Rensselaer Republican, Volume 19, Number 38, Rensselaer, Jasper County, 26 May 1887 — OUR INDUSTRIES. [ARTICLE]

OUR INDUSTRIES.

Among the Mills, Mines, and Furnaces —Points of Interest in the Labor Horizon. Notes Gathered from Workshops, Mines, Railroads, and Other Busy Places. The Chicago Strike and Lockout. In Chicago, the chief seat of trade disturbances in this country, a strike of the bricklayers has been answered by a lockout on the part of their employers. As immediate results not only are many thousands of workingmen threatened with loss of employment, but great business interests intimately associated with the city’s welfare are endangered. In its origin the quarrel was of comparatively small moment. The bricklayers demanded that payday be changed from Tuesday to Saturday, and that a slight advance be made in wages, threatening a general strike if their demands should not be complied with. Instead of yielding, the Master Builders’ Association responded with a circular ordering a complete suspension of work. It is estimated that by this combined movement of strike and lockout no fewer than 50,000 workingmen will be thrown out of employment. Moreover, as is usual in such cases, among the worst sufferers will be multitudes of families whose heads have not had the slightest share in originating the conflict. In behalf of the master builders the claim is made that this extreme measure of a lockout was taken in self-defense. The suspension of business operations in itie most favorable season of the year for btlilding will be accompanied by great losses, and for this reason the builders say they would not have resorted to a lockout except from the necessity of resisting arrogant dictation on the part of their employes. To the Bricklayers’ Association belong nearly all the bricklayers and masons of Chicago. It is a local guild that has no connection with either of the national organizations of labor. Strange workingmen are not admitted to the association, and the certificates of membership of other Idbor unions are not recognized. Resident masons and bricklayers, whether belonging to the organization or not, must pay into its treasury an initiation fee of $75 for the privilege of working at the high wages paid in Chicago. There are other rules of the association under which the master builders have chafed, and when the last demand was made upon them they determined upon resistance. This is the excuse given by the master builders of Chicago for a lockout which, if continued for the season, must be attended by the most serious consequences.

Knights ot Labor. The Xew Haven Knights will form a cooperative association to run a grocery store. A ladies’ assembly of Knights has just been organized in Wheeling. The Cincinnati Knights are to hold a grand picnic at Bailor Grove, June 20. John AY. Hayes, of the General Executive Board, has received $5,000 for the loss of an arm while employed by the Pennsylvania Railroad Company several years ago. The Holliday (.Pa.) Knights will shortly start a cooperative store with a capital of $15,000. Isaiah Tuppins, the colored man, was elected Mayor of Glennville, Ohio, by the Knights. Some bricklayers of Chesterton, Ind., have started a co-operative brick yard at Porter Station,wh'ch will employ 350 men when working full. The Chicago boot and shoe Knights have organized a co-oper-ative shopwith $25,000 capital. The no- - torious Mrs; Parsons is a member of Assembly No. 1724, Jersey City. The San Diego (California) Knights elected a full ticket at the recent election. District Assembly No. 41, of Baltimore, now includes the entire State of Maryland. A Mississippi assembly fines any member caught intoxicated, $2 for the first offense and $5 for the second, and for the third offense the penalty is expulsion. « Indiana’s Big Gas Tlooni. The discovery of natural gas in Indiana, at various and distant points with varying pressures, indicates a multiplicity of reservoirs that are but feebly connected with one another, if, indeed, they be connected at ail. The first well struck in Indiana has been giving, out 2,000,000 cubic feet per day, and since then two other wells have been bored in the- immediate vicinity, from which still greater volumes are obtained. AVell known as No. 2, which was struck on the 31st of November, has been flowing ever since at a rate of 6,000,000 cubic feet per dav. It is 916 feet 6 inches deep. AVeR No f 3 is 912 feet deep, and flows 7,000,000 cubic feet per day. Manufacturing enterprises will be transplanted to that locality as soon as possible. Influx of Foreign Labor. The extraordinary influx of foreign labor threatens in time to affect the rate of wages paid. The majority of the new-comers are seeking agricultural employment, and will in time become valuable consumers for our shop and mill products. The rush will continue for months to come, and it will be some time after the inducements disappear before the rush will be over. Skilled labor is anxious to escape from Europe ) and Great Britain as common or farm labor, and more or less correspondence is going on between the trades unions on both sides relative to opportunities here. Industrial and Labor Notes. A $1,001),066 company, composed largely of Philadelphians, is about introducing a incandescent light system at St. Louis. A'slbt>,t)oo tack and nail company is about business at East rSt. Louis, a $106,000 company has been organized for manufacturing hay-knives at East AVilton, Me., A Buffalo scale company has just booked a contract for sixteen 90,000? pound scales. The Cleveland ship-yards are overrun 'with boat orders. A Reading foniictpr instr MQivcpQ-Rn QTnpi* for tine very large cotton,presses. The first one to be made will weigh 150 tons. The Bethlehem Irian Company has 800 men on its payrolls. , , _ ', The steam engine manufacturing compantesthroughout the East are all .running., a full force of men, and the managers report flattering prospects. A new cottonmill is to be built at Holyoke, 344 feet long by 88 feet wup, wfiicli‘wHl have 30,- . 000 spindles. The weavers of‘Fall River, Mass., are about forming an organization similar to the Spinners’ Union. AV saving has been advanced 121 per cent. >t the Troy blanket-mills. A Manchester cottonmill company has just put in a 1,000-horse power engine. A new silk-mill has just been started in,Mansfield, Conn. Rail makers and the manufacturers of railway material generally are predicting an improving demand.for material, on account of the steady increase of earnings on the leading railroads. The improving commercial reports are also stimulating confidence, and leading to an enlargement of industrial operations. The reports of earnings of thirty-eight railroad companies

V • ! for the first quarter of the year show an increase of 21 per cent, over 1886. The Schuylkill region has 120 employing 30,500 miners, who mine 9,000.000 tons of coal and are paid $11,000,000 annually in wages. There are fifty-two collieries in, the Lehigh region, employing 13,0b0 miners, and in the Wyoming region there are 109 collieries, employing 39,000 workers who are paid $14,000,000. There are in all 281 collieries, employing 83,000 men, who earn $30,000,000 per year. General Francis A. Walker, in a recent article on the sources of business profits, holds that profits do not enter into the price of produce, and are hot obtained by de- ’ duction from the wages of labor. Iff an article on the “Socialists” he claims that no permanent unity can be maintained among the people who advocated socialistic views. Real estate matters are very active in St. Paul, the aggregate of dealings for the first four months of this year amounted to $22,000,000, as against $7,000,000 for the same time last year. The building permits so far this year call for an expenditure of $2,000,000, against $1,250,000 for the same time last year. ■ • The American .cheese manufacturers find their Scotch market leaving them. fc Last year’s imports at Glasgow were 3,642 tons, as against 7,201) tons in 1884. The cheese makers are told they must' manufacture more carefully and take more pains in shipping. The result of the active demand for satinets has been a large increase in the demand for shoddy suitable for such goods. The use of sirqddy and wool extract has increased during the last four years, owing to the competition and low price -of goods. The New York workingmen are nearly all busily employed, and since the Ist of May have won a good many small strikes involving questions of unionism and wages. There is an increased demand for machinists and mechanical labor of. all kinds in' the West and Northwest. Wages have been advanced in a good many shops. Building operations are still greatly delayed at Omaha, and contractors are put about. Workmen were sent for to Kansas City, but the Knights there were on guard. The St. Louis printers expect to secure i the nine-hour day after Sept. 1, and be- : lieve that it will be enforced geuera’ly by ! the International Union. The wages of lumbermen will likely be advanced during the coming season. The lumbermen are compactly organized, and are working in harmony. The brickmakers of Terre Haute, Ind., have decided to introduce molds into the union brick-yard that will leave upon each brick the union imprint. A new mill, to cost $275,0( 0, is to be built at’ Fall River, and will have 2(),offi) spindles, to be used for the manufacture of yarn for the hosiery trade. A $1,000,000 malleable iron works is to be erected at Nashville; a bridge wotks at Rome, and a rolling-mill at Florence, to cost $150,000. Tlie Somerset Iron Works, in Massachusetts, which cost $250,000, are offered for $80,600. The Union Labor party of New York will hold a State convention at ETmira, June 15. All of the 200 union brewers of San Francisco have been discharged.