Strike to Help Jitneys?

1916

Wilkesbarre, Pa., Sept. 10. — A general strike of all crafts of labor, numbering approximately 75,000, is a contingency that faces Wilkesbarre and the Wyoming Valley as the result of efforts of labor union officials to obtain an immediate stay in the enforcement of the city ordinance which jitney owners say will make it impossible for them to continue in business. The result, union leaders say, would be to break the street car strike that has been in effect since October 14, 1915.

Mayor John V. Kosek announced on Friday that the ordinance will go into effect at 6 o'clock tomorrow morning.

—The Fryeburg Post, Fryeburg, Maine, Sept. 12, 1916, p. 7.

Sympathetic Strike Threatened

1916

New York, Sept. 10. — A strike of stage employes, longshoremen, brewery workers, machinists, bartenders, moulders and printers in sympathy with the unionized car men who quit their places four days ago, was decided upon at a meeting of the heads of their unions tonight, according to an announcement by Hugh Frayne, State organizer of the American Federation of Labor.

A resolution was passed calling upon all unionized wage earners in Greater New York, Yonkers, Mount Vernon, White Plains and New Rochelle to sanction a strike "in support of the contention, of the street railway men of their right to organize." The resolution recommends that the workers in the various trades "lay down their tools until the companies are forced to recognize the carmen's union."

According to Frayne approximately 750,000 men and women are enrolled in the unions which were represented at the meeting tonight.

Before a sympathetic strike can be declared, however, the union leaders explained, it will be necessary for them to call mass meetings of their respective unions and put the proposition to a vote of the members.

—The Fryeburg Post, Fryeburg, Maine, Sept. 12, 1916, p. 6.

Bangor Strike Declared Off

Maine, 1916

Bangor, Sept. 9. — Bangor's street car strike, which has been on since Saturday, August 26, was declared off at 5 o'clock tonight by unanimous vote of the two-thirds of the strikers who had remained loyal to the union. The other third had returned to the jobs as individuals during the past two weeks.

The strike, which lasted two weeks, has been accompanied by violence, which cannot be attributed to the strikers. Bricks have been hurled through car windows, granite blocks and sleepers have been placed on car tracks, an imported workman was arrested charged with brandishing a revolver and the feeling on both sides of the controversy has run high. For a time, 80 per cent of the electric car patrons refused to ride on the cars, the electric company carried fewer passengers than ever before. Last Saturday night there was a public demonstration in favor of the strikers.

The strike was declared off by vote of the men following a conference between their leaders and representatives of the Central Labor Union, at which it developed that after September 16, support from the Central Labor Union would be forthcoming.

At the offices of the railway company tonight, it was said that few of the strikers would be taken back, as their places have been filled.

—The Fryeburg Post, Fryeburg, Maine, Sept. 12, 1916, p. 6.

Rival Labor Unions

1916

Copperhill, Tenn., Sept. 23. — Citizens and members of trade unions affiliated with the American Federation of Labor today drove out of Copper Hill the principal leaders of a movement for strengthening organization of the Western Federation of Miners among employees of the Tennessee Copper Company and the Ducktown Sulphur, Copper and Iron Company. At the same time the companies discharged a number of employees said to be members of the Western federation.

Guy Miller of Denver, organizer for the Western federation was seized by a mob of about 200 men, taken to the outskirts of the town, whipped and ordered to leave. J. A. Jones, Miller's local assistant, was taken from his room in a hotel, marched through the streets and forced to swear he would leave town on the next train, which he did.

The western federation, it is claimed has been trying for several months to gain control of the local labor situation but is opposed by the United Mine Workers of America, who have been supported by what is said to be a majority of business men of the Tennessee Copper Field.

To Be Fined for Riding

1916

New York, Sept. 23. — Traction lines of New York upon which a strike has been in progress since September 6, were officially placed upon the "unfair" list today by the conference of the labor leaders which yesterday called for a suspension of work by approximating 600,000 workers to aid the striking car men. Arrangements have been made to picket the subway, elevated and surface lines, it was announced, for the purpose of "discovering the patrons."

Penalties for riding upon these lines will be imposed on members of unions by their respective organizations, it was stated by Ernest Bohm, secretary of the Central Federated Union.

State May Intervene in New York Strike

1916

Governor Whitman in City to Watch Developments in Struggle Between Street Car Men and Companies.

NEW YORK — Efforts at State intervention were expected when the strike of the street car men's union reached its sixth day. The report gained more credence from the fact that Governor Whitman established headquarters here to watch developments.

The danger of a great general strike to help enforce the demands of the traction employes seemed remote in view of the statement that the only unions likely to be involved in such a movement were those directly concerned with the operations of the street cars. Hugh Frayne, State organizer for the American Federation of Labor, who made this assertion, said that if a sympathetic strike were called it probably would not involve more than 60,000 workers. In this class he named engineers, firemen, longshoremen and teamsters.

The strike involves three counties and the residents of Yonkers, Mount Vernon and New Rochelle are entirely without street car service. Every trolley car in Manhattan and the Bronx stood still Monday night and service was resumed on only a fraction of normal schedules.

The Interborough Rapid Transit Company maintains that subway and elevated trains are running regularly, but the strikers declare that they have made inroads in the ranks of the company's motormen. As a result of the limited service on the surface lines, elevated and subway trains are crowded and the suburban service of the New York Central and the New York, New Haven & Hartford railway systems is congested.

Two Killed in Crash.

The first tragedy of the strike occurred when a trolley car, operated by a "green" motorman, got beyond control as it started down a grade at One Hundred and Seventy-fourth street and Boston road, crashing into two jitney buses.

Two persons were killed and nine injured. Four of the injured were so badly hurt that their death was believed to be only a matter of a few hours.

—The Saturday Blade, Sept. 16, 1916, p. 3.

The Douglas Shoe

1900

The best advertised and consequently the best known shoe in the world today is undoubtedly made by the W. L. Douglas Shoe Co., of Brockton, Massachusetts.

The one idea of this company has always been to sell a shoe for $3.50 which equals in every way the $5 shoes of any other concern. They are able to do this on account of there being no middle man's profit, as the goods are sold direct from the factory to the wearer. In 60 of the principal cities of the country they have their own retail stores. The goods are made in all sizes and widths, and few shoes equal them for style and durability.

The factory at Brockton employs over 3,100 hands, and, all labor troubles are settled by the state board of arbitration. Nothing but union labor is employed, and pay is about the best average wages of any shoe workers in the United States. The factory payroll amounts to $17,435 per week. This company makes shoes for men only, and it is their proud boast that over one million men wear them. — Denver (Colo.) Post.


Geese and Sages

One day in presiding at table at his country home in Windsor, Vermont, with a swarm of grandchildren about him, Senator William W. Evarts is said to have asked: "What is the difference between this goose before dinner and me after?" After much futile guessing, he answered, in quiet glee: "Now the goose is stuffed with sage, and soon the sage" — pointing to himself — "will be stuffed with the goose."


Words

In coining such modern words as "telegram," "photography," etc., the Japanese have recourse to the Chinese language, as we do to the Greek.

Overworked Brewery Employees

1886

To the ordinary tramp, who has to obtain his supply of beer by pouring stale stuff from beer kegs in front of saloons into empty tomato cans, from which he quaffs, and runs chances of having the ragged tin cut a hair lip for him, it would seem that the brewery employees, who are allowed unlimited beer free of cost, have a soft thing.

And yet those men, who can drink beer all day without being compelled to put up the regulation nickel, struck for less hours of work and higher wages. To read the accounts in the papers of the amount of beer the workmen about a brewery drink during the day, the reader does not wonder that the men are overworked and asked a reduction of hours.

It is said that some of the men drink forty glasses of beer per day. Considering that they have to walk nearly a block to the extreme end of the brewery yard, where a gentlemanly agent of the brewing company waits upon them without price, it will be seen that considerable valuable time is lost, besides the wear and tear on the men. Of course the brewery employees are able-bodied men, or they could not stand the strain.

Forty glasses of beer put into a stomach in ten hours would seem to be hard enough work for any one man, if he did nothing else. Then the necessity of walking forty blocks and returning to work, makes eighty blocks per day of pedestrian exercise. This of itself is enough to make an ordinary man tired, if he did not have to carry in his overworked stomach forty glasses of beer.

From the statistics it is plain that the brewery laborers are the most overworked of any class of citizens, and something should be done for them. It may be outside the province of the humane society to step in and protect those men, but certainly there should be some organization that can stand between those men and overwork. What is the matter with the temperance societies, in taking hold of this grievance? If the temperance societies are true to their motto, of "Faith, Hope and Charity," they will see a chance to do a great work.

Let each society detail enough of its members to man a brewery, and do all the work. This would leave the regular employees with nothing to do but walk back and forth between the places where the temperance apostles are at work, and the place where the beer is given away. The temperance people could work for nothing, for Charity; they could have Faith that the regular brewery men would draw their salary all right; and Hope they would have a good time.

If the temperance people kick on this idea, it is possible the brewers might employ temperance men to make the beer and do the work, discharge the old employees who strike, and thus save oceans of beer. But if it is impracticable to employ temperance people, and the brewers feel that things must go right along as before, they can save at least the time that the men lose in marching on the beer keg forty times a day, and save the wear and tear on the men, by a simple device which The Sun will suggest.

Each man could be provided with a coil of hose, the small rubber hose such as is used on infants' nursing bottles. A reel could be fixed on the back of each laborer, containing enough of the small rubber pipe to reach from a central tank of beer to any part of the brewery, with a spring, so that when the pipe is uncoiled, and the laborer returns toward the tank, the slack will be taken up on the reel. A nozzle could be arranged near the mouth of the overworked laborer, so that he could take his sustenance at any moment, wherever he happened to be.

Of course a hundred men with hose reels on their backs would look odd at first, but the oddity would soon wear off. Some may think that the employees of a brewery should pay for their beer, the same as bakers pay for the bread in a bakery where they work, shoemakers pay for their shoes, and journeymen tailors pay for their clothes, but this would be plainly a violation of the constitution of the United States. The strike of the brewery laborers has shown that they are the beat treated of any class of laborers in the country. The only thing the public wonders at is that the brewing companies have not been compelled by their employees to give them a house and lot and horse and buggy each. — Peck's Sun.

Yap to be Given to Jap?

1920

Senate Asks Confirmation of British Announcement

WASHINGTON, D.C., March 25. -- A resolution asking President Wilson for information as to the recent announcement by the British foreign minister that the island of Yap, in the Pacific Ocean, was to be given to Japan, was adopted by the Senate without debate. It was offered by Senator Lodge. The island is the focal point, it is said, for three Pacific cables, vital to American business interests in the far east.


Pallbearers Form a Union

NASHVILLE, Tenn., March 25. -- An application for charter has been made to Romans Hailey, clerk of the County Court here, by R. H. Bumpass of Mason, Fayette County, and others, for a new labor union, to be known as "The Independent Pallbearers Society." The application is being held up, pending investigation of the purposes of the organization.


Not Prince, Mere Mr. Smith

But Man Mistaken for Wales Writes an Autograph

LONDON, England, March 25. -- The Prince of Wales seems to have doubles in England.

In the company of two officers, a man entered a moving picture theater the other day. A lady sitting near the door arose, bowed and presented the eternal autograph book. The man took the book and with a serene countenance wrote "J. J. Smith," and handed back the volume with a gracious bow.

It was not the prince.

--The Saturday Blade, Chicago, March 27, 1920, page 1.