The Railroad Telegrapher from Peoria, Illinois • Page 26

14 THE RAILROAD TELEGRAPHER Do not fail to read notices in the Grand Division department of this journal. They are important. A local division established by the O. R. T.

at North Vernon, last month started off with thirty-six charter members. The Association of Railway Telegraph Superintendents meets at Fort Monroe, June 17th. Wonder if any of the gentlemen will "resolute" it is "wrong to organize." Some members of the Association have told railroad telegrapers that it was "disloyal" to join the O. R. T.

What is the difference between a "union" composed of employers and one composed of employes. It is encouraging that only twenty-six votes were cast in the house of representatives against the immigration restriction bill which excludes from the United States aH male persons between 16 and 60 years of age who cannot read and write the English or some other language." There is no prospect of the bill being reached in the senate this session, but a step forward has been taken, and that is something. When the bill comes up in the senate it would not be a bad idea to add "And every immigrant should show substantial evidence of his having been an industrious citizen of his fatherland." America should not be an asylum for paupers and criminals. During the recent strike of the tailors in Chicago several of the manufacturers of clothing threatened to remove their business from that city. Clarence S.

Darrow, referring to the threat, said: "All we have is the product of labor. There is something besides wealth, and sweat-shops, and department stores, and twenty-story buildings in civilization. For my part, if the threat of the manufacturers to leave Chicago is true, I would rather that the grass should grow in the streets of Chicago, and that the tallest building should crumble into dust, than that they should remain and exist on the oppression and degradation of our fellow-men." Mr. Darrow voiced the opinion of every broad-guage citizen. A civilization in whose foundation is mingled the tears of women and children, the groans of strong men, the pangs of hunger, and the sighs for a better environment, is not worthy of the name.

Railroad personals solicited, but give names of persons and stations. If you want to do something for the Order send in the application of some telegrapher you know would make a good member. The Dallas, Texas, Telegraph College advertises that "its line is recognized by the Western Union Telegraph Co," and that all business for Oak Cliff is transferred to it Upon this transfer of Oak Cliff business the "College" claims its pupils "get practical experience by handling actual business." Thus it is that a great corporation permits its name to be used by a concern that every practical telegrapher knows is nothing else but a scheme to inveigh the unsophisticated youth to learn the dot and dash language, with no possible guarantee of his ever being able to earn a living through the knowledge obtained in the Telegraph School. Pittsburg, drug clerks are complaining regarding poor pay and long hours. A qualified assistant receives $10 to $12 a week and registered managers from $15 to $18.

Hours of work range from twelve to eighteen per day, seven days in the week. They are secretly organized into a league, which has fifteen lodges in Pennsylvania. Great secrecy has to be observed, as membership means dismissal. Railroad telegraphers had to organize in the same secret manner, and can sympathize with the pill workers. Justice Peckham of the United States Supreme Court has in the case of the United States vs.

Harry L. Laws, decided that chemists do not fall within the class of persons to whom the law prohibiting contracts for labor to be performed in this country applies. It was based upon the employment of a German named Seliger who came to this country to act as a chemist on a Louisiana sugar plantation. According to this ruling a chemist is not a wageworker! A few more decisions like this one will confine the application of the law to persons who have no trade or profession. The object of the law was to protect American labor of all kinds, whether of the hand or brain, from being imported under contract, but like many other laws enacted for the protection of labor, a judicial decision is all that is required to render it valueless..