months. In order to gain this, he must carry sixty-seven inmates through the eight winter months for $20.50 per month. In other words, Mr. Clark must provide for each inmate during winter, when the cost is the highest, for $2.40 less per month than during the summer, when the cost is lowest. Mr. Clark, himself, does not believe this can be done; hence my belief that the figures were intended to deceive. it is done (without injury to the inmates) I will be the first to apologize and give Mr. Clark credit for the reduction because of his personal efforts to economize. But I would challenge the correctness of the figures for May, and can demonstrate by Mr. Clark's books and invoices that they are wrong. For this reason we will not even concede a reduction through personal efforts of forty-four cents per inmate, until the books and invoices have been thoroughly overhauled.* A careful reading of the foregoing will lead to the belief that the committee's report is as wild as was their statement that 100 tons of feed had been raised from about twelve acres of ground. About ten acres were planted in corn and two acres in roots. A first-class yield cured corn stover from ten acres would be about twenty tons. Thus the two acres in roots would have to yield the remaining eighty tons, or forty tons per acre. This is rather amusing. If the ground will yield so heavily, why not plant the remaining land and sell the produce? and our highest estimate was sixty tons (including fifteen tons of green silage). The acreage seeded was also larger. This year, with less ground planted and a much lighter yield, they gain forty tons. Ten tons of feed should last the Home six weeks, and on October 12 there should be ninety tons of feed on hand. The committee should not promulgate such rash assertions. It is also reported that I purchased the labor of inmates with liquor. It would be sad, indeed, to think that the Home was occupied by men who would work all day for a drink of liquor. I would not like to have that opinion of any one in the Home. The men who worked the most did not use liquor. There was never any difficulty in securing the services of the inmates. They worked about the stable, helped to plant the trees, cut weeds, assisted in planting, cultivating and gathering the truck; they helped to cut silage, oiled the floors, and two were engaged in painting the outside of the building. The remaining paints and varnishes are in the attic still. No, I do not think there was ever a man in the Home so low that he would do a day's work for a drink. Neither before nor after the date of my using stimulants in the field was there ever any difficulty in securing the services of inmates when requested. A stimulant at times was considered necessary, and eggnog was generally served at the table on holidays. Yet, even with my willingness to use liquor upon such Last year the yield was unusually heavy occasions, I never purchased drinks for *A careful examination of the dummy account kept at this office fails to show that Mr. Clark's accounts for May are in any way inaccurate. It may be our correspondent believes the superintendent has placed to the credit of some other account items which should have appeared under the head of maintenance; if so this is a mere matter of bookkeeping. Then it is just possible Mr. Schuman's claim of inaccuracy is based on the fact that in determining the average number of inmates for that month Superintendent Clark did not reduce it to fractions, which was the ex-superintendent's habit. The accounts are carefully scanned every month and this is the only possible basis we can find for the challenge.-[ED. the inmates in bar-rooms. During the past spring there was a decided disposition upon the part of the inmates to assist the superintendent. If they have since refused to be of assistance to the Home the cause must be attributed to other reasons than the absence of whisky. While I believe the inmates should endeavor to assist in conducting the Home, having originated the rule, yet one can not help having a feeling of opposition to the slave-driving expression used in the report of "make them work at whatever cost," or words to that effect. They have assisted in the past freely and without compensation, and I believe they will in the future. Such criticisms upon the inmates are unwarranted, unjust and uncalled for. Paint will not prevent the roof from leaking. Reconstruction is the only safe remedy. A first-class architect decided that one coat of plumbago would be as good as two coats of paint. His advice was followed. The painting of balconies was done by inmates (not drinkers) and was almost finished before we left. The materials had been purchased for varnishing the inside and the furniture. We had no trouble in finding "knights of the brush" among the inmates. There are several other misstatements, but space will not permit their correction. If, when the convention meets, there is anything else wrong, blame it upon the ex-superintendent. Make him responsible for all that has occurred since he left the Home or that may occur in the future. I can stand it. However, the books and invoices can be carefully examined and the foregoing statements verified. The report of the committee is, in some respects, truthful and timely. In other respects it would also be a good report if the convention were not to meet at the Home. Politics should be eliminated from the Home, and care should be taken that the craft is never misled through attempts to create prejudice. It should be the endeavor of all to attempt to build up the institution. If the inmates are contented with the present accommodations the same should be adopted as the standard. If three-fourths of the inmates are satisfied no one will make a harder struggle to maintain Mr. Clark in his present position than the undersigned. Denver, Colo. W. C. SCHUMAN. Cheering From Connecticut. Hartford Union No. 127 has made great progress the past year, and to President Allen much credit is due for his untiring efforts in behalf of the union. It is mainly through his work that the Case, Lockwood & Brainard office is soon to become a strictly union office. When the New England union held its convention in this city last June, Mr. Brainard, at the banquet, made a speech which was most enthusiastically received. He said, among other things, that he was in hearty accord with the idea of trades-unions, and that anything that was for the betterment of the wage-worker would have his support. He won the hearts of the 150 guests at the table by his fair-minded and clear ideas of unions. At that convention an organizer for this state was appointed in the person of James H. Godkin, a member of No. 127, and a pressmen's union has since been started under most favorable conditions. The Evening Post, after being out of the ranks for four years, is again numbered among the faithful. The rats walked the plank and the following "tried and true" now comprise the staff S. T. Pfund, foreman; Thomas Crosby, Frank White, James H. Godkin, Thomas Hastings, Paul Shepherdson, Thomas Ward, M. M. Dacey, John Stevenson, Job Harry, Misses Carrie King, Addie Beck, Mary Pedlow and Annie Warren. With such an array of talent it is not surprising to learn that the Post is on the right road to success. The Connecticut Catholic, a religious weekly, has also been recently unionized. All things considered, old No. 127 is making great progress, several new applications being received every meeting, while former members are being reinstated. A new constitution is under consideration, which will probably be adopted at the October meeting. Work is very dull. MORE ANON. Hartford, Conn. seeking, yet we abstain from action when the booming of cannon announce the approach of a revolutionary crisis. This is This is not mere sentiment but compounded facts which challenge contradiction by their sincerity and truthfulness. It is unanimously admitted that an eight-hour-day is the only immediate. help at this moment for a working people, and it being such, why should it not at once be launched into the sea of toiling humanity where it will undoubtedly prove the factor represented. Let us therefore strain every muscle and cord in one great effort while instigating this grand and noble cause, believing at once that prolific results will crown these efforts by giving this question its victorious termination. CAP. G. Detroit, Mich. Arthur W. Puttee Was born in Kent, England, in 1868, and made his bow to the printing business fifteen years later at Woolwich. He crossed the big pond, at the age of twenty, to the Canadian Northwest Territories, and, after a year of rural life, went south, being initiated a member of St. Paul union December, 1889. After a year spent at the West Publishing Company he went west visiting the Puget Sound cities, and was engaged during one session in the state printing office at Olympia, Wash. He returned to Canada in 1892, and shortly after settling in Winnipeg took an extended trip to the old country, returning with a partner. He was chosen president of No. 191 the following year, and its secretary in 1895, being re-elected to the latter office last spring. He represented his union at the convention in St. Paul, which organized the Tenth District union, and was the first secretary of that union. He has been deputy organizer for Manitoba and the Northwest Territories for the past two years. During his stay in Winnipeg he has been continuously employed on the Morning Free Press, and is at present manipulating a Roger's machine on that paper. From Far-Away Washington. It has been quite awhile since there. have appeared in the JOURNAL any news items from Tacoma, once the far-famed City of Destiny, but now, in printorial as well as in other circles, the city of utter despondency. After an absence of five years from this, the first union I ever was a member of, I am sorry to chronicle the fact that No. 170 is no longer the gay and frisky girl she was in the halcyon days of the boom. Hard times, the introduction of machines and the long uphill fight against the Ledger have reduced. the number of union members in this place from nearly 170 five years ago to less than 50 now, while the rate per thousand, or per day, or per week-well, that's the saddest part of the story. The old gang who drew down princely bills on the Ledger in '89, '90 and '91, are nearly all scattered to the four winds. Kaiser, Maulsly, Milne and "Scotty" Hamilton are here yet. Oh, yes, Secretary B. H. Bennett-"Our Ben"-on the Morning Union, is the same jolly old fellow as of old, as is also Ed Herriff, for years recording secretary. They and their offices in the union seem to be the only unchangeable things. Perhaps some of the old guard in various parts of the world would like to know how things are in general in Tacoma. Awful-simply awful. First, there is the Ledger; you all know about it-rats from top to bottom. The Morning Union, started by No. 170 to fight the Ledger, is now a co-operative concern, and the compositors (it has never been able to buy machines) get twenty per cent. of the scale in cash-some weeks only fifteen per cent.-and for the balance due them receive stock which is worth about ten cents on the dollar. The News is also co-operative and the union men refuse to accept less than fifty per cent. of the scale in cash, but they generally have a couple of weeks coming. The old Puget Sound Printing Company is now the Commercial Printing Company, also co operative, with E. L. Herriff, A. A. Sargent, Ed Griffiths, and another whose name I do not know, as partners. Next in order is the job office of F. T. Houghton & Co., formerly Berry & Houghton. Mr. Berry is now the rat foreman of the Ledger. Houghton & Co. employ a few extra men occasionally. A. Hamilton, Dick Milne and Harry Moore work here once in a while, and the office gives out more work to our members at the scale, I believe, than any other office in Tacoma. It should be remembered, however, that about every other shop is cooperative, with more partners than there is work for. Some trouble arose in the Houghton office last week and a lockout resulted. The office desired the men to work nine hours for $2.50, the scale being eight hours for $2.50, claiming they could get men for those hours at that rate. Three men were locked out. Two took their places, one with the knowledge of the facts in the case and the other without. The former-A. H. Marfield-was expelled at last Sunday's union meeting. The other gentleman ceased work when called upon to do so by union officers. Organizer Howell of Portland was sent for, and, after sifting the matter thoroughly, he recommended to the union a compromise measure which the proprietors had promised to accept and abide by. The union adopted the recommendation of the organizer, which was to the effect that the locked out men be returned to work at $2.50 for eight and a half hours' work, and the men resumed work last Monday morning. There was a temporary rush of work in the office and one or two additional men were put on. After awaiting the settlement of the difficulty Mr. Howell returned home. The thanks of our members are hereby extended to him for his wise assistance in settling the trouble. There seems to be too much of what may be termed "malicious personality" indulged in by members of 170 whenever any trouble of this kind arises, and the backcapping, fault-finding and general session-holding goes a long way towards retarding the peaceful settlement of any question in a manner which will be advantageous to the union and its members. Gentlemen, please remember that if all is not as it should be in some other office, in all probability there is much room for improvement in your own shop, and that, until we are prepared to let bygones be bygones and get together for the common good, the condition of things can not be improved. The policy of "every man for himself and the devil take us all," is just what has brought us to where we are today. Get together, boys. Get together. There are a number of smaller job offices in the city, most of them co-operative. T. V. Copeland has a small office on Tenth street and Edwin R. Ray another on Thirteenth street, while Stanley Bell is foreman on the Tacoma Sunday Herald, which his father owns. The immortal Dr. Watt subs on the Union and genial, lengthy Willie Waring is pushing a truck in the Northern Pacific car shops at Edison. He says subbing is out of sight. One thing I want to know. Why isn't the Tacoma Ledger included in the "We Don't Patronize" list published in the JOURNAL? Put it in by all means. Let me see. I said the old gang were scattered to the four winds, didn't I? Well, ex-Presidents George W. Alexander, H. Older and C. E. Crittenden are tickling Mergenthalers in Frisco, the two latter on the Bulletin and the former on the Chronicle, where your humble servant held boxes for three years previously. W. E. Ditchburn is in Victoria, I hear, and an officer of the union there. Buchanan, formerly foreman of the News, is in Frisco. Fred Baker, another Tacoma boy, wields a humpback on the Examiner, I am told. Examiner, I am told. C. E. Hawkes, formerly receiver for the Morning Union, has been elected president of No. 21, and Miss Maggie Isaacs is also in the |