Page images
PDF
EPUB

certain to "fall down" disastrously. The style is bad, the copy worse, and with but few shining exceptions machines are in miserable condition. Australia is a long way from linotype headquarters, and one can not expect to find the machines very well kept up. Considering all the difficulties that he has to overcome, I would say that the colonial operator is about the equal in speed of his American cousin. There are a few exceptionally fast men here, but as strings are pasted and some "fat" is picked up, it is well-nigh impossible to say what their capacities really are. I have been told of one man who averaged 9,000 ems an hour for five years, but that same man, according to very definite information, has not averaged above 5,500 for the past year. In speaking of their earnings under the piece system the operators never underestimate them, but in such cases as I have had access to office books, the evidence was overwhelmingly against the piece system. Whenever the boys earn too much money, the proprietors take away a little more "fat," until a condition has been reached which would be unbearable in our country. The office has all the best of every deal, and now the union is preparing an elaborate case for presentation to the arbitration court, endeavoring to hold its own against encroachments of the proprietors. The operators whose fate is the most deplorable are those on papers which print large numbers of two-line want advertisements. These ads frequently contain

as many as twenty-six

words, and must be contracted by the operator, in a way which suits the office. Here is a sample:

FURN. House, 15 m. from c., 5 rms.. pia., cut.,

lin., 1 or 2 m., 35s to ap. ten. Caloola. 38 J'syrd. Whra.

In return for this the operator is allowed to pick up a two-point rule as fat!

The morning papers publish evening editions for country circulation exclusively. Circulations of the dailies run between 40,000 and 65,000 for morning, and 20,000 and 40,000 for evening editions. There are two Sunday morning papers, the Sun, published by the Evening Star without employing extra men, and the Sunday Times. Some evening papers in the colonies prefer a number of small presses to one or two large ones. The Evening News has six small English presses, which can be started one at a time very rapidly. The evening papers publish from four to six editions each after

noon.

There is not that freedom of the press here to which we are accustomed. Before starting any sort of daily or weekly newspaper, the proprietor must undertake, in the sum of $750 cash, that he will obey the libel law of the country. This same law makes it impossible to correctly report a murder or suicide until some court or jury has decided that it was murder or suicide. The effect at times is amusing.

In job offices linotypes do not seem to be as well cared for as on the daily papers. For some time I was employed as operator by the largest private plant in Australia, mainly on directory work. Before entering that office no one could have convinced me that linotypes could possibly be found in as hopeless a condition as the four machines in

that office were. Though but three years old, their equal could scarcely be found anywhere in the United States. And on these machines competent operators were taking "graveyard" shifts from 10 P. M. to 8 A. M., an average of about fifty-eight hours a week, and earning $15 to $25, some of them averaging 27 cents an hour. Two directories were published, one a job of 10,000,000 ems and the other about 4,500,000 ems. The jobroom linotype scale calls for 14 cents per 1,000 ems, day or night, with one and a third and one and a half price for short measures. Here were operators working all night on eight-em pica measure, putting in nonpareil and brevier black letter by hand, and charging nothing extra for it. Directory copy is not fat at its best, and I absolutely declined to work in the office by piece, and consequently was put on at a fair time rate. In this office a class of learners is run, and these men, some of them non-union, pay from $52 to $80 for the privilege of operating two hours each night, two nights in the week, for three months, or fifty-two hours in all. They set live matter, which the house uses. This establishment is supposed to be strictly union, yet under the ar bitration law the men are becoming lax, and the not too edifying spectacle of non-union men paying for the privilege of setting live matter was presented. The "students," of course, draw no pay for matter set. And it was in this office, too, that I first saw a micrometer used daily as a light monkey-wrench! In jobrooms, linotype men are supposed to charge standing time at the rate of 36 cents an hour, day work, and 42 cents at night, which is the union's time scale for linotype operators and floor and ad men on newspapers. I know little of the conditions on typesetting machines other than linotypes.

Before commencing to operate I did a short stunt as job compositor with the good old-fashioned hand stick. Here, too, conditions are very different from those to which American job printers are accustomed. The point system as we have it is almost unknown. Even in the first-class offices there is no labor-saving material, and the American comp. is all at sea with the strange mixture of English and American type and German borders met with; no two fonts cast on the same system, and justifications being made with cardboard. In the office I sampled for a week, it was impossible to find two leads exactly of a length, and there were no slugs at all. But the limit was reached with the body-type cases. The caps were laid in the top four rows on the left hand side of the cap case, away up near the ceiling. Beneath them were various marks and accented letters, for England and her colonies still use the old-fashioned system of spelling, long ago dropped in the states as being too cumbersome. The top rows, right hand side of the cap case, contained small caps; beneath them figures, and more marked and accented letters. The lower case is also "shuffled," many unimportant letters being stowed in curious corners. In their entirety, the cases apparently were laid for a very tall left-handed man. I am neither tall nor left-handed.

All Australasian unions receive our International cards, as our coast unions have always done with

Australasian cards. Dues here are from 12 to 24 cents a month, and the initiation fee is fixed at from 24 cents to $1.20 by arbitration courts. Apprentices are bound for six or seven years, and may change their place of employment under the guise of "improvers." This word, unfortunately, is sometimes taken advantage of by gentlemen of ratting propensities. They work under the scale, as improvers. Yes, my Canadian friends, we'll take a shot at you, for improvers have been known in Canada, I believe.

The job scale here is at present $12.48, and pressmen draw $12.60. Some of you may think that while this is low, the cheaper living offsets the lower wage. The greatest mistake made by Americans is that they do not consider the great difference in quality which cheaper foreign living uniformly means. The standard of living in Sydney is very different from that in the average American city-very inferior, in a way. And I say this with apologies to my Australian friends, who have been so uniformly courteous to me; yet the fact remains that some American workmen live in palaces, when their homes are compared to the homes of some Sydney workmen. Specify the difference? Well, that would be difficult; but here you see no hot water piped over the house; no bathtubs as we think of such accessories to cleanliness; no screen doors; none of the hundreds of little items which go to make life pleasant for us, and lighten the work of American women. Here as I write at Christmas time, in the heat of summer, there is not a restaurant which attempts to keep flies out, and there is not a butcher shop with an inch of screen, and few of them use ice. The "pubs" (saloons) use no ice, and the heavy English and colonial beer is served red hot. I'm on the water wagon now, and not even the charms of the "barmaids" can tempt me into those ill-smelling thirst parlors.

New South Wales owns all public utilities, including street cars, within its territory. The country has been very unfortunate in many ways, and has an interest-bearing national debt of $275 per capita population, against about $13 in the United States. In fact Australasia, which includes the commonwealth of Australia and the colony of New Zealand, is under the stupendous debt of $1,375,000,000, or a third more than the entire United States. This is somewhat remarkable, considering the small population of 4,400,000, and one wonders where all the money has gone.

While the people of these colonies seem very progressive as lawmakers, there is not the progress in other lines one could wish for. There are a great many contented, happy people here, yet discontent is sometimes synonymous with ambition. The public schools are very fair, but children are brought up to look forward to the age of fourteen years, when they may leave school and go to work. There is practically no high school and no college education. Specialists are few, and professions are very differently classified from our modern ways. Boys are apprenticed to dentists just as they would be to blacksmiths. In some localities the demand for child labor is abnormal. For the week begin

ning Monday, July 4, an Auckland evening paper published help-wanted advertisements as follows: For boys, 60; for men, 32; for girls, 22, and for women, 86. The ads for boys were genuine, apparently all from tradesmen and commercial houses, while many of the ads for men were employment agency fakes. The women wanted were mainly housemaids. The excess of child labor has kept wages at a low level in many places.

Labor day in Sydney was a great success. In the colonies it is called "Eight-Hour day," and is generally celebrated in the spring. Sydney's celebration was held early in October, when a large parade was followed by athletic sports. The typographical association turned out a very fair percentage of its 702 members, and there were altogether sixty-two union banners in the parade, which added greatly to its appearance, for Sydney banners are so very large they can not be carried by hand, and so are put on wagons. Their average cost could not have been less than $400 each, for they are artistically painted on silk. In other New South Wales towns the celebration took place on different days in October, and in Melbourne it was held in the fall, in May.

One of the grandest American institutions, the blind baggage, is entirely wanting here. A man would probably be sent to the penitentiary for stealing a ride. A fine of $10 is levied on passengers who cross the tracks within station limits, except by overhead viaduct, and the entire railway system of the country is so very different from ours that "tourists" stand no show at all, unless they travel by water.

This is the longest day in the year, but I am tired of writing and will postpone the discussion of Australian politics and labor ministries until another time. G. I. BRAYTON.

Sydney, N. S. W.

AUGUSTA, MAINE.

No. 380 has recently parted with a portion of its membership to help form a new union at Waterville, twenty miles above here. The new union was organized through the efforts of L. V. Clark, and starts off with a charter membership of eleven, all in the office of the Waterville Sentinel, the official organ of the democratic party in this state. Though the new organization has been in existence but a short time, it promises to set a pace in results accomplished that will make the rest of us "go some." It is said to be practically certain that the Sentinel will become a union shop, and it is not too much to expect that eight hours will be the length of the day's labor there. Waterville Union has our best wishes for a long and prosperous

[merged small][merged small][ocr errors]

vious to the election by the legislature of the state printer for the next two years. The situation is peculiar here, as the state printer is an officer elected by the legislature on political qualifications only, instead of letting the contract to the lowest bidder. The opposing candidate, F. B. Nichols, of Bath, offered to do the work for 10 per cent below the present prices, which are fixed by law, and at the same time agreed with the local typographical union to run a union office if elected to the position. Contrast this with the statement of the present incumbent that he can not afford to pay the scale now in effect because of the low price for which he is compelled to do the state work.

Frank K. Foster, of Boston, addressed a large audience at City hall, Wednesday evening, Febru ary 15, on the subject of the referendum. A bill for the establishment of this system of popular approval or rejection of proposed legislation has been introduced in the legislature, and is being pushed by the State Federation of Labor. Mr. Foster also appeared before the committee which has charge of the bill, and made a very able argument in its behalf.

ex

The special committee on state printing, having discovered, after careful inquiry and research, that an em is two and one-half times larger than a point even so much information was not tracted from the present incumbent-and that compliment slips were printed in blue, may possibly report that all is serene. It would be lese majesty to report otherwise. Meantime Senator Staples' bill to abolish the office of state printer is receiving careful attention from another committee of the legislature.

The boys are asking Billy Edwards how they are selling cigars in Hallowell-with the label, or without. SORTS.

WINNIPEG, CANADA.

The printing business continues in a flourishing condition in the Prairie City of the West. During the latter part of October the Dominion elections were held, and the printer representative in the federal house at Ottawa-A. W. Puttee, an oldtime Winnipeg printer-for seven years' faithful work, was voted out through the united combination of the old party machine and the apathy of a number of unionists. His defeat will mean victory in the near future, for the printers are now preparing with renewed vigor for coming struggles, and are making preparations to give an account of themselves in the provincial, municipal and federal elections to follow.

A committee, consisting of seven members, has been selected by the union to seek an increase to the scale of wages, and also to press for the eighthour day.

The cause of the difference between the Moore Company and the printers lies in an attempt to force into the office a supposed member of the firm who was sent to Chicago to learn the keyboard of the monotype. The Moore Company endeavored to force the said member into the graces of the union. Exception was taken to the method pursued by Moore, and after considerable conference it was up to the union to take definite action.

Here is a part of a letter which recently appeared in the Winnipeg Free Press, signed "Unionist.” It gives a fair idea of what took place:

During the early part of November an important legal case was tried in our city court. It was of far-reaching effect to the mechanics and laboring people of Winnipeg. It was threshed out with the aid of some of the best legal talent of the west. A decision was given averse to the complainant on the technical meaning of the act under which it was tried-the alien labor law. I refer to the case recently tried in our police court, R. Swan vs. The Moore Printing Company.

"

The reading of a recently published article with a quotation from Andrew Carnegie, in which Le states: "The most effective cure for strikes and lockouts is a trade agreement,' has led me to look up the evidence taken in court at the trial, and from this, together with the documents submitted for the judge's consideration, and upon which he largely based his decision, it is evident that the manager of the Moore Company ventured into deep water and almost swamped himself. He crawled to shore, but not without getting a good wetting and seriously exposing his alleged friends -the typothetæ. It is conclusively shown that to gain a point, violence was done to a written agreement, which is in existence and is lived up to by some twenty other employers of labor in the same line of business (printing) and under the same conditions as that controlled by the Moore Company; the manager's signature is also attached to a document as representing the said Moore Company, Limited, wherein he also agrees to live up to the said agreement and conditions therein stipu lated. When there was a possibility of friction, the officers of the typographical union discussed the matter with the said manager for some four weeks before any action was definitely taken by the said union. When no understanding could be amicably arranged, and the said manager was determined to violate the signed agreement, in honor to themselves, their families and as men and citizens, the typographical union had no other alternative than to withdraw their men as parties to the agreement. The other parties to the agreementthe local typotheta-repudiated the signature of Moore, making them parties thereto. No man who aspires to an honored position should be guilty of

[blocks in formation]

He

This man Moore has met his Waterloo. sought for an opportunity to fight the union and got it. Moore has not been frank in his views relating to the issue between himself and the union, and he has endeavored to get public interest aroused to favor his views by appearing as a martyr to public interest by running what he terms an "open shop." He now has only six men in his employ who could be eligible as union men, whereas he had in October ten journeymen in his employ. This is evidence that the secret committee which the president of No. 191 appointed is not letting the grass grow under its feet. Moore has admitted that the company has lost $2,000 through bucking the union, and he regrets that he shouldered the difficult task of trying to wipe the typographical union off the face of the earth. This man Moore was coquetting with the typothetæ offices of the United States, endeavoring to induce them to send men to Canada, and letters now in our possession are evidence against them that their methods were not of a nature which should characterize the attitude of men with honorable intentions.

E. J. REYNOLDS.

DES MOINES, IOWA.

"Jule" Ward, who is said to have been printing here when Methusaleh was a puling infant, has taken a traveling card and gone to Chicago. In the hand days of newspaper construction Mr. Ward was a capable compositor, able to hold a place among the fast ones, but since the advent of the corn sheller he has been drifting around among the job shops, with no steady employment in prospect. With other accomplishments, "Jule" possesses a thorough knowledge of music composi tion, and now, with a "steady sit" in a music publishing house, where age operates not as a bar and ability to measure up to the scale is the only quali fication for a place on the staff, our friend is, we all hope, happily fixed for life.

From advices received at local headquarters it is learned that Clinton Union No. 334 has just put into operation a job scale providing for an immediate substantial increase in wages and the eight-hour day, January 1, 1906. A good example for other Iowa locals to emulate, though it comes too late for Des Moines. We've had our guess. John J. Hamilton's new paper, the Chicago Daily Review, is looked upon here as a good proposition. The paper is designed to fill a new field -or perhaps "a long-felt want"-it being the purpose of the projectors to treat current events and vital topics in a critical way, leaving local matters and the sensational features which go usually to make up a daily paper out of the program altogether. Almost the entire editorial and mechanical force have been taken from this city, and the people here will wish for the new venture abundant and abiding success.

The much-used phrase, "on the firing line," doesn't seem likely to get into general use as a motto in trades journalism.

The Ananias of Battle Creek is getting into the papers so frequently here of late that his tirade against organized labor has taken on the aspect of a continued story-a Postum serial, so to speak.

Speaking again of the Springfield (Mo.) telephone girls: "THE JOURNAL'S Des Moines correspondent" disclaims any desire to "question the veracity of the young ladies," or to doubt the good faith of Editor Bramwood in penning the item in the January JOURNAL. Simply a purpose to get history straight and give the glory to whom it be. longs. The Springfield girls are to be congratulated on their step to the front, and we're "wid 'em."

Friends of Lafe Young and the Daily Capital are flocking into the pressroom to see the new printing machine just installed there. It is something new to this part of the country, being technically known as a "Hoe concentrated quadruplex." The press has a capacity of 48,000 eightpage papers per hour, and will print twelve, fourteen, sixteen, twenty, twenty-four or thirty-two pages at the same ratio of speed. Mr. Young tells me that the builders of the machine "spread themselves" in its construction, having a desire to get their product into this field, heretofore covered by the Scott and Goss people. To most of the people here its marvelous speed and perfect work will be

a revelation, and its acquirement makes a long forward stride in Iowa newspaper making. The Capital is the only daily in Des Moines that carries the label, though they all have it. "That helps some."

Assuming that No. 2 is right and the executive council wrong in their contentions, is it good policy, and to the best interests of organized labor in general and our union in particular, to prolong the "chewing" indefinitely through the public press? There comes to me each week a copy of the Trades Union News, containing statements and charges that evidently have for their purpose the undoing of the council. Did this paper circulate exclusively among members of the International Typographical Union, where all the phases of the controversy are understood, there might possibly be some excuse for the publication of these fiery sentences from the pen of Brother Smith. But, as the paper doubtless has a general circulation, at this distance it looks like an unwise mode of warfare, no matter what the provocation, to thus lay bare to readers outside the fold the secrets of a contention that should be known only to those directly interested. The council may be at fault in this matter, and if it is, No. 2 will have a chance at Toronto to get all that is coming. "Cut out" the newspaper warfare, and let's pull together for the unionizing of the city of Brotherly Love.

How would it do to get off "the firing line" and get actively to work in the union again?

After reading "What We Are Doing" in the February JOURNAL the conclusion is easily reached that the eight-hour day is growing popular with employers. And "still there's more to follow."

The roster of the Society of Typographical Journal Correspondents has been received from Secretary Dirks. Eliminating one or two out this way, it presents quite an array of talent.

The "open shop" theory seems to be losing some of its supporters among the "wise men of the east." Why not? There's nothing to commend it to any man who thinks.

According to Brother Rohr, the editor of the Union Advocate, St. Paul, is also seeking to break into the anvil chorus.

That Los Angeles labor temple scheme looks good, and the stock ought to find a ready sale.

They certainly deal out discipline in large gobs over in Montreal. A hundred dollars for reinstatement looks like it ought to be plenty.

The "boys" on the Boston Post ought to appre ciate the handsome silk umbrellas donated by the publisher at Christmas time. It is convenient to have something one can put up in an emergency.

Brother Chalk, as a member of Boston central labor union's committee on labels and unionizing, ought to make his mark, and no doubt he will.

And Boston is trying to get in line with a woman's auxiliary. Most as slow as Chicago.

Members of No. 8 seem to have been quite successful in plucking political plums. Two of them in the legislature ain't bad.

Phil C. Kenyon, the oldest and one of the largest employers of printers in this city, has been

chosen president of the Commercial Exchange. Mr. Kenyon is an honorary member of No. 118, and a very popular gentleman hereabouts.

The Cummings Memorial committee, still hard at work, is getting to the point where the laying of the cornerstone on May 15 is assured. Is your union in with its share of the expense?

Wouldn't it be a good scheme to double the tax, if necessary, and have THE JOURNAL Come to us twice a month? Prospective delegates, think it

over.

I agree with Brother Kreiter that JOURNAL Cǝrrespondents should discard the nom de plume. To my mind, an article over the writer's name is more satisfactory to the reader than one where a substitute is used to designate the author, and it must be a strange brand of modesty that prompts a writer to conceal his identity behind a "stage name." For example, who is "Uno"? Editor Bramwood knows and I know, but do you know? Toronto is to be congratulated on the completion of the labor temple. Des Moines was at one time in a fair way of having a building of like character, but a pair of unnecessary officials on a fat salary absorbed the entire assets, and resigned when the funds were exhausted.

Brother Coombes mildly reproves the Cleveland correspondent for rapping Toronto. Don't do it again. Remember that when a man has reached the saus-age he is usually at his worst-his Weiner wurst, perhaps, as in this case-as February 2 draws near. Be charitable. The dyspepsia tablets may yet do their work.

Poor Battle Creek! Still fighting for nine hours. Cheer up! The reign of the grape nut is nearing the end.

I notice that Lincoln (Neb.) Union has among its new officials President Coffey and Secretary Strain. This looks like a good combination. J. B. NESBIT.

NEW ORLEANS, LA.

Once again am I on the corner of Camp and Poydras streets, and a member in good standing in Leon's chapel. Thirty-three subs were counted there one afternoon recently, and there were several more who had not shown up, for there are over fifty subs in town, twenty-two of whom are showing up on the Picayune. This is the record breaking winter for New Orleans, and, with the Mardi Gras yet to come, it is expected the number will be swelled considerably. The northern printers who came south this winter thinking they could wear summer underwear and go without an overcoat, find that a warm "benny" is very comfortable here.

Wells Payne, Nick Murray and Frank Smith are now domiciled in Baton Rouge. Wells Payne attended the cotton growers' convention as a delegate. Wells has a genuinely good scheme for the extermination of the boll weevil, which was presented before a committee of the convention in the form of a resolution, but it was pigeon-holed. It appears the method is too radical, or the means are too far advanced, for the thinking people at this early date; but Wells hopes that the next

convention will see the points in a clearer light, as there is a large reward for the successful eradication of the boll weevil, Mr. Payne bids fair to have his name inscribed in the Hall of Fame.

I have been studying considerably on the "monkey motion." Has that anything to do with "The Operator and His Nerves?"

The contingent of Fort Worth (Texas) printers here is quite large this winter. Nearly all of them are holding down the Picayune. Memphis is also well represented, seven being counted.

George Casserleigh, delegate to the central trades and labor council, is agitating the celebration of the twenty-fifth anniversary of its birth, which occurs in November, 1906. Although a long distance off, the idea is being taken up with vigor by the labor leaders in this city. Such a celebration would have a tendency to solidify the union people and would put them on a more friendly footing. As the typographical union does not at this writing belong to the central body, the idea, coming as it does from a printer, will go far toward the promotion of friendly intercourse in the future, and also show that the printers still take an interest in that body.

Quite a number of laboring men in this city have accepted situations in Panama. A number of printers are talking of making the trip from this port in the near future, on purely speculative grounds.

W. D. Robinson has resumed his former position as telegraph editor of the Picayune, having resigned as managing editor of the Memphis Com mercial Appeal.

D. D. Moore, another prominent and worthy member of the typographical union, has been promoted from the telegraph desk to the position of city editor of the Times-Democrat. Every printer is a friend of Dan's, and, of course, we are glad that his worth is appreciated. Still does the printer step forward as the newspaper man.

Robert E. Lee has resigned as commissioner of labor, being ineligible under the state law, which sets forth that no senator or representative shall, during the term for which he was elected, nor for one year thereafter, be appointed or elected to any civil office of profit in the state which may have been created during the time of his incumbency. Lee was a member of the state senate which created the labor commission, being elected in 1900 and retiring in 1904. He is succeeded by Louis Malkus, of Shreveport, a carpenter by trade. It is said Lee will become Malkus' clerk. In fact, it is said to be just a swap of jobs.

W. G. Mitchell, aged thirty-two, died of pneu monia January 23, and was buried in the printers' tomb two days later. Mr. Mitchell was holding a machine on the Picayune and was ill only six days. His sudden death is deeply felt, as he was well liked by all who knew him.

George Briwa, of the Picayune adroom, had the misfortune to lose his father, who was fifty-one years of age, January 26, of locomotor ataxia.

The Times-Democrat's baseball team has been refused admittance to the Merchants' League. Under the able management of John L. Ebaugh, ma

« PreviousContinue »