gone to Albuquerque....J. N. Smith has assumed the presidency of No. 434....C. E. Donnelly, recently of Denver, is now employed by the Robinson-Wright Printing Company....Albert H. Lee has given up the machine on the Advertiser, and has gone to Salina, Kan. John F. Phillips has taken his place, and will hold it until the baseball season opens, when he will go east to hold the indicator in the Three I League.

At our last meeting the label committee was instructed to go ahead and do things, and as we have received a supply of stickers, we expect they will now proceed to do some sticking.

The Chronicle-News, not to be outdone by the Denver papers, has purchased a big automobile for the use of its reporters in chasing up news. GEORGE D. Single.

DES MOINES, IOWA.

The Literary Magazine, formerly printed in Chicago, has been acquired by local capitalists, and Des Moines will be the headquarters of the concern in the future. Articles of incorporation have been filed, and the capital involved in the business is $100,000. John J. Hamilton, former publisher and editor of the Des Moines Daily News, is president of the company. The first issue of the Sunday magazine sections from Des Moines will be that of February 14.

The campaign being carried on by No. 118's label committee has brought to light several conditions applicable to other cities. Among other things, it has been proved that the active personal co-operation of the members is necessary to accomplish the results desired. The users of printing pay little or no attention to requests or communications emanating from a committee, while personal requests by members are effective in most cases. There is a large amount of work which can be taken from the "ratty" shops and placed in union shops by simply asking for it. It is amazing to see how easy it is to get it. A lot of work is turned out by union shops minus the label because it isn't ordered. In many such cases the man who pays the bill considers he has been cheated, and in some instances he has. Another fact disclosed by the local campaign is that most of the money earned by married union men is spent by the "head of the house"-the wife. If the money earned in union shops is to be judiciously spent for union-made goods, a systematic campaign must be carried on, so that the wives of union men will be able to discriminate between the "fair" and "unfair" concerns. Women should take an active interest in unionism, because it is the only means whereby the woman receives the same compensation as the man-and he draws more than he would if there were no unions. Mr. Printer, give your wife the first "fair" list you get, or have her read THE TYPOGRAPHICAL JOURNAL.

The acquisition of the Tribune by the Register and Leader has caused a few shifts among our membership. Charles Snitzen, who has been on the Register and Leader, now has charge of the ad alley at the News; Dan Powers is again foreman of

the News composing room; Barney Slack, formerly of the News, is giving out the ad copy on the Tribune; A. W. Bowman is operating a machine on the Tribune, after an extended stay at the Success shop; Bert Stafford is now the house doctor for the Mergs. on the Tribune, with Joe Hatch, formerly of Omaha, doing a like stunt on the night shift for the Register and Leader; M. O. Hutter has decided not to migrate this winter, and is choking a "mill" on the Tribune; several old Register and Leader boys are now on the day side, helping the Tribune get out a most creditable evening paper; and yours truly is again on newspaper work (with the Tribune), after a six months' stay at the state shop.

Ralph H. Parrish, an operator on the Register and Leader, sprang a surprise on the boys by taking unto himself a wife just before Christmas. The bride was Miss Nellie Sinke, of Des Moines. Charles R. Johnson, who does a "clock-turning" stunt on the head machine at the Capital, also took a short vacation during the Christmas holidays and got his name in the list of marriage licenses, the bride being Miss Bertha Carlson, of this city.

"When I get an o. k. on this ad," said the operator, "I'll have enough 'rings' to start a jewélry store."

J. J. Ottinger deposited a Washington (D. C.) traveling card, and is doing editorial work on the Tribune.

One frequently hears one union man take a brother member to task for his failure to demand the union label on articles purchased, but it is seldom one hears such things said by persons not affiliated with organized labor. A local clothier recently handed a member of a local union one of the best and most effective lectures I ever heard. It seems that the patron of the store was asking the merchant to patronize union labor, and was purchasing a suit of clothes and a hat. "I give no employment to non-union labor," said the merchant. "My clerks are all members of their local union, I have a union tailor, and all my printing bears the label of the allied printing trades. I am well enough acquainted with you to speak plainly, and it may do you good to have me do so. The coat you are about to discard bears the trademark of a firm which never did employ union labor; the hat you have been wearing was not made by a union man; there is a tag hanging from your hip pocket which tells all smokers you are helping the enemies of organized tobacco workers; the band on the cigar you are smoking doesn't bear the name of a union-made cigar. The clothes and hat you have just purchased from me bears the union label -not because you asked for 'square' goods, but because I sell union-made goods in preference to 'scab' goods. You are a member of an organization composed of the most intelligent skilled workmen, and if you are not loyal as a union man, what is to be expected of the less intelligent workmen? I am not a member of a union-haven't been since I belonged to the clerks' organization--but I am running a union store and selling a lot of unionmade goods. The label is the most powerful weapon you fellows have, but if your own members

fail to demand it, how can you have the courage to ask outsiders to do so? Call again."

The December JOURNAL contained an article on "Wireless Typesetting" which no doubt caused many an operator to smile. It is said Hans Knudson, a Danish electrical engineer, has perfected an invention by which long-distance operation of a linotype can be accomplished by means of wireless waves. It would be interesting to know what would happen if that pesky lower case "e" failed to drop, or there was a blockade in the "gallery," or if it was necessary to hand space, or if the metal was too hot or too cold, or if the mold failed to catch all the metal the plunger shoved at it, or if the "operator" across the "big pond" overlooked the well-established inelasticity of the jaws and attempted to get fourteen ems in a line intended to contain only thirteen ems. It is said the latter feat has almost been accomplished by "riding the elevator" or using a pig of metal, but no machinist ever saw it, and the wireless "operator" would be too far away to try either method of cheating the Merg. The article also stated that an operator in the composing room touches the same keys as a reporter, under the present order of things typographical. If he did he would have the "can" attached to him in nine cases out of ten. The mention of operating by wireless waves recalls to me a story of an unfortunate mute who was serving his apprenticeship on a linotype in an office visited by an inspector from the factory. The poor fellow asked the inspector why he failed to get some of the lines he sent in-he being deaf, he could not hear a slug being ejected. The inspector had him send in a good line and went back of the machine and held up the "dog" which brings the ejector blade forward. Of course, the mute said (in writ ing) that he didn't get the line. The inspector pulled the lever and ran the machine around a second time, and the slug came out. The "dummy" grabbed his tab and wrote: "Do that again-there must be a lot more back there!" In cases of "see copy" under the "wireless" system, perhaps they will try that scheme. C. A. DANIEL.

The first of the month the chairman of the label committee sent circulars to the legislators, who are now in session, asking them to request the label on their stationery and other printed matter. From the numerous replies received by him, many have expressed their willingness to do this.

Prior to the week when the "Six Little Girls and a Teddy Bear" were at the Majestic theater, Manager Buchanan offered two prizes to the Des Moines newspaper for the most attractive advertisement of the bill. John Berger, in the composing rooms of the Daily Capital, was awarded first prize, $15, as having set the most attractive ad. The second prize, $5, was awarded the Daily Tribune.

Charles Lockwood has accepted a position as foreman of the Successful Farming composing room. Mr. Lockwood was formerly connected with the Lockwood-Stivers Printing Company.

J. I. Dobbyn, proprietor of the Caslon Printing Company, recently completed a deal whereby he

becomes proprietor of the Cedar Falls Gazette, a newspaper formerly published in that city by George F. Robb. The Cedar Falls property is traded by Mr. Robb to Mr. Dobbyn for the latter's stock in the Caslon Printing Company.

On account of the opening of the legislature, the state printing office has put on a night force, in order to get out each day's proceedings on time. ELIZABETH А. ВЕСК.

SCRANTON, PA.

An allied printing trades council has been duly formed and the organization gives promise of a healthy existence. The matters involving jurisdiction, which have been contending features during the past several months, have been adjusted to the satisfaction of all concerned, and it is to be hoped that those who have been active participants in the controversies will forget past differences, and seek only the success of the new organization. William Corless, of No. 112, has the honor of being president of the new council.

Charles Gamewell, manager of the printing department of the International Correspondence Schools for the past fifteen years, has been transferred to the office of the president for special duties. His first assignment takes him to England, where he will investigate the printing methods of that country. He left for London on January 13. Before his departure from the city the employes of the department presented him with a solid gold watch chain with a handsome Masonic charm attached. Mr. Gamewell enjoys a wide acquaintance among the oldtimers in the International Typographical Union, of which organization he was vicepresident for two terms. William R. Barcklow, formerly superintendent of printing for N. W. Ayer & Son, and who is well known in the printing trade, succeeds Mr. Gamewell as manager of the International Correspondence School printery.

The window displays now being conducted by the Home boosing committee are meeting with much favorable comment in the papers in this city. One merchant who has visited the Home is so enthusiastic over the display that he has offered the committee the use of both of his windows.

For those seeking information on the merits and demerits of priority, we can cheerfully recommend the reading of THE TYPOGRAPHICAL JOURNAL. This, however, is as it should be, and much of the argument, on both sides, is good. One point which seems to be overlooked by most of the writers is the conditions that made the law necessary at the time it was enacted, and if the conditions have been removed. Some say it was the unscrupulous foreman who made the law necessary. If that was the case, the question comes, have we none now? If they have all gone what is to become of the man who has no family, fraternal, or other ties that bind him to any foreman? If some still linger in our midst, what about the man who dares to enforce a union law or a chapel regulation? We would not be without that law or its counterpart for more than one year.

The presidents of all the organizations in the

craft, in this city, were guests at the banquet of the pressmen's union, in commemoration of the birth of Benjamin Franklin. The festivities were held on January 16.

Every week brings new evidence of the worth and virtue of the International Typographical Union Course in Printing. At the last meeting, when the committee made its report, it brought forth many glowing tributes from students and others. A. W. Dippy, who enjoys the proud distinction of being the first graduate, gave the course an excellent endorsement.

It is quite likely that Commodore Walton and his crew of the good ship "Scranton" will extend their cruise from St. Joe to the Home. This is mentioned more as a tip to Superintendent Deacon than as an item of general interest.

JOHN M. COLLINS.

GOLDFIELD, nev.

The residence of Selig Olcovich, occupied by George W. Donald, D. D. Keltner and himself, was burglarized on the night of January 8. After a lengthy search the burglar only found $3.35 in coin. Nothing else of value was found.

A committee consisting of Charles Mattick and Selig Olcovich is working with a committee of the local pressmen's union for the formation of an allied trades council.

Governor Dickerson called a meeting of representatives of all labor unions to meet with him and make such recommendations as they thought best to be incorporated in his message to the Nevada legislature. At the meeting of the representatives he told them to agree to four or five good laws, and, by labor standing back of them, more could be accomplished than by advocating numberless measures. Assemblyman Lunsford, a member of Reno Typographical Union, is back of the measure to have the label on all school books.

The departures: A. B. Gibson, employed in Rhyolite, Nev.; A. J. Klamt, for Oakland, and C. H. Peterson, now in Denver. SELIG OLCOVICH.

WINNIPEG, CANADA.

President Bleaken has been conducting a vigorous label campaign for some time, and the label has certainly been very much in evidence. During the recent municipal elections, with a large "field" for all offices, the presses were kept decidedly warm, and, needless to say, only those using the label on their literature were elected; but then, when it is understood that all candidates used it, there is really nothing remarkable about it. Likewise, during the late Dominion government elections the candidates for both parties used the label; so, taking it all in all, these elections are great things, if for nothing else than to advertise the label. Any firms in the city who at present have any printing not carrying the label have promised President Bleaken, "hand on their heart," that the oversight will not happen again.

A most startling piece of news appeared in the daily papers of January 4, announcing that the

eight-hour day would take effect in the job pressrooms on that date. This applies to all but one or two non-union offices, and these wish their men to work the nine hours, but will pay for the extra hour. Methinks I have heard that same argument used before. Sure, they will be paid extra! But I would hate to depend on that money to buy coal with, now that the thermometer is flirting around the 40-below-zero mark.

One shop has signed up lately-the J. B. Brown Company-so gradually things are coming our way. All it needs is a little rustling on the part of the boys, and the other firms should come around.

Another victory for the union office was the case of the Commercial. A notorious unfair office has been doing the work for some time, but it has now been given to the Free Press jobroom, and, needless to say, comes out on time, and is a credit to any office on account of its typographical neatness.

The Saturday Evening Post is branching out by opening an office of its own. With Bill Kennedy as one of the proprietors, it is needless to say it will be union from "cellar to garret."

We hope to see some of the other offices sign up soon, as, now that the eight-hour day is conceded, there should be no serious difficulties to overcome.

The non-union Buttericks have opened a large store on Portage avenue, and are also putting their patterns in outlying stores. But more of this later. Everybody here wears O'Sullivan's rubber heels, and you couldn't get a chew of Battleaxe tobacco from any of the boys if you tried.

The daily edition of the Citizen-Democrat suspended the last day of 1908. A growing demand for a semi-weekly and a top-heavy payroll in the business office were the causes of the suspension. It will mean a loss of one and possibly two members to the local. The Republican is now the only daily in Poplar Bluff, and it is hardly probable that another will start soon, as the field is too small for another paper here.

"Red" Freeman passed through recently, bound north. The climate of Malvern, Ark., did not agree with him. "Scotty" Crawford once a member of the backcappers' club that used to assemble in the back room of John Eckert's saloon in Logansport, during the palmy days of the "Mill," has settled here and is now one of the influential citizens of the little mountain city. For a long time he and "the cup that cheers" have been strangers, but he always has the required 15 cents when one of his old friends comes along with a thirst that the limpid waters of Black river will not quench. Lee Knott, formerly of Danville, Ill., and elsewhere, is foreman of the Republican and secretary-treasurer of No. 635, and bears his honors with the same becoming modesty as when he was setting tariffs for the Illinois Printing Company. "Dink"

Carver, formerly of Kentucky, but who is known from Texas to points in Maine, is foreman of the Citizen-Democrat; his assistant, Dan Schriver, now quite a society man here, also did the side-door stunts for several years and is well known in C. nearly every place the JOURNAL circulates. De Leau, who came out in the Decatur (Ill.) strike, is holding down a sit on the Republican. Miles Thomason, well known through Illinois, does the job stunt on the Republican, and is figuring on purchasing a farm near here. He takes all kinds of agricultural publications and can talk most intelligently on small pica hens and double leaded corn rows.

There is no work here for the traveler, but the entertainment committee has a good credit with the hotel men and one or two thirst parlors. FRANK KAVANAUGH.

MOBILE, ALA.

The Mobile Herald, an evening paper, suspended publication in the early part of January. The Herald was founded on the co-operative plan in 1893 by union printers who had been displaced by the introduction of the linotype in this city. The venture was fairly successful at the time, and enabled No. 27 to more readily adjust itself to the changed conditions caused by the installation of machinery in the composing room. Gradually the original promoters of the enterprise dropped out, and the paper passed into the hands of one or two persons. After an interesting career, a series of misfortunes, accentuated by a decrease of business, ended its existence. As a result seven union printers and one apprentice stepped "down and out."

State-wide prohibition became effective in Alabama on January 1, 1909. Tourists of bibulous tendencies should bear this fact in mind, especially when they are seeking a haven that will afford them surcease from the tempting fluids that inebriate. Prohibition was imposed upon this community by legislative enactment; the people themselves were not given an opportunity to vote on the question.

John A. Traylor, of the Register force, well known in the south, proceeded quietly to Shawnee, Okla., where he married Miss Genevieve Robarts, an attractive young lady of that city. John J. Caine, one of our jobmen, who represented No. 27 at Birmingham and Washington, was united in marriage to Mrs. Emma McLaughlin, a valued member of Printing Pressmen's Union No. 100, of this city.

Late arrivals: Ham Wilson, Luther George, J. W. Lockett. Late departures: Dan J. Crowley, J. M. Van Fleet, H. Eckert, S. J. York.

Organizer James Leonard, of the American Federation of Labor, whose home is in New Orleans, has been here for some days, doing work pertaining to his position. To the central trades council he said that labor's political campaign had been much more of a success than the daily press had acknowledged. For example, he said he was in the fourteenth district of Ohio during the campaign, and that district elected a democrat to congress, through labor's efforts, for the first time in many JOHN J. RUSSELL.

years.

PROVIDENCE, R. I.

The book and job scale was revised at the December meeting, the changes made from the prevailing scale being principally matters of rearrangement of sections in a more logical sequence, and the rewriting of sections which had been or seemed likely to be occasion for misunderstanding. Since then the contract committee has been offering the new scale attached to a standard International Typographical Union contract. Ten proprietors of union offices signed almost immediately, and the contract committee is, as this letter is written, conducting negotiations with the local branch of the Printers' League of America, which controls six union offices. The contract which the union and league have under consideration grants the league no special concession as to wages, hours or shop conditions not given to every other employer, but it does contain at least three propositions brandnew in Providence and perhaps elsewhere. One of these provides that after a period of years, to be stated in the contract, a joint committee of the union and league shall revise the book and job scale and report at meetings of the union and league; while this report is before either body, members of the joint committee have the privi lege of the floor and of debate, but either body may hold an executive session before taking a vote; if the negotiation of a new scale in this manner fails, the scale goes to binding arbitration. This is an attempt to realize in practice the theory of collective bargaining. It is hoped by this procedure to do away with the presenting of a new scale as a "demand," which, in some cases, history teaches, meets with an unqualified refusal and "trouble." Two other features provide that no special contract shall be made with any member of the league without the consent and approval of the league, and that no concession shall be made to any employer which every member of the league shall not share; and also for a visiting committee charged with investigation of complaints of viola tion of the agreement. This last is an experimental attempt to regulate the competition of small shops, the union on its part undertaking to enforce its scale ad literam in offices under its jurisdiction not included in the league. On this question the union has taken this position: There should be no discrimination against the one-man shop, and members starting individual enterprises should be encouraged rather than handicapped. But, on the other hand, the one-man shop must comply with regulations in force in other offices, so that the competitor of the one-man shop may not be unfair to employers of labor. As stated, the contract with the league is still in form of a proposition, but the outline indicates prospective innovations. Otherwise the contract calls for the union shop, strict compliance with scale conditions, a guarantee against strikes, lockouts, boycotts and other concerted interference with peaceable operation of composing rooms, and binding arbitration of all disputes which can not be settled by conciliation. The league undertakes to guarantee performance by its members.

The contract committee has visited most of the

offices in which strikes occurred January 1, 1906, and as a rule the committee has been politely informed that no contract with the union is desired. This information has sometimes been curtly conveyed in a single sentence, and sometimes has been couched in a lengthy argument against the position of the union. Negotiations are still on with some of the struck offices, and also with other offices not union heretofore, but not rated as struck offices. It is impossible to predict the outcome, the members of the contract committee wishing to express no opinion, hopeful or otherwise. Sometime a sequel to this story will be written.

Two of the struck offices have granted the eighthour day to all employes in the printing departments. The distinctly typothetæ offices have granted a forty-eight-hour week, consisting of five days of eight hours and fifty minutes each, and a Saturday workday of three hours and fifty minutes. Thus is the promise of the eight-hour day in 1909 fulfilled by the handing out of a near-nine-hour day. Our old friends, the local pressmen, must bear a large part of the blame for this, and also for a little friction in strictly union offices. We have never understood why Providence pressmen were so gullible as they seem to have been for the past three years; or why they have blindly followed the leadership of some men holding office in their union who seemed always pliable in the hands of employers distinctly hostile to union labor. Even now the rank and file of the pressmen have been rounded up and hippodromed in favor of the near-nine-hour day by a specious and fallacious promise that the Saturday half-holiday all the year around will save them the regular summer Saturday half-holiday. Providence printing offices never have seen a summer when the Saturday half-holiday wasn't the least indication of the short time necessitated by summer dulness, and generally the July and August business has been occasion for whole holidays and sometimes more than one per week. However that may be, the unexplainable influence which has so repeatedly misled the local pressmen, now seeks to compel the observance of the Saturday half-holiday and the near-nine-hour day in strictly union offices. this juncture the fairness of the typographical union "in the right as God gives it to see the right" will be the safe anchor of the eight-hour day in Providence. The employing printers who conceded the eight-hour day in 1906 to their compositors, and who have maintained it, even when the longer hours worked by the pressmen occasioned at least inconvenience and confusion, are now firm in their decision that hours must be uniform, and with few exceptions they are most favorably disposed to the straight eight-hour day.

At

A member of another union who visited Providence recently on a special mission, while recounting his experiences in various cities, emphasizing the warmth with which he was greeted and the assistance which he received in some as contrasted with coldness and no assistance in others, mentioned one small city where at the close of the day he found himself standing on the curbstone alone,

with no printer friend to advise or guide him. Three who had promised help were called elsewhere by "imperative demands" for their presence thither, and some others went out of the printing office where they were employed by the back way, and so made their escape. To the spe

cial agent these printers seemed like so many rabbits running to their burrows at the approach of the small boy with an air rifle. The anecdote has an immediate application in a great many unions. Far too many members dodge their share of the necessary work of conducting intelligent agitation in the line of progress. This subject has received notice in two previous letters in this column; it is mentioned again because it is always in point; because it is always true that the workers in a union are retarded by the want of enthusiasm of their fellow members, ranging from the coldest indifference to deliberate shirking. There are men who always have "something else to do" when their services are wanted; there are others who offer no excuse for their disinclination or refusal to assist. We need more of the men who are willing workers; if we can increase the proportion of these to the total membership, the effect will be like that of increased yeast in a pan of bread. There will be more "dough;" it will be lighter and easier dough to handle, and it will make more loaves of bread. Get wise, brother. Don't be a rabbit.

The annual election is still several months away, and we may still write generally of political ambition without being accused of making our letters personal or partizan. It is our constant purpose, when our letter deviates from the narration of fact into the expression of opinion, to reflect so nearly as may be what should be the opinion of our membership. With this in mind we can not fail to mention our regret that the candidates for office already openly in the field are exclusively seekers for delegate honors-no one has yet announced himself as a candidate for any local office. In previous letters we have had much to say of rewarding honest and efficient service by promotion, and of a desire to serve his union as the loftiest ambition which a member can hold. There will be honorable offices to fill in May; there will be offices in which ambitious and earnest men can render valuable service to No. 33. Is there nobody who desires them? The junket idea has not been divorced from the delegate position. Are the conditions so often prevailing in the past to prevail this year? Is friendship and popularity and ability to convince the electorate that the "little vacation at the union's expense belongs to me" to counterbalance reward for actual service or ability to represent No. 33 well? The questions likely to be presented to the convention at St. Joseph are important. The insurance proposition, the pension, a settled policy of reconstruction after the war for the eight-hour day, the priority law, a possible change in the headquarters city, together with the hundreds of propositions, good, bad, indifferent-some dangerous-which the ingenuity of delegates will suggest, must all receive attention. The material change in our relations with employers, which the new policy of conciliation and arbitra