Jasper County Democrat, Volume 5, Number 14, Rensselaer, Jasper County, 12 July 1902 — Labor World [ARTICLE]

Labor World

The United States produces 29 per Cent of the world’s coal. New York laborers want 35 cents an hour, and double price for overtime. Syracuse, N. Y., garment workers, numbering 1,500, struck for the ninehour day. Mrs. Anna B. Fields Is president of the Trades and Labor Council of Elwood, Ind. Five thousand men employed in the building trades In Denver, Colo., went out on strike for the eight-hour day. The tobacco trust gives employment to 35,000 work people, none of whom belong to the Tobacco Workers’ Union. It Is told that the gross membership of the labor organizations who are connected with the American Federation of Labor exceeds 1,000,000. The Dominion Transport Company of Montreal, granted its 200 carters $1.50 per day with extra money for overtime. This is an increase of 00 cents a week. The Amalgamated Society of Engineers, whose headquarters are in Loudon, England, had a membership at the end of last year of 00,943, and the cash balance on hand, $2,401,784. Greater New York has about 150,000 organized wage workers In the five boroughs of the city, and It is expected that at least half of them will turn out In the Labor Day parade in September. Brooklyn Bakers’ Union wages ate S2O a week, with 3t? cents au hour for working overtime, for men working at ovens, and $lO a week, with 30 cents an hour for overtime for men working at the benches. Brockton, Mass., is the largest shoe city in the world, producing about $25,000,000 worth of shoes iu a year. It also pays the highest wages In the world, the average at present being $590 a year, or 20 per cent higher than its nearest competitor. The highest paid officials of a labor union iu Chicago are those of the Bricklayers aud Stone Masons’ Union. The wages of the president, secretary and the two business agents have been advanced $1 a week ami are now SO. $5 and $4 a day, respectively. Chicago is to have one of the largest electric plants in the world. It Is to be built by tlie Commonwealth Elec trie Company. It will cost $6.»K)0,000, and have a capacity of 100.000 horse power. Its construction will cover a period of of five or six years, involving annually an expenditure of $1,000,000. All the section foremen and laborers working for the Canadian Pacific anil Canadian Northern Railway companies In Manitoba and Assinabola are organizing. Since the trackmen’s great victory on the Canadian Pacific, divisions of the Brotherhood have been organized at Winnipeg, Belmont, Portage la Prairie and Minnedosa. Thirty years ago the census found only four plants in the whole country for the manufacture of ice, and they were all located in the Southern States. In 1900 the number had Increased to 787 (not counting concerns which manufacture ice for their own use exclusively), and only about one-half of them are located in the South. Since 1890 the amount of capital Invested in this industry has increased from $9,840,468 to $38,204,054, or liy 288 per cent; while the value of the product has increased from $4,900,983 to $13,574.513, or by 183 per cent.