of the committee until after the 1906 convention, which decided the time then ripe for the further consideration of this subject. At the 1907 convention the committee appointed by President Lynch reported, and its recommendations, which are embodied in our present pension laws, were adopted. The proposed plan was submitted to a referendum vote of the membership in October, 1907, and was adopted by a vote of 17,177 for, to 9,194 against, with a provision that the pension assessment should not become effective until the eight-hour assessment then being collected was discon*tinued. In February, 1908, the executive council ordered that the eight-hour assessment be discontinued with that month, and directed the collection of the pension assessment, beginning with March, 1908. The assessment being on the percentage plan, the revenue for any one month does not reach headquarters until the following month. Thus the International Union had received the assessment for ten monthsMarch to December, 1908, inclusive-at the close of business January 31, 1909. It was estimated by the committee preparing the old age pension law that the assessment of one-half of 1 per cent on the total earnings of all members would produce $168,000 per year, and it was thought that the annual disbursements of pensions to pensioners would aggregate $104,000. This estimate was thought to be conservative, and the result of ten months' experience with the fund is, therefore, somewhat surprising. The receipts of the fund have been far in excess of the estimate, and the expenditures there from considerably less than was anticipated, with this result: ures per capita tax was received on an average of 44,720 members. Thus the pension assessment has averaged 34 4-5 cents per member per month. The pension is paid once in every four weeks, the idea being to give each pensioner thirteen checks in twelve months. At the close of business on January 31, 1909, six pension payments had been made, covering the twenty-four weeks ending January 16, 1909. The amount paid to pensioners-$38,344-is an average of $1,597 per week. Should this ratio be maintained for fifty-two weeks-one year the demands on the pension fund would be far less than its revenue. However, the expenditures from the fund will constantly grow, as is evidenced by the continued addition of names to the roll of pensioners. This statement is also borne out by the experience of the English unions that have for years conducted pension funds. Applications for the pension to the number of 566 had been received and acted upon up to January 31, 1909. Of this number 44 petitions were disapproved, one was withdrawn, and 521 were approved. Death invaded the ranks of the pensioners on 17 occasions, leaving 504 pensioners on the roll on the date named above. The following table contains a list of unions having members on the pension list, the number of members from each local, the amount paid to them to January 31 and the total membership of each union: $155,670 78 Atchison, Kan., No. 113... 20 1 265 30 Atlanta, Ga., No. 48.. 215 1 8 00 Austin, Texas, No. 138.. Baltimore, Md., No. 12. EXPENDITURES. $38,344 00 Buffalo, N. Y., No. 9. Cambridge, Mass., No. 61. 496 85 Cedar Rapids, Iowa, No. 192. 13 75 Cincinnati, Ohio, No. 3... $39,841 85 ary 31, 1909....... In the period covered by the above fig $116,102 23 Cleveland, Ohio, No. 53. 514 4 308.00 Cleveland, Ohio (G.-A.), No. 6.. Colorado Springs, Colo., No. 82. Quincy, Ill., No. 59.. Raleigh, N. C., No. 54.. Reading, Pa., No. 86. Richmond, Ind., No. 301. 96 (0 60.00 168.00 556 00 336 00 16.00 188 00 96.00 1,136 00 96.00 192 00 96.00 64.00 96.00 424 00 56.00 96.00 92.00 An analysis of the ages of the pension applicants develops the notable fact that the average age of the 566 applicants is 68.5 years. Of the total number 59.3 per cent (336) are between 60 and 70 years; 35.6 per cent (202) are septuagenarians; 4.7 per cent (27) are octogenarians, while one is a nonagenarian. There is one woman on the pension roll-Miss E. Louise Bryant, of She New Haven (Conn.) Union No. 47. is 62 years of age, and has been a member of the International Union for thirty-two consecutive years. DISAPPROVED APPLICATIONS. In the consideration of applications for the pension, the executive council was much surprised to find among the petitioners a number who had not been active members of the organization for several years. These applicants had been on the honorary rolls of local unions, yet claimed continuous membership, and were aggrieved when their petitions were denied. In two or three cases the applicant was not, at the time of filing his petition, an active member of a local union, but based his claim for the pension upon the fact that he had held active membership for twenty continuous years before taking a withdrawal card or going on the honorary roll of a local union. Others had been suspended or expelled, and reinstated, without the payment of accumulated dues. Some had been in and out of the organization on honorable withdrawal cards. As construed by the executive council and the Boston convention of the International Union, an applicant must have been a continuous active member in good standing for twenty years immediately preceding the date on which his petition for the pension is filed to render him eligible thereto. Persons on the honorary, exempt, or retired lists of local unions, or holding honorable withdrawal cards, are in no sense beneficiary members of the International Typographical Union. Membership in the parent organization can only be maintained by the regular payment of dues and assessments in monthly sequence, either by the individual or for him by his union. In the light of this fact, the applicants to whom the pension has been denied were not eligible to participate in the fund. REGARDING THE ASSESSMENT. Is the pension assessment too large? Are we collecting more money for the fund than is needed for the present and the future? These questions are receiving much thought, and already a reduction in the pension assessment is being urged in some quarters. Our own experience with the old age pension has been too limited to permit of accurate deductions being made therefrom. After collecting the assessment for ten months and paying the pension for twenty-four weeks-almost half a yearthere is a healthy balance in the fund. Each day brings new applications for this benefit. The membership will grow older with the passing of each year, and as the number of members reaching the age of 60 increases with the constantly advancing years, and the requirements that go with employment become more onerous, we must expect corresponding increment in the list of pensioners. It is now known that a large number of members who are legally entitled to the pension have not asked therefor. Trade conditions may further change and these men be deprived of employment. With these facts in view, let us not reach hasty conclusions. The increasing balance in the fund is not a cause for worry. It is safeguarded in every possible way, and, like the reserve fund of large insurance societies, may prove the salvation of the International Union and the pension plan in the years to come. The executive council has no desire to build up a large fund merely that the treasury may contain the money. It is looking to the future and endeavoring to render impregnable the pension fund and other beneficial features that add so much to the strength and ever redound to the glory of the organization. Home Christmas Fund Growing. There follows the list of donations to the Home Christmas fund received since the publication of the February JOURNAL. The total shows a gratifying increase in the amount now in hand over that previously reported. That we will raise the $12,000 which must be gathered if the original idea is to be carried out seems to be assured, although the responses have been somewhat slow. All members, chapels or unions that have not as yet contributed are urged to do so at once. Each member contributing $1 or more will be entitled to a two-color picture of the Union Printers Home. This two-color picture is a beautiful specimen of the art preservative, and as a souvenir of the library addition will be much valued in the future. Subscriptions to the Home building fund can be arranged for locally, or the money can be forwarded direct to International headquarters. The International officers have an abiding faith in the generosity of the membership of the International Typographical Union, and they do not believe that in this effort in behalf of a worthy cause there will be failure. If the local officers, chairmen of the various chapels and those members who take a great interest in the Union Printers Home will bestir themselves the amount desired-$12,000, $7,500 of which remains to be contributedwill be forthcoming. The fund thus far: Previously acknowledged. 5, Columbus, Ohio. 6, New York, N. Y.. 9. Buffalo, N. Y..... 10, Louisville, Ky..... 33, Providence, R. I.... 61, Cambridge, Mass. 91, Toronto, Ont., Can.. 134, Paducah, Ky..... 172, San Antonio, Texas. 186, Fargo, N. D.. 191, Winnipeg, Man., Can.. 205, Jamestown, N. Y. $3,436 73 27 05 250 00 100 00 21 00 3 50 5 00 75 00 7 00 10 00 I 70 100 00 2 50 *Cummings memorial fund raised by Donation E. A. Grozier. Total donations to date... Amount yet to be raised.. Total needed for Library. 100 00 4,617 03 .$17,920 46 7,079 54 .$25,000 00 215, Decatur, Ill... 252, Bridgeport, Conn.... 5 00 304, Albuquerque, N. M... 5 00 10 00 324, Racine, Wis.. *Less expenses committee. 390, Pontiac, Ill.. 5 00 398, Billings, Mont.. 449, Calgary, Alberta, Can... 615, Manistee, Mich.. 628, Somerville, N. J.. 576, San Luis Obispo, Cal.. 5 00 5 00 3 00 4 75 10 00 I 00 5 00 50 I 00 IO 00 5 00 5 00 I 00 4 00 7 50 16 00 3 75 5 25 2 75 2 00 16 25 21 25 6. 00 I 25 8 00 2 00 2 00 17 95 4 00 A Workingmen's Ministry. The Syracuse Post-Standard of recent issue commented editorially as follows: In the correspondence column on this page appears a matter-of-fact recital of the manner in which American printers, who are well and at work, minister to the needs of their fellows who through illness or otherwise are incapable of work. The story as modestly told constitutes a noble tribute to the benevolence and unselfishness of men who, as a matter of course, make personal sacrifice for others. The International Typographical Union, which claims as its own peculiar charity the widely renowned and enviably renowned Printers Home at Colorado Springs, is not essentially different from other established and reputable union labor organizations in this country, and its members are probably not more charitably inclined than average American workingmen of other crafts. It remains true, nevertheless, that in a conspicuous degree the union printers of this country make their benevolences felt, because their giving for charity is rigidly systematic and is governed always by the sav ing influence of business common sense. There are few things more beautiful in co-oper ative benevolence than the established practice among union printers the country over of giving the value, once or twice or three or four times each year, of one hour of each man's labor in contribution to the needs of fellow craftsmen who have broken down in the struggle for subsistence and comfort, and who unless helped must be left comfortless. The Printers Home in Colorado, maintained and managed by the International Typographical Union, is not only a model as an institutional charity, but is well nigh perfect as illustrating perhaps the best method yet devised of co-operative benevolence. Every union printer in America who earns wages contributes each year his due quota toward the maintenance of every other union printer in America who needs assistance. Union labor organization in its cruder stages and through its gradual development toward better things has had much of ill-doing laid to its charge, and has often deserved popular censure. But union labor as a direct and controlling force in the lives of wage-earners has also dignified manhood, widely fostered intelligent benevolence, inculcated temperance, recommended morality in living-in short and in large measure, throughout the workingmen's world, has perceptibly lifted the level of average manhood. The Printers Home at Colorado Springs is one of the concrete evidences that this is true. Kansas Governor and Convict Labor. At a regular meeting of Topeka (Kan.) Typographical Union No. 121 the following resolutions were offered and unanimously adopted: Whereas, Gov. W. R. Stubbs, as one of his first official utterances, declared that during his administration no more contracts for convict labor will be made, and, that if it can be legally done, he favors the cancellations of those now in force; and Whereas, The said declaration is in line with the attitude that has always been held by organized labor; therefore, be it Resolved, By Topeka Typographical Union No. 121, that we hereby express our most hearty ap proval of Governor Stubbs' attitude on this question, and commend it to the governors of other states as one worthy of their imitation. Resolved, That a copy of these resolutions be forwarded to Governor Stubbs and another copy submitted to THE TYPOGRAPHICAL JOURNAL for publication; also that these resolutions be spread on the minutes. UNDER date of February 14, 1909, M. V. Johnston, chairman of the label committee of Yonkers Union No. 468, writes: With reference to the theater that insisted and persisted in billing shows using non-union litho graphs, I would state that it was so capable of getting on without the assistance or aid of union men that it went out of business on Saturday in so far as this city is concerned. This is the second object lesson No. 468 has given theatrical managers, and it may have the desired effect, as the manager of the other theater had given his program out to the only non-union (one-man) shop in town, who printed them just two days, our visit to him being too late the second day to have them reprinted for the evening performance. The next day, however, saw his program bearing the label, and he has assured us that it will continue to do so as long as he is in control of the theater. Union-Labeled Textbooks. In another column mention is made of the settlement secured in Richmond with the Hermitage Press, publishers for the B. F. Johnson Book Company. The Johnson company deals in textbooks, and is once again in position to furnish textbooks with the union label, or where the label is not desired textbooks manufactured by a union establishment. President Lynch is compiling a list of publishers who can furnish union-made or union-labeled textbooks, and the classification of these books. As soon as the data is in complete form arrangements will be made through local label committees to take up an aggressive campaign for union-made textbooks. The unionizing of the Hermitage Fress gives us a very important house, and there are several other concerns throughout the country that will make most desirable outlets for the demand for union-made books. As in many other things, the state of Oklahoma is the leader in the demand for union-labeled textbooks, and the school-book contracts made by that state with the B. F. Johnson company had much to do with unionizing the Hermitage Press, of Richmond, Va. Troubles of Werner. A member of Canton (Ill.) Union No. 342 informs THE JOURNAL that circulars are being distributed in that locality advertising the "American Encyclopedia Britannica," presumably the work of the Werner Publishing Company, of Akron, Ohio, which has for several years been contesting the establishment of the shorter workday in its printing plant. In fact, the contest between this "scab" concern and the various unions of the printing trade is now being waged with as much vigor as at any time since the lockout occurred. The circulars to which our correspondent refers, and which it is assumed are being sent out by the Werner company, bear a mutilated typographical union label, the name of the union being so battered that it could not be made out. This is probably an attempt on the part of the Akron concern to mislead the public with the insinuation that its work is the product of union labor. |