work. During the fiscal year 1898-99, out of 1.000 men on the average entitled to benefit, 117 on the average were drawing benefit for unemployment. In the following year the number was reduced to 90, out of an average of 983 entitled to benefit. But out of an aggregate membership of 1,044 at the end of June 1900, including both those entitled to benefit and those not entitled to it, 70 had left the business, and were simply maintaining their connection with the organization for the sake of the sick and death benefits. The active membership, therefore, was reduced to 974. Conventions. No convention has been held since 1884. The proposition to hold one was defeated during the fiscal year 1899-1900, on a referendum vote, by a majority of 2 to 1. It was determined, however, to make a thorough revision of the constitution. While the Typographia has held no convention of its own for many years, its laws provide that the delegates of its locals to the convention of the International Typographical Union shall meet before, during, or after that convention, to consider measures in the interest of the Typographia. If their conclusions involve changes in the laws they must be submitted to the general vote. Constitutional amendments and referendum.--Changes in the laws of the GermanAmerican Typographia, not in conflict with the laws of the International Typographical Union. may be made by popular vote upon the motion of one local supported by two other locals. In dealing with the constitution of the International Typographical Union, the German locals and members have the same rights as others. Any local typographia which feels its rights to have been infringed upon may demand a general vote if its demand is supported by one other local. Officers. The officers are a secretary, an executive council of three, and three trustees. The secretary is at the same time third vice-president of the Inter national Typographical Union, and his office is at its headquarters. He is elected for 2 years. His salary is $1,000, half of which is paid by the International Typographical Union and half by the Typographia. He is elected by general vote of the members. and an absolute majority is necessary to a choice. Of the members of the executive council 1 must come from New York, 1 from Chicago, and 1 from St. Louis. Each is elected by the members in his own city at the time of the election of the general secretary. The executive council has general control of the official journal and of the funds of the general office, and hears appeals from decisions of the secretary. The trustees are e'ected by the local in the place where the headquarters of the International Typographical Union are. Their term is 3 years. They are required to examine quarterly the books and accounts of the secretary, and to deposit all funds of the general office above $100 in a bank designated by the executive council. Local unions.-The amalgamation agreement with the International Typographical Union provides that in any city or town which affords employment to 7 or more printers on German work those so employed shall organize a German branch. The constitution of the Typographia provides that no local can be dissolved as long as 7 members remain in good standing. A local which holds no regular meetings for 3 months loses its charter. One which fails for 3 months to make its payments to the general treasurer is to be suspended after warning. Membership. Every person, male or female, who is competent to set German matter, and who is working for wages in the printing business, is eligible to membership, provided he has done nothing against the principles of the organization. The candidate must be examined by a committee and must write correctly a paragraph of 15 or 20 lines and must set correctly an ill-written paragraph. The examining committee must ascertain whether the candidate has served 4 years as an apprentice. Every candidate must be examined by a physician named by the local union. He is not entitled to sick benefits until 6 months after the physician's certificate is furnished. The name and place of working of every candidate proposed must be published in the official journal, and the candidate can not be admitted until 2 weeks after such publication. Any member may protest against the reception of any candidate. The protest must be submitted to the member's own local, and is of no force unless indorsed by it. If the protest is so indorsed the candidate can not be received until his case has been investigated by the executive committee. A rejected candidate can not again apply for admission to any local until 6 months have passed. Apprentices. Apprentices must be 14 years of age, must be able to read fair handwriting, and must have been examined by the foreman or by a committee of the compositors. Each office is entitled to 1 apprentice; daily newspapers to 1 fur. ther apprentice for every 10 regularly employed journeymen, exclusive of subs; book and job offices, with or without weekly newspapers. to 1 additional appren tice for each 6 regularly employed journeymen. Apprentices on newspapers must be regularly articled. When an apprentice has worked 3 years in a union office he may be permitted to attend the meetings of the union. While these are the laws of the general organization, they have little practical effect, at least as far as newspaper offices are concerned. The trade can hardly be learned in a modern newspaper office, and in most of the larger cities there are local rules which allow no apprentices on newspapers. Cards. Members in good standing of another branch of the International Typographical Union may join the Typographia by card without initiation fee, but they are treated as new members with regard to the time which must pass before they can draw benefits. Members of foreign unions of printers which exchange cards with the International Typographical Union are received on the same terms. The Typographia transfers its members by card to other branches of the International Typographical Union, but no such card is granted as long as the member is engaged on German work. Discipline. All questions which do not relate to the particular laws of the GermanAmerican Typographia are decided according to the laws of the International Typographical Union, with appeal to its president, from him to its executive council, and from the council to the convention. Any member who believes himself to be injured in a matter outside the jurisdiction of the International Typographical Union can appeal to the general secretary of the Typographia, from him to its executive council, and from it to the convention of the International Typographical Union; but by the articles of union the convention is bound to decide such questions not by a vote of all its members, but by a vote of the delegates of the German unions, sitting as a committee. Finances. The initiation fee is $3. The dues are 45 cents a week, besides death assessments and any local assessments which may be levied. Members who are not entitled to the full sick benefit (see below, under Benefits) pay 5 cents less a week. Members who have gone over to another branch of the International Typographical Union or have left the business may retain their rights to sick and death benefits by paying 25 cents a week. Such members are exempt from local assessments. Traveling members are free from local and extra assessments. Members who work 20 miles from the nearest Typographia are not subject to local assessments. The initiation fees and dues form a common fund which is managed in a way somewhat similar to that of the Cigar Makers. Two cents a member a week is allowed for local expenses. If more is needed it must be made up by a local assessment. Forty-five cents a member a month is sent to general headquarters. Out of this, 30 cents a member a month is paid to the International Typographical Union as its per capita tax. The remaining 15 cents is used for the expenses of the general office of the German branch, including its official journal. Out of this fund are also furnished membership books, monthly reports, cuts of the union label, and other similar supplies for the local unions. At the end of the year the common fund in the hands of the several branches is equalized in proportion to membership. In case the common fund sinks below $5 a member the executive committee has authority to increase the dues 5 cents a week until a fund of $5 a member has accumulated. The fund has in recent years actually amounted to about $10 a member; but a permanent increase of the dues was made on January 1, 1899, from 40 cents to 45 cents a week. On the death of a member an assessment of 15 cents is levied. The constitution provides for raising the death assessment to 25 cents if the common fund should fall below $5 a member. During the fiscal year ending une 30, 1901, the tax paid by each member to the general fund was $26.10; 52 weeks' dues at 45 cents a week, and 18 death assessments. The executive council has authority to levy extra assessments if they are needed on account of strikes, introduction of type-setting machines, business depression, or other extraordinary circumstances. Such extra assessments must be levied as a percentage of wages. and the sick, strikers, and the unemployed are exempt. Members who at the end of the month have not paid all sums due are to be suspended from work until they have paid up, and they are not entitled to benefit until 4 weeks after payment is made. Members who have been dropped for failure to pay their dues and wish to join again must pay an initiation fee of $5, together with the back dues standing against them, and if the occurrence is repeated they must pay $10, together with back dues. Benefits. While the members of the German-American Typographia pay the same contributions to the International Typographical Union as other members of it, and are entitled to the same death benefits and the same support in case of strikes, the Typographia has an independent benefit system, which is one of the most highly developed in America, and the integrity of which was preserved when the Typographia joined the international Typographical Union. Death benefit.-On the death of a member his heirs are entitled to a funeral benefit of $65 out of the treasury of the International Typographical Union; but if he has been 1 year continuously a member of the Typographia he receives an additional $35 from its treasury, and after 2 years' membership $135. The death benefit is payable only to beneficiaries within the jurisdiction of the International Typographical Union, and will not be sent to a foreign country. If the member leaves no heirs and has not disposed of his benefit by will, his local union conducts his funeral, at a cost not greater than the benefit due him, reporting the expenses to the general secretary. On the death of a member's wife the Typographia pays a funeral benefit of $50. Sick benefit.-Full members of the Typographia, who have been members uninterruptedly for at least 6 months, are entitled to a weekly benefit of $5 in case of sickness, beginning with the day of notification. No benefit is paid unless the sickness lasts a full week after notification; but for each additional day 70 cents is paid. When a member has drawn $250 sick benefit, the weekly payment is reduced to $3, and when he has drawn $150 more, making $400 in all, he can draw no further sick benefit for 2 years. Members who are 50 years old when they join or whose medical examination is unsatisfactory pay 5 cents less a week in dues than regular members, and can draw no sick benefit until they have been members 2 years. They receive in sick benefit only $3 for a full week and 45 cents for each additional day. When they have drawn $150, the payment is reduced to $1.50 a week, and when they have drawn $75 more, making $225 altogether, they can receive no further sick benefit for 2 years. Written notice of sickness, with a medical certificate, must be given to the local secretary. If the sick member is at a distance from the local, a medical certificate must be furnished every 2 weeks. Otherwise at least one member of the locai must visit him weekly and report. The local may send a physician at its own cost if it suspects that the sickness is not genuine. One who refuses to serve on a sick committee may be fined not more than $1. If a member is taken sick in traveling he is to notify the nearest local, sending his membership book and a physician's certificate. Even if he is not legally entitled to benefit, the local may help him out of the common fund. Out-of-work benefit.-Every member in good standing who has maintained his membership uninterruptedly for 2 years is entitled to a weekly benefit of $5 when out of work. beginning when he has been 18 days on the unemployed list. This does not apply to office subs (that is, to members who have the first right to permanent work in a given office), but only to members who are on the unemployed list and report daily at the office of the local and wait for work in their turn. When a member has drawn $20 out-of-work benefit he can draw no more until he has again been 18 days on the unemployed list. No member can draw more than $50 in one fiscal year. For every day that a man works $1 is deducted from his benefit, and no benefit can be drawn for a week in which one works 4 days. If a member loses his position by his own fault he can draw out-of-work benefit only after he has b. en 36 days on the list. If he gives up his job voluntarily he can draw no benefit for 4 weeks unless the local executive approves his action. If he refuses a position he can draw no benefit for 6 weeks. When a member is shown to be incapable of doing satisfactory work the local may decide, with the sanction of the general executive council, whether he shall be altogether excluded from further out-of-work benefits. Every member out of work must report daily to the local executive at a designated time. Whoever omits this will be understood to have worked on the day in question. Strike benefit.-So long as meinbers on strike are receiving benefit from the International Typographical Union none is paid by the Typographia; but if the International Typographical Union ceases to give support, the members of the Typographia who are out of work in consequence of the strike are at once entitled to the regular out-of-work benefit. This is the case even if they would not yet be entitled to out-of-work benefit under ordinary conditions. Traveling benefit.-A traveling benefit is paid to members of 6 months' standing going to look for work or to fill a position. The amount is 2 cents a mile for the first 200 miles, and 1 cent for each additional mile, not exceeding $10 in all. When one has drawn $25, no further traveling benefit can be drawn for 12 months. A member who loses his position through his own fault can draw no traveling benefit for 2 months. One who gives up his place voluntarily can draw none except with the approval of the local executive. A traveling member reaching a place where there is a local Typographia must report to it within 2 days or forfeit all benefits for 4 weeks from the time when he does report. The following table gives the membership and expenditures for each year since 1885. The increase of about $2.500 in the out-of-work benefit for the year ending June 30, 1899, is partly due to the increase in the maximum amount payable to one member in one year from $60 to $80; though the aggregate fell in the next year to its former level. The increase of $500 in the sick benefit was also affected by a change in the laws, providing that no account should be taken of sick benefit previously drawn, provided 2 years had elapsed. Under the former rule, when one had drawn $400 in all, even though some of it had been drawn 10 years before, he could have no more till after a full interval of 2 years. Membership and expenditures of the German-American Typographia, 1885 to 1900. 1885 1886 1887 1,075 3,034.60 2,125.00 1888 1889 1, 127 3,495.90 2,910. 10 559 $2.444.85 $1,183. 10 $1,118.90 $345.50 $5,092.35 $1,865.37 $6,957. 72 $12.45 10.94 9.39 10.95 6.281.50 456.17 13,662.92 926. 43 3,053.93 17,643.28 740.36 3,537.99 16,931.36| 622.47 15,815.35 4,586.04 2,897.52 23,298.91 797. 19, 19, 198.99 4,819.61 3,564.75 27,583.35 439.64 17,372.94 1, 125.50 4,500.27 22,998.71 1, 152. 45 4,283.86 35,635.59 15.61 13.73 17.62 19.96 16.67 29.60 7,812.00 8.485.00 1898 1899 1900 1901 304.46 18, 702. 64 Total 1,100 3,983.85 2,900.00 8,603.00 76, 290.49 43, 797. 11 110, 449. 91 7, 149. 39 237, 696. 2020, 944. 72/73, 793. 54 332, 425. 16 Hours of labor.-The Typographia forbids its members to exceed 8 hours of work a day or 48 a week. Having for some years enforced the 8-hour system, it has adopted the policy of introducing a 5-day week. The secretary, in his report of July, 1899, said that the 5-day system was working satisfactorily in Philadelphia, and suggested the advisability of introducing it wherever it had not been introduced in order to make room for the members out of employment. Official journal.--The official journal is a semimonthly paper called the DeutschAmerikanische Buchdrucker-Zeitung. The general secretary is the editor, under the general control of the executive council. Every member receives a copy without charge. A considerable part of the paper is filled with reports of the condition of the local branches. There is also discussion of the general problems which directly concern the organization, and a certain proportion of general news of the labor movement and the labor world. The paper supports the Social-Democratic party. INTERNATIONAL PRINTING PRESSMEN AND ASSISTANTS' UNION OF NORTH AMERICA. History. The International Printing Pressmen and Assistants' Union of North America was organized in 1889. The International Typographical Union had undertaken to control all branches of the printing trade up to that time, and it did not welcome an independent organization of pressmen. The Typographical Union was gradually deserted by local unions of pressmen which belonged to it, and the Pressmen's International Union was able in the end to conquer recog nition from the older and larger organization. In 1895 an agreement was made by which all the individual pressmen who were still members of the Typographical Union were to leave it within 6 months for the Pressmen's Union. The Typographical Union officers declare that they did all they could to carry out this agreement, but that they have had great difficulty in carrying it out. Within the 6 months the transfers could have been made without a new initiation fee. That privilege then expired, and the Typographical Union has since been obliged even to order a strike in order to force men who had been in good standing in the Typographical Union to join the pressmen's union and pay the pressmen's initiation fee.' It is admitted that many individual pressmen still belong to locals of the Typographical Union. Convention. The convention meets annually. The subordinate unions are entitled to 1 delegate for the first 50 members or less, 2 delegates for more than 50 members and less than 100, and 1 additional delegate for each additional 100 members. Small unions may combine in sending delegates. No proxies are allowed. To be eligible as a delegate one must have been an active member of his local for at least a year, if the local has been organized so long. Any delegate who absents himself from any regular meeting of the convention, unless on convention business, is to be fined not less than 50 cents nor more than $1 for each absence. Constitutional amendments.-Amendments which involve increased taxation, after passing the convention, must be sanctioned by a majority vote of all the members of the local unions. Other amendments may be made by vote of the convention. Officers.-The officers are a president, 3 vice-presidents, and a secretary-treasurer. The second vice-president is taken from the assistants' unions, and and the third third vice-president from the web pressmen's unions. The officers are elected by the convention. Nominations are made on the third day of the sitting. The secretary-treasurer has the names of all nominees printed on an official ballot, and the election takes place on the next day. A majority is necessary to elect. No one but a delegate in attendance is eligible to any office, except that any officer may be reelected if he has the indorsement of his local union. The president is required to countersign all drafts against the treasury, and is directed to appoint a competent expert to audit the accounts of the secretarytreasurer at least once in 3 months. His salary is $50 a year. The secretary-treasurer has the custody of all the funds. He is directed to deposit all money in some bank or trust company in the name of the union, and to forward a duplicate of each deposit slip, signed by the receiving teller, to the president. He is to publish quarterly a full statement of receipts and disbursements, and a sworn statement of the balance in his hands. His bond is $10,000; the cost of it is paid by the union. His salary is $900. The president, the vice-presidents, and the secretary treasurer constitute a board of directors, which has general supervision over the affairs of the union. It has power to decide all disputed questions, subject to appeal to the convention. It may fill vacancies in offices. It determines the rendering of assistance in strikes, and may order a subordinate union to strike. It is directed to appoint an organizer for each State. Delegates and alternate delegates to the Federation of Labor are chosen by the president from the local unions nearest the place of meeting, one of each from a pressmen's union, and one of each from an assistants' union, on the recommendation of the local unions of which they are members. Local unions.-A local charter may be granted to not less than 5 qualified flat-bed or web pressmen, and one to not less than 10 assistants in each town. In places where not enough men are employed at each branch of the trade to hold a separate charter, charters may be issued to 10 or more men. pressmen and assistants together. Such charters may be held only while the numbers do not justify separate charters for journeymen and assistants. If, however, an existing local disapproves of the issue of a separate charter to a particular branch of the trade, when the number of workmen has come to justify it, it may protest to the board of directors, and the board of directors must make an inquiry into the circumstances before passing judgment. If either party feels aggrieved by the decision of the directors, an appeal may be made to the convention. Chapels.-Members of a local, even though a majority of it, have no right in chapel meeting (a meeting of the men employed in one printing office) to take any action affecting the laws of the local. Such action is permissible only in open meeting of the union. An appeal from the decision of the chairman of chapels to a foreman is not to be permitted under any circumstances, and is to be punished by fine or expulsion. Joint committees.-In places where more than 1 local union exists, conference committees are to be established. consisting of 3 men from each local. Any subject on which a conference committee fails to agree is to be referred to the president of the International Union. 1American Pressman, September, 1900, p. 38. |