical Union. Good printing is in

demand. Good printers are in demand. The scale may be $20, but it is for the individual to secure $25, and the higher rate can be had if the ability is behind the demand. Speaking of commercial printing, a writer in the Printing Art has this to say: "Hundreds of tons of it go utterly to waste every year in this country alone, because of its worthlessness. This seems a broad statement, yet it is entirely true. Documents intended to advertise all classes of publications from all parts of the country, together with innumerable trade circulars, letters, leaflets, pamphlets and booklets, reach the business man daily in his office, about 95 per cent of which are mediocre, without character, value or attractiveness. Efficiency in printing does not consist entirely in the intelligent use of, type, fine paper, or good presswork, nor can all three of these important factors combined render the result satisfactory unless other qualifications quite as necessary are embodied in the work. To make catalogue printing most effective it is best to get out of the beaten track by the introduction of some happy combination embracing novelty with artistic effect." While it is true that efficiency in printing does not consist entirely in the intelligent use of type, fine paper or good presswork, yet at the same time we must be prepared to intelligently use type. Let us do our part to broaden the commercial printing field, to make commercial printing attractive, and to emphasize commercial printing as a trade factor, as a means of getting before the people the desire of the manufacturer, the society or the individual. If because of our effort commercial printing can be brought to a higher standard from an artistic and trade standpoint, then there will of necessity be co-operation on the part of the other factors that are necessary to complete success in this endeavor. With complete success will come added opportunities for the employment of printers, and not alone for the employment of printers, but for greater emoluments and better conditions under which these printers will work. It is not asserted that the technical education of the International Typographical Union will of itself revolutionize methods and policies in the typesetting branch of the commercial business, but it is confidently believed that it will initiate the movement and carry it to a point where, like all great educational ventures, it will be able to proceed without assistance and will thus accomplish the desired result. Our members only need the inspiration; they will then be able to do the

rest.

A GREAT AND GROWING MOVEMENT.

The movement for the cure and eradication of tuberculosis continues to gain momentum. The daily and weekly press and the monthly magazines are doing their share in the education of the people in this direction. In our own trade, it is the belief of the writer that conditions are becoming better and better from month to month. The membership are aroused to the necessity for a thorough understanding of the best methods of prevention

and cure of the great white plague. In this issue of this magazine there appears the first article in a series of articles on tuberculosis from one of our members in Philadelphia. The first great step is toward securing sanitary workrooms. The wageearner may be as careful as possible outside the workroom, and then lose all the benefit by laboring in poorly ventilated and filthy composing rooms. There should be ample and up-to-date toilet accessories to the composing room. In brief, we are justified from every standpoint in demanding that the employer shall do his share to aid in stamping out tuberculosis. The International Congress on Tuberculosis, the last session of which was held in Paris in 1905, will in 1908 meet in Washington, on invitation of the National Association for the Study and Prevention of Tuberculosis. The editor of Charities and the Commons says: "As the result of definite organized effort, tuberculosis is probably more intelligently understood by the general public in the larger American cities than is any other disease. Facts about its prevalence, its causes, the probabilities of recovery from it and methods of treatment, its social significance, have in many communities been really popularized. Provision for the care of consumptives, though it is nowhere as yet adequate, has been rapidly multiplied. In the case of no other disease has so much social effort been put forth. No other single disease makes so strong an appeal for social effort. Its leadership as a cause of death, especially among men and women in the prime of their wage-earning capacity, with little children dependent on them, its insidious attack, long duration, and the costliness of proper treatment, combine to make it a most serious detriment to the social welfare; while the impossibility and inhumanity of segregating all the foci of infection' make it necessary to seek to prevent contagion by diminishing the number of tubercle bacilli at large, and at the same time reducing the resisting power of persons exposed to them. Every measure designed specifically for curing or preventing tuberculosis has indirect influence on the prevalence of other diseases; for fresh air, sunlight and simple, nutritious food-equally efficacious in preventing many other forms of illness and in increasing physical strength-are readily incorporated into the patient's standard of living, enforced by him on his family, and suggested, at least, to his neighbors."

IF THE PANIC SHOULD CONTINUE.

The permanent effect of the present industrial and financial depression on scales of prices is prob lematical, but there is no question about its present effect. While seeking to instil confidence in the public mind, the newspaper employers of the country are themselves much alarmed and especially affected by the financial stringency. The volume of advertising has, without question, shrunk tremendously. The position of the publishers was strikingly set forth at the meeting of the National Board of Arbitration in December, and every attendant at that meeting was impressed by the evident sincerity of the publishers in explaining the effect on them of the financial adversity. We can not ignore this sudden development in financial

circles, but we can minimize its effect on the business to which we all look for a livelihood. We must be prepared to meet it, and we should study the situation, in order that its effect on our wages may be nullified. We are not in any way responsible for the so-called panic, and we can at least maintain that our wages shall not be reduced with the panic as an excuse. We may not be able to increase wages for the time being, but we can exert every effort to the end that present conditions may be maintained. It may be of value to reproduce herewith a portion of the report of your president to the Hot Springs convention. When this report was submitted the wave of prosperity had just begun to subside, and its retreat was then almost imperceptible. The suggestions contained in the following quotation are especially important at this time, and, it is believed, may be acted upon with benefit by many of our local unions: "Whether justified or not, there appears to be a feeling of uneasiness permeating the business world as to the continuance of the prosperous times that have been uniform for the past ten years. It may be that unpropitious and almost unprecedented weather is underneath this uneasiness, and it may also eventu ate that there is no good ground for this feeling of what may be termed lack of complete confidence. It is reasonable to suppose-and this supposition may be shared by the most extreme optimist-that we will not have always with us the prosperity referred to, and if there is a business slump, and a great decline in present prices, then we can not expect to continue the upward trend of wages that has been so noticeable in recent years, and especially during the past year. Nothing may be lost, and conditions may be made reasonably permanent by local unions, if they will work for long-term contracts in connection with new scales. A contract for a three-year term, or even a five-year term, may be of the utmost value in the immediate future. If a business slump does occur, then under these contracts we will have conditions nailed down, and we can only be affected through a reduction in the composing-room force, which would take place irrespective of the scale. The suggestion contained in this paragraph should have the careful consideration of local unions and especially of scale committees. The condition of business has very much to do with the scale of prices."

NO BETTER OPPORTUNITY TO USE STICKERS.

One method of minimizing the effect of the financial disturbances on our membership is by renewed and continued use of the label stickers and circulation of printed matter advertising the label and requesting its use by the patron of the commercial printing office. At this time especially, redoubled effort should be made to divert work from the nonunion to the union office. If local unions will push the label campaigns where they are at present under way, and will institute these campaigns in jurisdictions where they have not as yet been an important factor, then the members of the International Typographical Union employed at the commercial branch of the trade can be kept in employment. During a period of depression the merchant and manufacturer are eager for trade. Well-paid

and employed artizans have money to spend. In comparison with other trades, the members of our organization are well paid and employed, and have money to spend. By fearlessly and continuously announcing that this money will not be spent with merchants and manufacturers who patronize our enemies, a large volume of work now going to the employer who will not keep pace with modern conditions of employment can be diverted to our friends, the proprietors of the union offices. We have the remedy in our own hands, and we are solely to blame if we fail to make use of an instrument that will work for our best interests if but given the opportunity.

SOME INTERESTING QUOTATIONS.

That most amusing publication, the American Printer, which makes frantic exhibition of its endeavor to please the non-union employers in the printing trade, has this to say in its December issue of the pressmen's demand for the eight-hour day: "They struck the typothetæ shops of New York one after another, giving each one time to secure a new force of non-union workmen, so that a minimum of trouble to the employers was the result. No printing plant was completely tied up; the most of them have gotten along comfortably, and some proprietors have stated their condition to be better than before the strike." As to conditions now and before the strike, these assertions are familiar to us. But it is rather humorous to see the employers' organ now taunting the pressmen with lack of tactics that were severely condemned when followed by the International Typographical Union two years ago. As to one of the effects of the movement on the part of the bookbinders and pressmen for an eight-hour day, we again quote from the American Printer: "Some printing establishments that went into the compositors' strike two years ago with union forces in their composing rooms and came out with non-union forces, the workday remaining at nine hours, decided not to fight the recent pressmen's strike for a shorter workday and have gone to an eight-hour basis in their pressrooms. Some of them with binderies have gone to eight hours in that department also. They have continued to run their composing rooms nine hours, however. There is no justice in this, and it offers an argument to a workman in favor of joining the union that can not be refuted." The International Typographical Union will see to it that there are sufficient reasons and arguments in favor of joining the typographical union advanced to all printers. But if the typographical union was backward in this respect, the non-union employers would fill the gap. The proprietor of the so-called open shop -really the non-union shop-is the best union agitator and evangelist in the long run. The American Printer is correct in its conclusion, even though it regrets the fact.

THE INJUNCTION EVIL AGAIN.

In view of the recent injunction granted the Buck's Stove and Range Company by a federal court at Washington, D. C., the report of the committee on president's report, referring to labor's bill to regulate injunctions, at the Norfolk conven

tion of the American Federation of Labor, will be of especial interest: "We have carefully considered the president's report regarding the issuance of injunctions as used in labor disputes; we endorse what he has said, the efforts that have been made, and the bill drafted and introduced. We urge upon every trade unionist, friend of free institutions and of human liberty, the earnest and careful consideration of the use now being made of the equity power given to our courts. This power comes to our courts from the irresponsible sovereigns of the old world, when, by the sovereign delegated to the court of chancery, it was gradually so extended and abused that in England it became necessary to prohibit its use except for the specific protection of property and property rights when such were in immediate danger and there was no adequate remedy at law. This was the practice in England at the time our constitution was adopted, and it was with all the limitations and safeguards then and there provided and in use that it was adopted into our system and conferred upon our judges. If, under the mistaken idea that thus shall we prevent crime, it be permitted to invade criminal jurisdiction, it will absorb the whole domain, destroy trial by jury, the indictment by grand jury and all other safeguards which society has found it necessary to place around those accused of crime. If it be permitted to extend itself so to deal with personal rights, it will, being absolutely an irresponsible power, be used to destroy all personal liberty. The theory upon which it is used in labor disputes seems to be that the conducting of a business is a property right, that business is property, and that the earning power of property engaged in business is itself property which can and ought to be protected by the equity power in the same way and to the same extent as property, tangible property, itself. Inasmuch as the earning capacity of property used in business depends either upon the labor employed or patronage enjoyed, such theory would carry with it an admission that in our country the ownership of the tools of production gives to the possessor thereof a vested right in so much labor as will make his business profitable or in so much patronage as will give him an assured income on his investment. We recognize that, under our laws and form of government, the employers may have a property right in the real estate, houses, machinery and other appliances necessary to conduct their business, but we absolutely and positively deny that they have any property right in the workmen, either as producers or consumers. If the present theory of the courts shall be finally accepted, a corporation running a department store and having destroyed and absorbed all competitors may, through the assistance of a judge sitting in equity, prevent any other corporation or individual from entering its field and by competition reducing its income. Your committee believes that there is no tendency so dangerous to personal liberty, so destructive of free institutions and of a republican form of government as the present misuse and extension of the equity power through usurpation by the judiciary; and therefore urge the speedy enactment of the Pearre bill, endorsed by the Minneapolis convention, into

law; and we further recommend that candidates for legislative or judicial positions be carefully investigated as to their past acts and interrogated as to their position on this matter before they be given any support, and that those who, from their actions or their expressions, are deemed unsound be, regardless of any other question, repudiated."

FOUR YEARS OF THE EXAMINER.

Last month the Los Angeles Examiner celebrated the fifth anniversary of the establishment of the paper. As is well known to the members of our craft, the Examiner was one of the direct results of our contest against the unfair Los Angeles Times. While we have expended a large sum of money in the contest against the Times, the establishment of the Examiner alone has justified this expenditure, as about ten times as much as we have expended has been paid in wages to our members employed in the mechanical departments of the Examiner coming under our jurisdiction. It is a safe assertion to say that for every dollar we have expended our members have received ten dollars in wages. The following quotation is from the leading editorial in the Examiner issue of its day of celebration: "Before the Examiner came, the newspaper field here was dominated by a paper given over to the retailing of scandal and the purveying of filth. These delectable pursuits were varied by attacks of a personal character upon all who ventured to disagree with the violent-tempered and vindictive proprietor of the sheet. given to embroiling the community in his numberless animosities, and developed quite a knack for saddling his quarrels upon others. But he had a keen scent for boodle, and he was foremost at the corporation trough. Just as long as that kind of newspaper by such a conductor dominated, the growth of the city was naturally checked. The marvelous development of the city-which has more

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than doubled its population within the past four years is due in large measure to the curtailment of the power for evil of that kind of journalism. And in this the Examiner has been a most potent factor. It has in great measure stopped the malicious assaults upon private individuals which used to prevail here, and it has forced at least a semblance of decency on the part of its opponent. The latter still the hired mouthpiece of the corpora tion harpies and boodlers who seek to prey on the resources and property of the people, but it has had to cease its personal abuse of those who stand in the way of its proprietor's schemes of graft. From the outset the Examiner has stood for industrial peace in this city. It has always stood for conciliation and arbitration in disputes between men and their employers, and it early succeeded in putting an end to a noted instance of boycotting which threatened harm to the best interests of the city. Its influence has always been exerted toward the just and orderly methods of settling controversies between man and man."

NOTES.

All letters received at this office are answered, perhaps not satisfactorily to the recipient, but answered nevertheless. If your letter has not been heard from, then it has gone astray in the mails. Write us about it now.

The office asked one chapel to suggest office rules, and one of the suggestions was that employes be fined 50 cents for spitting on the floor. This chapel appreciated the danger from tuberculosis.

The laws of the International Typographical Union, as amended by the Hot Springs convention and referendum, are effective January 1, 1908. The effort now is to make boycotting or the publication of an employer's unfairness illegal. But injunctions will not sell stoves.

JAMES M. LYNCH, President.

Patronage for the union office, and
employment for our members, will
continue despite the so-called panic.
Provided: Label campaigns are not
permitted to diminish in effectiveness

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