Indiana Typographical Conference.

The third meeting of the Indiana State Conference of Typographical Unions will be held in Indianapolis the third Sunday of the present month-January 15. These meetings are held semi-annually, and the coming session will close the first year of the conference. Election of officers will be among the many matters of importance to come before the meeting. Much good has undoubtedly been derived from the two previous gatherings, especially in getting the delegations from the widely separated unions better acquainted and more fully alive to the needs of the membership. Notices have been sent to every union of the conference, and it is hoped that a still larger percentage of the local organizations will be represented at the Indianapolis session. At the meeting held last July several issues were brought out, and the coming session will seek to inaugurate some sort of active label campaign.

Duplicate Traveling Cards.

Although the subject has heretofore been covered in THE JOURNAL, some of our members seem not to comprehend fully the meaning of the law governing duplicate traveling cards. Section 86 of the general laws for 1911 reads as follows:

Section 86. When a member, loses his traveling card he can only receive a duplicate thereof by applying to the secretary-treasurer of the International Union, who shall issue such duplicate on the payment of $1 after sufficient time has elapsed for an investigation to be made. Duplicates shall be furnished from a series separate from the regular traveling cards and have printed thereon the words "Duplicate Card." No duplicate for a lost traveling card shall be issued to any member unless ap plication therefor is made within thirty days from the time such card is lost.

It is thus apparent that a request for a duplicate traveling card to be sent by return mail can not be acceded to by the International secretary-treasurer, as the law provides that a fee of $1 must be paid and an investigation made before a duplicate card can be granted.

As was emphasized in these columns several months ago, when a member asks for a duplicate card he should furnish the date of

his original card, advising Secretary-Treasurer Hays as to the month for which he last paid per capita tax and the date to which he has paid the pension assessment, when and where such payments were made, and furnish a full statement of his travels from the time his original card was issued up to the date on which he applies for a duplicate card. Members traveling should be very careful not to lose their cards. It takes time to get a duplicate, and there is nothing in International law requiring a local secretary to issue a permit to work pending its being received. The exercise of a little care on the part of members carrying cards will save them many inconveniences and loss of work through the refusal of local secretaries to grant a working permit.

A Philippine Contribution.

The Home library has received a contribution from John S. Leech, director of printing in the Philippines. Mr. Leech's gift is the revised "Desk Book of the Bureau of Printing," of which the donor says:

Every item of material entering into the finished product was imported; the base of supply is located 15,000 miles from this office, and nine months must elapse between the date of ordering supplies and the date of their receipt. Every mechanical operation involved in the making of the book--linotype and hand composition, halftone and line engraving, electrotyping, press work and bindingwas performed by Filipino workmen of the bureau of printing, under the supervision of American craftsmen instructors. At the present time Filipinos constitute 91.35 per cent of the personnel of the bureau.

This Is the Limit.

We are not in doubt as to what the average American citizen thinks of the statement in a symposium on business condi- · tions printed in the December number of American Industries, signed "Alfred E. Cox, Treasurer Atlantic Works, East Boston, Mass." This is the reason he gives for the present slack industrial conditions:

Organized labor is probably doing more than anything else to prevent prompt and rapid increase in general prosperity. It is receiving more than its share and continually crying for more.

This is a fine way, indeed, to shift responsibility. The author of the remark

surely possesses a prodigious analytical mind, else he would be unable so easily to place the burden on the men who toil. We can assure the Boston manufacturer and others of his kind that if his diagnosis of the situation is correct, the clouds in the industrial sky are really threatening, for organized labor is convinced it is not "receiving more than its share," and is going to continue to "cry for more."

A Fruitless Crusade.

Out on the Pacific coast, a country teeming with natural resources, the men who do the work of the world have for several years been demanding their just share of the fruits of their toil. Especially has this been the case in Portland, Ore. The workingmen have been successful in a certain measure, but so fearful have been the "interests" in that growing metropolis that labor would finally gain all its rights, it was deemed necessary to make war on all labor organizations. Perhaps, with the exception of Los Angeles, no city in that section of the country has witnessed such a determination to establish the so-called "open" shopin reality, the non-union shop. As a part of this propaganda, John Kirby, president of the National Association of Manufacturers, and General Harrison Gray Otis journeyed to Portland, and on the evening of December 12 were banqueted by the employers' association. We are informed by the press that Otis, in his tirade of trade union abuse, did not wholly approve of the "open" shop, explaining that through this method union men might be employed until they would be strong enough to go to the employer and demand that the shop be unionized. In this opinion "the emancipator of the Pacific coast”—a term of reference used by one of those present-showed that he at least has a discerning vision. Indeed, he is "the oracle of the valley of vision.”

Kirby was the leading speaker on the program, we are informed, and from the newspaper accounts his remarks consisted of the usual harangue that he inflicts on his hearers while out on his union-smashing crusades. His parting admonition was to the effect that the time had arrived for the

employers to face the issue squarely, and to make an open and hard fight against unionism. If Kirby had as penetrating a view as his Los Angeles counterpart, he might have added that when the fight is ended organized labor will be found stronger and more virile than at any time in the past.

The Portland Daily News, in direct accord with its policy in defense of the working people, gave the "Gineral"-as it delights to call him-this "send-off," under the caption, "Here's to You, Otis:"

"Gineral" Otis has gone.

He came, he was feted by Josselyn, banqueted by the employers' association, patted on the back by various editorial gents of similar stamp, paraded before some few companies of $13 a month chaps over Vancouver way, taken for a joy ride by Banfield, Josselyn and some hand-picked "molders of public opinion;" and he gave out a few choice cussings to the cause of the men who work for their living, instead of traveling over the land at the expense of the employers' union, to be posed as a martyr of modern industrialism.

All right, "Gineral," you have told us how to run our town, you have advised, and prated, and talked big, and generally behaved like all press notices would have had us guess you would behave. Now, maybe you, or some of your big bosses, local hired men, or some of your pet editors might like to answer a few small questions.

Firstly, did you not condemn every union worker in the nation without the slightest foundation? Didn't you run forth with the charge that unionism blew up your rickety shop in Los Angeles before it was possible for any mortal agency to know what had caused the disaster?

Didn't your pet detective, half-breed Rico, who had been your tool many times before, "find" the bombs at your house and that of the secretary of the Los Angeles Citizens' Alliance immediately after the Times disaster?

Isn't it a fact that public opinion in Los Angeles laughs at the idea that the bombs were there before your pet detective arrived?

Is it not true that the right of free speech, and free press, and trial by fair jury have been denied in Los Angeles for months? And aren't you the nifty little chap that demanded that every worker in town who dared belong to a union be considered an anarchist and bomb-thrower, a criminal?

Hasn't your own "fair city" been for years wrapped in more sorts of hell than any other western town, and didn't your senseless, wild-eyed, bitter, useless fight against the cause of workers bring about most of the trouble?

It was about six or seven weeks ago your newspaper plant blew up; you have had the police force of California at your beck and call; you have had your own grand jury, and you run southern California; and despite all this you haven't found a single clue worth mentioning to prove that the

Times plant was blown up by a union man, or that it was blown up by anything but your own criminal negligence. That's so, isn't it, "Gineral" Otis? "Gineral," you shine best where you are least known; your Philippine record is not such a whale of a record, is it, now, "Gineral?" You were the best-hated officer in the service when you quit it, were you not, "Gineral?"

Nobody in Los Angeles ever said you were a lovable man, or a humane man, or a just man, or a kindly man, did they, "Gineral?"

They know you for a fighter, using any sort of means; they know you as one who has stood for every crookedness that great papers profit by; they know you as the friend of Diaz and the hater of the helpless of every sort, whether they be Mexican patriots or your own rifle-guarded scabs.

And you come up here and prance, and parade, and strut, and advise the business men of this northwest to cut their throats, as you have forced Los Angeles business men to trot along under the whip! Oh, you are a fine and handsome sort of an adviser, you are, "Gineral" Otis.

You are crazy about unionism, and have been for forty years; you have the only unfair printshop of any size in the nation; you will never give your own men a square deal while you have the breath of life, and you are so dod-gasted soaked in your own cussedness that you are proud of your orneriness.

And you come to plume yourself, and ruffle your feathers, and look wise, and give advice and toast your lordly shins at the genial glow of Banfield's visage and Josh's sunny warmth. Piffle, you poor bedecked and bedizened old gobbler, being hauled around the country by the Big Business to preach the red riot of industrial hell-some day they will put roosters like you where they belong, and then we will have peace, and a decent man can rear a family from the proceeds of his honest work, and clean men can live in a city without having to breathe the air that carrion fester.

At the time of the visit of the delectable pair-Kirby and Otis-the Oregon Journal and the Evening Telegram reprinted an article by a special writer of the San Francisco Bulletin, at the request of Portland Typographical Union. This writer, after a careful investigation, resents the imputation that trade unions are responsible for the alleged dynamiting of the Los Angeles Times building. The story (written November 19) is too lengthy, for reproduction in full in these columns, but the following excerpt will show how "justice" is being meted out in the grand jury investigation:

Six weeks have passed since the explosion and no reputable evidence has been introduced in proof of the dynamite theories, yet there have been proceedings in Los Angeles of which a great many of the residents are ignorant and the rest of the world knows little or nothing.

The six weeks have developed many other things, however, and they have demonstrated to fair-minded people who have been able to discover any of the facts that something indisputably unfair is going on in that city; that the rights of free press and free speech are being denied, and that a grand jury, supposed to be a set of fair-minded and impartial men, given authority to examine into a certain set of facts, has followed in the footsteps of Harrison Gray Otis and the governor of the state and decided the verdict before examining the facts.

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All the men and women who have been put on the defensive in Los Angeles are without money, and the wealth of one of the richest cities of its size in the world is pitted against them, and the press is silent. It behooves all men and women who believe in fair play to watch well that injustice is not done.

The same sentiment is not abroad in Los Angeles today that existed there on the morning following the explosion, and even though the press is silent, the chief witnesses afraid to speak and the "investigation" merely an inquisition, there are hundreds of men and women in the city who sit over their fires in their bungalows at night and quietly ask themselves some questions and quite as quietly decide that, despite the fact that union labor has been tried and found guilty by the Times and the merchants and manufacturers' association, the presumption of innocence still belongs to the union men.

Labor Legislation.

The fourth annual meeting of the American Association for Labor Legislation was held in St. Louis, December 28 and 29. When the annual industrial casualty list shows a total of 30,000 killed and 500,000 injured, it will be realized that the United States is today face to face with the demand for labor legislation that will give relief from such a record. From the tenor of the addresses at St. Louis, the association regards the labor problem, in one of its most important phases, as being largely a health problem, and with this conception constantly before it it lays emphasis upon the means by which the occupational diseases may be eliminated. When it is known that there are upward of 13,000,000 cases of sickness each year among those engaged in industrial occupations, it is important that steps should be taken to eradicate some of it, and the association should receive encouragement in its efforts.

Canadians Won't Stand For It. Anti-labor legislation by the present Canadian Parliament is feared by the organized workers, one of the most vicious measures proposed making it illegal for the employes of public utility industries to go on strike, and which will also prohibit lockouts. This latter provision, of course, is merely a sophism, as it would carry no compensating advantage to public service. employes, while the former would take from them one of their most valuable rights. Another provision of the law is one to prevent intervention on the part of American labor officials of organizations having members in both countries in the event of trouble arising in Canada between the Canadian members of such organizations and the interests employing them. A law of this kind failed to pass the last parliament, after it had been introduced by an Ottawa lawyer. It was extremely vicious in its nature, making it a penal offense for a citizen of the United States to take an active interest in the labor movement of Canada. The measure was opposed by the workingmen of Canada, who pointed out in petitions that there were many members of

labor unions in Canada, and this legislation would compel them to leave the country. If we rightly interpret the temper of the Canadian people-and we think we do-no such law will ever be written on the statute books of that country.

The New State Progressive.

With the adoption of its new constitution as it was framed, Arizona will be running a pretty close second with Oklahoma in the matter of laws for the protection of the masses, and especially the workingman. One of the laws embodied in the constitution of the new state provides that no one can work underground in mines or at other hazardous labor unless he can speak the English language. This will virtually prohibit the employment of immigrants in the mines, and will break up the custom of importing Mexican miners every time there is a strike in the Arizona mines. Even the Associated Press, which has never been accused of friendliness for the workingman, volunteers the statement that this law if enforced "will do much to better the mining conditions in Arizona." Another good clause in the new constitution is one abrogating the infamous common law known as the "fellow servant" doctrine and removing the limit for damages in case of injury or death. Another is the nullification of any contract signed by an employe releasing a corporation from liability or responsibility in case of injury or death. Another measure adopted is for the creation of the office of mine inspector, which has been bitterly opposed for years by the mining companies. The American Federation of Labor has been looking after the interests of the laboring men at the sessions of the constitutional convention, and can claim great credit for the beneficent results obtained.

An Inspector In Bad.

One of the Michigan factory inspectors is said to be in danger of losing his official head for allowing his name and office to be used as an advertising scheme for C. W. Post, of Battle Creek. It seems that the inspector, for reasons best known to himself, gave out an interview, which was pub

lished broadcast, to the effect that he had inspected the Post plant and found that it paid the highest wages to its employes, and was the cleanest, most sanitary and bestprotected factory in the city. This aroused the wrath of other manufacturers in the same line in Battle Creek, with the result that the official powers have had to "come through" with a promise that the offending inspector will be separated from the state's payroll.

The Passing of John Armstrong.

Brief mention was made in the December number of THE JOURNAL of the death of John Armstrong, of Toronto, Canada, a former president of the International Typographical Union. W. N. Brockwell, our Washington correspondent, wrote the following eulogy and sketch of his life for the Trades Unionist of that city, the facts being obtained from a lifelong friend of Mr. Armstrong, and therefore authentic:

John Armstrong, one of the foremost leaders of organized labor in the Dominion of Canada and a former president of the International Typographical Union, died at Toronto, Ont., on November 22.

Mr. Armstrong completed a five-years' apprenticeship to the printing business in the office of the Toronto Globe in the spring of 1865. Labor unions in the old Province of Canada-for the organization of the dominion was not effected until two years later-were then in their incipiency. The ancient Toronto Typographical Society, with no affiliation with any other body of printers, had been struggling for existence for a third of a century or more. It had a fixed scale of prices, but with little power to enforce it. Three or four other weak local typographical societies comprised the sum total of printer organization in the province. Very few of the other trades had any form of organization. Toronto had only two daily newspapers, the Globe and the Leader. The former was an open office, with probably half its force members or former members of the society. The latter was, for those days, conducted on fairly good union lines. The book and job branches were equally mixed. It was largely optional with the individual whether he became a member or not. The society, however, served a useful purpose in furnishing members with certificates when they desired to migrate to the United States. Some of our American unions accepted these certificates at their face value, while others treated them as recommendations to membership.

These were the conditions prevailing when John Armstrong emerged from his apprenticeship. He was then about 19 years of age. The rules of the

society required applicants to be of full legal age. He took the lead of others of the younger set in an effort to bring all his fellow craftsmen together. In a remarkably short time his labors were crowned with success, the disagreements between Globe and Leader men were amicably adjusted, and the entire force of the former was admitted to membership in the society. From that time forward John Armstrong's life was consecrated to the cause of labor. He lived to see between 140 and 150 virile unions of the various crafts in Toronto and the metropolis and capital of Ontario one of the best organized cities on the North American continent, and in that splendid work he has to his credit far more than the share accorded him.

A few months after becoming a member he realized the isolated position occupied by Toronto and the few other Canadian typographical societies, and he set to work to bring about affiliation with the National Typographical Union. At the April, 1866, meeting of the society he offered a resolution applying for a charter under the National Typographical Union and for the dissolution of the society on receipt of the new charter. This resolution was unanimously adopted, and in due time the charter was granted. Toronto Union No. 91 was represented at the sessions of the National Typographical Union, held at Chicago in 1866; Memphis, 1867; Washington, 1868, and Albany, 1869, at which place the name was changed to the International Typographical Union on the admission of all the unions in British America.

In 1872 Toronto Union struck for a nine-hour day in the book and job offices. John Armstrong and the late Edward F. Clarke-another Globe boy, who afterward became mayor of Toronto for several terms and still later a member of the dominion parliament-were the foremost leaders in this movement. They, with some twenty-five others, were arrested under an obsolete conspiracy law. Bail was accepted, but Armstrong and Clarke refused to avail themselves of it until all of their fellows who had been arrested with them had also secured it. The sympathy of the entire public was strongly with the prosecuted typos, and the dominion parliament, being then in session, a bill repealing the obnoxious law was rushed through in three days, and the "conspirators" were given their liberty. This contest lasted more than three months, several daily papers which had started since 1865 ceased to exist, and the master printers' association finally surrendered; thus assuring to the members of No. 91 the nine-hour day many years in advance of their brethren in any American city. The memories of that struggle had a most salutary effect on the minds of the employers, for when the time came for action on the International Typographical Union movement for eight hours in 1906 the demand was conceded on the expiration of existing contracts.

After filling many of the subordinate offices Mr. Armstrong was elected president of Toronto Union in 1875. In 1876 he was sent as a delegate to the Philadelphia convention, where he was elected corresponding secretary. In 1877, at Louisville,