BOSTON, MASS.

The next convention city.

The following program for the entertainment of the Boston convention next August has been arranged, and while some of the features are subject to change, it is not likely that there will be much deviation:

Saturday evening, August 8-Grand jollification and get-together smoketalk in Faneuil hall.

Sunday, August 9-An all-day outing at the Point of Pines.

Monday afternoon, August 10-Steamboat sail around Boston harbor and vicinity, returning by moonlight.

Tuesday (ex-delegates' day)-Trolley ride along the route of Paul Revere's ride to Lexington and Concord.

Wednesday-Probably an afternoon at the baseball park, and an evening at Wonderland, Revere.

That's as far as we've got, but considering that the convention is still several months off, I think that is pretty far; don't you? The rapid progress made is due to the fact that No. 13's committees are all hustlers, and are on the job all the time, thinking and scheming the best way to give the convention the best time.

The Saturday evening smoke is nailed down. That will happen anyway, unless Faneuil hall burns down. The price is paid, the permit is in the hands of the committee, and all we have to do is to move in. And we expect there will be some tall moving on that occasion. There will be a genuine Boston baked bean feast waiting for all those who attend. While there will be beans served at other functions during the week, so that the ladies may not be overlooked, this Saturday night party will be "the goods" as far as baked beans are concerned. So if you want to be at the celebration of the Boston massacre of the lovely bean, cooked in Boston's most approved style, arrange your itinerary so as to get here some time Saturday evening-any old time will do. Of course, other things will be served besides beans. An entertaining program will also be arranged, and altogether we expect the cradle of liberty to rock in the most approved fashion.

Sunday's outing at the Point of Pines will be the banner feature of the entertainment. It is planned to crowd into this one day everything we can get that will add to the enjoyment of our guests. A genuine old-fashioned New England clambake and fish dinner will be served in the hotel situated inside the grounds, overlooking old ocean, with its beautiful expanse to gladden the eye, relieved with a glimpse of a beauty spot of scenery here and there, and with the salt sea breezes right off its bosom to sharpen the appetite and make you call for more. Everything inside the Point of Pines will be at your disposal, and there are so many things there that I will only mention the principal attractions, which will be the hotel, the open-air theater, dancing pavilion, bowling alleys, and last,

but not least, the bathing beach. Bathing suits will be at the disposal of everybody who wishes them, and it is expected that a large number will wish them, particularly if that much-advertised east wind fails to show up, which it sometimes does.

The trip to and from the Point of Pines will be made over the Revere Beach & Lynn railroad and by trolley, which will carry you through some of the most beautiful summer resorts in the United States-Winthrop, Beachmont, Revere Beach, etc. This beach, which extends from Winthrop to Nahant, is one long stretch of smooth sand, and the Point of Pines is right on it. When asked how far we could go, the manager pointed suggestively to the sea and then to the sky, and remarked that there was a wide expanse between.

The steamboat trip on Monday will push the Sunday outing close for first honors. Starting in the afternoon, a sail will be enjoyed around the many beautiful and historic points of interest in Boston harbor and the immediate neighborhood, and it is proposed to effect a landing at some one of the many attractive points for supper, and perhaps a short season of dancing may be enjoyed; then a delightful moonlight sail home. The moon will be full at that time, and it is expected that everybody will be full also-of admiration and the many good things provided, including Boston baked beans.

The ex-delegates' trolley trip over the route of Paul Revere's ride will carry the visitors over the most historic ground in revolutionary history, and this trip will afford the lovers of the early history of this country something to think about and talk about for the rest of their lives. Opportunity will be given to view Harvard college and the other landmarks on the way, and lunch will be served on Lexington green, "where the embattled farmers stood," or somewhere in that historic neighborhood. I will speak further of this trip in a future letter.

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Arrangements are under way that will enable the lovers of baseball to attend the game on Wednesday afternoon, perhaps on other afternoons as well; but on Wednesday it is intended to take the convention to Wonderland, at Revere Beach. is impossible in a short letter to enumerate the many attractions there, but they have everything, and the unexpected is constantly happening. An evening of excitement and enjoyment may be confidently looked for.

What else will happen is still a matter of conjecture, and plans are in the making to provide something to occupy every spare moment at the disposal of the delegates and visitors who will honor us with their presence.

To the ladies I would say that light summer clothing is comfortable during the day, but it would be well to provide a light wrap for evening wear, as our nights are delightfully cool-when we are lucky.

Several printers have visited Boston for the first

union channels. Every member of the union can help in this work by sticking the stickers.

Our thanks are due to President Dovey, of the Boston National League baseball club, who, at a directors' meeting in New York, pushed through a motion to have all the printing of the National League bear the label. Among other orders placed is one of 7,000,000 tickets, each one to bear the label.

The Henry Siegel Company has refused to handle the Butterick patterns, and the patterns now handled by them are strictly union.

No. 13 has had several thousand whist cards

ments with the theater management and invited their friends to help them raise funds to entertain the convention. The result was highly satisfactory in every way, and a pleasant evening was enjoyed by the large number of printers, their wives, sisters and friends who attended. Specially appropriate pictures were shown by stereopticon of the Home and other places dear to the printers' hearts, as well as of the union label. Many local hits were also made by the actors on the stage. Our thanks are due to B. F. Keith for his generosity.

I want to say in reply to an iten by our esteemed Denver correspondent, Mr. Tanner, that

the reason the socialists did not secure Faneuil hall for the Haywood meeting was because the man charged with that duty neglected to go through the proper forms, and that it was entirely because of their own neglect and for no other reason that the hall was not secured. They could have had it as well as not. I have this information from a prominent socialist.

The Boston papers recently published a writeup of our woman's auxiliary, which is planning to entertain the delegates to the convention of their International, which meets here next August. The article was accompanied by pictures of the leading officers.

The proposed printers' intercity baseball tournament is being watched with deep interest hereabouts. The friendly relations that exist between the printer fans of New York and Boston have made everybody anxious to get to the big city next September and see the representative teams of the middle and eastern country battle for a handsome trophy. It is safe to say that Boston will be well represented, both on the field and in the bleachers.

Everybody who has visited the new union offices at 351 Old South building are greatly pleased with them; and they have a right to be. We believe we have the finest business offices in typographical circles in the country. If you don't believe it, come next August and see.

Walter Scott, employed in the Journal composing room for thirty years, died March 11 as the result of a paralytic shock. He was quiet and unassuming, and deservedly popular with his fellow workers. A large number of printers attended the funeral.

A sudden gloom was cast over the American composing room last month when the news came that D. M. Minshull's wife had passed away. She was well and favorably known to many of the force, and her sudden death came as a distinct shock. She left, besides her sorrowing husband, an infant daughter.

I have read A. D. Scougal's interesting letters in THE JOURNAL for many years, but have often looked in vain for them. I think there have been many lapses in the twenty years of service he speaks of. I do not wish to detract one iota from his honorable record, but I think the fact that I have slipped up just once in seven years entitles me to the distinction of being the oldest correspondent of THE JOURNAL in point of continuous service. However, we won't quarrel over it, will we?

The annual report of the Globe relief association shows a membership of 258-221 in the Globe office and thirty-seven outside. The sum of $3.574.78 was paid in benefits during the year, and the assets of the association are $3,612.38. The society is in a flourishing condition, and is doing a good work in preventing distress among its sick members. It is a standing exemplification of the old adage, “An ounce of prevention is worth a pound of cure."

William A. Robertson, foreman at Frank K. Foster's office, died suddenly, February 27, at the city hospital. The body was taken to Halifax, N. S.,

for interment. He was 47 years old, and left a wife and two children.

I have heard the names of two prominent candidates for the 1909 convention of the International Typographical Union-St. Joseph, Mo., and Seattle, Wash. St. Joe has been the longest in the field, and will set a strong pace for Seattle to follow. However, the far westerners are all endowed with a spirit of "git thar," and a lively fight is anticipated.

Some time ago I mentioned the fact that No. 13 and its multiples stick to us like glue-it has been a lucky number for us so far. When the union headquarters were at 52 Federal street, room 2, it was discovered that 4 times 13 are 52. When our rooms were moved to 143 Federal street, room 11, it was found that 11 times 13 are 143, and 11 and 2-room numbers-are 13. Now it has been figured out that 27 times 13 are 351, our present number in the Old South building. Are you going to be in town next August? Who said 50,000? HERBERT W. COOKE.

SAN FRANCISCO, CAL.

"Seattle, 1909!"

That is to be the slogan of the Pacific coast delegates to the fifty-fourth convention of the International Typographical Union, to be held in Boston next August.

To the mind of the printer who has lived all of his days within the confines of the small area bounded by Boston, New Orleans, Denver, Chicago and Toronto (which cities are the extreme points on the east, south, west and north in which conventions have been held), I presume, quite naturally, the thoughts are suggested: "Impossible! We can't afford it! It will cost too much!" etc., etc. Well, let us see if it is impossible; will it cost too much, and can you afford it?

In the first place, this is the fourth time in the history of the International Typographical Union that the Pacific coast has been asked to send delegates to Boston. Four times have we journeyed to Philadelphia, three times to New York, twice to Baltimore, three times to Washington, twice each to Toronto, Buffalo and Pittsburg, and once to Albany and Montreal. This does not include Chicago, Detroit, Louisville, Cincinnati, Cleveland, Milwaukee and numerous other points quite as distant from the Pacific coast. Now, if it has been possible all of these years for the printers of this section to send delegates to the Atlantic coast, why is it not possible for the eastern printer to make one pilgrimage to the golden west? It is not impossible.

As to the next possible objection, "It is too far away!" Not a bit of it. A person can travel from London to San Francisco in ten days; from New York to the Pacific coast in four days. What matters the distance if the time is short? But we intend to be liberal and give you a week each way and one week at the convention, and if you want a week for side trips and additional sightseeing, you will have spent a month in pleasure and profit that will be worth more than all of the vacations most of you have ever enjoyed if put all together.

And now the expense. To begin with, there is offered an unusual opportunity to make the trip. The Alaska-Yukon-Pacific exposition will be held June 1 to October 15, 1909, at Seattle. National interest is being displayed in this fair, which will exploit the resources of Alaska and Yukon territories, make known and foster the vast importance of the trade of the Pacific ocean, and demonstrate the remarkable progress of western America. And the railroads have already agreed to make special rates from the east and south, which will enable delegates and visitors to make the trip at minimum expense; so that for once, at least, the price of a ticket need not keep you away.

Aside from the fact that the Pacific coast has never had a convention of the International Typographical Union, I want to direct attention to the fact that this plea for Seattle is not sentimental, as far as I am concerned. If my soul was filled with sentiment on the subject, I would certainly espouse the claims of San Francisco. But I regard the matter more in the nature of a business and educational proposition-a business matter, because it should be the business of our organization to give consideration to all sections alike, according to their importance, thus solidifying and strengthening the whole union; and educational, especially so in this instance, because it will afford the printers of this section an opportunity to view at close range the actual workings of our International conventions, at the same time giving the eastern printer an opportunity to realize what this vast empire beyond the Great Divide really is-something they never will realize until they come here and see for themselves. I lived for many years in the east, and all of those years I knew that we had a state called California and had a section known as "the northwest." For a long time I regarded the whole thing as a sort of "wild and woolly" proposition that afforded a rugged setting or background for the vivid imaginations of short story and dime novel authors. But the most vivid imagination of the most talented author never described the actual grandeur of scenery, climate and resources of this richest of all of Uncle Sam's domains.

I have it on reliable authority that Nate Newman, the well-known printer-excursion promoter of New York, has been won over to "Seattle, 1909," and that he will start the ball rolling just as soon as the Boston convention gives its unanimous consent to the proposition. So sure is Newman that Seattle will be chosen that he is already laying plans. There are to be two special trains, one from New York and the other from Chicago, and arrangements will be made for delegates to connect with these trains at various convenient points. The route, of course, has not been fully decided on, but it will be arranged to travel west, probably by way of Denver, thence over the Colorado Midland or Rio Grande to Salt Lake City, and then over the great Lucin or Salt lake cutoff to the coast. By the way, do you know what the Salt lake cutoff is? With the kind permission of Editor Bramwood, I'll tell you. I have crossed it three times. It is going to sea by rail. Rather novel, isn't it? The Great Salt lake cutoff is a railway line of the Southern Pacific laid in an old lake bed from

Ogden to Lucin, Utah, 103 miles. Part of this lake bed is dry, part under water. The part under water is Great Salt lake. The cutoff is as straight as the crow flies. An air line would not shorten the 103 miles a third of a mile. Once upon a time, long ago, there was a great lake in Utah, far larger than the present Great Salt lake. Roundabout was a lot of high land, which looked like a saucer with mountains for its rim. The Sierra Nevadas were west; the Rocky mountains were east. This lake was a thousand feet deep. Its surface was just a mile higher than the surface of the ocean. From the north end to the south end was as far as one end of Illinois is to the other. To sail from the east to the west shore would be to go as far as from New York to Albany. It was quite a walk around its shore-as far as Chicago is from San Francisco. The lake was a great lake, 346 miles long, 145 miles wide and 2,250 miles around. It was almost as large as Lake Michigan and much deeper. No doubt it was a fine sight. But no one ever saw it, for as it happened this was all in the long, long ago, before the time of Adam and Eve and the Garden of Eden. Once a river ran from the lake to the Pacific ocean. This river ran north through Red Rock pass into the Snake river, and the Snake river runs into the Columbia, and the Columbia runs to the sea. At that time the place where Salt Lake City now stands was 900 feet under water. But by and by there was less rain and the summers were warmer. The lake grew smaller and smaller until it was no larger than Lake Erie. No stream now ran from it, for its surface was lower than the pass to the north. Now, if you pour water into a pan and set it out into the warm sunshine, by and by the water will be gone. It will have evaporated. But if there were ever so little salt in the water, the salt will still be in the pan after the water is gone. If you kept on pouring water in after or as fast as it evaporated, shortly you would have quite salty water in the pan, for there would be more and more salt left there to make it so. So it was with this lake. The rivers that ran into it had a very little salt in them-you could never taste it. So long as a river ran out of the lake it carried this away as fast as it came in. But when no river ran from it and the water went up in the air by evaporation, the salt remained. By and by the lake grew very salty. Time went on. The seasons grew drier, until one hot summer the lake was no longer a lake of water, but just a lake of salt. No one knows how long the lake was dry. In the rainy season, no doubt, one could always have found a place to wade. Another change came. The seasons grew colder. The water did not evaporate so fast. Perhaps more rains fell, and the rivers that ran into the saucer grew larger. Anyway, a new lake came where the old one had been -perhaps, like Topsy, it "just growed." At pres ent this lake is very salty and is called Great Salt lake. You remember about the Nantucket skipper who could tell where he was by the taste of the earth the lead brought up, and the joke the sailors played on him? The people who know things can do more than that. They can tell how old Great

Salt lake is by tasting the water. One of them, who was hired by the United States, says that Great Salt lake is at least 23,000 years old. He says this because it would take the streams from the mountains that long to carry enough salt into the lake to make it as salty as it is now. I could tell you lots more about this first great wonder west of the Divide, but I fear the blue pencil.

After leaving the cutoff you'll be right in the Great American desert, and then on through the gold fields of Nevada, where you will actually see golden freight trains-that is, freight cars loaded with gold ore or quartz. If you don't get the fever and jump off the train-you've all heard of the gold miner's fever-you will, as the NevadaCalifornia state line draws near, be ascending the high Sierras, and on through forty miles of snow sheds, past Lakes Tahoe and Donner, and then down the western slope and into the Sacramento valley and California. It is difficult to write about California save with enthusiasm. Here is a portion of it which it may be said that the most favored lands on the planet are not more desirable for human homes. Italy is not more genial, France not more fruitful, Spain not more sunny, Egypt not watered by a more enriching river. The Sacramento. valley is one of the great valleys of the world, not in area alone, but in its excellenci s, its resources, fertility, beauty and climate.

After reaching Sacramento, the delegates and visitors will have the option of several side tripsthe most interesting, of course, being on to San Francisco or to the Yosemite valley.

This short description of a part of one of the routes is merely an eye-opener for the wonders that unfold on the road of a thousand wonders which leads on to Puget sound and Seattle. After it has been determined to hold the convention at Seattle, with the kind permission of the editor, I will endeavor to feebly describe some of these places, in order to prepare the delegates and visitors in a small degree for the treat in store. "Seattle, 1909!" GEORGE A. TRACY.

FORT SMITH, ARK.

An increase of 221⁄2 per cent in our scale has been secured for 1908. This is not bad for a panic year. The new scale calls for $16.50 per week for floormen, $21 for operators, $18 for foremen on the day side; $18 for floormen, $24 for operators, $19.50 for foremen on the night side; scale applies the same in both job and news rooms. Work is fair, with enough extras on the list.

Our label committee has been working overtime for the past two months, conducting a campaign for the label to appear on tickets used by the circus firms of Ringling Brothers, Barnum & Bailey, Robinson and Hagenbeck. Their tickets for the coming season are being printed by one of our firms that don't use the label. All have promised to have it next time, with the exception of Barnum & Bailey. They have not at this date made a reply to our circular.

No. 249 believes in advertising the label, no matter how much it costs. The membership pays 11⁄2 per cent assessment for booming purposes, and will

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until we make label offices out of our two wayward offices.

The Home Patron, a semi-monthly, four pages, size 6x9, has been launched by the Printers' Home Patronage Club of No. 249. It is serving its purpose, too-stopping a great amount of printing which is sent to out-of-town offices which can not use the label.

No. 249 thanks the many members throughout the jurisdiction for their promptness in complying with our circular request of February 10, and, if at any time you need our assistance, we will be on time with anything to boom our label. Let us have the label on everything.

C. H. MILLER.

NASHVILLE, TENN.

Work is dull here, a number of men being laid off on the three newspapers, also in the book and job offices.

No. 20 will decide at its next meeting whether to send one or two delegates to Boston. The three candidates are hustling for votes.

The pressmen are still on strike here, and seem confident of winning out.

The candidates for state and county offices are all demanding the label on their printing. Several non-union shops have applied to the business committee to unionize their offices so they can get the label. This shows the effect of requesting all candidates to use the "little joker."

ALFRED CAffrey.

DECATUR, ILL.

There is no change in the strike situation here. The four job offices are still out, and up to the present time the proprietors have signified no will ingness to treat with the union officers. There is no abatement, however, in the vigorous anti-label campaign inaugurated by No. 215, and all unlabeled literature, both local and foreign, is being gathered and returned with stickers attached. The people in Decatur who have printing done have been edu cated to a fine point on the advantage of using the label, and most of the unlabeled work is from out of town. In gathering foreign work it is noticed that by far the largest per cent of printing not carrying the label is composed of patent medicine advertisements. Only one almanac, that of the Peruna Medicine Company, has been received here bearing the trademark of the union printer. It seems as if the patent medicine man does not care to cater to the union trade. Is it because he considers union labor too healthy or too wise to pur chase his wares?

The Syrup Pepsin Company, of Monticello, Ill., which had a large number of the "Book of Wonders" printed at the unfair job office of the Decatur Review Printing and Stationery Company, are at present sending out the books they had printed last year bearing the label. Their plan is to wait until the labeled books are all used, and then, when they believe the matter is forgotten by the union which has been notified to look out for them, they