Rensselaer Republican, Volume 18, Number 37, Rensselaer, Jasper County, 20 May 1886 — INDUSTRIAL NOTES. [ARTICLE]

INDUSTRIAL NOTES.

The business failures in the United States and Canada for tte week numbered 176. against 192 the previous week... It is claimed by tte leaders of the eight-hour movement at Chicago that 150 manufacturers and contractors in the city have conceded the demands of tte men fer eight boms. Sorqe of those who have conceded are paying for eight hours, some for nine, and otters for ten. About one-third of the employes in tte southwestern lumber district were at work Monday, and business was resumed in all the yards. A large number of the planing mills had also started np, but they were not fuljv manned. The furniture

manufacturers were firm in their refusal to make any concessions. The metal-workers were still holding out for eight-hours. Thirty-five of the manufacturers had shut down and sixteen, mostly small shops, were -running on eight hours. The Pullman employes stood firm in their demands, and Mr. Pullman threatened to close, the mammoth works indefinitely unless the men returned to work. To give in. to the strikers, he claimed, would eausa a. loss to management of S9OO a duv, $5,400 a week,or $270,800 a year. Tho strikers have lost over SBO,OOO the ten days the v have already given to the strike ... Thirty-fonr of the forty-six upholstery firms in Chicago, employing 383 men, have adopted the eight-hour system with ten hours ’pay and 20 per tent, increase for pieoawork. The twelve outstanding-firms are practically closed. In Pittsburgh the system is in general use, and in New York seventy-two firms, employing 030 men, have complied witn the demand.... Secret petitions are circulating among Pennsylvania railroad employes asking a general advance in wages of 10 per cent. The movement, it is claimed, is backed by the Knights of Labor, and is to’ include both passenger and freight men and all the men in the yards.., .The masons and hodcarriers of Worcester, Mass., have abandoned their strike, and will seek work individually. Good workmen among the masons will get $3 per day. The new men who were hired during the strike will be retained.... There is not much cohesion to the strike movement in Cincinnati now, except among the furniture-makers and safe-makers. Two of the three regiments of militia sjnt there have gone home ... The bricklayers and hod-earliers of Troy, N. Y., have returned to work, the bosses acceding to the demand of the strikers that the eight-hour day be begun at 7a. m. and end at 4p. m... .Of the 5,100 union furniture workers in New York City there are 3,034 working on the eight-hour basis and 1,100 .are locked out ami ou strike. The bosses are preparing to compel ten hours work all around.... Special telegrams to Bradutreel’a Journal, of New York, indicate that the industrial agitation in favor of fewer hours’ work daily has largely disappeared elsewhere than at Chicago, ‘ At New York it has been a practical failure, while at Chicago the attitude of manufacturers in several - leading lines in locking out some 47,000 employes who demanded a shorter working day promises to arrest the progress of the movement.