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, 4 ; I l^rrwM Il fiSjll ü & -C gË 4 y » IDAHO FOR TOILERS IN CITY AND COUNTRY CO-OPERATION MEANS SUCCESS ; • .. âW] 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 j 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. m ■ I o 11:00 p. ir. * 1 , h i an Ei or Ten è Ad *4 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 m L;, V V. V ■ m fl - • >> «*>. 2 V f a* > ' mi V V. I m .m» $ > ' - mm L ; ,;/4, V 5 '■'[ ■ . 1 U 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. n The I j 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 - * warn