Idaho labor herald., November 14, 1914, Image 1

About Idaho labor herald. (Boise, Idaho) 1913-1914

Image provided by: Idaho State Historical Society

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IDAHO
FOR TOILERS IN
CITY AND COUNTRY
CO-OPERATION
MEANS SUCCESS
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Published in the Interests oi Organized Labor—For a Decent Living Wage Scale and Bettor Working Conditions
BOISE, IDAHO, NOVEMBER 14 1914
( $1.00 Per Year.
Vol. H. No. 24. )
5c a Copy
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WAGES ARE FORCED UPWARD
The federal government, at Washington, one of the
largest employers of labor in the United States, frequently has labor
problmes of its own. Secretary Lane of the department of the in
terior, was brought face to face with the labor question in the huge
Grand valley, Colorado, reclamation project on which about 400
men are employed. Early last spring, as a result of the ambition of
the project engineer to put through the cheapest piece of work ever
done by the United States government, wages were reduced far below
the level of those in the surrounding country. "Muckers" in the
tunnel were reduced to $2.56 a day, cement workers and laborers
to $2.24, and slave-driving methods emloyed by the superintendent,
former partner in the contracting firm.
The men requested an increase in wages early in June. The
matter was referred by the local project engineer to the Water Users'
association, the organization of farmers who are the prospective
owners of the 5,300 acres now arid lands which are to be reclaimed
by the irrigation project. The system in vogue in this sort of work
• is thaï the government undertakes to furnish the water to irrigate the
land. The expense is to be charged to the lands as a sort of first
mortgage and is to be paid in installments by the land owners. It
will be readily understood that the Water Users' association was in
agreement with the project engineer to make this the cheapest job
on earth. They accordingly decided that the increase in wages could
tiot be granted.
The men appealed to Secretary Lane, who requested Secretary W.
B. Wilson of the department of labor, to arbitrate the difficulty.
Secretary Wilson replied that it seemed to him not a case for arbi
tration, but for investigation. He stated that if the government was
paying less han the prevailing rate, it should at once pay that rate.
If it was not paying less than the prevailing rate, the men had no
case. Secretary Lane thereupon requested him to investigate.
The matter was then turned over to the bureau of statistics,
and Mr. Tthelbert Stewart, chief statistician of the bureau, was sent
to Colorado to investigate. Mr. Stewart recommended that the rates
be raised.to the scale maintained by the Western Federation of Min
ers, so far as tunnel mining was concerned, as this work is essentially
identical wit hthe work done by the metaliferous miners in western
Colorado.
/ Mr. Stewart recommended that the minimum rate of wages for
a 4 f tunnel workers should be $3.00 a day, an increase from $2.40 to
$2.56 ; that machine men be paid $4.00, and machine hel|»ers, timber
inen, etc., be paid $3.52, an increase from $2.80 and $3.00; that the
minimum for cement shovelers outside the tunnel be $2.50, an increase
from $2
key shovelers and gey tampers be paid $2.80, an increase front $2.24.
There was also a compulsory ruling that all men not having
families actually living in the camp must take their meals at the
government mess-house. A number of men lived near the works
and. could bring their lunches. In other words, they were compelled
to take their meals at the mess house while living within walking
distance of the works. This rule Mr. Stewart asked to have annuled.
On October 23, Secretary Lane signed an order putting into ef
fect all of the rate recommended by the department of labor, thus set
tling one of the very bitter controversies in the Colorado industrial
situation.
that tampers be paid $2.65, an increase from $2,25 ; that
3
The question of higher wages for engineers and firemen em
ployed on 98 western railroads will be decided by an arbitration
board, which will hold sessions in Chicago, beginning November 9.
About 65,000 workers are directly involved. Vice-President Shea
of the Brotherhood of Locomotive Engineers, and Vice-President
Brgess, of the Brotherhood of Locomotive Firemen and Enginmen,
are to be rhe workers' arbitrators, while Warren S. Stone and W. S.
Carter, chief executives of the engineers and firemen, respectively, will
serve as counsel for the labor organizations. Tw f o neutrals will be
appointed by the United States Board of Mediation.
Tracy Amusement Enterprises
Fred N. Tracy, Director General.
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TO STOP IMMIGRATION
At the next session of the sixty-thircl congress the senate will
consider the Burnett immigration bill, which provides for a literacy
test for immigrants. The bill has been reported favorable by the
senate committee on immigration.
Indiscussing this question, the United Garment Workers, at their
recent Nashville convention, took this position :
"The enormous accessions to the ranks of our competing wage
workers, being to a great extent unemployed, or only partly em
ployed at uncertain wages, are lowering the standard of living among
the masses of the working people, of this country without giving
promise to uplift the great body of immigrants themselves. The
overstocking of the labor markets has become a menace to many trade
unions, especially those of the lesser skilled workers. Little or no
benefit can possibly accrue to an increasing proportion of the great
numbers yet coming; they are unfitted to battle intelligently for their
rights in this republic, to whose présent burdens they but add others
still greater. The fate of the majority of the foreign wage workers
now here has served to demonstrate on the largest possible scale that
immigration is no solution of the wprld-wide problem of poverty.
"Resolved, That we call on American trade unionists to oppose
emphatically the proposed scheme erf government distribution of im
migrants, since it would be an obvi0us means of directly and cheaply
furnishing strikebreakers to the combined capitalists now seeking
the destruction of the trade unions.
"Resolved, That we condemn all forms of assisted immigration
through charitable agencies or otherwise.
"Resolved, That we warn the j^oor of the earth against coming
to America with false hopes ; it is ©ur duty to inform them that the
economic situation in this country i| changing with the same rapidity
as the methods of industry and commerce.
"Resolved, That we call on the government of the United States
for a righteous relief of the wage workers now in America. We
desire that it sould either (x) suspend immigration totally for a term
of years; Or (2) put into force such an illiteracy test as will exclude
the ignorant and also impose such a head tax as will compel the
body of immigrants to pay their full footing here and be sufficient to
send back all those who within a stated period should become public
dependents."
"If you have a dollar that you, did not earn, you have tangible
evidence that some one, somewhere, earned a dollar that he did not
get." Who possesses unearned d<*Uars~; labor earns them but does
labor get all of them.
AT ISIS THEATRE
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The Wildflower
99
That adorable, enchanting little star Marguerite Clark, has just
completed her first sereen characteriaztion for the Famous Players
Film Co., which will be exhibited at Isis Theatre on Monday. The
subject selected for this dainty actress' debut before the motion pic
ture public is "Wildflower," a delightful characterization by Mary
Cennaine.
same woman, always a vitally interesting theme, but in the present
tance magnified by the fortunate selection of Marguerite Clark
fo rthe portrayal of the principal character, the delicate little forest
flower.
The story deals with the love of two brothers for the
III
I he plot presents a pleasant and dranthtic contrast between the
I open space s of the wilds, and the narrow streets and habits of the
both elements, Wildflower goes throgh an individual de
velopment, an advancement marked by the stress of anguish and
personal disaster, but lightened occasionally by the freedom and
relief of her early environment, the woods.
The brothers that woo her are as different as the settings about
which the stc ry revolves. One is selfish, rougish, inconsiderate, and
evil; the othëi is splendidly straightforward and generous,
drama gains in suspense and climatic value by reason of the fact that
the little untutored fildflower, in the ignorance and innocence of her
ways, selects the woV&t man for her mate. But as the good will
triumpt, in the final reckoning she spurns the evil brother, having
at last discovered that his love was spurious, and marries the other.
"Wildflower" is a refreshing zephyr from the wooded hills that
form the early aobde of the title character. It transforms the screen
into a mirror in which is reflected the purity of the great outdoors and
the sallowness of human life. The production is mounted with
splendid fidelity to the types and the places that the story describes ;
* ! and .he cast in support of Marguerite Clark is cossistent and capable,
I mcltiling such well known photoplayers as Harold Lockwood, Jas.
1 Cooley and E. L. Davenport. 7.
1 city.
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THE CLAYTON BILL IS SIGNED
President Wilson signed the Clayton anti-trust bill, with the
labor sections intact, on Thursday, October 15, and presented the pen
President Oompe
The Clayton
rs.
bill is now a law, and marks the beginning of a
new epoch, because of the following amendment, introduced by Sen
ator Cummins, an
d which is destined to become historic :
"The labor 01 a human being is not a commodity or article of
commerce."
The labor sections contained in the bill are substitutes for the
Bartlett-Bacon bid, which made no mention of jury trials in alleged
indirect contempt
ten bill provides
which is fully covered in the new act. The Clay
for the exemption of trade unions from trust clas
sification in the following manner ;
"That the lab
ar of a humfxn being is not a commodity or article
Nothing contained in the anti-trust laws shall be
of commerce.
construed to forbid the existence and operation of labor, agricultural,
or horticultural erganizations, instituted for the purpose of mutual
help, and not ha
forbid or destrai
ving capital stock or conducted for profit, or to
1 individual members of such organizations from
lawfully carrymg out the legitimate objects thereof; nor shall such
organizations or he members' thereof, be held or construed to be il
legal combinatiors 01 conspiracies in restraint of trade, under the
anti trust laws."
The sections regulating injunctions provide that no Federal court
can issue a restra ning order in any labor dispure unless necessary to
prevent Irreparable injury to property, or to a property right, for
which there is na adequate remedy at law, anti such property or
property right must be described "with particularity" and swofn to
in the application for a writ.
No injunction can be issued for the following reasons :
To prohibit any person or persons, xvhether singly or in concert,
from ceasing work or urging others So to do.
To prohibit any person or persons from "attending at any place
where any such person or such persons may lawfully be, for the pur
pose of peacefully obtaining or communicating information, or front
peacefully persuading any person to work or to abstain from work
mg:
To prohibit any person from withholding their patronage from
any party to a labor dispute, or "from recommending, advising, or
persualing others by peaceful and lawful means so to do."
To prohibit the payment of strike benefits or "other money or
things of value" to persons engaged in labor disputes.
To prohibit peaceful assembling in a lawful manner and for lawful
purposes.
To prohibit at, y act zvhich might be lawfully done if no strike e. r
isted.
rovided that none of the acts specified above shall
■ held to be violations of anv law of the United
It is further p
be "considered oi
States."
Under this section, strikers are allowed to do peaceful picketing,
to urge other workmen to join them, to urge a withholding of patro
nage from those parties to the dispute, and to assemble in a peaceful
manner to discuss their grievances.
; provided for any one charged with indirect coti
v the order of the court, outside the presence
This does not apply to offenses committed in the
—indecorum, disrespect, disorderly
;s to all Federal courts, aiîd is intended to put an
orders of the Judge Dayton kind, where workers
d from attempting to organize non-unionists with
employers.
n that the labor power of a human being is not a
that henceforth new ideas will be the rule in the
:ers by legislative and judicial bodies, for with the
am the "commodity class" the human element will
d the repeated declarations of the American Fed
regarding the rights of man made possible.
Jury trials an
tempt (disobeyinj
the court.)
presence of the court
The law appli
end to injunction
have been enjoine
out the consent of
The declaratic
commodity means
treatment of worl
taking of labor fr
be paramount, an
eration of Labor
of
uluct
C. W. Bargunier, proprietor of the I. D. O. Bar, is an Electrical
worker and in gcod standing. Employs all white help and should
be remeinebred by the boys.
Cd Chapman, and L. P. Sly have gone to the Silver
Kempers to hunt big game.
Roy Cornell, I
Mountain country
above M<
$3.50 Shoes
That are Stylish and are Made Right to Wear Is What
Most People Want in Foot Wear. We Have Given
This Line Extra Attention and Believe We Have the
Best Values at This Price
You Don't Throw Away Our Shoes Because
They are r ot Comfortable.
W e Fit Them Properly
Guarantee Shoe Store
213 North 8th
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warn