man, and will cause the fair-minded man outside of the unions to be filled with disgust at the deliberate misrepresentation indulged in. More power to you, C. W. Post. While your manifestoes of freedom in the advertising columns of the daily papers do not prove that grape-nuts is very much of a brain food, yet we feel that if we had a few more like you the organization of all workmen into labor unions would be only a matter of a short time. We're hoping that your money lasts for many more. "Proclamations of Freedom."

THE proposed "industrial union," which is being promoted by a few malcontents in the western part of the country, and which is plainly an attempt to disrupt the American Federation of Labor, received rather a severe jolt at the hands of the Texas State Federation of Labor. A representative of the disruptionists appeared at the meeting and asked the privilege of the floor. When it was found that he wished to deliver a long tirade against Gompers, Mitchell and others prominent in the labor movement, he was unanimously denied the privilege. A circular setting forth the action of the convention in the case was compiled and forwarded to the headquarters of all national and international unions. There is a refreshing frankness about the way they do things in Texas.

FAVORS THE UNION SHOP.

Labor Commissioner McMackin, of New York, recently submitted his fourth annual report to the legislature of that state. In the course of the document the commissioner takes occasion to laud the union shop as against the so-called open shop. Some of his views on this subject follow:

The tendency of some of the associations to make an issue against the union shop has caused apprehension; but those who realize the power of public opinion as a regulating force on industrial relations do not fear the outcome. So rapid has been the education of the general public in the merits of the principle of trade unionism since the coal strike of 1902 that the attempt to discredit that principle under the guise of establishing an open shop has signally failed. The public has seen that a union shop may be a truly open shop, seeing as the union itself is open to all competent workmen; whereas the non-union shop, in which every workman is compelled to drive a bargain single

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handed with the employer, becomes more often than not a sweat shop. With the union's power broken, the just and humane employer is powerless to keep wages and hours up to the former union standard in the face of the competition of wage cutting rivals. The attempt of some enployers' associations to prejudge the whole case by calling the union shop a closed shop as opposed to the so-called open shop, which was said to defend the American idea of freedom of opportunity, misled the public for a short time only. The discussion carried on during the past year very quickly showed the folly of the argument based on such misuse of terms. The National Civic Federation conference in New York threw much light on the question. In academic circles there came a new understanding of the real worth of trade unionism through the discussion of the pros and cons of the open shop in intercollegiate debates.

FIVE years ago the Granite Cutters' Unions inaugurated the eight-hour day, and that it has proved a success, from the standpoint of both employer and employe, is shown by the following editorial in the Granite Cutters' Journal:

Practically the fifth year of the conditional 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, and 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.

UNDER the heading, "Industrial Archaism," Frank K. Foster, of Boston, discusses the establishment of a branch of "that secret and sinister society known as the Citizens' Alliance" in the Hub. His article was printed in the Boston American. "Without doubt," says Mr. Foster, "the extremist has a certain value in the social equation, if only as an object lesson by means of which people of sane tendencies may observe for themselves where truth is not."

THE SHORTER WORKDAY.

C. L. Baine, in an article in the Boston Sunday Globe, says:

The shorter workday is not a phantasm, born of the growing power of trade unionism. It is the inevitable and progressive tendency of civilization; and civilization itself has been, and will continue to be, given an uplifting impetus by the establishment of the progressive shorter hours' workday. There is not, to my knowledge, a single employer, who has given the shorter workday a fair trial, who desires to return to the longer workday; and those countries whose work people are compelled to work the greatest number of hours each day, in order to sustain life at the economic point of subsistence, are at the foot of civilization.

By the way, how many arguments have you ever seen printed in favor of longer hours that were not inspired by dollars and cents? It is true that occasionally some one breaks out with the old assertion that if the workman is employed from dawn to dark he will not have so much time to hang around bar rooms, but this "argument" is such an insult to the great body of workers who comprise the nation that it is never given much publicity. The eight-hour day will ruin nobody. The idea that a reduction of an hour or even two hours in the day's toil would mean the wiping out of all profit is ridiculous in the face of the immense fortunes that are being accumulated by the leading industries of the country. And if these enormous fortunes are the profit which accrues from the extra hour employes toil, we are certainly worthy of a little share of the profits.

GOVERNMENT OWNERSHIP OF RAILROADS.

An experiment in government ownership of railroads will shortly be undertaken by the United States. The United States is the owner of the Panama railroad, having purchased all the outstanding stock of that company. It is announced on good authority that, as the owner of the line, the government will at the earliest possible moment throw the railroad open to every one, and make rates much lower than those now in existence. This can not be done until July, when the contract between the Panama railroad and the Pacific Mail Steamship Company expires. For about fifty years this little road, with its fifty miles of track, has been one of the bonanza transportation

properties of the world. It has been the controlling factor in all American transcontinental rates, and its owners profited immensely from the combinations that have existed from time to time.

The experiment will be watched with deep interest by all who have advocated government ownership of public utilities. The United States government will enjoy a monopoly of the railroad business in this particular part of the world, as no competing lines exist, and none will be permitted to build. Enjoying this monopoly, there will be no necessity of offering inducements to shippers for their patronage in the shape of rebates, etc.

THE KANSAS STATE PRINTING PLANT.

THOMAS A. MCNEAL, the state printerelect of Kansas, who will have charge of the new printing plant of that state, expects to make it an open shop. In support of his resolve he says:

In the operation of the state plant I don't see how it is possible for the state officially to recog nize the typographical union. I do not believe the state has authority to make a contract with the union, like private concerns have.

It is my idea that the state should pay the union scale of wages to all its printers. The union scale is none too high. A skilful printer is worth all the union says he shall be paid. I don't think in these times that a man can live comfortably and support a family on any less than the union printers get. Therefore, I shall pay the union scale in the state plant. But the state has no right to enter into a contract to pay union wages and employ union printers any more than it has to enter into a contract to employ none but Methodists or Scottish Rite Masons.

The gentleman's logic seems to THE JOURNAL to be rather loose. He fails to see the difference between a trade union that has its labor to sell and a religious sect or a fraternal order that is not in the market with anything. The state wishes to buy some labor. The typographical union has labor to sell. The Masonic lodge has not. Neither has the Methodist church. Who should be dealt with? President Gompers, of the American Federation of Labor, recently discussed this question of the right of a state to make contracts with a labor union. Along the line of President Gompers's argument the state would be perfectly justified in entering into such an agreement. He brought

out this idea: "Suppose the state has to let some of its work to a private firm. In awarding this contract the state would be discriminating against all other firms that were competent to do the work." The typographical union is in the market with the services of its members. Why should a state hesitate at entering into an agreement with the union any more than it would at making a contract with a certain firm to the exclusion of all other firms?

WE steal the following from The Fourth Estate:

A German editor has hit upon a new idea in practical journalism. He is mindful of the utility of his paper for making parcels, and especially for tying up sausage. So he addresses his feminine patrons in these terms:

"You have often complained to us, dear readers, and especially dear housewives, that our paper smells of printer's ink, and is therefore unsuitable for carrying butter, sausages and fresh bread.

"Eager to meet your wishes, dear friends and household fairies, we have decided to publish twice a week an issue which will be printed only on one side, so that the other will be available for those domestic uses. And in order that you shall lose no reading matter, these particular numbers will be double the ordinary size."

This has the patent inside beat a city block. We have in mind certain papers that would do well to adopt the frugal German's idea, and go him one better by running both sides blank. The general tone of such papers would be improved immensely.

IGNORANCE is the greatest enemy the trade union has to fight-ignorance of the true purposes of organized labor, ignorance of the benefits secured to the workingman, both union and non-union; ignorance of the great and just principles upon which the movement is founded. It is a notable fact that the thinkers of the world recognize these truths, and as a consequence are lending their tongues and pens to the encouragement of organized labor. The ignorance we must cope with is not in the high places, but is found in the great mass of the socalled "disinterested public." We are all familiar with the corner-grocery philosopher who is "agin" unions. He is usually a fellow who has little knowledge of labor conditions from actual experience. Rather, he forms his half-baked opinions from what

he "seen in the paper the other day." He is long on quoting the declaration of independence and extolling on equal rights. There is not much use in arguing with this individual. He forms his opinions from reading the daily press reports-and we union men sadly realize that the "news" sent out by the great press bureaus is ofttimes anything but fair to our cause. We know that public opinion has been prejudiced time and again by misleading reports spread throughout the country by the press associations. Little else can be expected, when it is known that the stockholders in these great press associations are also stockholders in large corporations that are unfriendly to organized labor.

JAMES P. LEWIS, secretary-treasurer of Cheboygan (Mich.) Union No. 632, recently delivered an address before Pomona Grange, comprised of the several farmers' granges of that district. Mr. Lewis made it clear to his audience that the interests of the farmer and the wage worker in the city are closely interwoven, and that upon the standard of wages paid in the city depends the price the farmer will receive for his products. He explained that the unions were the only force that held wages where they are. In regard to the general supposed antipathy of the agricultural class to the labor union movement, Mr. Lewis said:

I have been informed that the majority of our farmers are prejudiced against labor unions, due principally to the fact that their knowledge of them is derived largely from the biased accounts of labor disturbances as published by the daily pa pers of the big cities, for there is seldom a dispute between capital and labor but that the tendency of the big dailies is to throw all the responsibility on the workers and make them appear as anarchists, law breakers, and enemics of society.

ORGANIZER DOLAN, in writing of the working of the eight-hour day in Salem, Ohio, says: "It might interest the members to know that the News job office of Salem did $21 worth more of work under the eight-hour day in the first month of its adoption than in the preceding month in nine hours."

THE people who trust to luck are lucky to get trust.-Ex.

January 1, 1906, until May, 1907, and $18 for the last year of the contract, which was made for three years. Organizer McLoughlin was tendered a vote of thanks by Troy Union for his assistance during the negotiations.

IN the May JOURNAL, in giving a synopsis of the new scale of Slavonic Union of New York, an error was made. The minimum scale is $14; bookwork, $16, and jobwork, $17, and not $14, as was stated. The rest of the provisions are as given in last month's JOURNAL, with the EIGHT-HOUR day beginning October I.

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TROUBLE in adjusting a wage agreement caused a strike in the Courier and News offices at Connellsville, Pa., twenty men being involved. Organizer Dolan was sent to help adjust the disagreement. Strike benefits were allowed the men from April 28 to May 4, when the matter was adjusted, the employes being granted an increase in wages of 12 per cent on regular time and about 35 per cent on overtime. This is an EIGHTHOUR town.

JOSEPH R. BUCHANAN, an oldtime member of the International Typographical Union, and at present connected with the New York Newspaper Writers' Union, is contributing many interesting editorials to the New York Journal. The article quoted in last month's JOURNAL, in reference to the delegates to the New York Central Labor Union abusing those at the head of the labor movement, was from the pen of Mr. Buchanan.

A GREAT deal is being said nowadays by the daily press about the labor union preventing the boy from learning a trade. The labor union is the only influence in the country that works toward a regulation of apprentices and the systematic training of them. What chance has a boy to learn a trade in the Parry buggy shop, for instance, where he is put on a certain class of worksay, polishing spokes-and kept there until he has outgrown his $1.50 a week salary, and has to quit and make room for another boy?

Reading Notices

THE Union Collar Company, of Cadillac, Mich., is deserving of the patronage of union men. The directors of this company were members of the cutters' union at Troy during the lockout in 1901, and, being unable to procure positions, they started in business for themselves. Considering the fact that there is a lockout of the employes in the collar factories in Troy at the present time, it would be well to ask your dealer for the goods of the Union Collar Company. They manufacture the Labor Brand collars and cuffs and the Angelus Brand white shirts.

THE attention of JOURNAL readers is called to the ad of the Battle Creek Breakfast Food Company in this issue. This concern manufactures Egg-O-See, a high-class breakfast food. They employ union labor in every department of their factory and put the union label on every package of the product turned out. What a contrast to another breakfast food we might mention!

You can keep both your conscience and your hands clean by using Puck's Soap. It's union made. Read their ad in this issue of THE JOURNAL and then send for some the next time your chapel buys soap.

PRINTERS should write to the Standard Rule Company, 186 East Thirty-first street, Chicago, for their circular of brass line type gauges. They are good things for job and

news men.

THE descriptive catalogue just issued by the Monotype Company is one of the handsomest pieces of work of that character that has come to the notice of THE JOURNAL.

AN exchange says that when the justices of the supreme court file into the courtroom to begin a session an officer announces: "Hear ye! hear ye! the supreme court of the United States is now in session!" And then, as if inspired with prophetic vision or foreboding, he cries: "God save the United States!"