Democratic Sentinel, Volume 11, Number 19, Rensselaer, Jasper County, 10 June 1887 — LABOR AND INDUSTRY. [ARTICLE]

LABOR AND INDUSTRY.

The Chicago Lockout—Doings of the Knights of Labor in Various Sections. The Industrial Situation—Points of' Interest in the Labor Horizon. The Chicago‘Strike.! The great lock-out in the building trades continues at Chicago. Both sides are stubborn, and assert th-ir determination toprolong the fight through tbe entire building season rather than yield. There are 12,000 unskilled laborers, 10,000 brickmakers, 5,000 hod-canieis, and 10,000 bricklayers involved in the lock-out. The Knight* of Tabor. There are now nearly 10,700 local assemblies of Knights—that is, that number' of charters have been issued. The lowa farmers are coming into the order steadily. The Titusville Knights are building a hall. New assemblies are being organized in Virginia. Catholics are joining the Knights in large numbers in Canada since the issne of the notice that Knights might receive the sacrament. Another national district is being formed of painters, wall-paper hangers, brushmakers and kindred trades in New York and some other Eastern c.ties. The Knights of Labor lecturers aregreatly encouraged in the West with the development of a more intelligent comprehension of the purposes of the order. The Western Knights take more interest in lectures, libraries, books, papers, etc, than do those of the Eastern States. Mrs. Emma Smith is Master Workman of an assembly of female stitchers in Chicago. District Assembly No. 24, of Chicago, will have an excursion and picnic on June 27. The Chicago ship-carpenters expect soon to have an assembly of their own. The Maryland Knights meet in State Convention on June 27 at Baltimore. Industrial and Labor Notes. The English are doing some superior work in steel crank shafting. One shaft has just been turned out which weighs sixly-six tone. Steel bars are turned out in English steel works which bear a tensible strain of twenty-eight to sixty-five tons per square inch. They make forged steel which stands a strain of from twenty-eight to eighty-seven tons per square inch. Natural gas has closed down all th® coal mines around Johnstown, Pa., and hat caused a sudden collapse of values in such coal properties, whose owners have for years been marking up tne nominal values. The Cambria Company has extensive coal leases which are now comparatively valueless. The Chinese Government has ordered from a Birmingham (England) firm ninety noiseless automatic presses, which have a capacity of coining 2,700,000 pieces per day of ten hours. They are to be ready in one year. The Royal Mint of London has sixteen of the same kind. The development of rich coal-beds in the far Northwest threatens to revolutionize the mining industry. One vein six feet thick has been found. There is a great boom in mining operations, and milling machinery makers are ip receipt of large orders for quijk delivery. Every large manufacturing center in France has a technical educational establishment. Five hundred scholarships have been established at an annual Government expense of $150,000. Germany is far ahead of France in the matter of technical education. The two great copper-producing companies in the Northwest are greatly increasing their capacity. The capital of the Anaconda has been increased to $20,0(10,000, and the Calumet and Hecla has increased its output capacity thirty per cent. Silver and gold mining is attracting more capital. The silver production has increased in the ratio of $39 in 1880 to ssl in 1886. Silver production has increased throughout the world from $62,000,000 in 1872 to $124,000,000 in 1886. Three Ontario weavers have invented a process for weaving cloths of mixed materials so that they shall be inseparably woven, showing one surface of hemp or jute, and the other of cotton or wool. At a meeting of the United Labor party of Denver a resolution was passed to buy tents and camp out altogether on account of the 20 per cent, advance in rents without a corresponding advance in wages. Steelmakers are busy in foreign countries and ironmakers are finding less and less to do. The discharged workmen are seeking for work, and see no remedy but in other and unfamiliar employment. Great interest is shown by the wageworkers of Indiana in the United Labor party. Eighty connties in Ohio have been organized, and Gen. Weaver is making a tour of the State. Contracts have been placed for two steamboats for Lake Chautauqua. They are to have a guaranteed speed ofi, twentytwo miles an hour. The work will be done at the Cleveland Rolling-Mills. A building and loan association established in Milwaukee, with a capital of $5,000,000, to build power for mechanics and laborers. Capital is being attracted in that direction. The people of Buffalo expect soon to have a supply of gas for domestic purposes. The success of the Western building and loan associations has led to much more building of small houses than would have been possible without that system of mutual banking. A party of English capitalists have made extensive mineral investments near Cumberland Gap, Ky., with a view to coal development and the building of iron works. All manufacturing firms and corporations using scrip in Pennsylvania must hereafter file returns showing the amount of scrip issued, and pay a 10 per cent, tax on it. The New England house-builders are making no effort to advance wages. Employers are putting up a great many small houses, which they will sell on easy terms. The Western miners expect to re-estab-lish satisfactory rates of wages, although the temporary dullness in the markets makes employers less willing and anxious. Out of the 95,000 strikers during May 40,000 were in the building trades, 13,000 coke makers, and 8,700 stove-molders.