age rates prevail in various countries for composition per hour: Germany, 28 cents; Belgium, 30; England, 46; France, 40, and America, $1.

THE printers' union label is in use in nearly 700 cities and towns of the United States and Canada. Many municipalities and several states require all printing to be done in union offices and to bear the trademark of the union.

ELSEWHERE in this issue we publish an article written by A. H. McQuilkin, editor of the Inland Printer, which contains a good suggestion, and which might be considered with profit by the delegates to the coming convention. Mr. McQuilkin tells of the employment bureau which has been operated for some years under the auspices of his publication, and recommends that the scheme be taken up by the International Union and operated on a larger scale.

THE New York committee for the promotion of a universal union label has taken steps to form a permanent organization. The object is to urge the American Federation of Labor to adopt an emblem that will represent all union-made goods, so that the purchasing power of organized labor can be concentrated on one label. The proposition has been before conventions of the American Federation of Labor in the past, but that body has never taken favorable action.

THE Union Printers Home is represented at the Seattle exposition by an exhibit similar to that which attracted so much attention at the International Congress on Tuberculosis, held in Washington, D. C., last fall. The tent model aroused so much interest that the National Association for the Prevention of Tuberculosis is showing it in its educational tour of the United States. The committee touring the country has lately been in the south. Superintendent Deacon recently received a letter from Manager Routzain, of the general exhibit, dated at Atlanta, Ga., commenting favorably on the general interest caused by the model tent of the Home,

ALREADY, as a result of the crusade being made by the trade unions for more healthful and sanitary working conditions, there has been a marked decrease in the percentage of tuberculosis among the workmen of some of the well organized industries. From statistics recently secured we find that in 1888 52 per cent of all cigarmakers' deaths were due to tuberculosis. In 1890 this percentage had been reduced to 35 per cent, and in 1905 to 24 per cent. In 1888 the average life of a union cigarmaker was 30 years and 5 months, and in 1905 it was 46 years and II months. This certainly is a most positive argument in favor of the union shop, and indicates that considerations entirely aside from wages have influenced the cigarmakers' union in its effort to improve the social conditions of its membership and their standard of living.

MEMBERS of the International Union, especially those located in the small towns of our jurisdiction, are warned against one Louis Lloyd Stevenson, who is engaged in the business of working up special editions for newspapers. He recently appeared at Fulton, Ky., and secured $75 on a bogus check, after having it endorsed by the publishers of the Daily News, of that place. He gave out the impression that he carried a typographical union card. Stevenson is about 5 feet 6 inches in height, of dark complexion, dark hair plentifully tinged with gray, stubby mustache, and has a deep bullet scar in the right jaw near the chin. He weighs about 140 pounds. This description should be borne in mind when any affable stranger appears with a scheme of the kind proposed by Stevenson. He may use a different name the next time.

THE average payment per member made to the old age pension fund of the International Typographical Union for the past year was 37.3 cents per month. The total earnings of the members aggregated $40,293,738, or practically an average of $897 for each one. No American trade union can show an average earning capacity for its members that comes anywhere near these figures,

Two of the largest institutions of the kind in the country are Parke, Davis & Co. and Frederick Stearns & Co., manufacturing chemists, with laboratories in Detroit, Mich. While both of these concerns have none but union men in their employ in their printing departments, they complain that some of their printed matter is returned to them bearing the sticker. This information is given to enlighten the different unions, and to suggest to their members to refrain from returning such matter to these two Detroit firms. It is the desire of the interested parties to be placed in the proper light before the organized workers of the country. Remember that all the printing of Parke, Davis & Co. and Frederick Stearns & Co. is the product of members of Typographical Union No. 18.

The thirteenth annual convention of the Allied Printing Trades Council of New York State will be held in Buffalo the 6th, 7th and 8th of July. Primarily born to combat the installation of a printing plant in the state penal institutions, it has continued to watch closely legislation at Albany, and has been the means of killing many vicious bills. Thomas D. Fitzgerald, president of the council and a member of Albany Union, has been on watch in the state legislative assembly, having been selected by the state workingmen's federation to act in that capacity.

REPRESENTATIVES of the New York State Allied Printing Trades Council, the International Brotherhood of Papermakers, and the International Brotherhood of Pulp, Sulphite and Paper Mill Workers held a conference in Albany, N. Y., last month, and adjusted the differences which have existed between the two organizations of paper mill workers for the past three years.

THE Typographical Association of Great Britain intends making alterations in its working rules, one of the most important being that the use of indicators, or any system by which a machine operator's output may be gauged, is prohibited. Another provision is that members shall not "accept

work on composing machines on terms under which they are called upon to produce a fixed amount of composition, or on a system of payment (except piecework pure and simple) which offers inducements to racing or undue competition between machine operators."

THE most prominent tuberculosis specialists in the country agree that alcohol will not cure consumption. Dr. S. A. Knopf says: "Alcohol has never cured, and never will cure, tuberculosis. It will either prevent or retard recovery." Dr. Frank Billings, of Chicago, and Dr. Vincent Y. Bowditch, ex-presidents of the National Association for the Study and Prevention of Tuberculosis; Dr. Lawrence F. Flick, of Philadelphia, and Dr. Edward L. Trudeau, of Saranac Lake, the founder of the antituberculosis movement in this country, are all of the same opinion.

FOR the benefit of those who are troubled with short memories, it would be well to recall to their minds the boasts made by many of the employing printers of the country, at the outset of the movement for the eight-hour day some four years ago, that the International Typographical Union would be completely disrupted in the struggle. The officers' reports for the fiscal year just closed indicate that the membership of our union is at nearly the same stage that it was in 1905. At that period it had more members on its rolls than at any previous time in the history of the organization.

AT the annual meeting of the southwest district of the Iowa State Library Association, held at Shenandoah, June 9, one of the interesting discussions was in relation as to what magazines to use in a small public library. The Ladies' Home Journal was put on the "doubtful" list, while the Saturday Evening Post was not even mentioned as one of the good library periodicals. It is quite improbable that the sentiment of the convention was in any way influenced by feelings either for or against organized labor, the delegates coming from communities where the labor movement receives scant attention. The opinion, therefore,

was unbiased in regard to the non-union Philadelphia publications, and shows the attitude of the library students of Iowa toward the Curtis periodicals.

THROUGH the energy displayed by the label committee of Saginaw (Mich.) Union No. 50, the label now appears on all textbooks of the Bliss-Alger College.

There can be no question but that the process of "Americanizing the Philippines" is gaining some headway. In a recent strike of the street railway employes at Manila the injunction was used to prevent mass meetings being held for the purpose of voicing grievances against the company.

PRESIDENT MCPHAIL, of Boston Union No. 13, under date of June 13, writes as follows:

The contract for the National Sportsman, which has been printed in a non-union office, has been given to a union shop, and in the future will be produced under strictly union conditions.

IN a letter to President Lynch, dated June 9, Organizer Devereux says:

During the last couple of days I have been interviewing the members of the Minnesota State Printing Commission and the state expert printer in regard to the state printing for the year. The printing amounts to between $25,000 and $28,000, approximately, and I am pleased to inform you that union job plants in St. Paul and Minneapolis secured all of it-the Syndicate Printing Company, Minneapolis, and the Volks-Zeitung job office, St. Paul.

THE workingman is much in evidence "in the seats of the mighty" in faraway Australia. A hodcarrier is vice-chairman of the national council. This job corresponds to the vice-presidency of the United States. The man who sits at the head of the table at the meetings of the Australian national council, the present premier, is a coal miner. A metal worker is secretary of foreign affairs, a carpenter holds the portfolio for national defense, and the minister of trade formerly made hats for a living. The postmaster-general is a miner, the minister of home affairs is a newspaper writer, and the attorney-general is a lawyer well known for his friendly attitude toward labor.

"THE Mass and Vestments of the Catholic Church," by Rt. Rev. Monsignor John Walsh, of St. Peter's church, of Troy, N. Y., and published by the Troy Times Art Press, bears the label of Troy Typographical Union No. 52, with his sanction. The book is dedicated to the bishop of the diocese, and is a splendid specimen of the art preservative. It is a scholarly treatise-liturgical, doctrinal, historical and archeological of the Catholic faith, containing valuable information for the laity. The monsignor has attested his friendship to organized labor on numerous occasions, and the label of our craft upon his book is a further testimonial of his good will.

STERN resistance is still being made by the Stove Mounters' and Steel Range Workers' International Union against the methods of the Favorite Stove and Range Company, of Piqua, Ohio, which declared for the "open shop" and its consequent reduction in wages and increase of hours. Don't forget that Favorite stoves and ranges are manufactured by a company whose management is antagonistic to organized labor and its efforts to maintain fair living conditions.

THE Des Moines Register and Leader of June 6 printed a complete and comprehensive summary of the fight which is being waged against tuberculosis in the state of Iowa. The article included, among other illustrations, a picture of the Union Printers Home. The Register and Leader has rendered a valuable service to its readers and manifested the conception of newspaper functions that is admirable.

It is not strange that the cloven hoof of Satan should peep out of all the public utterances of John Kirby since his election to the presidency of the National Association of Manufacturers. He was selected for the position for just that purpose.

THE Woman's International Label League held a successful session at Louisville, Ky., June 15-17, the International Typographical Union being represented by Albert E. Hill, of Nashville, Tenn.