Rensselaer Republican, Volume 20, Number 8, Rensselaer, Jasper County, 27 October 1887 — TRADE AND LABOR. [ARTICLE]

TRADE AND LABOR.

Fhiladnlphia Heeord. / A Springfield (Ill.) rolling-mill has shut down for want of coal. One of th® latest industries organised in St. Louis is a toy manufacturing concern. . i— - ~ „ A syndicate of capitalists will erect a large blast furnace in Duluth under the management of a Philadelphian. So far this month the strikers number 7,685; nearly one-half of these were brass-workers in New York and Brooklyn. A Massachusetts shovel manufactory has been removed to’Terre Haute, Ind., where it will turn out 150 dozen shovels per day. It is alleged that Cincinnati furniture manufacturers have formed a combinacion to pay their engineers no more than st"a day. Gasoline stoves are in great demand all over the West. A large company has just been organized in St, Louis to manufacture them. The labor organizations generally are somewhat undecided at present whether to encourage strikes for eight hours next year or to let well enough alone. A $5,000,000 Springfield, O , company has bought 68,000 acres of coal, ore and timber land in Kentucky, which will develop, and then build rail roads over it. There is an ugent demand for original designing talent among textile manufacturers of the country, and designers of established reputation are very highly paid. The manufacturers of all kinds of glass expect a little sharper competition next year on account of a great increase of manufacturing capacity. The say, however, that prices cannot legitimately decline. The interchange of machinery parts, which is so common in all American workshops, was suggested and introduced by a man named Root, who worked in Colt’s pistol factory, and who was made superintendent at a salary of SIO,OOO a year. Labor organizations are increasing steadily. The Federation of Labor is gaining ground quietly, and is increasing in membership faster than the Knights of Labor. There are no factional disturbances, no complaints about assessments, no interference of the central authority with lock!, but general harmony prevails between the various branches of the federation. On account of the rapid expansion of our manufacturing capacity the machine shops of the country continue to be exceptionally busy, and as a consequence prices have begun to move up. This is welcome news to the machine makers, as for years past they have been doing work on very narrow margins. Valuable anthracite coal finds are being made on the Northern Pacific coast. One district is said to possess the richest coal measures in the world. One vein is fourteen feet thick, another thirty feet an 1 another twelve feet. All these seams are within of TOO yards. There are seven coal seams in all. ___ Architects report that the prospects are for a larger amount of building during the coming winter than last winter on account of the alteration of residences in cities for store purposes and the large amount of improvement in dwellings. In this city alterations have been carried on on a larger scale than for years. A great deal of work is now in handr The industrial reports from newspapers throughout the Northwest show a hastening forward of all kinds of enterprises on account of the near approach of cold weather. In many shopfejvork is being kept up until 10 or 11 cWock. In some mills it is a common thing to have day and night work. A good many new shops are being built, and will be ready for machinery by February, and for operation by April 1. More or less labor is constantly flocking southward, but the demand there is for special kinds of skill, such as founders, machinists, workers in wood, makers of railway appliances, stovemakers and the like. There are also a good many lumber workers finding employment in the yel low pine and cypress regeions of the South. Southern white labor is willing to work and is steadily falling in. Negro labor comes in rather more slowly and as as a rule less Reliable owing to the irregular habits under the old cotton growing regime. The movement fora Saturday half holiday in New York is a failure. Employers say that margins will not allow a half holiday at this time, as competition was never so sharp, but admit that if general the half holiday would be endurable. Enlightened employers and persons of a philanthropic turn of mind are urging that a more generous sympathy should be created between employers and employes; that this would do more to lessen the friction than strong protective organizations. One Lowell corporation treats its 500 employes to a day’s excursion, The demand for all kinds of skilled and unskilled labor is still fully up to, and in many cases in excess of, the supply. Wages are easily held in all skilled branches, and in some places inferior skilled labor is being paid the same wages as the best skilled, labor, a complaint which employers have had occasion to make quite frequently of late. The determination of trades-unionists to exact thesame compensation for inferiof skilled labor as for the best is a

source ofebnstant annoyance to many employers, wfio see no way of escape with work so abundant. They will, no doubt, take the first opportunity to ' weed out the less valuable, and reto’u ' the best. v