employers who attended this meeting, who, in referring to the proposed eight-hour-a-day movement to be inaugurated by the typographical union, said in effect that the printers were organizing all of the small towns, and if they struck there would be no one to take their places. He seemed to feel that this was manifestly unfair to the employer."

TAKEN FROM THE GRANITE CUTTERS' JOURNAL. "Practically the fifth year of the national eighthour day of our trade has closed, and reflection shows that every advantage claimed in our campaign for its final introduction as a trade union proposition has been fully verified. Comparison with other conditions shows up so well along this line that his mind is callous indeed, either among employers or employes, who would desire a change to the old conditions. It is gratifying to be able to report that since employers found the advantages of the eight-hour day to our trade, not one of them has expressed a desire to break away from the logical position we advocated and have now had in use for five years. None will deny that employment has been improved; no employer can be quoted that prices or profits have been reduced; those hiring, and the men hired, will unanimously admit that men have worked more steady, that better work has been turned out, that the output has been enhanced, and therefore that all around our policy has been of material value to employer, employe, the trade and the public. Apart from the idea of organization and resolution for collective bargaining, no two incidents have had such good results on our trade as the elimination of the obnoxious no-discrimination clause in agreements and the full introduction of the eight-hour day with the consequent increase of remuneration. This is a fitting time to make record of these facts, for in time the historian will be looking for data on which to establish progressive economic calculations, and we would be untrue to ourselves as skilled workmen, as union men, and therefore to the labor movement of our country, if we did not proclaim in this matter-of-fact and reliant manner that the reforms we refer to have had such salutary results."

THE MASTER PRINTERS IN THE NORTHWEST.

A correspondent, who was an attendant at the master printers' meeting, recently held in St. Paul, gives me some interesting information in connection with that meeting. I quote a few sentences from my friend's letter: "I estimated the number at the banquet to be between 250 and 300. After the banquet, the toastmaster sounded the key note of the meeting-organize the Northwest. He stated that thorough organization was necessary in order to meet our friends, the enemy.' He illustrated that with a new definition of a fireproof building'a fireproof building surrounded by fireproof buildings,' so a thorough national organization is a 'thorough organization surrounded by thorough organizations.' The toastmaster, in introducing the president of the United Typothetæ of America, said that he realized the International Typographical Union was a national organization. The president stated that for the success of the movement the typothetæ is now engaged in it would be necessary

to organize the small printers and get them into the United Typothetæ of America. He advised, if necessary, to cut the monthly dues to $1, in order to get them to join. The eight-hour day, he asserted, is for the United Typothetæ of America to pass on, and the printing business is not at present in a condition for any reduction in the hours. Selfpreservation is the first law of nature, and there is but one way to meet the movement of the International Typographical Union, and that is to organize. The chairman of the executive committee of the national typothetæ said: 'Organize the small towns and let every member take an interest in the movement.' Another speaker said, 'We gave them nine hours, and they have been asking for increases in wages ever since. The machines have been a great saving, but we have given all we gained thereby to The printing business does not pay

our customers. what it should. The same amount of labor and intelligence in any other line of business would make millionaires of us all. The trouble is with the master printers themselves-price cutting.' The secretary of the national organization said: 'Organization is the only thing. Sift out all those you can't depend upon. After electing your best men to of fice, don't fail to support them. Use the same kind of brains and interest in your organization that you do in your business.'" Much more of interest is given by my correspondent, and the entire letter gocs to show that the associated employers are endeavoring in every way possible to organize the country. The object lesson should not be passed over lightly by us. We must also organize.

THE FORT WORTH BANNER RISES TO REMARK.

"The United Typothetæ of America has issued circulars to all local secretaries asking for a list of all union and all non-union printers and apprentices in their vicinity. The letter states that it is needless to point out how important this information may be to the master printers. In other words, the master printers are seeking information which will enable them to know whether it will profit them to oppose very strenuously the proposed eight-hour day for 1906. We would suggest that the Typothetæ secure a list now, and one eight months from now, because there will be a vast difference in the showing. The printers are going to be very busy between now and the next year."

NOTES.

A Western union, aiding in the organization campaign, issues a card: "To all job printers, regardless of trade affiliations: You are most cordially invited to attend a smoker and open meeting." And results followed.

"If I were an employe instead of an employer, I would belong to that great public which is called union."-C. A. Rook, president the Dispatch Publishing Company, Pittsburg.

If you have a great object to achieve, concentrate your attention and energy on that object; refuse to be sidetracked.

The establishment of the eight-hour day in the book and job trade is a great movement. Take hold and help us push.

JAMES M. LYNCH, President,

EIGHT HOURS THE LOGICAL DAY'S WORK.

As one who has worked for the greater part of the past thirty years under the eight-hour law, I look forward with the greatest pleasure to the time when it shall be the universal day in the printing trade, now so near at hand. As long ago as 1868 congress passed a law making eight hours a day's work in all government workshops, and so far as the government printing office is concerned it has been strictly enforced ever since. I do not mean by that that we never work more than eight hours in a day, for the emergencies of the service sometimes require overtime work; but eight hours constitute a day's work, and all beyond that is overtime and paid for as such. Though the eighthour law was made to apply to all government workshops, the navy officers in charge of navy yards, in whose eyes a workingman is the lowest of the low, and a union workingman an anarchist who should be shot on sight, nullified the law by ruling that the mechanics employed therein could contract and agree to work ten hours a day, and as none was employed who was not willing to so contract, for several years the law was a dead letter, so far as they were concerned. By presidential order the eight-hour law was enforced in the navy yards finally, and when the employes who had been compelled to work ten brought suit for the overtime work which they had done for years, they found that the statute of limitations shut them out.

I do not anticipate a very severe struggle in establishing eight as the number of hours to constitute a day's work throughout the country in 1906. Being universal, it does none of our employers any injustice, for it places them all on the same footing, and if it really results in increasing the cost of the work to them, as they claim, they have nothing different to do, to make themselves whole, than they must do when the cost of paper, ink, and printers' supplies in general are increased -namely, to increase the cost to their customers. But if so, the increased cost will be so infinitesimal that an honest increase in the employers' prices will amount to nothing. Unfortunately, at such times employers seek to mulct the public of a great deal more than the increased cost to them amounts to, as in the case here some months ago, when the boss bakers, because of an increase of $1 in the cost of a barrel of flour, tried to raise the price of bread a cent a loaf, whereby they would have made $2 additional per barrel on all the flour they consumed, after paying the dollar increase. The same thing was done by the smoking tobacco manufacturers when the tax was increased to meet the expense of the Spanish war, and by decreasing the quantity of tobacco sold for a stated amount they absolutely made money out of the Spanish war tax. If the reduction of hours we ask actually results in an increase in the cost of printing to the employer, he should treat it as he does an increase

from any other reason, and as he does not lock out his paper dealer or his other supply men, there is no reason why he should his printers. The law of supply and demand is quoted to the workingman to the limit when a reduction is contemplated, but when an increase is wanted the tyranny of trade unions becomes the theme of complaint.

With all the improvements in means of production eight hours is the logical day's work of this age. In no other way than by a reduction of working time can the workingman profit or obtain advantage from labor and time-saving machinery, and he ought to be permitted to participate with his employers and the public in the advantages gained by its use. I can not believe that the employing printers of this country will make any very serious resistance to a movement the justice of which they can not fail to recognize, and more especially when they realize that we are a unit for its enforcement, that we have the sinews of war with which to fight, and that whatever of hardship it may really entail on them is as readily recouped out of the customer as any other condi tion occasioning an increase in the cost of printing. A. F. BLOOMER.

"IF YOU CAN'T BOOST, DON'T KNOCK."

Judging from the very decisive endorsement given the eight-hour proposition by the referendum, it would seem that the movement is a popu lar one with the rank and file of our membership. And yet, notwithstanding this, and the further fact that the newspaper branch has had eight hours -and in some places less-for many years, there are those who argue that the time is inopportune for this crusade, and that it can result only in a demoralization of the business, which practically means defeat, as a shorter workday would have little significance to the man without a job. And we hear other arguments along this line, all of them based upon illogical premises and not worth listening to. There can be advanced no valid reason why the shorter workday should not be inaugurated at the time set by the St. Louis convention and sooner where possible. The man in our ranks who seeks to defeat, by argument or otherwise, the purpose of the movement might justly be suspected of "playing for his job," or of having a streak of jelly running through his vertebra. There are a very few of this class in No. 118, but as they get around to the meetings only when a scale is up for consideration, and then for no other purpose than to oppose any measure that is not in harmony with the coaching received before they came, they are given but little attention at any time. When, however, any of the benefits secured through the efforts and sacrifices of others are to be enjoyed, these boys are usually the first in. For a time the hammer is laid aside and they enjoy, to the limit of their ability to grab, the good things which they have had no part in se

curing. To this class of union (?) men every where I would say: Quit it; get into the fight, in accordance with the obligation you subscribed to when you joined the organization for the purpose of bettering your condition. Don't be content to let other people win the victories for you despite your efforts to defeat them. The eight-hour day will be here on schedule time. Nothing can stop it. Logically, and by right, it is our due. While the radical element in the typothetæ has control of that body just now, and the air is full of fight, it is conceded by all conservative men that by the end of the year peace will have been declared and the shorter workday established throughout our jurisdiction, with the business in no degree demoralized and employer and employe working harmoniously to the one desirable end: "The greatest good to the greatest number." To quote my friend Kreiter, "If you can't boost, don't knock."

THOROUGH ORGANIZATION ADVOCATED. The necessity of thorough organization in the movement for a general eight-hour day is forcing itself upon the attention of any one who gives the subject careful thought. That President Lynch is cognizant of the importance of this phase of the problem is attested by his forceful utterances on the subject in recent issues of THE TYPOGRAPHICAL JOURNAL. Chicago Typographical Union has taken up the question in a practical manner by organiz ing the central district conference.

It is well understood that the International Typographical Union is not in a position to finance a movement toward organizing the country printers, but President Lynch says it will do what it can, which is most encouraging. When it is considered that of the estimated 150,000 journeymen printers in the country we have only about onethird enrolled under our banner, the magnitude of the task before us and the necessity for reducing the tremendous odds at once becomes apparent. It is not expected we can enroll the two-thirds now outside the union, but we can materially cut down that disproportion. And as pointed out by President Lynch, it is the part of wisdom to spend the money now in organization work rather than to have to take care of these men later, if they come into the towns to take the places of men on strike. A dollar nov would do the duty of five at that time. Another point in favor of organizing the country printer now would be the moral influence he might exert on printers in his town whom we were unable to enroll; and, further, he might become possessed of information that we would be very glad to learn, and which he would impart to us if he were a member.

New York state is honeycombed with hamlets and villages, each having from one to half a dozen printing offices and each shop manned by from two to half a dozen employes, many of whom doubtless would join the International Typographical Union if its features were explained to them. Any one who has had experience enrolling recruits to a labor union knows that a vast majority have objections, most of them formed erroneously by read

ing misleading and distorted statements, but which are invariably overcome when the truth is brought forward. No amount of correspondence could allay their misapprehension-it is necessary to meet and reason it out with them.

The organized printers of the Empire state have a plain duty before them. They must follow the example of their brethren in Illinois, and no time should be lost in making plans. January 1, 1906, will soon roll around, and it should see us prepared for whatever may happen. The annual convention of the State Allied Printing Trades Council meets in Ithaca the second Tuesday in July, and at that time plans might be consummated to carry on the work of organization. The kindred printing trades, remembering that the universal nine-hour day was the fruition of a movement initiated by the printers, will doubtless welcome the opportunity of assisting in promoting the eighthour day, realizing that they will reap its benefits later. Here is a splendid opportunity for the allied printing trades to demonstrate their power and secure the greatest benefit from unity of purpose and. action. The state council is the logical factor in state organization. THOMAS H. WHEATON. Syracuse, N. Y.

A WARNING EXAMPLE.

The typothetæ is asking its secretaries to make a census of all union, non-union, doubtful and halffledged printers within their jurisdiction, in order to line up against the eight-hour day.

In the past we have wisely linked our employers' interests with our own, and helped maintain a fair price in return for a fair wage; but since the typothetæ (itself a closed shop of employers) has demanded an open shop for its employes, and an unlimited workday, a struggle seems to be inevitable.

Our success as an organization has depended largely upon the solidarity of sentiment among printers and the allied trades, and the lack of competition and opposition from outside sources. The unions were stronger than the individual employer. This condition no longer prevails.

The advent of machines has driven numberless oldtime printers into other walks of life, and relegated them to one-man country offices, where the hours are long and the pay small, and where they are lost to our organization.

The demand in cities for country typesetters, who could come in and finish their trade, has entirely ceased, but the supply continues unabated. This fact was borne in upon me during my travel over three-fourths of the area of Colorado this summer. In every town were more printers working at other callings than at their own trade.

Here is the element of our weakness. Under the specious promises of the typothetæ these fledglings will be herded at our weakest points until the local unions are starved into submission and the eight-hour movement postponed indefinitely, with the open shop looming in sight.

This program will be changed if we take steps in time to gather to ourselves the unattached printers. My belief is that our organizers should forestall

our opponents. The address of every printer not in the International Typographical Union should be tabulated, and inducements offered, by way of participation in burial benefits and JOURNAL subscriptions, to attach them to the dues paying class. An aggressive campaign, at once, will be cheaper than a defensive one later on, and may avert its need altogether. CHARLES PAYNE SMITH.

Colorado Springs, Colo.

URGES A GENERAL AMNESTY.

In my January letter urging a general amnesty policy as one of the essential things necessary to insure a thorough organization of union forces to meet the pending eight-hour conflict, reference was made to the "Chicago policy" of 1879. No. 16 faced a condition of affairs at that time which threatened to turn back the work of years and make the union a byword and a reminiscence. The organization numbered something less than 500 members then, and the rats and non-union men had become as plentiful as sand flies in August. To add to the general demoralization, the fraternity was establishing itself with considerable showing of strength. The Lakeside Press, of which R. R. Donnelly was principal stockholder, established a separate composing room from its main office, employing about seventy-five men, and began the publication of cheap standard fiction, having no difficulty in securing all the printers they wanted at 25 cents per thousand ems solid minion. If I remember correctly, the newspaper scale was 36 and 38 cents for evening and morning papers (it was 55 cents after the fire), and the job scale was $18 and book work 37 cents. The success of the Lakeside company in securing cheap printers had a decidedly disquieting effect on the business generally, and the leading spirits in the union recognized that something must be done and that quickly, or the union scale would take another fall to depths from which it could not recover in years. The town was fairly swarming with nonunion men, which condition was common gossip among proprietors, and they commented freely on the necessity of paying such a high rate to union men when the supply of cheap non-unionists seemed inexhaustible. The newspaper men finally concluded that with the several scales in such a tottering condition and the necessity for prompt action being so apparent, they must consider ways and means for strengthening the position of the union. The only way was simple enough-more union men and less outsiders. Among the promoters of the idea were Ed Irwin, who was president of the union, P. H. McLogan, Joseph Lang, Harry Streat, C. McAuliff, M. H. Madden and others, who opened up negotiations for the absorption of the pirate organization, numbering over 200 men. The book and job printers were arrayed against the idea almost to a man, such men as Morgan Mills, O. P. Martin, A. W. Beecher, William Campbell, S. K. Parker and others being particularly active in the negative. The situation became intensely stirring. Charges and countercharges flew thick and fast between the factions, but that indomitable will for which President Ir

win was noted exerted a commanding influence, and the momentous question was to be decided at a special session called for 6:30 P. M. in a hall corner Clark and Michigan streets, where the union held its monthly meetings. Arrangements were made to have the non-union contingent there in full force, ready to take in when the word was passed out that all was ready. I venture to say those who participated in that meeting will never forget it. It was the hottest one I ever saw. After taking test votes on different phases leading to the main question, it was easily seen that the job and book men were in the majority and the movement doomed. Outside were massed the 200 or more non-union men, waiting for the final disposition of the matter, and, to their credit be it said, hoping for success. Something must be done to stem the tide of opposition sweeping the project into the air. Couriers were dispatched to the south side for reinforcements, and Joe Lang took the floor to talk against time till they came. Repeated calls for the question failed of recognition by President Irwin, whose dogged persistence and imperturbable demeanor, assisted by the vigorous use of the gavel, was as solid as the rock of ages against all assaults. The reinforcements arrived from the Inter Ocean and other offices, and, when satisfied the situation was well in hand, the main question was put and the obstructionists overwhelmed with defeat. The union became stronger that night by 200 new members. The jobbers stormed and fumed, prophesied the death of the union by the admission. of such a heterogeneous crowd of good, bad or indifferent union men, and carried out the threat to organize a separate body, with Morgan Mills at the head. They retained their cards in No. 16, however. O. P. Martin was sent as delegate to the Washington convention, given a hearing, and then turned down. They soon forgot their grievances by the inauguration of more prosperous times, and the incident was closed. A few of the new members proved to be bad timber, but the majority stuck, and some were active in union matters for years. There were men in that crowd with tails hanging all over them, and the same arguments were used against their admission that are used today. And, strange to say, Morgan Mills, the head and front of the protesting ele ment, who had been honored by the union as treasurer, president and delegate, afterward ratted himself. That action of the union placed it on a firm footing and stopped much of the talk among proprietors about the supply of non-union men in town. I write this bit of ancient history hoping it will have some influence on those who are determined to bar the door against the outsiders. While there is no call for such a wholesale method of making union men now as existed then, the fact remains that while there are any printers out of the fold they constitute a standing menace to the success of the forward movement. The moral weight they carry should be considered, and the influence they will exert and their usefulness to the employers should be minimized in the eight-hour fight by making them our friends instead of our enemies. The policy of opposition, even to men of shady reputations, at this time is suicidal. It

should give place to the idea that the less nonunion men in sight the more certain will the union have a pro rata minimum degree of trouble. The proprietors will put up a fight according to their strength, and their strength will be measured according to the supply of available help. They will need men and we will need money. If we have both the men and money, it looks as though the International Typographical Union would be in command of the situation. I have said it before, and I say it again-thorough and complete unionizing of every printer in the country is the most important work of the year. Chicago, Ill.

GEORGE J. KNOTT.

AN OPEN REPLY TO PRESIDENT ELLIS OF THE UNITED TYPOTHETÆ.

MY DEAR SIR-In a recent circular, "To the Employing Printers of the Northwest," you make the remarkable and alarming statement that "a crisis of far-reaching importance to the printing interests in the United States" is upon you. To say the least, you are unduly excited. You are at the head of the United Typothetæ, an organization formed to maintain a sort of uniform prices. No one will deny this statement, and it is no doubt a wise move. Yet you regard it a "crisis" if the union (united) printers seek to establish a uniform workday of eight hours. This contention and its consummation can not be construed as an infringe. ment upon the rights of a United (union) Typothetæ. The union (united) printers in this wise action are really benefiting your organization in that it will be a universal eight-hour day. Your business method is uniformity in prices. There should not be a "crisis" when the two methods of business are sought to be blended together. And there will not be when all people to the bargain are sane and fair-minded.

Successes of men are more or less a secret, so to speak. But in the main the predominating feature of success lies in the method of getting a product, and the prices you obtain for it, and incidentally the cost of the product. In the latter phase of the affair is where the union (united) printer is vitally concerned; not, however, more so than the employer. It is assumed, Mr. President Ellis, that you are an employing printer, since you take so much interest in the United (union) Typotheta. Now, then, suppose you have forty men in your employ working nine hours (I hope not more) a day. Combined they work 360 hours a day. And that you have a certain amount of work to do each day. There can be no difference in the cost of the product if forty-five men did the work in eight hours. You do not lose a cent. In fact you have done in eight hours what formerly took nine hours to produce. You are the gainer because you save in light, heat and fuel one hour each day. And you yourself will have that much more time away from your business, the assumption being that you are methodical in your business affairs. There is absolutely no fear for a "crisis" in establishing such a condition. I do not believe that you really think that a "crisis" is im

With apparent alarm you allude to the necessity of "fighting to the last ditch for the rights the constitution of the United States guarantee," etc. There is absolutely no fear of "fighting." The union (united) printers are contending for an eight-hour day, and if there is to be any "fighting" it will be done by the United (union) Typothetæ. We all know something about the constitutional rights. It is not a new feature in the United States. But how about our representatives in congress? It is conceded that they, too, know a thing or two about the sacred rights of citizens of this country. In years gone by the lawmakers in congress wisely enacted an eight-hour day for the printers as well for other of its servants. It can not be recalled that the employing printers throughout the country at that time aroused themselves to a pitch and cried aloud that there was a "crisis" upon them. It was accepted as a good law, for the reason that it gave labor to a greater number of people. And if the United (union) Typothetæ follows closely along constitutional lines it will cease its cry of "a crisis" and welcome and abet the eight-hour day move:nent.

Humanitarians, or people inclined that way, wisely look upon a divine right of a people that strives to alleviate its fellow by aiding him to secure work and thus succor his family. Justice and fairness form a stronger character than that which prompts the cry that "a crisis" is upon us.

In conclusion, Mr. President Ellis, let me say that the union (united) printers do not seek to set the prices your society is to charge its patrons. Neither have they the inclination to permit the United (union) Typothetæ to dictate how many hours in a day its members shall work. Reason with us. With much respect, I am, yours very truly, JAMES MONROE Kreiter.

Washington, D. C.

SHORTER HOURS ALSO BENEFIT THE EMPLOYER.

After the close of the Civil war the movement for the eight-hour day was actively pushed in various parts of the country, but activities were interrupted by the crisis of 1873 and the bad times following, and it was not until the early eighties that the work was again taken up, and it is now being vigorously prosecuted by the unions affiliated with the American Federation of Labor. Generaily speaking, the Englishman has secured shorter hours than the American, and the Australian shorter hours than the Englishman. In the reduction of hours the building trades have led all other organizations, because the unions in these trades were the first to organize and grow strong, and to federate and act in concert. Since the Civil war they have succeeded in reducing the hours of labor from ten to eight, and in a number of trades to forty-four hours per week. Owing to the fact that the work of the modern world is becoming more and more a matter of nervous energy, of skill and intelligence, and less a matter of mere