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I· I , i

Official Journal of the National Brotherhood Electrical Workers of America..

VOL. 7, No. 12. ROCHESTER, N. Y., DECEl\lBER, 18g8. SINGLE COPII;;S. 10 CENTS. $1.00 PER. YEAR, IN ... \. (,VA':-;C E.

Tesla"s Aspirations. So much has been said of late regarding

Nik<i!a Tesla and his recent discoyeries tha~ th~ fullowiug resume, which appeared ~n a recent Humber -of the New York Eyen­i::g Post, will doubtless be of interest to the practical readers of the Worker:

"That l.he author of the Itlultiphase sys­lem of transmi:;sion should at this late -dol)' be flooding the press with rhetorical bombast that recalls the wildest days of the Kee;y-motor mania is inconsistent al,d ·iaexplil:au!c to. the last degree.' 1·1Iis. utterance from the Scientific American cxempliiies tile strong language comi:Jg fmlll ':;1~ieJ1tiii.c quarters about the latest .alluouncemellLS of Mr. Nikola Tesla, and bids fair to U1ark the culmination of a long periOd oi what nlay be called electric seu­·sation~lism. Another scientific journal, the Electricai Engineer, which for some 'years exp01.11lded :\lr. Tesla's earlier work, bas drawll back in alarm, and in a receut ·comment 011 one of lI-lt. Tesla's promises says it 'refuses point blank' to accept it in silence, Bnd is 'willing to face the ~Ol1se­·q\lcuc~~.' The situation thus de\'eloped is -of unusual interest,

"It is not until a review is ruade of Mr. ·Tesla's programme that an inlt:lligent un­·decstaudiHg l:aiJ "t: reached of tht! attituae now displ!lyed Oll this subject by the scien­tific pre~;; ·a:1u by .leaders of scientific thought, Io'.lld {,f the !"f:sentment exhibiteu by tbe subject of t'l(;~i quiet criticism. 'who IlcclOses thell. n~ (ksirc to do him 'ser­.ions illjury.' A ro~pre';!:"lltati,"e of the . Eveuing 1:'o·;t D.1S m:"k itlvestigatioil (,f the matter, ;:lltl the (iate now presented will a .. ~ist tlle l'U:i.,iic it! forming i~s OW!l ·c<->nc1usions. '

.. At tbe time of the destruction by fire ·of Mr. Tesla's· l.:;"Uoratory, near mecker

street, early ill 1&)5. he was at work on an 'oscillator,' in which he sought to combine steam engine and dynamo ill one machine, with immense ecol1~lIlv of st~ani and gain in output of current. A completed ma­

. chine was illustratetl b the Century Mag-azine is·· Apdl, 11:595. with glowillg COlIl­ment by the author of the article. At that time Mr. Tesla had stated to friends that the macbine would certainly be widely in use in New York city within six months. Mr. Tesla Corwith started. new plans and a new laboratory, but no . 'oscillator' .has made its appearanoe. On the contrary, Mr. Tesla has given the name oC quite another apparatus, of utterly different con­structioll, having nothing to do with 5leam, and upon-which he has laid great stress as to its merit in delicate electro­tll\>rapeutic work.

"Mr. Tesla also became engaged in per­fecting vacuum-tube lighting, which, as early as 1892, at the New York Electric Club and other places, he bad predicted would wipe out the Edison incandescent system in a year. In the Xew York Sun of November 21, 1898, 1\1r. Tesla stated that he had his system ready, but he lim­ited its possible usefulness. It is not, howe\'er, on the market, nor bas any. one appwached Ly the reporte·r ever seen it in commercial operation anywhere.

'J As a de\'elopment of his 'oscillator' experiments, :\lr. Te~la fl!rther expressed his' belit:f thllt tIle curre'1t would he lls,"d in telegraphy, and the )if!W York Herald quoted bim as follows: 'That it will be possible to signal all parts ul ·th.:: e.trlll sililUltallcously, and that frem the lO!;,ical dj'!yeloplllept of this it ,vii. '. :.oQs3illle tl' sigu<ll the st~rs l,y electric (ii~'lurbances here, I ba,e 11;) doubt whatcver.' ·He claillled to be :J.ble by hIS 'o!'cillatory' methods:'o disturo tho: e~rth's clectric~l

charge, anl~ showed apparatus in wIdell this e>;traordinaryphenolllenon was allegt.1 to be manifest.

"The disco\'ery of the X-ray by Prof. Roetgen in 1895, aud il s a;'lllOlltICcme.lt at the .beginning of IB96, led to gr.:a:' acii..-jty on the part of sllch men as Mr. Edison, ~lr.' . Tesla, :'IIr. ]\1ol>re and others b ~he ·field . of fluorescent ana vacllum-tube lighting, and claims of one kind and another fol­lowed thick and fast as to what tile ray was, better methods of {'ecuring it', new lamps, improved X-!"ll)' pictr,rc.s, etc. llut at the present DlVlUelll, ~O far a~ Cbll b(~

discovered, not a single piece of Te~ia special X-ray apparatus call l)e brmght anywhere, and not a si.ug1e tueory ad­vanced by him has received tlI" approyai of the scientitic world.

"."We next .hear of bolder schemes. A few months later Garrett P. Serviss her· aIded in the New York Journal the fact that 'Nikola Tesla's latest contributioIl to science opens up one of the mObt surpris­ing \"isions of man's future coutrol over nature that the nineteenth century has produced.' This referred to an elaborate· schemE': for generating electric C],arellt at. a trifling expense· by Niagara }>O\7er, sal-.

mating the earth with it, anJ ~pTayi;,g

growing plants from el ... ~tl"ified \.,.:,1.\; ..

tanks. In this way the nitrogen needed IJY exhausted soil was to be restored to it, a~n nlUnkiuc !;aved frolll starvation. The m(,~t diligent inquiry fails to. reveal. the' trilll of allY "'!,pdratus for this parpvst:, or the for:"t public l)roof of tbe iI~trinsic va1ue of tile id.ea .

"1'0 '~numerate step by step a~l such 1J1iJ.1"\'els as these to whiCh the attention of the puu;ic has been called, is impossible. In the lo;ew York World of Suncay, De­cemt)cr 26, IB97, was a page article, hf'.a(h·d '\Vizm:d 'resla makes the sun do mml·S

2

will,' and a picture showing a Tesla labor­atory, with huge machinery, all operated by sunshine. The apparatus comprised reflecting mirrors, cylinders full of water, treated chemically by a secret process, 'which Tesla has devised, ',and the inventor was quoted thus: 'I will say that the re­sults so far achieved are all I d,e!>ire. I am certain that the new apparatus will come into speedy and general use. The whole business will be so simply arranged that there will be no probability of its breaking down.' ~

" Inquiry in every quarter reveals, among electricians, an absolute igllorance of any apparatus of this kind, and reference was made at once by several of tbem to the famous failures of £ricsson many years ago along better comprehended lines of investigation, of which all the details were long since made public.

"In the New York "'orld of October 31, 1897, a scheme was set forth, with cuts aud a long statement by Mr. Tesla in the first person, to defend the human body from microbes and preserve the beauty of wom­anly and manly youth throughout life. 'I have made extertsive~!udy and experiment to the end of finding some means of clean­ing the human skin of these deadly mi­crohrs, and I have succeeded in inventing a means by whicb it can be"kept free from their 'ravages.' Part of Mr. Tela's plan was tbe use of 'a battery I haYe myself in­vented. With this battery I have charged Illlman bodies so successfully that mi­crobes have, been thrown off in a perfect shower, some of them being thrown as far as fouT or, fh'e feet.' The same plan was described, with variations, in the New

'York-HeFald, with the addition that paint could thus be cleaned from different ob­jects, and that any skin disorder could be cured, although' just the form of appar­atus I amusing I must keep secret for a time yet.' .

" The present year opened with a sug­gestion, in the Sunday newspapers, by Mr. Testa, of the way in which an 'electric subj!lgator' might best be devised "dth which to tame ",oill animals, but this he distllissed with brief notice. ' •

" The war with spain broke ,out, all the inventors were busy, and Mr. Tesla an­nonnced a plan for throwing an electric , .. pal'k into the interior of a distant Spanish magazine and exploding it, Nothing,itisbe­lieved, came' of that, as Mr. Tesla did not go to the frout, and rione of tbe many plans for destroying life and, property suggested by ,the electricians, from Mr. Edison down, were ever tri~,l. But 1\lr. ' Tesla was not idle, for he has just au-

, llounced two new iuventions, ',\ith 'which the Herald, Sun, ,'Vorld end Journal have' been filled during the last three or four weeks, One of these deals with the trans­'mission of power electrically by llatural media. The inventor stated that. he could

THE ELECTRICAL WORKER

generate with ease and safety electrk.al.. pressures measured by milliolls of .volts, carry this into the upper, rarified regions of the air, and then send it to correspond­ing receiving apparatus. The Xew York Herald of !'\o .. ember 13ih h3n this about it from a repor~er: 'T{,sla says his ma­chinery works perfectly; that he h;!5 dem­onstrated the seeming miracle beyond all possibility of failure. He said to me yes­terday: I will supply the Paris Exposi­tion with Niagara's power. 1 will send it across the ocean without a wire. My in­vention is the crowning success of 101lg years of thought and labor.' To holel up the apparatus required in the higher reg­ions of the air balloons were ,mggf:s:ed, and then, according to the EiectTical Re,iew, 'power froUl such sources as Xiag­ara will become a\"ailabie in aay par. of the world, regardless of distance.' The electrical press in general has piled merci­less ridicule on this scheme, and London Lightning speaks of it as so impnobable as to be due either to an irrt;;ponsible re­porter or an 'unhingeu intdlect.'

" Sllpplementary to this, and appearing witllin a few days of it, W<'S l\lt". Tesia's ann0l111.cement thnt he had abolished war by a new dirigible torpedo operated by what is universally known amOllg elec­tricians as the Marcoui wireless system of telegraphy, or in other words, he proposed to use Hertzian wa\-es, traveling th.'ough space, to affect, as a relay a 'coherer' em­ployed on a torpedo boat, and thus close and operate the electrical circllit. on it. Guns were fired in this way. hmY!",'er, at the :Madison Square Gt.rden at the Electri­cal"Exhibition last May, aud fioatiug tor­pedoes blown up daily in the tanks tl1ere to illustrate what migllt be donte; and American army officers experimcllted last year in the operation of distant machinery, with the :Marconi system, so that tlle idea is familiar and old in' electrical circles, but all whom the reporter has interviewed say that the.insuperabie difficulty rcmains of ensuring the reliability of the deHcate coherer and ·of preventing othel- !ulvcrse 'coherer' on the eneU1Y's ships froUl frus­trating at will the plims of thuSt behind the attacking torpedo boat.

"Mr. Teslaannour.ced in the Herald that this 'invention' must enirJrc(! u;:;iver­sal pence at' once, and he descrihed Eng­land as reduced to nothingness and France as correspondingly jubilant. In the Sun of November :21st l\'rr. Tesla ap~lied the' idea to artillery, wipili~ out modern guns, and said;

"\\'e_shall be able, availillg ourseh·es of this advance, to send a projectile at much greater distante. It ",i1ll!ot be liulited in any way by weight or amount of explosive charge. We shall be Iib1e to su1)!uerge it at command, to arre~i; it ill its f.ight, anu call it back and send. it out aga!);, and ex­plode it at will-and nlOl"e than illis, it

[December

will never make a miss.' In several in­teryiews, Mr. Tesla has also ~xpanded the possibilities of his· torpedo ,boat, saying: that 'this power can be exerted at any dis­tauce by an agency of so d~liea.le, so 1I11-palpable a quality, that 1 feel I am justi­lieu in predicting that the, time will come when it can be called in to action by the mere exercise of the human will.' 'Vhen interrogated about this metop~lysical in­Yention, Mr. Tesla has reaffirmed his, be- -lief in its 'possibility.'

"This is repeated in the ~riterion of November 19th, and in the Herald of No,-, , yember 19th,_ ~-lr. Tesla expressing the hope that adverse criticisms have not shaken the faith of a journal.in him. says: 'If 1 feel certain of anything, it is tl'at I have given to the world an invention which will designate the beginning of a new epoch, and profoundly affect the relations, between nations.'

"These latest declarations of !\ir. Tesla seem to have strained scientific confidence­in him to the utmost, and it is hanl to find to-day auy electric authority who does 110t believe either that :.'Ill". 'fesla'simagina·.ic.n has r'un away with him, or that close ap-' plication to his laboratory bas strained his good judgment." ----------------

,A ureat Victory.

Local Union No. 1.7 Secures the Pas­sage of an Ordinance Against

Bitter Opposition.

It is my intention in this letter 'to give you a brief review of the two years' per­sistent work and the success of No. 17 ill having enacted into law an Qrdinance reg­ulating the stringing of. wires throughout the cit)" of Detroit, -therefore providing for better protection against accident and death to the men engaged in that class of work:

In our correspondence with other .cities, in regard to similar laws, we find that very few cities, in fact none that we have writ­ten to, have any laws regulating the stringing of wires. ' It is 'therefore for the benefit of those unions who contemplate­similar action that we give our experience, but I do not desire to build up any false hopes by leading ,others to believe that it was an easy victory, fOT,' on th.e cQntrary,: it was achieved only after two years' per.': sistent effo~t, and in the face of oppositi;,n tr.at would have discoutaged most unio.lls~

In order that the ordinance may be ~et~ ter understood, it will be necessary to go back to the time when the Public I-iglttitig Commission was formed some fi,'e years, ago. Tli~ question was first submitted to the people of Detroit, whether .they de­sired to change from th~ 'contract system of lighting the city to the municipai ownership of their OW11 piant, and tlle vote was overwhelmingly 11; th(; affirnuitive_

December]

Th~ 1,egi5L'lture wa. .. then asked to amend the city charter to provide for the fOfllla­tion of the Lighting COlllmission, aud, in ·order that the Commission might be free

".from the domilluCon of politics, they placed the suvenision of stringing of wires !Imi everything else electrical solely in the hands of the commission. I do not admit the efficacy of that law, but it is not my .inteution to discuss that phase of the ques­tion at this time, 1'0 I will make no further ·comments upon it. Therefore it wIll be readily understood why the Public Lig-ht­·ing Commission is so frequ~!ntly referren to in the ~rdillance and why it is placed ·entirely in their hanrls to enforce.

With the advent of this Commis!'ion (which, by the way, is composed entirely of business men and lawyers) a number of new mles and iunovations were intro­duced that would re\·olutionize the then existing conditions and if allowed to con­·tiDue would eYentually decrease to a de­gree the ranks of the electrical wor!<ers and drain the funcral fund to such an ex­tent that bankmptcy of the National Brotherhood would follow. As future e\·ents will show, we natnrally objectcu to booming the undertaking business at the ex pense or the electrical workers. Chief .anwllg the numerous new rules that were introduced was olle to prohibit the erec­tion of what they termed all unnecessary ·poles througholH th(! city, and in order to carry it into eifE'~t they compelled the police and fire departments and, in some cases, the priYate companies: to string all their wires required after that date, wher­ever po5Sible, upon the poles already erected belonging to the Lighting Com­mission and other companies. The con­sequence has bee:1 that the bare wires of the police and fire d.:partUients ha\·e been .strung on the saw!:' arm and side by side with wires carryiIlg alternating and othcr -currents of a liigll potential. The danger to linemen in coming in contact whh these Jive wires while handling the hare grounded wires of the other companies or. vice versa and the Ultimate results of such all action is too apparent to the experi­enced mind to require any further expla­natioH by me. Theil again the fire depart­ment ere(:ted their nignal boxes on the poles on which their wires were stmug, irrcspecti\'~ of who -they belonged to or what other w,,.e~ were strung on the5c poles, . and in ·order to protect· their drop wires- from abrasion and danlage froUl linemen's spurs they enc.losed them in ·common gas pipe <:k:,r to the top of the pole. Thcse conditions were allowed to contiuue until oue fine morning we were

.. aroused frolll our lethargy and. brought to a realization of the danger we were plact'd in by the death of a lineman by COl11ill~ ill ·{:ontact with one of those grounded pipes ,vhile attelllpting to cut a live electric Jlght wire. The "union immediately took

THE ELECTRICAL \VORKER

the matter up and appointed a committee consistiug of Bros. Forbes, Snyder and Audrews, . who petitioned rhe ·Com!llon Council to draft an ordillanc.e prohihiiing the erection of these man-traps in the future and to provide for the removal of those already existing. Our petition was referred to the Lighting Commission for their addce, as they had full authority under the law O\·er these matters. Their answer was to the effect t~at 110 ordiuance was necessary, as liueTllcn were always snbject to more or less dallger and to c.lIunge the conditions we complaitied of would only increase the danger for the reason, as they argued, that a known dan­ger was safer than fancied security. Our petition was then laid on the table.

Not discouraged hy our: first rebuff, we then appealcu to the t:ldennen iudividu­ally, and .about a month later Alderman Thompson introrluced a resolutioll request­ing the ordinance cOlJlmittee to in,-estigate the advisability of drofting the ordinance we asked for. '\'e then conferred with the committee, who advised us to draft an ordinance to suit ours-elvcs amI. suhmit it to them and they w011id act upon it. \\'e immediately employed an attorney who drafted, under our iustructions and sug­g('stions, the following ordinallce, which we snbulitted to the committee: A:-J ORDISANCE to Tf~glllate electric

wiring and the llse or dectricity. It is hereby ordained by the people of

the City of Detroit : Section I. That the l'ubHc Lighting

COJII[lIis;;ion .)f the Ci\.y of Detroit shall an­Iluaii}" examine wirelllCll seeking to ell­gnge i:1 that vocation (the ierlll wiremcn illtemlwg to and does hereby designate alld refer to those who string, trall1 or place electric wire on tl,e inside of build-1I1gs aud l'ot to apply to linemcn, or those engaged ill stringing, training or placing wire 011 the oUlSide of the builuings or structun:&), as to their ability to do such electrical work, upou written appli<:ation for, and who apply in person for examin­ation, anu to such as pass said cX'~!llillation to the satisfaction of the Publk I,ighting COlllll1ission, a permit in acconlum:e lhere­with shall be issued by the saiu Lighting COlli mission ; said permit shan be issll::d in the form of >\ b:tdge, which ~aid badge shall be worn in a cvllspicuotls place on the person of ~uch wireman or electrical w'.>rker, while ht· j", cngag~d in doing auy ;"'lIIner of electl ic wiring or while engaged ill making repairs to electrical wire or fix­tures in auy buiidillg or stn",~urc in said cit)' of Detroit. _\nu it sh<!l.1 be unlawful for any pCn~()l~ to _ e:ug;ln'" i •• uoiug ani manner of electrical wiring or repairs to electric wire or fixtures, ill any Imilding witho11t 511ch budge cOll~pic11011~ly dis­played on his persoll, while eugaged in snch work. Any wirelli:u; or cledrical \yorker (not including liJwmeli) who fuils to conforlll in eyery respect to the mles prescribed hy this ordinullcc, or who loans or transfers his badge to another, does thereby re\'oke his perlTlit and it shall be the· duty of the ·IJisiJedor of the Public Lighting Commission to take up and StH;­pe;,d said person to whom sai,} !Jadge has been issue(l and report s:\!Ile to the l'u\)lic Light COlll mission , who shall give said

3

person a hearing, and it shaiJ be optional with the said commission to renew or re­voke the said permit until the pro\·isions oi this ordinance are complied with.

~ec.:;t. It shall be unlawful for an," in­dividual, firm or corporation to string or place any bare grounded wire, such as·tele­grapll or telephone wires, on the same pole, stanchion or upright, with high potential wires without separating said wires carn·­jng high potential currents frum said bare grounded wires by a distance of at least eight feet in the clear. And it shall be the (tuty of allY indh·idual, firm or corpor­ation, qnasi municipal or otherwise, to re­Ino\"e said bare wires to couform to this or­dinance as herein prm-ideu, within ninety

. days fron; date of sen·ice of notice (0 sep­arate said wil".es, given by the Public Lght­iug Commission or ·its rluiy appointed agellt. High potential wires in this ordi­nance being ,,-ires carrying currents of three hundred yolts or o\·el". .

Sec .. ,. It shall be unlawful for auv in­dh-idl1:l1, firm Or corpowtion to encp..se, cO\"t~r or introduce any ·,·;ire, carrying electrical Cllnent into any iron pipe or any metuliic electrical conducting mater­ial, afftxed to any woooed. pl,le, stanchion or upright, which shall extend. nearer than eight feet frolll the lowest cross· arm on said ~\'oudel1 pole; stanchion or upright; ana It shall be unlawful, to expose allY electrical wire without such insulation in any manner which shall fOOl!l a conncction or circllit with the earth in such a manner as to be dangerous or injurious to life or hr:alth. This pro'·isi,)\) I:ot to ap!,l." or pre\·ent the euca;.c'.!W!lt of said wires in any non-conductil1g snbstal!ce or lnatedal sl!ch as wood, etc..

Sec. 4. It shall be the daty of any COIll­van)" stringitlg hare. wi!"<!s wltc)·eyer said wires cross trulley wires, to llroyide safe and s,dtable insulation tor a!l such bare ,,;ires ·at such crossings where in ease of hreakage said wires wunlu come iii COll­tact with tht: aforesaid trolley ,vires.

Sec. 5. It shall be the du"t:r of the Pub­lic Lighting Conlllli!'sion upon cOlupJaint of an\' citizen to examine or CRuse to be exalllined any dangerously exposed elec­trical "ire and to notifv tht: mdh·idual, finn or curporation oWlliilg or controlling the Raid exposed wire of its ilil1l~erous COIl­dition, a11<1 to have the same remedied at onet:, aud made safe, and UP0!l the failure of such indidti.uul, firm or COI·l?Nl,.:ion to remedy r.ud make safe smd danKer­ousl)' eX!"'0,;(',l wire, it shall h" the duty of the said Pub!!c Lig-ht COlli mission to call~e :. complaint to be made for a hreach of this o,·J.inance and· to pro:;ecnte the ~aid ilJ(li­yj-c]uul, firm or corporation for sllch breach, (lnd any refusal or neglect to remedy said dangerously exposed wire after ,iue alld proper notice from the !'aid Lighting COlll­!'li:;sion, shall subject tile indivhlual, firm 0'· corporation owning or cuntwlliug the saUl:::, to a flue or imprisonment.

:5cc. u. Ali J"y circuits, excepting street railway circuits, of high potelltial· currell's, shall he designated hy 1'OIl1t! mark or tlistincth·e insulator 11 pon each wire at each insulator to designate the samc as snch.

Sec. 7. It shall be the duty of any incli­·yi<iu::li, firm or corporation to remo\·c from 31"-" h\!ildin~, structUre or pole, all dead W;;T~;, wh~c1;· arc not actnally in llSC. with ill tlJirty flays from notice given hy the PI.hUc J.ightrll~"Colllmission. .

Any hreach of this orilinance shall sutF jcct t.lle offender to a find of not excc(;"d­ing two hundred f]{,JlaT"S or to imprison­meni for (l period (·f not to esco!ed sixty

.1

4

days, -and each subsequent breac11 of this ordinance shall be deemed a separate offense and shall be so punishable.

Sec. 8. This ordillance shall take im­mediate effect.

Approved Nov. I, 1898. OTTO C. GOESCHEL,

Acting Mayor. Attest.

JOHN A. SCHMID, City Clerk.

Up to this time it required about one year to accomplish what we had, hut we were soon to"Iearn that our troubles were only begun, but, happily,~we sidetmcked all opposition from the pri .... ate companies by inviting them to a conference that was held in our attorney's office for three con­!<ecutivc nights. As a result of these COIl­

ferences all opposition from that source was prevented and the original ordinance was so mudified as to eliminate all the verbality which lawyers so !ike to illdulge in. The committee 011 ordinances then took the matter up and listened.to argu­ments fc.r and Against it, and we discovered that the only opposition we had to en­counter was tlmt of the Public Lighting Commissioll, which was so successfully met that the committee reported the or­dinance favorably without amendment, and referred it to the Corporation Council for advice as to its legality.

For some unaccountable reason the Cor­poratioll C.-mucil p{geonholed the ordinance and faile,,! to make any report UPOI! it. After waiting three 1110nths for such report we asked him the cause of the delay. He disclaimed all knowledge of the ordinance, and it was nl!l'P.l'\sar)· to introduce a resolu­tion to the Common Council demanding that he make some report before we could again ha\'e the ordinance resurrected, aad we only succeeded then by furnishing an­other copy of the ordinance ourselves, as they claimed all other copies had been lost. The committee 011 ordinances again took the matter up, and again we had to meet the oppoSitiOll of the Ugl1fing Com­mission, but lhe true inwardness of their ~pposition had become so apparent from the fact that they had publiciy made the assertioll that" \Ve will oppo~e the pro­posed ordinance or anything -else that emanates from the same source" that it was easily O\'ercome, the cOlJlmittee be­lieving that they were not warranted in l}dng a party to or snpporting the Light­ing Commission in their vindictive attitude .. toward labor organizations.

The ordinance was again reported favor­ably without amendment; was introduced into the Common Council October J 1th ; was placed upOJI its first and secoud read­ing and laid on the table for one week .. Then came the battle royal that was fiercely 'l\"aged during the next week. Our time was entirely taken up in explaining the merits of the ordinance- to the indi .... id­ual alderman, and we learned from- re­marks tItey made and questions they asked

THE ELECTRICAL WORKER

th?t thp. opp' .• ,;tion was sull .... ery a~tive, and at the next meeting of the 'Council they made their 1:.st l'pa~modic kkk to defeat the o~dinauce by sem~il~g in the follOVtit:g COr!l:;lU nication : To ~he Hono.able the C"mlllal! CounCIl:

GentlcmCll-1u tIle .made," of the pro­posed onli n~~nce r.n\v hcfor(~ y Y~":!' honor­able body fer the protc·:tiu:: of linemen and others ·w'.trk~ng ill CI'lU ~n)':::nc. ",""ires carryiu¥ eiec.ld(,lty ..... :e ';lou1rl respeclfully ca!j your attention to the fo~1(l'xing:

011 Oct. 5, IS~I7. pa[~c ~;:;2 of the Conncil p:oceedint!s, YCll will f:nd a re{JO:"t from a special cotnitlittee of',;:~x nh.l~~!1'en. !'t~Htil1g tha~ they harl carefully cOllsiC:er",d the re­q\~esL for stldl an ordill<lm:e and L1I:ll iney lmd de('ided that buch a matter ue~ong'.::d to thE' l'nhiic T.il~htin).! Commission, anti that it be ... ;:ic1'l-e(1 to that body. The report and recolllmeudatioll were ado?~erl.

On ?\ov. 4. IS9i, jXl",t: 935 of tItt: Council prOree(lillg's, jg the l"Pp~y frOtH llie Pl1hlic Lighting Comlllis!'iol~ relative to the de­sired urdinance and th~Y state thc.t in their belief no !lew ord:llances are desired. and thai the present onlinunces ,ue suiIicient in every particular. _

If it is the desire of the projector" of the proposed ordinance to p"olect jill~men, etc., they {'an find alrend,· mllnle anthori­ties and powel'S in . the City, E:ectrician, page 50 of the revis'!d ordinan..:es of 1895, anel the electric wire connection ordinance, pag-'! 404 of the re .... h;ed (,l'n.ilHlnces of 1895, and the onl.inance -to re~\llnte ",lectric wiring alM.lthe l1Sf-_ of electrici~y. :~ppro\·ed July 2S, J1'96. It is the duty of the City Electrician under these onlin:llIces Lo ha .... e wires strulJg' so as to giye thc greate.;t pro­tectie>n to liYes and property. If his at­tentiun is called to :?J1Y defe{'!h'e or dan­gerou.s ~ork. it is hi!' duty tt' .:orrect the same, or, refusing to do so, hc can be made to explain his rea£Ol1S lJt,fore the Public Lightin;:( Commission or before the Common Council.

If it is the de;:.ire to get rid of dangerous wires in tile down town districts, yoU will find, o:l1\1ay 18', J897, pagt~ ~;6S- of the Cou!lcil proccedin!<s, that t1:.. Common Council ordered antlse!"'!ed nctice 0;1 the electric light alld power corup,,1I1ie<; to take down all wires in the distri{'t botlllded bv Elizahet.h, ":oodbrid~e, St. Antoi"uc and Second street;;, ar.d that the Im~tte" is now in the hands of the Corporation Cot!!1sel to eni'orce the order of the Cour.cil.

It is proposed ft)r the proLedion of line­men -and others who work f:lltirelv out­doors, to Hce!Jse, after an exatr.itlation, wor~:ers in electrical wiring; but it is pro­posed to eXE'DIpt -from !;uch examiuation a!1d iicense the vel'\' men who 110 the out­side 'Work wherein ili tbe datlgcr is alleged to exist, and, on the o('le!' l1f\.I.l- torcquire the ~llsine_ O!' hr:>t15e 'Vi~ers, te> pass tlle ex­amill;ltiOli ~md .akt: out a licf"ilse for work -,v1-&c,(; !.hc l.::a~~ po~!i;:~: i1 .. ;1~1~.·~·~ (.x~.::ts and "here the 'Nork comes uncler the ordinance approved JUly 28, lfig6, -entit1ed an "ordi­na!1ce to rel<u1ate el~.:tric ,,:iring and the use oi electricity."

The CorporaliolJ Co:msc1 states t.hat a perr:1it or Jicc'1se call HO! lie e::,,=~c:ed of pen;ol1s de;.irin~ to ,-:ork a~ wi!'f>meH with­nut a sper.ip~l fict (Jf t!ie lcg1~h~ture, for para:-:ra::!Js J:_~ amI !"'9 of the charter specify who call be li('e!1sed, ailu ;11 para­r,raph 143 of th>! ('harter places "(he licen­!'i!1g power in the hands of the 1\'ayor. The e!1arter, under ch~l-'ter IJ, "ec. 9, gi"es the -Pnhik Lighting Commission powe, to regnlate awl CO'Jf~(''1111 electric wiriug, b~\t gi· .. es tbe!lJ 110 j\ltisdi~tjon

[December

over tlle men doing "the work. Further­more, there is no appropriation ayailable to cover the expenses of an examining and lic.ensing board. _

Tn the opinion of the Public Lighting-. Commission no new ordinances are· re­quired, those already in existence proving­ample.

I have the hOllor to be, Yours respectfully,

R. H. PYFE, President Pub. Ltg. Commission.

In justice to our friends upon the Light­ing Commission we wish to state that 'l\"e na\'e learned that the above cOITllnunica­tion was not authorized by an official meet- -iug of the board aud expresses the opinion of only the president and possihly one or two others, but coming as it did from the president of the board it had the same ef­fect upon the aldermen that an official communication would have, so that wheu the 11Iotion was made to place the ordi-· nance on its third reading an objection was raised for the reason· that due con­sideration should be gh'en them and another week's time should be granted for further investigation. The onlinanee \I'as then laid m"er another week.

During the next week our unio!i llad·[j meeting and I was an:horized 10 ::nswcr the communication of the Lighting C"lll­mission, which I did by drafting and send­ing the following answer to the Common Council at their next meetill g: . To the Honorable the Comlllun CoulH~il :

Gentlemen·-InasUluch as some of the Public Lighting Commissioners h:<\'e a(l­dressed a cOlllul\tIlication to your honor­able body opposing the ordinance'now be­fore your honorable body entitled "an 01'­

dinailce to regulate electric wiring and the use of electricity" ami as some of the stalements contained therein arc Hot be>rne out by the facts and are misleading to say the least, we therefore desire in justice to ourselves to lay tlle true status of sHairs before YOllr honorable body for your intel-ligent consideration. .

In the ·first plAce, they elanD tlmt snffi­cieut protection is afiorded elcctrieai work­ers under the e)(isting ordinallees. The fact of the matter is, that the ouh' Ol"diu-­alices ill force to-day thal in allY way refer to the regulatio!l of electric wiring are found on page 404 of the revi::,ed ordin­ances of 1895, .and the ordinauct: to regu­late electric wi,.;ng_al1d the UbC of elec­tricity approved- July :i8, IS96.

The former ordinance does only refer to and regulate wire connections, com'erter conneclions, and the wices leading thereto iu the alleys ill the rear of building;;, and J'J~':' n-.:.~. b: any "oay r(f:-: t:) the !.t~·i;16~llg of overhel'd wires as proposed in the !lew ordimm.;e. The last named ordinan{'e is­confin~d exchsively to the regulation of the wirmg of buildings and does not speciEi:aily dcsignate the stringing of wires in or (") ?n~· hnildillg. ~ow how the pr_es­ldent of t11~ Public Lighting Commission can t:C;15true tha~ ordinance as affording ~ny prolectioll .to men enga~ed in string­mg overhca~ wIres on poles IS beyond my" cO!llpr",hl'nRlon. The opponents of the proposed ordinance state in their COlllmlt-­nicariou th.J.i. i~ is proposed for the protec­tion (o( linemen and others WHO work en­tireiy Httdoors to license after all examin­ation worker~ ill electt'ic wirillg. Tbe

December]

abm'e statemelit is in such'direct opposi­tion to the intent of the proposed or,iin­ance t11at we are constrained to bdie\'e that its intenti"l1 is either to miskarl a cuvert attack upon the intelligence oi the elecllical workers or that they do not un­derstand the intent of the proposed urdin­.allce. The fir"t section of the propcsecl ordina!!ce was i1;serted at the urgent sdk-, ita! ion of a larg-e majority of the wir,:lIIcn ,engaged in th~ wiring .of b~ild~lIg-s

, throughout the .clty and the ~ntentl~)l1 IS to raise the stannard of effiCIency 111 that 'Class of workfol' the better protection of property, as statistics will show that iully 25 per cent. of the damage by fire through­'ont the citv is caused hy de{ecti\'e wirillg. It is not tIle intentjoa of the' ordinanc(: to ~ffonl any protection to linemen by the re"nJalion of the work of tl1l" wirelJlell, for th~ two branches of the trade are 50 dis­tinct and differellt that any man witli a "min of intelligence will readily ulI(h:r­~talld that it i,.; impossible to afford 1my protection to one by regulating the work of thc olher.

Before the Pubiic Lighting COmmibl>lOll was organized .. 11I0;;t of. the c.onditi<;>lIswe ~0lIlpla1l1 of lhd 1Iot. eXIst. 1 he stTlngl11g (If hare groul1derl .wlre.on the sa~lJ~ pole witl! biuh polenual wIres was onglnated hy then~ with n~ter disregard to ~he lives -of lIlen engaged IJl that work, \lJ~t11 to-dRY the danaers he.\"e become nOlonous, WIth twu clea~hs directly traceable to the concli­tion of affairs that ha\'e grown up unuer the fostering care al~d ~al1clio~ of the PlI~­lie Lighting C01l111l1;;SlOlJ. \\ e bave peti­tioned them fOI rCllrcss but they ha\'e not e\'l~\l considered our petitions worthy of .aa answer.

Iii couclusion, we wish to say we do l1ut helievetbe opposi.iou of the Public !.ight­:iug COJllmission to the proposed ordInance ienable from the fact that they have Optll-1)' and publicly made the assertio~1 that .hev would oppose the present ord111!1nce (C ~nylhing ebe that .emanates ,from,. th,e 5:1me source, an lIssertIon that "e be.lc\ e decarly clelJlOnst!"lItes the true inwardlle~s of th":iroppc,sitioll, .

\\. e thel'efore do nut behe\'e your bOllo;-­,able body desires to become a party to or indorse the "indicth'e spirit of some of the Public Lighting Conl111i~sio.ners ill their ,opposition to 'labor Ol'gamzallons. ,

We therefore trnsL that your hOllorahle bodv will ::nrefn"lh' r.ollsicler the propo~c:d ordr'l'lllce :mu gi'ant tiS that protection whil'h COlllJ1l011 sense and the dangelous nature vf our work de1l1ands.

Req)ectfully submitted, _ T. H. FOREE::>.

After the rf!a~illg of the ahove COItl1l111n· 'ieatioll, tll(: ordin:lnccwas ptacetlnpon its third reading" and', :dter a short di~cussioll, was passed without a dissenting vote, and, without a single amendment, ~mtl it, was ,aPPTQ\,prl by t.he mAyor Il""!d he.-:~,tr.e ~ In':'\' November 1St. SO ends one of thc most bitterly contested tights ill the h:~torr (.f our organi7,atioll llnd' demoll<;tr:,tco; tl.e truth of the motlo .. keeping eY~r!asri;Jg!y .at it brings sncce~s ...

THOMAS H. FOR BF.S

A NEW :r.AROR 'UNION.

\ The electric workers of torv;~1 v 1':1\'e taken the initiative in il1al1gt1r~ting ,', Jilj~O~ union in Canada. In this city they IIU!J\­

bel' from 100 to 150, and Mr. Jat!'t~S J:n:-­;;ess of Buffalo, delegate from th:: ~h:!'-'l<hl

THE ELECTRICAL WORKER

Brolherhood, organized a union here last night with 4S to 50 1l1elllbers., ull~er tIle name of Ero'.herl:00d.-..f Electnc" orkers of Can«dii affiliated with the Trade~ r,~·d Labor'C.:.ut~,nI,l. 'Jl!"ey cxpe:ic,,_ to k,y~:tl:e order Dwdc Intcni'atiullal. 'flle prO\'iS10h'al president aud seeretarJ-: are Thomas Eatull and F. Mar!;on respecuyely .

From Uncle Tom. Dec. 4, J 898.

My Dear Ncph.: r-!ow that H'ur aUllt anci I have our corn

crop klrve;t~d, the taters dug and ou:­fall's work nearly done. I prepose to tell \'OU ahout a little trip I took this fall. ~'Iay he it will inter('st some one if that son;e one is none otht'r than you and I. \Vell. along about tater dig-ing time, and in order not to get in your aunt's way and to gh'e her an opportunity In uo all the wurk'she wanted to (I don't like to hender anyone when they are illclinetl to work), I concluded it was he-st for mc to take a vacation. I had read in the papers that there was to be a peace jllhilee down in Philauelphia; that the Preside lit ami Gen­erals and Admirals and j-'jobson II ere to be on hand, and as I beltIng to' that class: I concluued to let them know I was able to be on hand e\"en if they had forgoten to iuvite me,. So uII I started by way of X ew York Cit\', or Great(~r X. V:. as it is now called. Speakiug of X. Y. is like speaking of home, for I was horn in the city, yet the cit" don't set"m to kliOW it, or bas forgoten it. . True it's mam' "ears since 1 waiked the Howery, and' aithough the dew of \'outh is fast fading ,from lily brow, yet dear t.j IllV heart are the scenes of my childhood,' the old oken louckett, etc. (TI.e old buckett has turned intu a tin growler, yet I recognized it.) Some one has written .. Uh, give me a club ':llot the kind the

• cops' carry), A bottle ortwo of champaigne to uncork,

A eucle and some slang and a maiden to lnarry

Anu, see? I will make you a tale of New York!"

;\1 any changes have come m'er the big­city in 20 \"e .. rs, still it is the same old town with ils h~m'dru11l rush and push; with its cea31€'ss tramp of mili:olJs; the high and low. the rich and poor. the sinner and saint, all oem Upllll !lit! ~alllt; rni~si()n, try­ing to c:omer and r:j'pture the almighty dollar. Many things have h;:ppened in New York since I was a kid. the men whome I supposed made this world and held a mortgage on the next are all gone, tile places thilt knell" them knuw tlatl;~ !H}

mo;"e; and although I \\~as prone to thj'lk the\' were the greatest men tlw world cn;r

. I'k f produced and unless 1 could be I 'e one o. rht'm life was hardly worth the Iil"ing, yet ; ha\"e Ih;ed to see most of them pass be­yund t!!e grcat de\'ide and now looking at

5

their deeds with eyes of experience gained iI'om oeing buffetted about by a rude world, I believe I can say I would not change conditions with them to-day even if it is a little cold down here and they have it hot fire to sit by o',cr yonder. The men I remember anci who wcre the great men of the to\\'n in their day are many, and 1 n.:called some of their narnes as I walked down \Vall st. or stood in the stoc!c exchange, in the City Hall, in the hall of scie,nce and art, or walked the busy marts of tr.ade, There was Greeley and Bennett. Bonner "nd Dana, the great editor men, Bcecher and ,Dr. Chapin, the preachers, 5tew;.rt, the merchant prince, \'anderbelt, the Commodore, and \\'m. H. his Slm and t:le t'wo Jays, Cook and Gould--all great financiers. Then there was Ross Tweed, whorn people said was not honest; Pcter B. Sw('ene~'. John !\'lOl:risoy, John Kelly. ex·le;:d~rs of Tam11lany; O. 1'. Hal! and Fernal.do Wood, ex-~layors of N. Y.; there was ]ud~e Davis, and Barnum, the sho\\' II;:1n; Cyrus \\'. Field, the organizer of the Atlantic Cable Co .• Harry Hill, the sport, and hO~lely 01.1 Peter Cnoper, wh!=> WIll nevcr be forgoten; there was ex­Gon'rno( ;\10rg<tll,:1t one time president of th!:> N. Y. C. R. R.; these and many more who have long since c1imhed the golden stair there, are the !lien whome I' supposed (I know better n(lw) would sit on the ribht of the great white throne and dic­tate to thi! Lord whome he was to receive and '.dlOme he was to reject; hut I am of the opinion now, and can say with malice towards none. that unless I am greatly mistaken in the policy of 'the Lord, many of them, will ha\'e to stand over (In. the left along with the goats amI other poor people who ha\"e failed to walk in the straight and narrow path. I was able to recall many things 1hat had nearly passed from mv mind. I remember the hurning of the CO!ll~ed Orphan Asylum, the shooting of Jim Fisk, the Beecher scandal and many 0ther c\'ents which had nearly ,or quite passed {mill my memory until! I \'isited the places where these scenes were en­acted. I found the street wherein I used to d well, hut the hO,use that I was born in standl,th not. and I looked 'in vain for gr;:nny"s old arm chair and the hat my father wure. .. But the s"hoolhouse stands Ihpre just the

same, the bare-foot boy~ at play , Are spo~iing. now as \:;e did then, WIth

Spirits Just as gay.

I traveled the big roity irOlll Hullshearl to

the lIatlt:rv and from the bridge to the heights in ~earch of some of JIly old chums. bt;t they are all gone, 'i\nd it was not until! withh an hour 0f leaving time that I ",\",is able tc lilld ,Ill old friend; and as r had Gill\! an hour to talk to him I persuaded "i:;; tv /-:: .... \':ith me o\'er to Philauelphia ;I'H1 ~(oc {';e ~hcw, I\'hich be did; but I had not been CIl the road with hiIu more than

i I I

; ,

6

half an hour before I wished him safe back in N. Y.; not that I was sorry to have met him, for 1 was not; but I found in him tbe worst kind of a crank and a single-tax crank at that. Now, 1 am something of a single-taxer myself, and have great respect for the doctrine laid down by Henry George, but when one undertakes to pump great chunks of information into me larger and faster than my mental digestive organs are capible of handleing and keeps it up hour after hour (when like the snake in the story he wiggles in and ~wiggles out and leaves the looker-on in doubt weather tbe snake that made the track was going south or coming back), 1 am apt to rebell; and although I may agree with the pumper, 1 want an opportunity, to pump a little back, even if it is not iron-clad, steel-bound and double-riveted intilect. My friend had in days gone by been a red-bot Republican, so hot that it was unsafe for him to go out in the wet as he might generate steam enough to blow up. So when he came at me with his single-tax talk do you wonder that astonishment followed surprise, and wonder astonishment. Oh, if you could only have heard him; if I could have attached a bike cyclometer or a gas meter' to him I am sure he would have reeled off many thousand miles or cubic feet between the city of Platt ,and Crocker and the city of Brotherly 10\'e; he got me as figity as a girl wIth a caterpillar down her back. He belongs to the single tax club and wanted the whole world to know it; he belittled the opinions of others and set up one of his own and swore by his beard that no one had a right, to contradict him. He swore that the single-tax club contained the people. the only people, and all the people of any account; he raved like a McCulloch or a Siddons and as one ready to set up his opinion against the ,whole world and swear he was right and all others wrong, as a bleaver in minority rule, providing he was on the minority side:, as a genuine kicker from Kickville, as a grumbler and fault-finder and a regu­lar old scold he was second to no man. A short time after we arrived in the QUakers' town he cooled off and seemed like his old self again and I was able to talk to him and teU him I was of nearly the same opinion as he without his flying off the handle and abuseing me because 1 did think as he did. During the parade we were fortunate enough to obtain seats nearly opposite the reviewing stand on which stood the President and other digni­taries. and the whole croud could be seen very nicely from where we were located, but it so happened that just behind us sat a man whome. I should judge was a Re­publican. I don't know how my friend found it out unless it was by instinct, but find it out he did, and true to his argu­mentative nature he began to talk single­tax, and after many kicks and winks I con-

THE ELECTRICAL WORKER

f('s~ r ttlil1!iien .-!nd beg:m to talk too. '''Ie began in a Cj'.!ict way at first, g.?duly in­cre?!;inl:: In \ o!urne alld rallg'e; he took the single-tax !lrohlem and I the Socialistic poitn of view, <lnd the;: longer we tillked the louder we tal:':ed, ~ntill we both uegan to !!'et warm unOp.r the cl;lIar; anil 1m;" my friene! wound up by roa~ting McKinley and the two Din parties ;n good (lid fashion style. This was more than ('[;: Republican fri~nd could stand, ani! risin~ ill his seat he iamr,asten and to!lng-Iashed the two of us to beat the band. He said we wer a brace of fools, were danJ!"erol!~ pf'ople to be at largt:, that we 'oVerc a ~lIrSf:! to hU'TI~.nity, and the cau~e of pZ:w-:Cs a:1(; the hlrd times; tLat he had no d(\'lht we were there with tht> intentiC'T' of assils!'inating the Presi­dent; and he should k~ep ~n eye upon us ilnd if he saw the fir!'t suSp:ciO:lS move he ShOllld consid~r it'his duty to inform the police, He k'::pt up II\s rant I.mil 'a red h"rred indh·idual sitting near r.ccflme tired and ornered him to shut liP. This was the stra~v that t;roke the ca~e!'!' back. The n~xt seen.:: is a general 1llix up-legs and arms flying St'ven ways for Sunday. two big policemen, a hurry-up wagon. <Inc off they go. 'P(;or fellow, I felt sorry for him, yet I do :-.ot think him worthy of much sympa­thy, tor he pocked his finRer into om polit­ical pie and tryed t'l steel tht: plumbs and raisins, leaving liS the dry crust: he chiped into oure pvlitical poker ganlc unbiden and saug-ht.tn carry off the who!(; jack pot. He put in his political oar and attempted to wreck our bark on t~e rocks and shoals ()f Republican tyral\fly; in short. my dear neph, he m"de a g03te of himself by med­dieing and mixing up with other people's pow-wows and got into troubie. 1 don't know who the man was; 1 coulrl not learn his name, but after 1 returned home and read the N0vember \V"rker I concluded he -must be a near relith-e of !'OillC of our own lectricI cIaniity hculers or ink sling­gers.

After !ookiug O\'er Uncle Sarr,'s big war ships, Liberty Hall, the mint and other places of interest in the City of Brotherly Love, we started on our several ways home -my friend towards the great metropolis anti i towards the sitting sun by way of th(; smoky city of Pias~urg. as Thad tele­[rnt!1hea the maY0r that I hO!leri myen­trance into the city might he asunostenta­tiuus as pos~ihle. and that I be not pro­vided with,official ~scort. very fcw peuple knew of my .ud\'a1.

The firs~ tr.:ng 1 proceeded to do after dif\ning at th~ dub was to ill:rlt liP Bro. EcC'ff. Wl101" I found in a pickk f~!tndry

. over in Aile;:ghaney. Bro. Ecoff laid aside his '-:ork and !"howt"d mf: his electric plant. ,vhich, r·~.! th~ way. is :::t very hac one; and as Ecoff kjH)w!' a thir.g or two abollt e1ec­tricily, i Io,,('d not tell yuu that the plant is well manag..,ct. III ihe t;~'eninv, ! n'ct Bms.

December

Rudolph, Lunney. Willsden, Malone; Bream and half a dozen other broihers whose names I do not now recall, but all were anxious to do, and did, all in their power to make my stay a pleasant .one; and right here I want to say to the m(!m­bers of the locals who are intending to send delegates to Pittsburg next fall, that I can assllre them in advance that they will be entertained and taken care of in an A No. I style. Everything that 5 can do to further their welfare and make their stay a pleasant one will be done" No 5 is a hard-working, progressive local, and its ,members are made up of that particular kind of fiber which you will find in all true­blue union men.

Pittsburg is a great town, with its great iron industries, ehuck full of hustle, bllstle and smoke. It has some very fine husi· ness blocks and residences, good hotels. and places of amusement; its street car service is O. K., so far as I was able to judge; the trolly cars run evcry -which way and seven ways for Sunday; they criss-cross, run in circles and loops up and down hill, ove'r mountain, plain and· valley, The only faults I find with PittSburg is its, narrow streets and its water. While in the city I, \vithout rnaHace or forethought~ in­advertently took a bite of their water. Just why I did so I am unable to state; , -I am not in the habit' of testing much watt"T when at home, and just. why I shuld try to eat Pittsburg water is something I can't quite understand, but I did it, and you can guess the result. You will have to guess, for I shan't tell you here. I would not dare to. Oh, no; but I promise YOIl I will never, ne\'er be so foolish again.

Friday evening I attended the regular meeting of NO.5, and 'a \'ery good meeting it was. They initiated one and received several applications. Like No. 38 they have raised their initiatiob fee to $10.

Bro. Malone was running for congress on the people's ticket, which is also an honor to NO.5. I have not heard \vhether or not he was elected. I hope he was,. for 1. should like to see him on the appropria­tion committee, whare he might he able to get a few millions to build brcwerys in Pittsburg, and thus do away with the water altogether. Under the head of Good of the Union I was invited to deliver a speech. Now, if there is one thing I like better than another it's speech-making, and so I squared myseU and proceeded. to do -m'y best for NO.5, but somehow, as is always the case, something did not work right. My speed run down; my commutator sparked, and SlY rheostat' smoked until my oil cups run dry and I came ncar get­ting a hot box. One of the brutht!rs seeing­the predicament I was in, went out ·a11ft brou~ht me in some water on a fork. (That's the quickest way. to fetch water in Pittsburg.) This brou~ht instant relief, ann I was able to say ilmen and sit rlown.

December]

The boys seemed to enjoy it, and as no one .seemed to feel the dire. effect, we!, let ·er go.

While in the,city I visited the Carnegie Public Library ano Art Gallery, and it is well worth a visit-a magnificent structure ·of massive brown stone and marble. As 1 stood within its walls 1 reflected upon this man whose career has been so wonderful, and the thought come to me, did Andrew Carnegie build this magnificent pile; did he? No; a thousand times no; it was reared bv labor. Without labor Carnegie could not have exi~ted. It was the work­ing man that reared this pile from base­ment to dome, and the horny-handed sons ·of toil who built it will go (if not already gone) down into the solemn silence, into the dreamless dllst, unheard of and Ull­

known, forgot by all except by those that loved them; but Andrew Carnegie will lh·e. Did he, Carnegie, earn the money 'that paid for this structure? No; a thou­sand times no. The money was rung from the brain, the bone and muscle, the sweat and blood and tears of the thousands of men and women who have worked, toiled .and slaved for his glory. But while he stands upon the pedestal of fame a fickle ,i-orld will groyc\ at his feet, and upon his brow will place a diadem of honor, while around about him will circle a halo of glory-all for gold. But live on, Andy; enjoy yourself while you can, for there will come a time when Dingly tariff, Pink­<orton thugs and pluged armor-plate cannot protect you. It is said tbere is a judge hokling court in the New Jerusalem-a jlldge you cannot bribe, buy or ~ell ; one who knows naught of restraining orders, nor government by injunction. It is also said that all men must render unto Him an account of deeds done here below. If this is' true, He will some day summ'ms you, and you will have to go yoursclt', Andy. No paid attorney or corporation counsel c;m represent you there. This Judge is fair, honest and just, and before Him you will stand and He will hear your plea. If you want to know what will hap­pen after that, borro'v a Bible, turn to the .26th chapter of Luke, begin at the I<}th verse and read the remainder of the chap- . ler.

Leaving Pittsburg at night so as to avoid a public demonstration, I arrived hOine in the morning just in time to put myself out­.side of S(lmc of youre· aunt's huck wheat cakes, heafsteak and coffee. I tell you, young man, there is no place like i1OlIle. True, mine is a humble one, but I had'

. rather be th(!re than any place on earth. \Vell J am here ;.ud at work trying to

·earn a few s to replace those I used' up swinging .around the 'circle, and incident­ally pick up enough to take a ~wing next J'eur.

\Vishing yourself, the E. 13. and the

TH E ELECTRICAL WORKER

whole Brotherhood.a Merry Christmas and prosperous New Year, I am

Yours fraternally, UNCLE TOM.

From "Old Crip." Raton, N. M., Dec. 5,1898.

Editor Electric:!l \\'orker: Here we are again with ollr little budget

of news from the II Rockies." Glad to re­port that I am still among the living. Glad to see so many good letters in the \-Vorker every month and sincerely hope to see more and more of them as time goes on. There are a good many men belonging to thi~ B. who could contribute some very interesting letters to the \Vorker, and the good resulting from such letters through the \Vorker could not easily be overesti­mated. I think ~ question and answer column would add a great deal to the in­teresting features of the Worker, and I hope such a column wiil soon be added. It is certainly very gratifying ,to have such 11 willing and untiring editor. And we should remember that the \Yorker is what we make it, and that unless the members do their part towards making)t a success, it docs not give the editor a fair chance to do' his part; And he has certainly not been !lparing in his ardent solicitations to us to join with him. .

Well, brothers, I am still. trying to sell my Almanacs, and (of course it's a slow business, hut some of the locals have been helping me. I sent eight of my books to L. U. 41 of Buffalo, N. Y., and they sent me ~ix dollars, one dollar of it being dona­ted by Bro. Evans.' The Bros. of L. U. 7-l, "';inona, Minn., cheerfully sent me three dollars for twelve copies, and the brothers of Loca~ No.6, San Francisco, sent five dollars for twenty more copies. Also the brcthc·rs of Local No. 77, Seattle, Wash., sent me S7.5" for thirty copies. Now, hrothers, sud. as this speaks for itself, and it ~hows whether there is good hrotheriy hearts in this B. ur .1I0t. I often nwet men that are prejudiced against union­ism, who sometimes claim that union men won't help a hungry man, and when they have finished their discourse against union­ism, then I "sail into 'cm," and I don't fail to tell them that I am a member of the N. B. E. W., and that the members had kept me and family from want a ntll11bp.r of times since J ha\'e been a helples::i crip­ple, a~d that they ha'd practically done so gratis. I run up against one man that said .. that he had no"l.ise for a union man, and that he did not like tht'm, and did nol as­sociale with them," and then I told him if he would forsake his s.inful ways and as­sociate with us more that he would like us better. Then he got angry and went away. Some men seem to delight in trying to dis­rupt and tear down unionism, when, if they would lend their efforts 10 heip build it up they could command the esteem and re-

7

spect of everybody, and have better jobs and better everything.

I am glad to note Bro. Burgess' success across the line, and hope t<.o hear of more.

Hro. D. Pearce is still here and has cer­tainly shown a good· and generous heart toward me. He was ·elcctrician at the mines tl!:cc miles from here, but he quit tht: job for the reason that the company (monoply) had 110 respect for the rights cf their employes, and wanted him to work f.or scab wages, and so he walked out, which shows his high sense of honor, and that he is made of the right kind of mater­ial.

Well,l must II douce the' gUm" for this time, and if some of these Rocky mountain blizzards don't freeze me out I will II bob up" again next month, that is if I don't get cO\'ered up with Xmas gilts, and, of course, if any of the brothers will send me a pres­ent my address is Raton, N. 1\'1.

\Vith a grateful heart and my best wishes to every member for a Merry Christmas and Happy New Year, I am

Fraternally, "ROBERT G. WRIGHT.

AN INQUIRING MIND.

Kansas Customer Wants to Know About Injuu Rubber Tires.

A Cle\'eland manufacturer sends the Plain Dealer this decidedly original com­munication from a Kansas cu~tome., who wants-to-know :

.. dear surs : I liv 011 my (arlll ntar Ham­ilton Kangas and um 57 '~'ears old and a little sportia. :\1 y llefiew 11l Iudian)' b<?t himsel! a new bisekkel alld cent me blS old ont: lty frate, and lve learnt to ride sum. Its a pile of fnn, but my bise~kel jon1ts orfll1. A feller cum alon~ ):esuddy 'with a bis~kkel what bad boIler llIJun rub­ber tires, stuffed with wind. He let me trv bissen and tnt ! it nm 1i ke a kusheu He told me you sell injun rubber just the same as hissen. Mine is· all iron wheels. Do yon \)l111cb the holler hole through the injlin ru'bber, or will I bave to do it my­self ? ~-low tio you stick the ends together after you get. the hole punched.? .If your injull ruiJiJer IS already holler WIll It come euy che<lper? 1 kin- git all the wind 1 \\'a nt out here ill Kansas free. \\'hen you screw the injun rubber on to the wheels, do you pnt the screws clean t!m:~ugh the windy part? and why don't the ~nnd ooze out? Don't you thil!k smoke wou.d.be l?ete; than just w1l1d, as It \\'~uld make It l~~er. The feller alIso said Illssen had HUll llttd balls in the axels to make it rua faster. 11(.·,..,.. ~lllK·1.. \\"ouJd a dozen of tht: L:~.1~: 1~l!L!. at? alld .where do you feed them in at? Do )'ou think 1 cud make buckshot do the bizncss or would the v mash alld get ~tickY?' -

.. P. S.-,How lIIuch do you charge for the doodad you stuff the wiud into the in­jUII rubber with, and where do you start, and how do yOI\ keep "the wi1,d from com­illO' ont while vou ha,'c the hole open, and ho"'w ~o you kllow when it is full ?

The Electrical Workers' Union and the ·Xew Telephone Company of ludianapo.lis, Ind., have signed an agree!Dcnt proddlllg for a nine-hour day and prIce and one-half for overwork.

&

OFFICIAL JOURNAL OF THE

NATIONAL BROTHERHOOD OF "ELECTRICAL WORKERS.

PUBLISHED MONTHLY.

H. W. SHERMAN, Publi~11er and Editor, 731 Powers Bldg., Rocl1ester, N. Y.

Hntered at the Post·Office at Rochest.,r, N, V., a .. s..c:ond class malter.

EXECUTIVE BOARD.

Grand Pr.,.ident-J. H. Mal.on.,y, 451 W. COIlKreaa 5t , ChIcago, Ill.

Grand Secretary-H. W. Sherman, 731 Powers Bldg., Roc""st.,., N. Y.

Grand Treasurer-P. H. Wissinger. 741 W. Faydte St., BaUimor." Md.

First Vice·Pr~dent-Eug.,n., Rush, 536 Ellis St., San Frauci.co, Cal.

Second Vice-Pr..sident-Th..ador., Gould, 11 War~ham St., Boston, Mass.

Third Vic:e-President-C. H. Adams, 2901 Summit St., Kansas City, Mo.

Fourth Vice·President-Thomas Forb.,s, 1104 Thirteenth St .• Detruit, Mich.

'Fifth \·ice·Presideot-S. M. Keeble, 28,6 Rutg.,r St., St. Louis. llio.

Subscription $1.00 per year, ;n advance.

As The Eiectrical \Vorker reaches the men who do the work. aud recomtu~nd or order the material, its 'Yal~e 8.1 an ad.vcrtilStDI' medium can be readily apprecIated. "

ROCHESTER, N. Y., DECEMBER, 1&)8.

VI'. N. Gates, Special Advertising Agent, 29 Euclid Avenue, Cleveland, O.

.~'''NI'''D ~''''''T. ROOM •• T."_

OWIXG to the I!enerous response on the part of our numerous correspondents to the request of the Editor, the Directory has been crowded out of this issue.

THIRD V.ice-President Adams was elected to represent the National Brother­hood at the convention of the American Federation of Labor. Comment on this eleytion is unnecessary, as ail who know Bro. Adams are aware of his ability. He is shrewd, energetic and a good worker.

THE man who isn't prepared to abide by the decision of the majority has no business in a labor union. or any other hody, or to iive under a republican form of govern­ment. When the majority has passed up­on a question, there should be acquiescence "II along the line. This is well to remem­ber at your next election of officer;;. \Vork for your candidate, but, if he is defeated, g<' with the majority.

A PROMPT RESPONSE.

It is gratifying to note that members of the Brotherhood are awakening to the fad

THE EJ..ECTRIL-1.L \VORKER

that the W o~ker is the organ of everv mem­ber of the Brotherhood; that itr. cclumns are opell tc fui! and free di3,':!ssioil ,,,. the many subject. which :T.akl; ior the !!c.;d of the order. During ihe past p.\.mth we have. received wekr;me con:m'lll',eal:ons from bru!hers wi,.lcly separateu g"og-rarhirally, but unt!'!d ia tht h.:.nCi.3 of U'..lT l!r,::ther­hood. Let us hope that this privilege will be availed of to a still g-rl'atcr exte:::t. By this means brothers Ivili )!,<:! into closer tour.h with one another and the contact can only res!;lt in ~(lOd.

-------~LECTn.IC.\J, ABSURDITIES.

In a former number of the \\'orker we tooh occa!'ion to critki~e. in a fri~ndly and entirely good natcred ','.'i!.)", tbf' u~e of epithets by a technic:li e!ec.tdca! journal when writing of men en;:~ageu :n the prac­tic;; I end of e1eetrics. 'It no~' transpires

, that some of thetechnka! jccrn:ds ha vc an opportunity to r~flect "[Jon the proposition th;;t there :nay be some reasqn in regard­ing practical workmen' as.:n importarn fac­tor in the a:t; in fact 1Iet as a balance wbeel.

E\"e!)'bodr knolvs how Hth!'erdent !'ome of ·these technic:~1 jourl1<lls h;:,'e been, in thei:- treatnlent of "'v:izC1rds " ('If the profes· sion. Untii ~~ry recentl)" they did not Vf'nture to criticise any proposition, how- . ever absurd, Sf) lcng a:; it emar:ated from either Hou~ton street, ~eo;': York, ur that portion of Jersey which rejoices in the name of Menlo Park.

To be HIre,' some cf the propo!'itions were very tiifficdt to swallow; hut they managed to" worry .them down," because they emanaterl from the wi7.'Irds. Now that the entire lay world is laug-hing at the preposterous c1ai.~ns set forth 0:; the past 1112sters (If kcbmcal electrical know!cdge, the technical editors arc taking to em·er.

In another po~tion of the present num­ber of the W<Jrker appears a very enter­tainintrarticle from the New Yor}; Evening Post, d.!voted to ~(,me reCf'Dt aEi I'ancements in the art,as promulgated by Nikola Tesl.... The article form:; very intcresting reading from the standpoint of a practical electrical worker, anrl scme of til,,: .. wire drawers and cable ,;:orkers" will ~(:arcely refrain from a smile. Thl:)' b,ow, aud the technical editors knuw that, h,.d Hr. Tesl" t~ 1;:('n cr.lIn~",1 of th" !'r'lrt;r~ lelectrica! workers in his emp!")" he would ne\'er ha\'e emitted the rubbi5h which has re­ceIlt!y found its way into print.

It is simply a case of imi'.giilation, unre­strained by .1:(' !'ober, ?,aetk;l! jlld~ment which emphatiraliy finc;; its be~l exponent in the practi.;al eiectricai workers of to­day. With al! uue resp.:;ct to :"11". Tesla, ~,e has been, during the' later ye,,;~ in which merited prosperity has ("orne to hin., a good deal disposed to think that he w;!s the whok thing; th'it, t·.)gether with a baker's -d07.f~n of technic;, I writers whl) hal'! for so

[December

many years boomed his interests .. the group­monopolized the art of electricity.

Now, the very magazines which have· aided in exploiting his" oscillator" and his­othel' contrivances, are obliged, in self re­spect, to hedge. They are forced to draw the line at a patent battery which attracts deadly niicrobes from the human body and dashes out the brains of the hadili on a wall five feet distant from the patient. It is possible that some of. M.r. Tesi<i's ad­mirers ·in the technical press would have passed the microbe destroying. battery without adverse comment. \Vhen, how .. ever, the wizard proposed to steer a t0r­pedo boat against a fleet of battle ships by the operation of the human mind on a coherer, and emergize the coherer to ignite explosh'es by means of the !'ame human' \\"ill exerted miles away on the bridge of iI vessd, it suggested caution. They had seen, as most of us here, the operation of the Marconi system of telegraphy at short --very short-·di!'tances, bllt they were not prepared to accept hypnotic s'lggestion as. a means of exploding sutllnarine mines and dirigible torpedos.

It thus chances that we see fewer. slight­ing allusions to .. wire pullers and cable workers;" less bumptiulls assUillption that the technical and practical m electrics oc­cupy far different planes. On the otlier hand there is el"ident much of chagrin that pipe dreams like those quoted in the E\'('n­ing Post shoulrl be exploited. as gcnuifle electrica I theories.

The soher fact is that the technical and practical in electricity go hand in hand, and must always do so, if genuine advance in the art is to be achiel"ed. This journal has frequently exhorted its practical re;ul­ers to acquire all of the technical knowl­edge of the art possible.

In view of recent devdopments, wonld it not be well for some of the tcchinical people to get a little more in touch with the practical workers? Such talk as appears in the article iI, the Evening Post whICh we quote, can only, and justly, excite contempt in the minds of lay readers. Electricity is a pretty good thing in its way, and it is do- . ing a Of heap. of good .. along practical lines but we are not ·yet assured that it will usurp the powers of the Diety or work miracles like those involvcd in the latcst dreams uf the wizarrl

PERSONAL F£ELING.

'Ve often hear members of this and other organizations say there is too much per­sonal feeling displayed by members. Allow us to say that of times men's meanings are misconstrued. n'ecause we differ in our methods it does not follow that there is any personal feeling. The best of friends fail to agree some times, for as long as the world goes roul!d, men will have views of their 0\\'11. The labor movement. needs fighters, feat'less, honest, fighters, men

December]

who hrtve the inter.,st of the organizatiOI! ~1t heart, men who have stood the test, for there is nothing that will test a man's sill­('erity lUore Ulall the labor organization of to·day, and w~ cannot think for one mo­ment that '.ill: memhers let personal fl:el­jugs rule their better judgment. At least we hope not. \Vhen men are elected to office they take Olpon themseh-.es an ohli­gation to fulfill the duties of the office to the best of their ahility. With justice toall, partiality to ]lone, with no personal feel­ing iu the U1;1tter, the workingmen of this conntry are too intelligent to allow per­sOllal feelings to hinder the progress of their orgalli7:ation. And when we vo~e for officers we should vote for those whom we think will fill the bill. When an execllti\'e board is elected, what is it elected for? To tmnsact the business of tlte Drotherhood for two years. Two years is a short time in the history of. an organizatioll, and when the time cOllies fur them to gh'e an accuunt of themseh·t!s, if they have failed to do their tluty tllcre is a remedy ill the ballot. But whell dected and placed uu­der boud, they must, if they have any cotiscicnC'e, do thl'ir duty without any per­s0na1 feeling.

Now, Brothers, because a man lIlay d:s­agree with you it doc5llot follow that there is any personal .fcdillg. The co1um1ls of the \Yorker are open for free disctlssion at all times. Person!ll attacks, however, will not be publish..:u, bllt anything that will help to build up the organization is al-

. ways acceptable, and, while we may dis­agree Oll technical points, let us work for the best interests of the Brotherhood.

co _ -'

AGR:£:£lII:£NTS.

THE ELECTRICAL WORKER

it he lI':lIlts to see his· way dear. \Ve are pleasej to note nearl~' all the agreem(:nts forbid thp. members taking- C(JOtra<::ts for them$~h'es;tl:.at::l!5, to allc\" a .!n;;:.rnb,f;:l'" of the local to do \\:ork aCt~r hours. While we have heard no objection to this. let us ask ourseh'es if it is fair. \Ye can not ex­pect a contractor to pily rent and the run­ning expenses of business and figure against what we ore pleased to call the hasket man, the man who has no shop other than slime rool11 in his residence. His expenses are small, consequcntl: he can take a joh at small figures. \Yhere there are agreements. we hope all mem­l)crs willlh"e up to them. In citIes II'here there iSllO contractors' association, if the contractors get the worst of it they should hiln: no kick comin~, but take their medi­cine like men.

;';"::"'==~==== ROB:£RT WRIGHT NEW Y:£AR'S BOX.

On another page of this issue will he fOllnd a letter from a memb('r of Local 41, introducing a scheme tl>. give our worthy hrother, R. \\'right, a ;\'ell' Year's present. \Ve sincerely hope that the 'members of this organiziltlOn will J'l'spond liberaliy. Take up the collections in your locals,

. and while we are enjoying our humble fcstil'ities on ;\'ew Year'", Day, let liS re­member une who has assumed the: ~ame ohligation that \\e ha,"c, to help line an­other, bllt lhr,'u~h an acdc:1t!nt he has heen left helpless, ;md this lllakes it impossible for him to help otlwrs when he cannot help himself. \Vhen ~:ou are returning home ilt night after a hard. day's work, perhaps f .. cling down IH:arteu and sad, let your mind wander hack o\'er your own life, re­calling- that you have been blessed with a fair share of health and the good things of life (or your family and yourself. Realiz-ing that ,Jur injured brother has been, through no fault of his own, deprh'ed of tIle opportuni~y to earn these blessings, let IJS make his Christmas holiday enjoy­;Ibl... 1\'ot a man of liS will miss the mite that we chip iIi for Bro. \Vrighfs Xew Year's box-not as ch,lritr, but an expres­sion of good t::hr:-er for our disabled brother and his wift: :md little ones. "

THE VICTORY AT D:£TItOIT.

\Ve are pleased to note that No. 10, In­dianapolis, Ind., has succeeded in getting an agrecment sigiled by the new tdepholle company of thqt city. It proves conclti­sively that these agrct,ments are accept­able to all fair-minded men when thc>y are drawn on broad lines which give the eUl­pluyer and employee each· a show. 1n .this progressive age of ours, where compe­tition is strong, a labor organi7.atior. must keep up the pact:, bllt ()Il cOllsen·alive lines, not bv radical mi:aslIres or almse. The mcmLc~s shouicl W.H.ly uf' the ilTIPort:-l ant economic quc:;tions of thc day, :md 'lOt III another column (If .he \\'ol'ker will be tackle l·.q:;ita: j'J~' l,;.!c.;u:,c it is C"l)i'nl. VJimU all (;xtract i'run. t:,<: D.-twit SC!llinel, There are a grf';!t T!1JU)' empl~ycrs 1.-1:0 t':h:ch gh'es an account of the successful ar~ reasonably fair with ~heir employees, t,ndea\'l~r of Bro. TI.lOlllas H. Fo~bcs, of thiS we are forced to a:lnllt, and when men OC<11 ~o. 17, and the lucal comnHttee to of this kind treat u:: birl\', let us recipro- .btain the passag-e of an unlimilll:e reg-ll-cate by using them ill the same \l'ay. A jating the string-ing .)[ wires in Detroit. great many ('omrllittees fail to get agrce- II'he obj~('t of the orliina:lce was to render

'ments sign<,:l for tht' simple reason they the work of the linemen more safe. did not approach the empluyer in a fair- /' Detroit owns its OWI1 pbnt. and the pro­minded gentlemanly way, but try to gain poser! ordil!ance was str",nuullsly opposed points by threats and bulldozing. Signing I hy tht! Lighting COlllmittee, which put up an agreement is a husiness transaction. I a ~trong fig-ht. ' The employees want it ~ig-ned to pr~tect! Bro. F0rhes went into the ~O!mcil ann themseh'es and when the employer slg-ns touk lip the <.ud~el for the nght, and he

9

won, Bro. Forbes is a:1 intelligent, l ag­gressh'e and clean fighter, and he stands for the rights of the Brotherhood. In this ·case he was battling for humane and just methods in the conduct of municipal affairs. He was not pleading' for, but de­manding, that the overhead construction of the Detroit Municipal plant be so con­structed that men could carryon their

. daily avocation with due regard ttl safety of life. It is fair to assume, now that the point for which Bro. Forbes ~lnd the com­mittee o[ Local Xo. 17 stood, that e\'en the members of the Lighting Commission· a·re better satisfied. There couid be no ques­tion that the principle contended for was righ,t, and it always pays to be right. Bro. Forbes and the committee are entitled to the thanks of the entire Brotherhood.

NOTttE.

Anyone knO\i'in~ the· whc~eabOl!ts \)f l'ro. Roy Peck, member (,f Loci! 2.:!. of Omaha, ~eb., will confer a falor by ad­dressil1;; his mother, ;\1 rs. Sarah ]. Peck. who resides at 212 X. Railroad st., Bucy­rus, Ohio.

Storm Echoes_ J!oston, Dec. 5, IX98.

Editor Electrical "'orker: On 8aturday lIig:1t and Sunday, ~O\'em­

her 26lh and 2ith, a storm ra:!e(l along tlte coa"t of Xew England which wrought great. hayoc and loss of life : ~he steamer Portland, on its regular nUl from Boston, , was lost and 165 Ii-,'es or more were l'acri­£Iced to the fury of the dements and the angry sea. }lany smaller craft mccumbed and other 1h'es were lost, oi which ac­counts up to this time lire proLahiy 1I0t ('Il­

tirely authentic; watchers still patrol the beach 011 the shores of Cape Cud ill hopes that the surf might britlg in oue 1IIore body 'with it. l;p to this time, perhaps. only 20

bodies in all have been reco\-ered, most of which were identi lied. It i5 the belief that mau)' of them are buried deep be­neath the saud and sea mnd: It is not m~" intention to giye much of an account of th.:: wrecks aud loss of life npon the sea, as you ha\"e all, no doubt, read aCC0nnts of the disasters in the daily papers; !t0W­

ever, this narration might bring to yonr notice how forcibly the· storm raged along the beuch, DIy intention t".,iilg to nole some little 113\'OC that was ,:allsed by thc wreekil'g of telegraph and telephone Ib,,;:;:;, which came under Ill)' oh~en'atioll, and cau;;t!u me to do ~OUle hustling during the past week. I am employed by the CO!l1-mercial Cable Co. as statioll lineman herc, and ,,"as 5(,l1t out to find the reason wIly our lines wuuld 110t work. It took me a long time to find the canse, as the only mode of tra\'l>l was walking' and pretty slow lilOdng at that, as the SIIOW was drifteo hadly in lIlallY places, and it was still s!lowing hard and blowing' a gale, but

I,

I

10

I faced the music, and when I did reach the line at a point about eight miles out, where our liue runs along the beach for a half a mile, the poles were down, cross arms twisted and a general, first-class wreck, I assute you. On the opposite side of the street the American Telephone line, runs, carrying possihly 70 or So, mostly copper wires. Poles are braced and guyed in every conceivable way to stand the' strain, but the storm laid them fiat, and such a mass of wi~es, broken poles and general Wson1.er- on a ten:graph line one seldom sees, _~t a point about four miles from Bost~,~'-!i:'lil!~ was bad,!)' wrecked, The New ·tt~ghlnd i~~l'llOne Co. bas wires on the line11el£, any' lI.{another l10int were we were oown._Places where no wires but our own, tell in, number, were on the poles, wbic11 l\lJdoub,~,~illy_=ught as much if. not mOle of the 'b11~Ut of tbe storm, were in­tact. I:orenaU1 \Villiam Ryan was con­gratulatiug himself when he built this particular line and selected poles of extra sizes for the work, but 1 think from his observations siuce the storm; t11::: fact is

, clearly demol1~trated to him that there is a possibility of getting a few two many wires, on poles which would appear to have, a great carrying capacity. As is usual with the Comm .. rcial Cable Co. they were not long in rel~o ... erillg their wires, as a large gang of extra 'uien were put to work in getting wires working temporarily. A gang of men was sellt 011 from New York, but was handicapped il1 getting here. Tbe train being forty hours on the road, tile usual runing time being five or six hours. Considering the badly wrecked line you will imagine there was some bustling, as the, delay in business was of little note. I wish to correct a statement which appeared in the Boston Post a few days ago relative to linemen., It seems to me that one of the reporters must haye been misinformed as to linemen in general, as I have fol­lowed the vocation since I have been big enough to do, manual work, and am now counted in with the old timers and probably know something about the fraternity and tlleir characteristics. In the first place no linemall in this section works for any com­pany for $1.75 per day. Probably the re­porter, considering that he got his infor­mation at Cambridge, was up against one of the telephone ground hogs, who gives a climber a quarter occasionally to let him carry his spurs, to make people believe he is a climber. The average rate of wages of the Huenu:n who belong to the Electrical \\'orker's Union is $2.50 per day; someof course who act as foremen get 25C and SOC extra; station linemen -get from $55.00 to $65.00 with the Westem Union j other tel­egragh companies who employ more skill­fullineUlen pay froUl $60.00 to $85.00 per month. There is 110scale of prices in <:ase of severe storms, the men getting in such case,; what the demand for their services

THE ELECTRICAL WORKER

warrant. I han, known me'l to ,get !-5.00 and as, high as $7 per day a.."1'd ,all ex­pen!;es. The Postal 'fdegmph Co: aud the Commercial Cahle Co. have paid such prices in the recent stonn. The men who were hired in New York to cOlUe here were paid $3.00 a day, hotel bonrd, milway fare and bleepiug accolllIDuc.atiol!:>, their wages startiug from the time they w\!re hire!l un­til they returned. As to linemen being of a roving disp'Jsition, there is !1 certain class of them who are. This is due to the fact, perhaps, that a goo<1liuenlan e~,li find employment in any part of the country and. there bebg so mmly different lines of work to pick from, you will us~ally find the men who travel so mllcb are the ones who understand the hl1,.iu","s tl1cruughly and can do electric railw:!)" e,iectl'ic light, telegraph, telephonc, 0'1', inside wiring. There are se\'eral linellleftinthis--and other dties who never wander from tlleir own firesiue; and the Post's informant would have us think that .few of them get mar­ried. "'bile 1 am 110t in lbe with the married ones, (for reasons best kn'owll to myself), I 1>.3\'e had the pleasure of calling on some of the married ones, and I can as-­sure you their dOl1le~tic happlnr05s is looked after just as vw'el1 as &nybodys "ith the same means. l.'hey provide fqr their wives and children and have the same pride exactly that any intelligent man has got, and should ha·;e.

Only DIet a few of the hoys with the grip j Bros, Hel'bcrt and Conroy callie on fr')m Hartford, and Bras. Cronan and Hur­ley, who are employed by the COIIJ11Ierciai Cabie Co. and w,o!'~ing with Foreman Jaliles ElllhoiI on line repairs. Think Bro. Hurley is getting himself solid with the financial secretary of 35, as he sent dues in advance. ,Thaps the way Bro. Tracy Ifkes to see the boy's come up. 1':11! John? Sorry we were !'o rushed with business that we could not take Bros. Herbert :<nd Con­roy around a little; would like to have taken them down the har1"or to see the ships, but Bro, Herbert came in so tired every night after rushi ng the gang all day. I don't think he had any use for a ship, other tlla11 a schooner. I gues~ he' saw few of them anchored on !Vlel'clial1ts Row. Regards to all the hO,rs along the line.

'Fraternally, F. J. SHEEHAN. ----------------

Robt. G._,Wright New Yenr's Box. Buffalc, N. Y .. No •. 22, 18<)8.

Editor Electrical \\~orker: Having lIoticed in the last issl1e of the

\\' orkt:r an illvitatio:l to all hrothcrs to "'rite wilelller ti}('Y are Pre:;s Secn;taries or 110t, 1 will take advantage of Ole oppor­tunity, -which, though I knew it existed, like others I have to he dcumme,l up oc­casi.ollally to let lilt: kilO''''' I am 0;1 earth.

I have ill_ mind a suLject wbidl is, or ~honld be fresh ill the mind~ of every

[December

brother in the order, and one to which_ I. am afraid I cannot do justice,'but I hope this will reach the eyes of ,all, a lld also­accomplish the purpose for which it is in­tended.

- About one year ago 1 received a \;t:ry

appealing letter from Bro. Bobt. G. Wright" then at Waco, 'rex., I belie\'e, asking if through my efforts I could help him to sell some of his little books, called" A Porta­ble Clinlax," of which he was the writer.

I read and re-read that letter to every brotherhood man I met for weeks, until I could almost repeat it word for word. J brought the matter up before Local No. 44 of Rochester, N. Y., c.i which I was a. member at that time, al!c1 how well Ire­member how attentively the boys all lis­tened, and hardly had 1 been seated before: there was n motion put thwugh Wlliclt made Bro. Wright $25.00 better off.

To-night I am in receipt of another let­ter, dated Raton, ~ew }\-lexico, in which_ he states that he is in the same cOl1dition he was a year ago. and also that be has had sickness ill his family and is in ,'cry straightened cin'umstances. Now, broth­ers, I know this brotJu:r's appeal has been kept before yo~, and -llO doubt the brothers have given what they could, but tuat dues. not help the matter at the present time. We must, or at least ought to, do sol~,e­thing for this poor unfortuuate, brother. Just thing of it, a man who bas been we-H and hearty and doing line wOl'k, climbing from day to day, going borne tired at night, and as'SOOll as he reaches hOllle umls his, wife and little one waiting to greet hi111 with a kiss and a welcome, WIDell lUore_ than paid him for the toil he had gone through during the day, now having to lie in bed most, of the time and be cared for like a child. Oh! it is something dread-

,fu1-. And with all this he still says if he only had the use of his lui-.lds he could help himself. I am sure it shows courage, ambition and proves to all that he is worthy of all we, as broth~rs,can do for him.

If I understand rightly, he has always, been a true-blue union man. Even when, be lay on a sick bed he saw there was a possibility of one of our local unions down in Texas going to the wall. He didn't. say "let her go," but he exerted himself and infiuellced.the boys and nnally held them together.

Now, brothers, every one of you ill the N. B. E. W. of A., are we going to stand still and see this worthy brother and his little family suffer? I say no, and 1 think I voice every man of us. Let us band OUT­

selves together ill behalf of Bro. 'Wright, as we have in oaI- labor, and make hilil a­New Year's present that will not only giv£ him and his family pleasure, but'will make us f.eel that we have done our duty to 0'\11'

brother and fellowman. I would suggest that the_G. S. notify

each aud every Financial Secretary to

December] -=

.;:;:tabiish H box, and call it the Robt. C. \Vrlght NewY..::ar'" Box. Let eyery meru­l .. er glve. at ~e::"L 5OC, and as much more ail he call. I think a iJantisome sum couid be raised i!1 this way. I am sure ouL of 2,000 melUbers say if 1,500 each give 50 cents, jt.st thiIlk of it, $750, which would make one man the happiest man in ~.:w Mexico on the first day of January, 1~?9, and the 1.500 llmt had helped to do this c(Juld truthfully S&y "\\-e have done v;ell, we are glad of it, and we never missed it. II

I hope this litrie piece of just brotherly love win not ll1f'et with eny. olJjcctiOtl, ~o let's push it alrlllg. Those 01 you who will can star'. YC>llr box at once, and forward cl}lltribl:tiol1s to G. S. Sherman, 731 Pow­ers Block, Rochester, N. Y., so that }lro. Rollt. G. Wright. will be able to eat N",w Year's turke}", and I kllow his only thO:lghl will be aHa ppy New Year to the l11etl1 b'.!rs

, of the N. B. E. \\'. of A. I will now close and drop $1.00 ill th~

box for Roht. G. Wright. Fraternally yours;

Wl\:I. A. BREESE, Member of Local 41.

FAVORS A QU~S'£ION BOX.

Pittsburg, 1'a., Dec. 7. 189S. Editor of th!'! Eleetdcal \\'orker and Fd­

low Broth!'!r:'>: B~' OJe rmy, ,having just read the No­

vember \"{0rker which I happened to }Jro­<:ure hy chance at the last meeting of our iocul, notwithstanding that Illy dues have neve;.' yet been in arrears, I am greatly !,leased to find that the Editor of salllc is a man of ImsilJC~s qualities as our }Javer shows this year by its decided impro\'e­ments, also by his request in NO\'emher '.Vorker for a "Question and Qlli::des Column," which I believe will be the Hureka of the paper, (as I must cnndi<11y arlmit tllat merely a P. S.'s statement that Rill jones is sick and that ten attended tl\t> lo~al's last meeting is tiresome recdiilg,) and I believe in a thorough discus~io!J Oll

pmcticul rather than theoretical subjects, as being a means of making the paver popukr among the boys. Now there are b. gn~at many of the boys with the wonl electrician Oil their visiting cards who IJal'e a Jot to learn but of course wiiI not ar1ll1it it. And I alll sure that they would rather 1ic in a, cl)rncr than openly ask through the ''J''''J'l:!~_~r for nccaci !ld·.~;~(.. Therefore, ~ ~hiuk it well to solicit inquiries also from some who may he fully po~ted themseh'es on the question~ whir-h may be asked, as they know themselves where the silOe pinciJ(:d rlu!"ing tbei!' struggle. Just [! ft"w (lays ago a diplomat from the Key::tone Etectrical College called at mv office, and, in sp~akillg of hell work, he said that there was something mysterious auout all allllUll­ciato\" because if you. placed an extra hell to riJl6 in hall ill multiple with the frollt door call that it. would surely drop some of

THE ELECTRICAL WORKER

the other points of t!le annunciator; but if you rUll a third wire f,om the fro at it would nut, ~!ld he cOllchlrleit by' showing how to construct his push huttoll, which was correct. Yet he maillt:;.ins there wa;; no use for the third wire und what mission it fulfilled he could hot see, or why the all­nunciator dropped other points when he ilid not use his conundlUlII push. I may also state, about a year ago I had a diplo­mat of the highest pr~se.utage of the C. E. class of the ,,'estern l'nhersity of Penn., who would or cou1n 110t see why it did after I connel'ted it tip and showed him. Now, I wish sOllie one would illustrate this cause and effect next month as a feeler.

Fraternally yours, A. E. EJ.DRlDGE.

From a Mcttfher of Union No. 22.

Vnwh:" Neb., Dec. 3, 1898. Editor Eleetri('.al '\'orker :

As I have nothing to do and alll a crip­p1c 1 will write a few ~i!1es to let the broth­er!' of the ~. B. E. W. know that Rombo1d is still alive and able to be around on a pair of sticks. I guess all the brothers who read the August 'Yorker saw that I met with an accident on the 1 st of ] uly, when I got my right foot b~okel' ut the ,ankle and heel and my leit foot broken al

the ankle also. ,rell, brothers, l laid three months and f~ur da.ys ill the h03-pital, then I went hOllie, and was there a little oyer two weeks when the typhoid fever got a hold of JIle and I had to go b~ck to the hospital for three weeks more. I thcn left thO! hospital Oll the sixth day of :;';-ovemuer. J am feeling as good as e\'er 110W, only niy right 'foot is not well yet, and it will take a long time before I will be aLle to use it again. "-ell, Brothers, I to;:11 you that while I was in the hospital 1 !llways had lots of comp.ny, for Bros. Bob Currin ami O. F. Almon would come up ever)" otIlt:r evening and sometimes every evenil~g. Wcll, all of the brother!> of '1'0. 22 Clime up 1.0 see me, I guess, as often as they could, for there was not a day but some of the boys would cOJllcupandspend the afternoon or e\"eniug with me, so I neYer got lonesome.

I thank all of the brother:, of No. 22 for what they did for me. I ne\'er will forget them, and I thank th('m all. a thousand times for it. They stool:! right with me J.HJ h~lI',,;u. Ule. thrvt:gL. ~lll~l'y troubi(::. I ju.s~ ~\appelled to l!m'c a p:iid up card when I g~)t hurt, a~ld I am giad of it, too. I belong" to 'other lodgcs, &l1d my dues 1"un out on thc last dar of June, so that left me in aJ-rears, or I would ha\'e got help from them, too, if I had been sql~are on the books. Brothers, I will tell you that it is a good thing for me that I was square 011

the books of :;';-0. :';2, ior I 0011't think tile brothers could t!'eat any mcmber better than I was treated.

Brothers it is a nice thiug to keep your-

I I

self Sfinare on the books, for you don't know jl'St what time you are going to ban' the l.ot stuff slung into you. I got it v.-hen I least expected it, and good and hard, too.

I can't get around very much yet, but I managed to get up to a mcetil~g of No. 22

011 the 16th of November, and I tell you that 1 enjoyed it. We did lt0t han:: t:':e hall as full of members as I wo,lld like to

see it, but there are S9 mallY of the boys out of town; that accounts for it a little. The Neuraska Telephone Company has' gut four or fi\'e gangs out in the counll'y building" new lines. Every member of No. 22 is working at pre~ellt, except Rom­bold, and I guess he won't get out th~s

winter, for his foo~ i~ too bad to climb any poles.

I hear that No. 22 is adning a few more lights to the circuit.

Bro. Jim Brinkman, general foreman for the '1'. H. L. Co., won't haye a man work­ing for him unless he has a pai.d up card. J wish all jobs were like th~t, then these \lon-union men WOUld' have to fali in line.

,"~ry respc:ctfuBy, J. C. R0:'WOLD.

~ocal Union NO.3. St. Louis, Mo., Db: 'I, 18')8_

Editor Electrical \Vork!'!! ; Judging by the sp"ct: occupied in the

\Vorker since our strike the brother~p1\t of the cit\· mi!:;ht conclude NO.3 ""as defunct, but it is not. Though we were cldeatedin VLir ef!vrt to increase our pay we hil,,'C! in no man riel' given up our organiL<ltion. \VI! meet e\ ery :rhursday night at 6o-l Market street, «nd though at present we may not be making history we are transacting the: usual order of business. "

For the' last two months St. Louis has hat! five accidental deaths to linemen all caused by electric shock;:, and a number have he~n crippled, Harry l\lerrill losing a leg as a result of a fall of 55 feet. ' Brother Leeman was the only one of the unfortun-· ates who had his dues paid up and will get a funeral benefit. Brothers, looking at it from a business view, it docs not pay to let your nues lapse and be initiated each year. Gue wliulci not U'- 11. tt:at i..,\.}A \., :~i! i.is life insurance company.

As regards work here, we ar:: having our share of prosperity. Line work is like uther ucclIpations, one is fortunate to have a job thes.: days. The lleil Co. laid off 62 men the 3d inst. The Mo. Lt. Co. and Laded Power Co. put quite a number of them to work. The Bell has il;; lines all down in the underground district and so far the Kinlock has nut made itself much felt as a competitor. It is employing \'ery few men ant.! does not seem much worried about

12

getting all its subscribers connected up. The Mo. Co. has more than the usual num­ber of lines, as they are pushed to get their poles and wires off the streets in the underground district by the first of the year. They had no trouble getting liners and I would not advise linemen to come here as the work they are doing will not fast long. '

Will close by wishing all the brothers a happy Christmas and a more prosperous New Year.

NOVICE. ~

St. Louis, Nov. 30, 1898. Editor Electrical Worker:

I will drop you a few lines to inform you of the newly elected officers of Local NO.3, N. B. E. \V. They 'are as follows:

Prcsilient-Bro. W. 11'I.,l\1cCoy, 16 South 17th street.

Fitlancial Secretary-Bro. E. H. Boeck, 3950 Kennerly avenue;

Recording Secretary - J. T. O'Brien, lOll North Leffingwell avenne.

Yours truly, J. O'RRIE~,

lOll North Leffingwell avenue.

At tbe regular meeting 01 L. e. ~o. 3, ~ .. H. E. W. of A., held Dec. 1,18(,,8, a COI1l­mitte~ was appointed and the following resolutions were reporred and unanimously adopted. _

Whereas, God in His inrinite wisdom has claimed, by death from accident, our worthy and esteemed brother, Thomas ;\1. Leeman, and

\Vhereas, \Vebow in humhle submission to the will of Him who doeth all things well, we realize that in his death his family loses a kind, loving husband and father; his fellow workmen and associates a gener­ous, noble-hearted friend, and ollr Brother­hood a fathful worker and member, whose memory we will cherish with affection and regard; and,

\Vhereas, the sudden removal of such a brother from our' midst leaves a vacancy and shadow that will be deeply felt by all members and friends of our Brotherhood, be it therefore,

Resolved, That we express to the family and relatives our deepest and most heart­felt sympathy, in this their hour of afflic­tion, and COnJmend them to our Allwise Father: who will console them in their hour of trial and deep distress. Be it further

Resolved, That our charter be draped in mourning for thirty days, that these reso­lutions be spread upon the records of this union, published in our official journal, and an engrossed copy be sent to the family of the deceased llrother.

W. F. McCOY, E. H. llOECK, J. O'BRIEN,

Committee.

THE ELECTRICAL WORKER

I"ocal Union NO.5. Pittsbm'g, Dec. 5,.1898.

F.Citor Electricill ',Vorker: \\'dl, cl're I comc again, to n'y task,

51lall I E'ay? Xo! hecr.tls'~ it is a pieasant duty, 1I pleasure which 1'0"11<1 its 'iirst stim­ulation and belp front my "Sainted mo~her.·' ,\11, but these word~ ~t'em cold amI nl(~allillg!ess, !JO strange to s~'Y them about my mother; but you ~1I ~a:'doll me for givi!Jg 'way to them-l ',r.".! a good mother, Slid Illy heart bleetl!> f.:>r, those whotle\'er knew thl:' kit;d. ~~nder care whieh a mother alO\le can btS'T~;'

There ba!l heen a c,}lI1n:o~i'm ill our ,'icinity, Th~' little cHili clIpl(l h·.s suc­ce,,~fully thrown the my!'lic yt·iJ a;.i,le and hap. caught two of Ollr, hroth.;!'!> in the folds' of that m)'!'tcriolls net of aU ~orts­"for better or \\'orse;" at h~~s" ~,;!l&t'~ ,,,bat tilt)' will get ill the futme, and judging froul the appearatlCe of Broil:el's Jol.ll1 Douglass and G. V. Beck, .. t~~ .. ,!'S only one girl il' this world for the:ii." Along with this item l' wi;,il to s!atc tbt,rc has b(:en quite all in fiux ,,~dect:'ical workers alJd ill due coarse of tillle ,ye ~:-:'P"ct to make them member,; of Local ~:.;: 5. As yet y .. e have Leard no complaint frorn the new residents with refe,ellce tf> mIT initia­tion 'fee of ten doHaTs, whir,h, tQ~k .. ffect the first meeting ill Dcct'mher,but the fol1owing brolhers will you('h for that amount when the time arrives:

KickolaH Tappt:, i open face, stem wind, lii~"'!lian; Bro. Bogan, plain. "rmature winder; Bro. Haskins;, plaitl':- coil tapper; Bru. FricdllH.q,l, p~n.in, carLon heater; Bro. Penwell, plain; divestrr ",imicr. '

Dame l{umor SU)'S all are dving well. Now we think its ahout time the " smokes" go round with HtClt a lusty, demonstrative group as they alwa::s are at this age. "Chat is the matter witI! Local NO.5? Simp!); nothing, v;ith S1~dt a pros­pect in "iew and lots of hard cnsh ill her colTers. 13tn there is a trouble somewhere and, tltl'oub'h the Editor I would like to say, that Local 'Xo. 5 was Heyer ill Co better c'mdition financially, but sorry to record that 'we hay.: not !he presence of the brot:lers at the me.,tings, a thing we de­sire-really as itnport:mt as the -money. It is not numbers cmd"nloney we want, it is active 1l1'!!Uh~r!', ready to put their shoulder to the lJel~ al!d throw l~er oyer a couple oi "titl1es. ~'O\V~ bru:'ijt!r:;, b.liJ1 out at ~ch meeting if 'possib!c, as ;.'O!. should bave as mllcn interest in thc IIn:en as you han: for your daily i,Heorne, becan~e I know full weB thai w!.ell liie uniol' ;;tarted wages we:'t! $I.i5 to $2.25 Rnu very hard to get at that, bl!t r.o"'s it is ~;.5() A.lid ~3·00 and over, ann lVJW a !1t~!llber of re. .. ponsihle contractors will r.ot I!in~ allY but lInion boys at $2.50. I!> it \"orth the effort to at­tend? l'e!":i>.inly, when q·js resnlt has hc('n hrol1t::'i!t aboi:t by t1;., l111tiring efforts uf'tho5e who have stood hy tll>': :111ion

[December

through thick and thin, and if yOll do not receive your $2,50 or more it is because YOIl are a coward and a softy andJlave not the backbone to ask for what is yours for the asking. You hau better get out of the trade if you are not going to do your litt1t;;. push and kick. The man who is an honor to his profession 1I111St have ability and he, will always find it easy ~ailing. So ~ake. up and get a move 011 and get in line for the spring, for by that time we will lla\'e a working agreement with the various elec­tsical contractors and then, if not ill lin'e, you wjl1 find your .. taters hard to dig." Should you deserve auy other fate? 'Xo~

Or if you ,have a grudge against any brother come down to the famiiy circ.!e, with your voltage up, amI blow YOllr fuse, and let it spit and sputter, and see what is' the matter. \Vhen through, put in' a bmn new fuse of sufficient carrying capacity to stand any oyerload that you or allY other hrother may ever wisl1 to carry, thl'OW 011 your main switch and watch your machine, i. e" The ~a:tiollal Brotlle.hood of Elec­trical 'Yorkers of America, the great cum .. iug Jabor organization, and not om: or two who do not exactly agree with you. II is the principles of the Orner YOll ll:U~t stand by; let little matters drop and remelllber your ohligation. Hm. Editor, there is still a little dis~atisfaclion expn~sed hy some of the brothers who are paid np';11 full and have not receiyed the \\·ork~r. As Press Secretary from the aLon! you will certainly take waming inn;} this epistle; written to those wbo really need their slats poked a little, 8.5 I do 1lOt \\'ish to begin on the lleads of the departments, but you will kindly wuich the Pittsburg iist so none are missed who are justly ell­titleu to a copy, as we ~re awfully particu- " lar. The semi-annual election was held, at whid. time the followil;g officers were duly elected:

President-Harry Haas. Vice-President-Fred H. Willsden. Fin. Sec.-F. H. Randolph. Rec, Sec.-Frank Lenny. First Inspector-"-. A. SuUenberger. Second Inspector-Nickolas Tappe. FOteman-F. D. Fitzwilliams. Trustees-john Haskins and F. D. Ma-

lone. Press Sec.-J. H. Stouffer.

Success to the new officers and may they watcb over NO.5 with a zeal that will ex-, ceed those who have heJd the reins before. ' Mr. Editor, you will say I am long-winded, but please excuse this long letter. 1 felt that I must say something alollg this lille or explode and hope all will take it kindly and ,that it may, bear fruit to the end' which it was written. \\,ishi'lIg you alld all the Brotherbood a Merry Chri:itmas and a Happy New Year, 1 remain,

Fraternally yours,

J. H. STAUFFER:

Decembcil

Local Union No.8. Toledo, Dec. 2, 1898 ..

Editor Electrieal "'··orker: \Yell boys, business is not very prospe.r­

(jas in Toledo at the present time. I will have to be very brief as I do not know what to write about. Isro: Ed. McGratl! is 011 the sick iist. He fell from a scafiolu, breaking his leg and has been laid up for ahout a month .. ~n employe of the 'frac­tion Co. was ·killed recently. He was rc­IlImoing an arc lamp from one of the streets anc1 his feet came ill contact with a man hole cover, killing him irlstantly. His name was Charles 'Veis, formerly a mem­ber of No.8. His fellow workmen prob&.­bly understood some of the good points to he gained by being a member of the Brot11erhood, and we expect some of them to be with us before long.

1 will also add No.8 is heartily in favor of internationalo~galli7.ation. Wishing all the hoys success, I will close.

Yours fraternally, J. J. moCK,

_______ P_r_e_s_s_S~'ecretary .

Local Union NO.9. Chicago, Dec. 7, 18,)8.

Editor Electrical Worker: Hoping we wiiI have a new Press Secre·

tary to write the ne:,t letter, I will <..10 my best this lime ann trust he will do better. \Ve had ollr nomination of officers last meeting night; I wil! not attempt to give the names of t1:e nominees, first, bec,tt\se there wouln not be room left in the "'orker for other Press Secretaries if they were published; second, there were two or three ll1e~bers . who were not nominated and might feel aggrieved to tind they have no challce for an office for the coming term. If OUT inspectors do not have a joyful ti:ne distributing ballots 011 election night, I don't know why.

\Ve still con·tinue to go upward; there is hardly a meeting night goes by that there is not one or more applications for mem­bership presented. There has been a la rge amount of work done here i.n the past year and most everybody who came here has found work. We had an increa~e of six new members last meeting from No. 10 ..

There has been it great deal of discus­sion lately in_ regard to the sick bencfit clause in our by-laws; as they now read a member can draw Sl20 in one year as sick benefits, which is a I,,·rge amount, consider­ing the small arllonnt charged as dues. ~o. <) has been re'narkably unfortunate in having a great lllany members sick or dis· allied, in the past year. There has been paid OUl of our trcasury as bcnefits ah0ut· ::',00; we have had two deaths in the past year, but owing to not hadng been in fei­]owlihip long enuugh to be entitled to the death hel1ciit, the burden of all the ex­penses fell upon .our local. The averag-\: ilcddent insurance company does not care

THE ELECTRICAL V/ORKER

to have anything to ,10 with linemen who handle live wires, and when they.do insure. you their rate is ge:1er<,.lly about :;21.00 a year for $1,000 in case of death and SIO.oo a week in case of disahility. l:\ow, if you and to this an in~urance of the same amount in case of sickn·.:ss, and they will ch::rge you not less than $35.()0 a year, you pay into the Brotherhood $7.20 a year and receh'e a paper that is worth $1.00, which leaves S6.20 fllr which you are insured for Sroo in case of death and 55.00 a week in case of sickness or disability; now, if you 10lok at the Brotherhood simply as an in­surance company you can readily see you :!re getting cheaper rates of insurance thar. the average life insurance company will give you; it is not necessary for me to mention the uther benefits tf) be deri\'cd by beillg a member of the Brotherhood, enr any man who is old enough to work at lint-work should ha n: Sense enough to know that much without hdng tuld.

Work is stilI quite plentiful here and promises to last until ,Ifter the holidays. The Edison Light Co. and the Chicago Telephone Co. are doing a great deal of work, the City Ry. hil\'e taken down their State st. and 'Vabasl. ,n·e. lines and are .. trying to get a permit to put them up iI.gain. As they generally get whilt(;\'er they ask for, it is expected they will soon be at work putting both Jines in running order again.

J. E. POLlNG, _______ P_r_e_s_s_Secretary.

I,ocal Union No. 10.

Indianapolis, Iud., Dec. 6, J S~g.

f,ditor Electrical \\-~rker: As the first of the 1110nth is here again

and I call1wt spea!;: my littl\! piece ;;0 that all the brothers Cl!ll hear me, I suppose the next best thing to do is to write, so here goes from Ko. 1(\, the hustlers. I belie\'e we ought to have that name at present, anyway, for, not many months. since, we could hardly get enough lights in the circuit to constitute a quorum, but now we ha\"e sixty-one iights all told, and our F .S. informed me that all tested full can­dle power up to December 1St. \\'e have an average attendance of more than thirty. Following is a sample of the way wc do business, and we think it will prO\·e that " we are full of busines; ...

Kovember 14th we had a rousing open meeting, but had to shut off the curre~Jt in time to add seven new Ji~hts to the circuit and repair two old onef ..

",ovember 21st, thi(ly-sevE:nlights O. K., with all officers in their respective places, and one more for the" wire-fixers," seven u\!w iights to connect up and two to repair, which makes fifty-six iights in the circuit.

Novcmber 28th, two new lights added to the circuit and two repaired. Every­thing is TUlming sU1ooth. More than thirty members \· .. ere in attendance and a lively union spirit was manifesteJ. As is

13

usual III this profession some will come aml some will go, but our l'.ttendance has· l.een g<)od for some time past.

] think that all of our members are worldllg at present, and tho~e of us that are working for the new Telephone Com­pany a!·e getting $2.25 for nine hours, as·. per ye::,.rly contract signed by the ·Direct-. ors of the company. The work here is progressing nicely, and when completed this will ·surely be a telephone plant to be proud of.

:\ word tf) the brothers who are writing· fro:11 timr, to time 011 the different issues of the uay that interest, aJ.d should deeply intere~t the laboring pubiic,.namely, sin­gle tax, municipal owner!>hjp, the imposi­tions of monopoly on the public, the way we can, as a laboring .public, ri~ht these grc;,t wrong-s, etc., and to these writers let me say your letters are good ... Keep .it up. ,[:;lk organized labo: ag-ail15t orgun­~l.t:d capital to all classe;; vf labor, and wilen ),f)U come across a man that. hasn't sense enough to knowll his and his fellow­\vorklllan's rights, tell him wheTe he is at, and let not only thos~ whu \V.rite for our paper talk and write, but l~t c';eryone that calls hilIlself II illothf.:r do all ill his power to bring about a better sta~e of affairs for the laboring masses. Do mUl l:t:ow the mcaning of monarchial gm'erlll11ent, and do you wa11t it here in Free America? U·· llot, stick up for Ollr Iigh~s, and if neces­~nry fight to keep hem.;' Gnd loyed olles free from the gra;;p of bloatr,d and selfish monoP'lly. I :UIl glad to say that organ­ized lahor ;S 0.1 the right road, and lo· all classes of labor let us urge organization.

A ne\r, charter is expected here next Tuesday, 'DeCember 6th, ·for ground men :111(1 1illcmen and "oiremell's helpers. ] will "peak of this in another letter, a;; this is nearly enough scratching for one time.

Brace up, brothers, and let us fill the "'orker with good letters froUl every union. one letter a month surely will not take 111uch of our time. Ld us all write.

Very Respectfully, E. E. BA C;-,'A~,

Press Seel·etary. ----------

I,ocal Union No. 12.

Brooklyn, N. Y., Nov. 12, 1898.

Editor Electrical \Vorker: I suppose yon think it is very stranp'"e

that you have 110t heard from us, but thc trnth of the matter is that we haye been so bllsy fighting our cause we 11:we had 110 til;le to write. To give YO·'1 a history of l'\u. 12 : Starting three months ago with only twenty llIembers we havc assumed tilt! wontlcrfn"i growt)l of 300 members in good stamlillg, equally didded as to classes of the trade, namely, wiremen, helpers and apprentices, und as intelligent and gel1tlem.mly a Lody of men as oue can find in the entire cou;ltry, and, what is better, thc)' still continue to come at the rate of

14

from four to thirty-three each week, which indicates our lowest and highest number initiated at anyone meeting, so you see our prospects for a large membership are very good. As to what we are doing we llave become affiliated with the Brooklyn Central Labor Union, ha"illg seated our delegates. \Ve have also gained a foothold in New York city, that stronghold of No. 3, but not without a fight, and a fight which we are still waging. 'Veil, we were first attacked,· and we simply struck back, and it will not be long befQre we will land o~ No. 3'5 solar plexus, lmd you know what that means. Why, just think, we were· charged wiLh having in our organiza­tion nothing but delinquent members of NO.3, and that we were all scabs. \Vell, the fact of the matter is that out of our entire membership not more than t1lirty were ever in NO.3, and they dropped out on account of No. 3'S unjust system of fines. As regards the term scabs, wllich they have applied to us, it is most ridicu­lous. From the first we have been abused by them, aud at last have decided to go on record as being out to protect our own and to strike back when attacked. Well, the contractors gave us our chance in this manner, as I will explain. For one year· No. 3 has been pounding uujustly the Elevator Constr~ctors' Union No. I of New York City, they, NO.3, claiming everything in sight, as usua1. In the case of the Syndicate building they started the usual foul tactics, and were the cause of a general strike. We were appealed to to put our men 011, but refuscd to do so until the strike was declared lost, and all the other trades had gone back 10 work. 'Ve were then again offered the work, and we accepted it, and to-day have fifteen of our men at work on the building at the union scale of wages and hours, and expect to put on more.shortly. We are also work­ing No. !2'S men in several other shops of New York city. I will also state the Syndicate building is the largest building in the city, being 32 stories bigh. So you see that we are up aud out for business, Bnd are getting it, too, and then again we are affiliated with a natiOlial body, the N. B. E. W. of A., while they are not affil­iated with any national body, and at the same time attempt to be the trade dicta­tors of New York City. I fear that their power has been broken ·and· that a new factor has _risen, which will be much more just to the laboring man as well as the ·contractors.

We thank Local No. 30 for their kind -wishes, and hope that we shall, by onr future Bets, merit the same. The outlook for the winter seems to be very promising, and all indications point to an era of pros~ perity for the trade. On the 25th of this month .. we hold o~r first. reception and entertainment, which is designed,of course, for tl1e benefit of our treasury, and as we

THE ELECTRICAL WORKER

consider ourselves to be pretty ..... "r01 peo­ple, you can. depend Up"'1 it that it will be a rerl-!iOt affalr. .

I thinE. now, Dear Er<)d:.ers, th.:t I have writto::n you a fairly long lettt'!, stating ·prt:"tty clearly wber .. we stm'cl, and in closiIjg win st~te that we shal! be pleased to rcceiv(: a:!!y of the br,:t!&er!; as \-i:;itors at a:JY time at our hc[.dqull..tl':l';, 407 Bridge St., Brookl:il1, N. Y. City.

Yours fraternally, N, F. ADA?<lS,

, ______ P_r~,;s SeL'Y.

Local Union No. X.'j.

. . Detroit, Mich., Dec. '\' 18Q8. Editor.;._~l~ctr~cal "·Grker :

Another month has rolled by and it is time to write to the Journal. Brotllcrs, did you ever stop to think th:.t :hi~. rU:llication is SUPIJ(oTted entirely by electrical workers and is read almost exclusively hy thf:" boys who climb the poles," ,,,h.., wire the build­ings, who trim tLe lamps, who tend the dynamos, and others who work at our craft in the cities from Boston to Sar. Fra:lcisco, and tlJey e~:pect this papcr ti) K('t:p them informed of the condition of work ir: differ­ent s,~ctions of this vast country. I think what nro. Shennan said the other month in the editorial column is right, that every union should insist that tht!ir Press Sec. ha,·c a letter in the \\'orker en:ry \1lonth.

t)ur big, genial Bro. James :Br~'nn"an. has recO\'ereel from his serious illness; we were a little afr<lid we would lose him, h1lt he says we can't iose hitt!, and ti;J,.t they can't kill him with an ax.

Oil January 19, i89~, we will ;;ive our grand ball and e1ectf"i:al illumination at German Salesmen's hall, and we cordially invite members of other iocals in ncarby cities to attend. or in distant cities, either, if they can conveniently comc, and Wt! will take care of you and:give YOll the b~st time of your life; remember the ciate.

\\' e have moved to a new hall, the pro­prietor vf the oid plac,," ohjccted tv our ha,'­ing boxing contests, etc .. in his building, so we are now !(':::ated in BiEm~rck hall, cor­ner of Monroe and Farmer stit:t:tS, one of the finest meeting places in the ci:y, \, .. here we will welcome all visiting crothers.

No. 17 has indcrsed the prop0sitinl1 men-, tinned in the \Vo:ker last month, of ex· tending the B:·otht:rnC.t)l: ovu C"l!~,da and cto:lngi,,'Y, our title from Nationai to Jnter­national Br0therhood. This course ~eems imperative for the prote.:tion·of the horder cit;cs from the inllu:, of the Canad!"n elec­trical workmen, who are (!azzled by the wagt.:s gi.vcn in the Arnerio:! c:itie:;, which ar€. a' gf"eat deal l.igher to.;",n ·ill Canada, and we consider that if we liaicnize the cities o'·er there it wii; nn:y be a .natter of time ,-"rhen thty will l::e draw;ng con,!'ara­tively as gor.a wages as arc !)aiu in the St;Jtes, and in tha~ way \\ c will t)!C::\"I~nt this constant menace to our positions <lad to

[December

Detroit was visited on Novembcr 4th by one of the blizzards that we sometimes have· up here in the northland. ·and it will be sometime before things are straightened up again; men were scarce, and the compan­ies had to send to surrounding cities lor linemen, and they and the Detwit boys have been on the keen jump ever since.· The storm was the worst we have had in·_ thirteen years. Poles and lines were :;im- . ply torn to pieces for miles; it was a ~()od

. thing for linemen. .. It is an ill wind that blows no one good."

Electron, the press secretary, threw some· hot shot last month at locals that did not respond to No. 3's appeal for aid at the time of their strike. \Ve were very sorry they were defeated, for they gave the cor­porations a game battle, the gamest ·in the· history of the Brotherhood, and I will as­sure them that we would have helped if it had been possible; but on account of our own strike of over ~wo months duration we . simply could not do it. Vye were down to hard pan, and for this reason I hope NO.3 will tbrow the mantle of forgiveness over No. 17.

The editor's gentle, seal·brown roast on some of the financial secretaries in last month's \Vorker was good, and deserved in a great many cases, but we know that it does not apply to our own financial sccre­tary, Bro. Phil Andrich, for he certainly is the right man in the right place, faithful, and competent in the highest degree. He handles. the long green galore, and ne,'er makes a mistake of a cent in a year, know there are one or two "kickers" who ha \·e found fault with him, but there are some men who always find fault, and are not happy when they ought to be thankful that they are not hanged. and I am pleased to state that No. 17 has very few of what you· would call" chronic kickers."

The supreme court of Michigan handed down a decision a iew days agoon the buy­cott question, and the corporations were chucking each other in the ribs and thought they had the unions dead; but they found it was the liveliest corpse that ever broke out of a morgue, and chased the cor- . oner around the block, the decision contra­dicts itself. One part practicall:: annuls the other parts, and it is just as good a thing as we want. One of our constitu­tional rights was involved, and no matter what way the decision went we would have gone 011 just the same in the matter of the boycott; the union may ha,·e faults, but lack of courage is not one of them.

I am happy to state that we are progreso sing, and· that all the union boys are werk­ing, while some Bon-unionIsts were walk­ing around on their uppers before the re­cent storm. They had a.chance to join the· union, but they always had excuses, the same chestnuts, so old that the worms ·had left them ten years ago. How these non­union cusses do whine and bellow when

Decel.nber]

they tell YOU their troubles, they put me in mind of nothing so much as the brayin~ of an asthmatic ja(;k ass; if I had my way'r would shut them up in jail for a year and feed them nothing but boarding-house hash, then maybe they would he good.

It has always heen a matter of great wonder to me why the millionaires a."!d wealthy classes look down on the working people and use them as they do in slime cases and why some workmen stand it. I swear by the Eternal, I would not stand oppression from an employer a minute, I woul!1 perish froUl. the face 0{ the eanh be­fore I would humble to any man, ar.d I know lots of men who are the same, and they are union men you may be sure. I say, no matter if a person carries the hod, or whether he peddles hot wiener wursts for a living, "a man is a man for a' that." A hundred years from now the dust of the millionaire wil! mingle with that of the beggar; old earth, the last mother of liS

all, is the great leveler; we can be manly men though be not rich.

r see by the papers that the owners of the coal mines at Vinden, Illinois, live in Chicago. It would be:: fine if some memhers of NO.9 cCould grab them and shut off their wind for a while. I suppose those mine­owners expect to go to heaven and be measured up for a suit of angelic pen­feathers, but the)' will never get there, for to imagine that the dedi won't get them would bankrupt the imagination_

Before I close I want to congratulate our editor on the style in which he gets out the Worker, published as it is, for the enter­tainment and instruction of the 1l1'~n who do the \l'ork in the electric field, I con~ider it a trade journal of the first class. Smooth goods is Bro. Shennan, sa)" 1.

As this is my last letter, I have made it rather long. The election of officers will take place before the next issue, you will lherefore hear from a new press secretary next month, and now, wish you God-speed, dear reader, and brother, J will drop my tired arm and rest.

DAN E. 'ELLSWORTH,

Press Secretary.

Itocal Union No. 18. Kansas City~ Mo., Nov. 13, 1898.

Editor Electrical Worker_

Fearing I am l:lie for this month's edi­tion 1 had better make my letter short. I'o. 18 is still increasing in me11lber~hip, although we 10:;t. se\'en memheus iast month_ They took transfer cards to other unions out of tOWI1. No. 18 gave its ,;ixth annual ball at CasillO Hall, No\-elllber 2d, which was a grand success. The electrical display was magnificent. There were over 600 reel, white and blue incande!'.cel1t lamps, six arc lamps and two search lights. We llad tonch buttons, which played tunes and dificl'ent toned bells attached. \~re

THE ELECTRICAL WORKER

don't know how W" !'tat!d financi>llly, as the boys are slowiy turning it! money and tickets. I will do~e for thi;; time.

Resl'e.::t6Uy YOUTS,

H. \VATROt;S, l'ress ~ecretary.

Itocal Union No. 19.

Atchison, K;ons., Dec. 7, 1898.

Editor Electrical \V 0rker :

Brothers, hoist your lids to No, IQ, the first and only local in the breezy sunflower state of Kansas, ihe home of -sock less Jerry S. and the fiery-tongued John J. 1.

While No. IQ is yet an infant and its membership few, we have hopes in the near future, through the untiring efforts of ollr president, F. J. Roth lold war horse), to outstrip some of our older locals. 'Vork here has been quit~ plentiful, owing to the inst:lllation of a new tekphone exchange in opposition to the Bell, and we have hopes of work lastilJg until spring. I would respectfully state, though, that this is no bid for all the idle men to flock this way, as there are plenty uf linemen here to do e\'crything_

Since the organizati("ln of No_ IQ we have heen able to place five· men with the Le:tvenworth Telephone Co. at $:!.50 per day, an increase of 25 ct~. 'Ve have also succeeded in increar-ing the new tel. line­men here 15 cts. a day, making it $2.40, and still somt' contend there is "othing in unionism.

The Atchison Ry. Lt. and P_ Co., of which Bro. Roth is foreman, has eight men in No_ IQ, and for the last few years has employed only union men. Our foreman, Bro. J- A. Hicks has, since his marriage, two weeks ago, ~otten entirely over his no­tions about riding in rubber-tired ha::ks, and takes to splitting kindling wood 'Illite na.turally. .

Owing to a swelling of his tonsils, Bro. \Vickersham, R. S., was unable to have his picture taken for this issue. Bro_ E. \Ventworth, since becoming a papa, speaks of his arc lamps in a vcry paternal way, calling them his babies, etc.

Bro. R. C. Easton, F. S_, locally known as "Pink Tea," between his love affairs and keeping the brothers straight on the book:;, has more trouble than a monkey with two tails_

Vice-President Sweeney would have had our charter framed, but varnished it with molasses and has be.:\! busy for the last week waiting for it to dry.

Now, if there is a roast coming to me, I will wait until my suc(;e~~or is elf?cted. -

'We meet every Tuesday at 8 P_ M., at 112 So. 5th stred, and would be glad to ha ve any brother passing this way to drop in.

Fraternaliy yours,

E. J. M_, Prcss Secretary.

15

Itocal Union No. ~:z.

Onla11a, Noy. 13, 1898. Editor Electrical Worker:

Being chosen press secrelary, or re­porter, IlJave been derelict ill my. duty, bnt as it is a task for me to wielcl the quill 1 trust I will be pardoned for snme.

Pre"irlent Stedmau, of Ko_.n, has taken uuto himself a partner for life. Success, l.ausolI_

The Tralls-!lIississippi Expo:;ition isovcr and a look of desolation and desertion o'c!'!;i,reads the grounds.

The boys are all feeling pretty good for th1£ lime of lhe year, as they have saved enoutill of their filthy lucre to tide 'them over lUC cold and dreary days of winter shol1i,\ they meet with the IIsual Sltll1lDOnS . of "well, boys, we will have to reduce our force~," but work seems to hold up good, and prospects are bright for all winter.

Bro. Paul "'eyers is rUl;nhlg the lights at the Boyd Theater_

Bro. Harry "-heeler i~ engaged in recon-' itnletillg the Tel. Exchange at 'Platb­llIOllth, Neb.

As ye representath·e wa~ "' .... nrli,1g his way to his home one evening 110t long [<go he - happened to overhear thefolJowilJg conven:ation between a COllple of nua] folk: .. Say, Bill, did y0u s"!c that gol­dm'ncd house going dow1I the str~~t wit"~ ligbts all light up?" \\-hy, Zekc," !'aid the other, being ~omewhat accllstOlJled to the trolley car, .. that was a street car 1'\10

by e!cctricity_" .. 'Yell, I'U be gol­!>quashed," said Zeke," them g<>l-duTned fellers will burn up thc world yit with t.hat stuff you call 'lectricity."

Bro. (,hris ROlllbold is getting along very nicely since his release from the hospital. Hope he will continue to im-prove. .

1 will endea,-or to write something about a giant generator used hy the street rail­way people llext 1110llth, al1-:1 as thel'e is a • good field in Omaba foi' the elec~rical stu­dent it will be worth oue's while to at­tempt to give light article;. on eacl1 appar­atus used by the different companies oper­ating here.

:More anon, .. CY PERKINS."

Local Union No. 3r. j\"Rconrla: Motltana, No\". 28, 1898.

Editor Electrical \Vorker: Dear Sir-As I let otle 1110nth go by

without our local being represented in the \Vorker, it behoo\'es me to get a move on or I will be clussed as a poor counection in the P. S_ circuit.

\Vell, Thallksgidng has come auu gone and fOllnd all th~ boys with a job on their h;Uld!;, much to ollr surprise, for it looked several weekE ago as though the, work was going to slack off, hilt TIro. Sullivan is a dandy on digging up work. .

\Ve have been doing a good ue~l of re-

16

building this summer and fall, and just finished nlOving the car bams to a new location. All this represents work, and that is what we are all looking for. '. What is the matter with the P. S. of 65 ? He throws a pretty good quill when he starts, but we haven't heard from him for some time. Come now De M, cut in and keep up the good work.

We have added three or four new mem­bers since you last heard from rue, and have several applications to be considered. Let the good work go on, for we ha,-e a good big hall to meet in aJtd can accom­modate all electrical workers whose heart is in the right place.

Yours truly, D. H. JOHN.

----------------Local Union No. 32.

Lima, 0., Dec. 8, 1898.

Editor ElectriC Worker:

We ha\'e got together at last, and re­ceived our charter November 26th.

The following officers were elected: President, Geo. Moore; vice-presiaent, L. J. Barber; financial secretary and treas­urer, Wm. ·R. Kraus. Brothers R. Moore, W. Holmes and C. H. Lee will do the argufying at Trades Labor Council. (How about it, Judge?)

We are flooded with work; don't know whether it will stay.very long.. \\-e had a good sleet storm Sunday, and it didn't do a thing to these strings around here.

Bro. \Vorline is out for the Postal. The Western Union had a good sized

gang here on the Pennsyh'ania Railroad, picking up the old Merchants' and Bank­ers' line, what is left of it.

The City Telephone Company suffered the worst; nearly everything down.

The Judge just blowed the fuse and I am in the dark. Stay with it, Judge, till quit.

CYCLONE.

Local Union No. 35. Boston, Dec. 8, 1898.

Editor Electrical Worker: Here's once more from Local '35, this

being last writing of this year. We are progressing as usual, membership rolling up each mceting. Work here, on account of the storm last week, made a great de­mand for linemen and I know. of a dozen different . co:-poratiolls "'anting linemen. Of course it was for short jobs. The Pos-

. tal and W .. \\-". Telegraph and Long Dis­tance suffered the most·; also understand

.. the Boston Fire Alarm are still crippled. So it~ an ill wind that don't blow good for 'some onc--not rderrng to the loss of the Portland steamship.

We got our ball committee appointed and they are hustling and making a good showing, having engaged the Paul Re­vere hall and making all necessary ar­rangements, and it now lays in the hands

THE ELECTRICAL 'NORKER

of brotht"1s of I()(:,,! 35 for a fin.Clncial S!lC­

cess. '.Ve hope all hrutilt~;s wid ta!:" hold and as.!!st the committees to d:s?oSI! Qf the ticket.:.. ~C)(t writing' thr: b.Ji: will i)~c\'er and pre:>:; sC(:fctary .. ..-iii bt- ?b!e t(, state the af[(drs 0; ti:e abn':e. W~ h'ld Homir>'1ti')i!s fur (.ffice last night

and hope tho~.e selected \',!II serve ;;s well as t~iose f>.!rdnp, at prt.:sen'... \\"l' hau the del .. ga~es of sh{,e striker!' of Marlhr;ro ":5it us at our mee.ir A' they ~tatiI'g their gne\': anc(":s; hope they wili succeed in g,>tting their rle'-:1 .. ads, the)" heiug financialiy ('111-

barras:;ed. \Ve <!onaku. ;;10.00 f:-r their as­sistance, ()ur 1001 is always rea<l~" \\·jth as­sistance for aiding felio\\' '.\·orken:. Did you re?d of what the ·.\·ork:ng- pel.pI.: did there? The Sc.dali<;t LabM part~' eh!r.red a mayor, five aldrrmen alld s{'\'en r.ouncil­mer: ; that s[,(lI,'s ,· .. here the power is. How willll.e shoe ;md other cllrjJoraLh)n~ take it? TJlis is z. great victury and sj.ow:' we will be in power yet. '.V c h;;\'e a few brothcrs on the sick list. ;Jnd are rCiJorted doing well. Yours,

T. R. !\j'ELVILLE, Press St!~.\"etary.

Local "Union No. 36. -Sacranlt"nto t Ca1., Nov. 27,1898.

Edi~~r Electric~l \\-orl~er:

It r.lay he " little late in the y::ar to again hear froOl us. but we heiic\'e in the motto, .. Better late than ne\·er." I.~hrc. to say we arc sti1l r.1ive ... i.d kit:1,:ing. Broth­ers, do 1Iot get henrt disease if vou !Oee a few lines from Local Ko. 3~' e\'ery month herco.ftcr. All the boys are more or less accll~tl')nled to shocks, 50 i ~ness ti!ev "'ill be able to stai;ci:t. \\'~ OIl'; siowl)" 'gath­erit1~ the ele('trical workers into the fold and hope to make Sacramento Ii strictly unioll town electrically. \Ve are nffiliated with the Federllte(( Tmc.cs al!d, thro'lgh their influence, gained a Humher of new mem1;;:n. \Ye firmly believe that I,e n:lye the good will of all the companie:;. The Capital 1'eiephone Co. paid the initiction fee for se\'ernl of-the lIew members.

H:-o. Jno. ~Iarsh was calied t\) ~ew

York 01' ac:o~mt of the lkath of his father. He will probah!~' drop the eler.tlical busi­'ness and take a turn on his OW;] hook. V\e lose ill him a good llllion Ulan and an ardent worker: l\1ayh~ be happy and prosper in l--Js !1e~,: YlJc:lticn.

Our last meeling wa!; especially well at­tended, probahly due to the fact th::t a number of ir.vitutions had been i~~ued to the !ollperintendents and for"m\~n of the diffpreut .~orupallies to gl"e us ~ Co.]) at our hall. Tht:)· all responde:1. After meeting ref.esh11lcnts wc~C;: served. nclw~e'i1 1,10.),-

. ing cards and:i iew lTItls;c::l m!!llhers, the time p:c;"ed so rapidly tl.!at som" of the boys missed the last cur home. This was our f,r~t 4U'empt in this line '1l1d proved to he a p~rft!ct stlccess.

In a fnture lette! -;: will endea, or l" give

[December

some data, etc., abont some of our high potential transmission lines.

Will pull the plugs on the 1 J ,GOQ for this time. Wi,;hing all locals continued suc­cess, I remain,

Fraternally yours, C. V. SCHKElDER.

Local Union No. 38. Cleveland, 0., Dec. 7, 1898.

Editor Electrical Worker: Since my last letter Local 1'0. 38 has

made rapid strides to the front. Our in­crease of initiation fee' does not "Stop them. They all want to get in out of the cold. \Ve received four applications the iast meeting night, December 6th, so Ko. 38. is still in the field and will continue to do business at the 010 stand.

Occasionally some brother from foreign locals happens along this way and sojourns with us awhile, then drops along the line· to wider fields of work. \Vc.: like tn meet· him if only for a little while. It i!': a good thing for a man when away from home to meet those of his own craft. And right here I wish to say, for the benefit of- it cer­tain class of men (will of the wisp) who hitherto ha ve followed different ,'ocations·. in life's whirl, that it is a great thin~ to let well enough alone. Stay in your line that you have made a ii\'elilrood at. It is a pre"alcnt, but an entirely erroneous idea that an clectrical worker's path is strewn' with offers of plenty of w,Hk, or his pock­ets lined with the almighty dollar. On the· other hand he has got to hustle for what he gets, and when a would· be wo,rkman strikes a job by misrepresenting his ability it 110t only makes him small in the estima­tion of the employer or foreman, but has hurt good and c.ompetent men. And then again how often do we he'lr of competent men getting mixed up with the hot stuff, much to his own disadvantage and personal feelings, and in some instances resulting in demise. If the influx of incompet.ent· men doesn't stop demise will certainly in-. crease, and a heavily charged wire is noth­ing for amateurs and inquisitive people to fool with. Brothers, this little note1:ame from experience in the course of my jour­neying from different climes.

I promised to giYe an account of our • anllual ball. \Vell, I·have another one to

mention, Local No. So. The annual ball of No. 38 was held on

Thanksgiving eve at the Army and :-;i!.\·r hall. The hall was crowded with friends of Loc" I 38 and So. Everybody had a good time. The hall was draped with the national flag and red, white and blue bunt­ing. The electrical display explained itself. The. orchestra on the stage was placed behind a bank of palms and other flowers, while over them hung a large American flag, IOx6 feet, with 300. lamps buming. The circuits were con­nected upon a commutator switch, so as

Decem.ber]

to produce a wavy effect. This piece of work seemed to hold the crowd spell-bound when the light was switched on. Our wel­come sign was eonnected the same way. We also had our emblem, N. B. E. W.Xo. 38, worked out ill lamps. The different numbers on the prog!'amme were also dis­played in electrical effects from the stage. The hall was "entilated by ceiling fans and bizz fans around the hall at different places. We had al! kinds of eleetrical effects in the hall, but it wonld take too much space to mention them all. \Ve had 550 lights in our own display ~besides the private illumination of the hall. Milch praise is due the committee on arrange:· ments. Bro. Jack Alhrecht had charge of the wiring. Bro. Ja.:k Cooligan came 30 miles to help out, on the work. Bros. O'l\eil and Blessing are going on the road as chi!mpion ticket-takers; they are wise guys. Bro. O'Neil is six feet six and Milt Blt·ssing ti"e feet with his shoes on. They hild cbarge of the door :llId did good ser­vice, the only trouble they were a little stingy with the pass-out checks. They would let no person pass unless he h;]d the regulation ticket. The following broth­ers had charge of the arrangements: Bros. e. J. Keifer, chairman; C. Mallo\', E. Curtis, George IVI a Ifn , J. Jamison, A'-Shef­field, J. Albrec:ht and J. Cooligan. The whole of Loc:11 )1:0. 38 was the general re­ception cOIl11l1itt{'e; ,

Local No. &> hdd its annual ball on De­cember 6th at l'I'Ierrill's hall on Pearl street (In the west side. The members of Local 1'\0.38 attended and took charge of the hall for Local :-roo 80. Bro. O'Neil had charge of the door. Bros. G. Maim and E. Curtis sold tickets. Bros. Dawson and Shdield, of Local Xo. 38, looked after the ~e;1cral work of the hall and helped e"ery (,ne to have a goon time. Bro. Jamison had charge of the Hoor, and from all ac· counts he had everyone dancing that could dance. These t\\'o balls are the talk of the city every season. They are well patronized. The people get prepared for them early in the season.

Trade here is fair, all members working. The inside men are all busy at present. They have·all got something to do. The ,>hop men are all working. They have about the same run of. work all the timt:'. The outsioe men ,,~e moving along nicely.

This city was visited "by a good old­fashioned storm Sunday and IVlonday morning, December 4th and 5th. The telegraph and telephone companies were heavy losers. The Postal had lots of lines down. \Vest of here three lines \\'ere on the ground for mil;:s. Our treasurer, Ira M as~lC, took out a gang on Monday, and everyone of them had a card from No_ 38 and two from :-roo 10. The price \\'a 553.50 and expenses. Thcre were others sent out, but they were paid $:!.50. The boys ·.I,ith the card had the first call, so be on

THE ELECTRICAL WORKER

the lookout all of th~ wandering brother~. Come with your card and you wilt be O. K. The prellent ontlinect;)f '\Vork::,this winter is fair. Line work is not booming, for all brothers are working. VI'c make it a poi'lt to try and keep our 0\\,11 membe::rs working as much as possibll!.

Local No. 38 has taken <lction in regard to extending our field or working. That is, that thc subject be taken up and discllssed in different locals and have them pass these sentiments: At the next convention the Executi,'e Board takt:: steps to bring the electrical workers of l\lontreal, Tor­onto, Hamilton, London and other cities in the Dominion of Canada into our Brother­hood, and that the name be chan;;ed to the International Brotherhood of Electri­cal \Vorkers, as the field for electrical work is a large one there. There arc lots of American firms getting large contracts in that country, and if we could get them in line we could have a greater prestige on all different branches of the trade. Our Recording Secretary has been instructed to forward you a copy of the resolutions.

\Vould like to hear from Bro. P. Jacobs of i\o. 56. \Ve have some of their mem­bers up here. Send 1.Ip the news Pete, and I will not tell abOut you and Old Ras­tus and the L-anestar. Say, Pete, Rastus spoke of lhe. boys before he died. He spoke for you.

Hopes for the future, I remain Yours respectfully,

GEO H. GLEASON, Press See_

Local Unien No. 40. St. Joseph, 1\·10., Dec. 7, 1898.

Editor E,Iectrical \Vorker: This issue of t~ \Vorker tinds all the

brothers at work and, as this is generally the dull season, with a severe winter on hand, stopping work on the new buildings in course of erection as well as other out­side work, it points to a busy and prosper­ous spring, with plenty of work for every­body.

As news is scarce 'at present will not oc­cupy much space in the Worker, giving the new press secretary a chance to ~et in a ronsing letter for the new year. The brothers who have missecl the last few Fridays' meetings missed a rare treat by not hearing Hro. Mottor's l .. ,-tures. George Norris, a lineman working for The Light, Heat and Power Co., was se"erely burned through the palms t)f both hands while making connection to a com'erter on an altcrnating circuit, receiving 1,150 volts through his hody. It is a mirade that he is alive. When taken from the pole he was perfectly rational. As the burns are c1e"r to the bones it is thought he will lose one or both of his hands. He was recently prorn(lted from a ground m<ln to climbing. He doesn't belong to the Brotherhood. As the last meeting night in this month is

17

election of officers, e\'ery brother should make it a point to attend and select officers who will attend regularly and look after the welfare of the union. As the' officers of the closing year of 1898 did their -duty and Local ~ O. 40 had a prosperous year, it is to be hoped the brothers will select as good tim her if not better. There is plenty' of it available from the ranks of our local.

The new year has rolled around; it is time to turn oyer a new leaf in Iife's book. Every brolher should inscribe on the new page in making up his calendar for the year; e"ery Friday reserved for attending No. 40 medings.

The Fin. Sec. requests that al\ the brothers settle for '98 so that there will be no back number's in starting the new year,

-"76," Press Secretary. ------

Local Union No. 4x. Buffalo, Dec. I I, 1898.

Editor Electrical Worker: Letter from local 41 last month was con­

SpiCll()U~ in the \Vorker by its absence. this' is not to say that it was missed by your readers, only that it broke the chain of numbers. Election matters consumed too much of Ill)" time previous to election day and disappointment at the result for several, days after, making it too late when t tinally settled down to my accustoIlled state of mind to get it to you in time for publica­tion.

Bu,iness here for inside workers is good at the present writing, and prospects:en­couraging for a continuation. 1\11 hands are at \\'ork. \Ve continue to look after them and see all ha,-e a card; three new memhers being added to our roll last mcet­ing. \Ve have nearly a"ll and expect soon to have all that are hanging back, and I wish to say to those who have been consid­ering and not made up their minds that we will gi ve them until January 1st, to do so at the old rate, after that date we double the price (,f initiation, or in other \\:ords, we make our initiation fee $:!6.80 for journey­men and $14.30 for helpers. this of course includes three months dues.

Brother Thomas Dugan W?oS se"erely in­jured last week by being crushed between a pole and a heavy flollr wagon. Brother Dugan was climbing the pole as the wagon turned the rorner and slid against the pole. Bro. Dugan's injuries consist of broken ribs and pain fill bruises and it will be some time before he can return to duty. On the following day his wife presented him with a bOllncing son of q pounds, to keep him compan)' while contined to his home.

The Postal is laying a long line of con­duit and filling it with cables to bury their m:lin lines, etc. This is the second joh of the kind done by this company in the past year and when completed. will put their line in fint: shape within the busy part of the city.

18

Mr. W. H. Kelly has been appointed ~Iectrical engineer for the Buffalo office of the Postal Cable Co. All electrical appar­atus, engines, wiring, etc., of the dynamo plant being placed under his supervision.

We extend our sympathy to. the husky guys of Local 45 who are obliged to follow the country roads for breaks and crosses in this good old fashioned winter weather, or ride in a caboose with their heads hang­ing over the sill looking for trouble while the gentle icicle pelts their face until it looks like a piece of raw beef. Poor fel­fows! How tht"y must ehvy the life of an inside worker.

For the past six months Local 41 has de­voted half an hour at its regular meetings to debates ahd interchange of ideas on electrical matters, thus increasing the knowledge of those not thoroughly con-· versant witlt the work of the craft. 'rVe now propose to have two open meetings monthly at which the best electricians of the city will lecture and reply to any ques­tions asked. The value of these lectures to our brethren cannot be overestimated and we invite all electrical workers to at­tend, promising them a pleasant and pro­fitable evening. This invitation is not only

. extended to the members, but to those who have not joint"d with us, including persons engaged in other pursuits .. We intend to diffuse as well as acquire knowledge.

I call the attention of all members to the fact that in this month the candidates for office are nominated for election at the last meeting in the month and I hope they will attend the meetings and taik O\'er the fit­ness of the different candidates before that time and not absent themselves and threaten to draw out because so and so is nominated or elected. If they have any­thing to say let them say it at the meeting. It is not right that a certain few should be perpetual officer holders, not just to them or to the order. We have plenty of men with good common sense who are a little bashful, which would wear off when once they had put on the harness and it is such men we want in office to relieve those who have served too long at the expense of .their pel·sonal comfort.

F ra ternall y Yours, . W. H. KELLY,

Press Secretary. -------~oca1 Union No. 44.

Rochester, N. Y., Dec. 10, '98. Editor Electrical Worker: . Local No. 44 gave its sixth annual ball .Novenib~r' 21st, and to say it'was a success ·would be putting it mild. The electrical .display was very fine. This local has con; vinced the outside world that electrical

·workers are not the toughs some would make us out. There is no other organiza­tion in this or any other city that could give a better dance than the electrical workers.

THE ELECTRICAL WORKER

Wvrk is "ery fair ;n this city at the present :ime, ali brothp.rs work,ing and prospects very good ..

\Ve are IJleased to 5ee the 1'; ~ss Secre­tiir:.;:s all over the cO!.lntry taking more in­krest in their locals and sending in com­mu!!:~ctio:ls ea~h ll;cnth. The f:lection of offj,;er~ t;:kef. pi:lce !hi" mon~h. Let us hope each iocal will select g ... od men, and t~at the year 189<) wi!1 r.f'the bailner year or this Bro!herhood 1 am pleased to know v:e have a good strollg local :n Greater New York, <is tbis means a great good to tl:i.; Brotherhood. It means it card is as good on \1ant:attan Island as anywhere. It means th,,~ a cen:tin few men in that place are not dictators to all eit-c!ric work­ers. Let us hope it means tl,~ (;:<sruption of the ring-ruie of a local organization ,in that city. Let us hope it will open the. eyes (If a great many men who bdL'ng to the local body, <?nd that they w.il gl:!t over where they belvug in the !\:atiollaIBrotherhood d Electric,,1 \Vork-cr=:.

\Vishing you and a II membcrs of the Brotherhood a Merry Christma;, and Happy New Veal', ,

I am truly, AMPERE.

Local Union N~. 45. 1.owell, ::'lIas:;., Dec. 2, 1898.

Editor Elechkal Worker: .(".gall~ lJl)' duty. calls mc to se:lu a line to

the \"c·rker. 1 must report electl;t:al work ill Lowell very quiet. Alth0ugl1 we had a bad ~tonil a fe\·,~ Jays ag-o, it did ~ilt1~ baml to the wires l~ and. :\,0;1110 town. All the boys are working at . present, but it looks as though .., ... e arc going to ba\'~ a poor winter.

,v ell , No. 46 di( .... her rpturucrl brothers and »o,diers j.Llstice on NO .... clJl1>e: 91h. \\'e helu forth at om' qmn1.cI'S, 202 11el'rimac stre<!t, about 40 strong. \\·e haG a local eiltenailllllellt and 5upp;:r. I~ro$. Miller and Savage told us all about Porto Rico and the rougil way the nath'cs live(l there alHI uf the hard times 'they went through gctti ng there. They" cre seventeen days on board ship ;"iib sp.ven days' rations; then Bro. Cole told us about his tri p up the Nile in ISS;;, with the BritisL mmy, aud how the Arabs whooped down on them and alwos~ wiped them out of existence; then we eujoyed twv !lour.:; ultllcing with our wi\'e~ .. a;u best girl:.; snppf'r came I!ext iu (jrdcL Supper over, Bro. Smith's string banel and home of the be:;t local ta!cnt in Lowell nJ!'.de 46 ihe merriest crowd you e'·er saw. ! wish to say some­t11iJll in regard t~ alJ insj.-e,'t(.lr (>f wires, I..ast July our city gOyer111Uellt ,\I;c-.s about to app~im Qne of the lJOlitica! gang to the office of in3pector on wi.res, so No. 1)6 hr01~ght tbe matt~r b.~fore the Centr~1

LG.bor un~oll. 1·ne result ,\\as i1 cOlumi.ttc·c of five was aplJOinteJ \, .. ho \~'dteu upon our

[December

City Fathers. The whole thing seemed to have been forgotten until last week the mayor appointed a board of examiners composed of three. Now what looks funny tome, one of these men isin the employ of the Lowell street R. R. Co., and has no use for a labor union, but No. 46 will have at least two men who will have as a good a· show as an)' one, provided everything is conducted squarely.

Well, Mike, what time is it? Oh, yes; Bro. Cole's bazaar come off ill favor of you all right. Bro. H;. is Papa now and whisk­ers is the lJew name for the trimmer, and then the If!an who says you ain't the only one that call write to the worker! I am waiting for him to wlite me. Brothers, llere's to all, wishing you a Merry Christ­mas and Happy New Year.

B.I\RRETT, Press Secn=tal'Y, -------

Local Union No. 56.· Erie, 1'a., Dec. 3. 1898.

Editor Electrkal Worker: As it is about a quarter past Decemher,

I have got my lunch hook grappled on to the pen and commenced to transmit a few quarts of my electrical ink to the Elec­tri(:al "'orker .

First, Jim Rust is out of a job. It is the first time in eleven days. Jim is just as comical as ever. Seyeral of tilt: boys have gune to Kewcasile, Pa., to work for the new phone company, The ofikia1s of the Edison Electric Co. kiIlder got iliad or something the other dav, hecause the tele­phone compan)'s had plastered their pcle!\ all over with brackets and wires,' ami. so Rro. Cholly Strong (president of the light company) started his up and dow11 men out to see how fast they could cut down phone wires, and then the phone wO:u started out to see how fast tl:e.v cullld string them up on other poles. Oll! we have a right smart lot of fun here in Erie.

There i~. all awful mess of wire-fixe!'s in nortlu:ast 1'a. They get up early in the morning and work until the secom! school bell rings, and as soou as school is out they go right to work and work until the electric lights are turned on, and then they quit of course,for you know it isn't .... ery safe to get arollnd them're black-covered. wires.

. One of the fellows (I guess he was the assistant foreIllun's straw ·b05s) wId me as soon as they got their phone wires all up they were going to tension them both ways, and I told him I thought it wuuld llIakt: the liue look very pretty. Their office pole, to which their wires all dead­end 011, is double, armed, and it was net~f'S­sary to use a nine-inch bolt to reach through the arms and top of the pole, and they had to be very careful in tightening up the bolts for fear of squeezing the top of the pole off.

\Vell, if that Bro. Col. Hart·of ours isn't

December]

II daisy!. He has done gone and got !'plict·d. Bro. linrt has the sympathy of ali the brothers l,f .=;'i, as they. are nearly a;l married men, and we 'wish him good luck and happiness. I guess this will settle the annoyance of marriages in 56, unless Bro. Miller wants to take the de­gn:e. He acts a little wapakanata, and I thi~lk lIe is go:!ttillg matrimonically grounded, Bllt tha~ hasn't anything to do ,vith his being a good fellow, only he is too busy to attend the meetings.

If any of the hrothers of 56 have time to T!'ad tlle \\' orker allel see this letter I would like to say that we meet in C. L. U. Hall, corner of 5th and State sts., on the Ist,.3d and 5th \Ved!lesday of each month, and that Harry Ki~tller is financial secn~­tary, and li\'es at the corner of 7th and Holland sts.

Bro, Geives is back at work again; he is not doing 11l11ch climbing yet, as hi!' arm is not ycry strong,

Bro. Hicks has ]'cturned from \Varren, Pa" and is working for the Mutual PhQne Co. E\'eryhody i,; ,,\'orking at present and there seems to llt! work enough to last all winter.

No. 56 ga\'e a dance on Nov. 9th, which promised to be a howling succe.s, but as the wind and rain was howling that night we did ]Jot make Illoney enough to uny out the \V. V., although those who had nene enough to venture out enjoyed U:ems(:i\'{~s hugely, or words to that effect.

'r was out to see a brother last Sunday afternoon and t061. 51lpper with him. \Ve 1l:-id smear case and molasses, horseradbh and ice cream and Ih'er pudding, aud I haven't quite come too yet, but Dock says if I eat enough vaseline to keep tht! smear r.ase frol11 coming in contact with the Ih'er pudding I will be all right by pay day. It's bad enough to mix drinks, but when )'ou get mixtures like this it's all off.

Brothers, there is plenty of news in Erie to write about, and a good many things about different killds of work which is being done that I would like to explain, which I aD! sure would be interesting to r.B, but as J l11ust go to bed to save the gas, I will ring off and send this valuable letter to Bro. Sherl11an.

Yours as 1 am, L. E. C.,

________ Rec. Sec.

Lucal U IHon No. 60. San Antonio, Tex., Dec. I, 1898,

:Edilor Electrical Worker: \\' ell, brothers, I will not try your

patience allY longer than possible this tillie, this town is practit:nlly dead and therc is 110 news to amount to anything that 1 l~oul<l scare\: up for you

No. 60 has at la"t succeeded in getting ~he Dubinski Electrical Co., to adopt the eight honr <'j'stem. It would do you good to see the happy smile on four or five'of . t he brothers' iaees as t.hey leave this ShOll

THE ELECTRICAL WORKER

for home at five o'clock in the evenings, If we could (jllly get the broth.ers who work for W. C. t~c1I1l, .... irth &. C('. to take Go

li~t1e interest ill us, 31;d help us !;ome, 1 believe that we COIl)(1 filmlly swan'p .. Humpy Brown" ann his gang'; it is a shame that" Hay,wire Jackson" be per­mitled to do work as he docs. If the city coancil were any good they would compel that company to at least put their wires up so that they would not endanger the safety of the public.

It is even reported that the ~Iutual Elec. Light Co. has a negro trimming arc lamps, Brothers, you well know that it is only one step frolll a lamp-trimmer to a lineman, alld the first thing we know you will see Foreman Jackson stringing wire (hay­wire) through our streets with a gang of " nigger" linemen, while a number of 'our brothers are out of a job and !'parrillg for coffee, some of tltem seldom landiilg, too.

Brothers, it is time for us to wake up and hustle, for it will only be a short time until some other concern will adopt the same tactics that the Mutual has been suc­cessfully using so Ion!!.

\York here is very slack HOW but most of the old gang have their same old jobs. There are only three t'r four brothers out of work, and from all indications I think that we can place them for an X-mas stake any how.

\\'atch for Pat O'Toole's friend, and see how well he rides that bicycle.

Bro .. J. C. Talcott wanted to ride that wheel awful had. It is no use "Chub," you will have to walk;

Bro. M.cNemar is a dandy high dice thrower when he shakes for some one t:lse, but wilen he shakes for himself, he throws a crap every time .. -

Bro. McElroy deserves credit· for hust­ling chances on our hicycle the way he did, I think he Ilad every man on the I & G, N. R. R. on his list.

What is the matter with Brother Hen­dricks? He has not been to see us since he returned from Mt!xico.

\V011 't "Our Skinney" look fine with a N. n. E. W. button stuck on his coat.

When will the city make the S. A. St. Ry. Co. put up a trolly wirc that the peo­ple are not afraid will fall on them when driving under it ?

Skinney is S0 pi vuu i.l,at "e canllot hand him an apple with a: pike-pole since he got that button.

. Boys, rcmember tbe last lJIeetillg in De~ c'em bel'; all cOllie out and give. the new local officers a good senti. off.

F.W., ______ ,~ess Sec'y.

~oca1 Union No. 63. \Varren, Pa., No\'. 28, 1898.

Editor Electrical \Vorker: It is some time since YOII lleard froOl No.

63, so I will take·it upon myself to uct the

part of secretary ex-officio. Our old friencJ and e~teel1led brother, Col. Hart, of Erit!~ has joilled the ranks of tile Benedicts; in o~he~ \\'ords,-ite has taken unto himself a wife, and say, fellows. she's just the fiI:lest .' little WOlllan a woodwalker ever set eyes Oll~' \\' ell of course yon all know that birds of ~ fp.ather flock together and they just lIlak~ " swell couple. Let us all join in wishing them tlle yery best of hapViness in theil:" tIlatrimollial venture. nro. H, H. Hicks, the man with the phonograph voice, paid ns a flying visit over Sunday, but did not Ft0P, we are sorry to say, for the colonel's :·"ception, which was a grand Sllccess, the ~;. n: bei11g well represented ill the per~ SOilS of Hr,)s. Spencer, Gordon and yonr h!lmbl(' sen'unt. The new telephone hm'e stopped wo.rk here till April, owing to il1~ clement weather and work elsewhere. I am sCorry to say Bro. Frank Lester is not elljoyillg very goad health just nt prosent mill according to the doctors it will take' ahont eighteen mounths to !mt him in slJape again. He certainly is lIot looking well and won't give up Wht!ll he ought to be ill bed, bnt that of eonrse is character~ i~tic of Frank. He don't know when he i" knocked out. Say boys, there's a fel­low here, agent. for the American Sc1]oo] of Corre~pol1dence, and its fine. Se\'eral of the hays haye taken courses lind aU are thorc.ughly satisfied. Their adJress is 156 Tremont street. \Vell, its wearing along towards tht: wee smali hours, so I ll1ust !'l~ut down and retice to tlle landof :\'ad. .,-

P. S,~I would like to hear from Bra:, Will Hedden, formerly of St. Lads.

Fratum!liy yours, R. Y. EDEN,

--~------------~ocal Union No; 68.

Denver, Col., Dec. 4, 1898. Editor Electrical Worker:

Another month has roLled by and soon" the year will end, and it becolllp.s my duty­to contribute some news t!J the Worker.

Times are very quiet n(lW in the eiec.; tricul trade; there are some wiremen idlQ here now and ure likt'ly to be fo!' some­time unless something unknown at ?I"l:sent: should turn up. There are prospcct~ {,L more \\'irenJen being idle from the presen\ outlook. I am in hopes something will start shortly, as I am among the unemi ployeJ. J Th~ Fort Collins Electrk Ct), of F~·rt

Collins, Col., ha\'e put in a Reynoids-Cor~ less e.ngine of 200 H. P: and a Westing!. housc iiltcrnator of looo-16-C. 1'. l<lmp ; the . plant has 4000 incandescent and 40 arc", lights. . . .

The .Cahle Ry. Co. has about .a dozen cars fitted alit with vestibules. These a~e <Ii!'tributed o\'cr various lines. The Tram';' ." 'WlIV R \', Co has all cars vestibuleu that lire in 'rl:'g'lIlilr use and t.he motormen ar~ I

gr('atly pleased with the new el.juiplllCnt. ,<

The county comlllis;;ioners, Novcmber';' Joth, gr:1I1tcc( the right of w<;.y to the Dcn,·:

70

~er Power and Irrigating Co. to set poles and ~tTing wires along the county roads irom the mouth o[ Platte Canoll to the citv. This company has a franchise in tl;t: city to string wires overht:ad and unnel"­ground, and they propose to construct a plant at the mouth of the canon and COIl­

duct electrica! power to Dem·er. I under·· stand it is the object to only iurnish power. they will undoubtedly commence to build in the near future· and should be able to give power very reasonable, as it is to he run by water. .

No. 68 has just purchased a black board and proposes to have electrical dis..:ussions every meeting; many .of the· members are intcre~ted in it grcatly. As the 5th is the first Monday in the mouth we shall no <loubt have a good meeting: .

One· of the apprentices, C. Rider, be­Jonging to No. 68, had a ladder slip from under him December 2d; he fell on his side. The doctor said no ribs were broken .and that.lte would he around ShOFtly.

Having no m(,re news at hand, shall -close, wi!;hing c'·err electrical worker a Merry Chri~tmas and a ·Happy New Year.

M. J. CURRAN, l'ress Secretary. -------

L.ocad Union No. 'iZ. Waco, Tex., Dec. 7,1898.

Editor Electrical Worker: ¥.'m ~ry onc:: more to wdt~ a few lines

fr. t:;c Wc,rker,. but am afraid it will be ~;hort ar.d of lilt If: interest to anyone. I thbk e'·NY union she'Hld have its name in (h" \V0ri-;cr e,·ery month, if to state noth­ing 1Il0Te than that we ·are getting along well, for very often a nlan gets away from l;i" home iocai anti if he ~ets his Worker and looks an over it and can't find any­thing from home he thinks the boys are cot trying to do anything, and he gets so he lets his dues run over ·;\110 the I1rst thing he !mows he is in bad stanrling; then he thinks, .. V,rcIl, the union don't amount to a d--n, it never did InC 'll1y good,"' so just by a lit:le carelessnl"s~ on thl':" "?rt of the press secretaries we iose whlt ~ould have lbeen turued into a first-class union man just as well as a backslider. So now, brother sccretar:es, do vour dutv and serod in a few lines if it is !l~thing m~re than to tell whdt tne different c.ompahies are doing 21nd what the men are f~(>in~. giving their names, for us Texans have lots of friends floating around the country that we would be glad to hear from.

Work is pretty brisk now in the tele­-phone line. The South Western is putting .'it. party lines, two, three and four, and also ·oue-way lines of five or more on a line that ,;s gh·ing liS lots of work for the present. . The new "company has set ten poles for a ·starter. That is only to hold their charter ;and 1 am afraid they are trying to run a :llillA', hut Iwpe not, for they will have lots .of work for everybody. The South West-

THE ELECTRICAL \VOR KER

ern is to builu an ofiice of lhtir uwn in ~Ill; ncar iuture wric:h wili be all und\,rground w,)rk. Dcr/t kno,,' hr_w S~.:.\jn it will b~!.

TIlc new e!'~':trk light p!;;n~ lI"ill sU·Jn :)e complete.] <ill,l in 0j.'erati.Jn. i. i::l5 had its fral1 chise ~:xt('nfle(i sn it ,'n:1 f'lrnish 1;;'"11ts to any p:>.:t r)f tlJ'! city. The 010 (:~")n'!,!l.ny is i~)c.!\:ifj6 a;'.lr:g:n t!i~ $1.fllC old r:!i, to all ::ppearancl!s. Tl,e ~,reet cars arc runninz <.\11 rig-ht ;!.Ild S')l!le of .he old lllotormen a,e runnillg" :!g;!in. Say' boys, W\! ;,re going to have somethin~ to eat and smokE': nCXi me.'.t;nr ni.;.:ht. so:. nu had bet­ter ail come. \Ve <I:e gning ~n try to get a!1 of the bovs out, as it is election night.

'Ve!:, 1 \vant t(' ::;ce ahout a, uc;,:t;r .. nlore letters in the \\"orker for next ·,nonti:! than there was last m:mth.

Your~ fratern:ll!r, . E.!'. McBROOM.

F,ORBF,S RULED COUNCIL.

No Cil:y F.:.tl:e .. Dare.! Vote ..... Kains~ ~lec­

trieal Workl!rs' Ocdi!lancc.

Thomas H. FOl·bes.· "fourth gt?nd·\;c-e­presiJent of th~ !\atiollnl Brotl1er!wod of Electrical \\" orkers I)f All1c;;.:a. ,. ~at bv AId, Stahl's side ill the COl>l:,:;0ii . .:ouncll la~t ·e\'ening. and· -i-,·?s tJ1'e m(.·st pO\rerful man in the city hall. Stahl i" dlltin:lan of the cOlHmittl·e· un ·,udinances: \\"hel1 the "fonrth grund '."ke-prbidell~" p!"t'~sed the baHon, ;,11". Stahrfiloved to pi:ice 111e:: ordi­ance for building up }o;icclri<-ai \'lorkers' mlloil Oll ih third reading.

A few al,termen asked q~le511r>ns and raised objections, lmt 110 one daretl to yote agaillst tht: onlinancc. \Vhenever a ques­tion was asked Stahl would turn to the .. fourth gralld ,riet:-p.·esi('<,:nt" a.Hl get his n~ply. The ol·dina1.'::c was odOtlted·unon­imotlsly ill spite of. ~()rporatioil Counsel Flower's advice that t.he pubiic lighting cOUlmission couid Ilot he compe1!cJ by the coullcil to examine inside wiremen and issue permits. Ald. Coots acl.t:owiedged that it wouid he· Ii-good tiling to ha"esuch penuits. hut he thot~ght that I)llisi.le wire­m~n shou.1d 'mdergo a:, c:l:aminution also; hut the "fottrtb . granil. .... ;c;'-president" wouidn't have it that wav and it wasn't done .. Forbes sellt ill the following- "t"oast" on the public lighting ~()mmissio:1 :

"Befort: tIie l':iilhlie lighting cmTIm;.ssion was orgaui7.ed mORt of the conditions we complained of djd not eXIst. 'fh'~ string­ing of bare grounded wire 011 the same pole with high potential wir.! wag origir;a~ed by them with utter di!'reg:.rd to lives of men engaged in that work, t:r.til to-d;;y the dangers ha,ve be{"'ocle notot'ioo:; wirh two deaths tIirel'tiy tmceehle to t.he cor.dition (;: affairs tl;at 11;we grvwn ill' utHi"r the £vste~·ili.g c=-;~·e C.ll\'~ ~:!;!c1..5(:n .:,~ t!:c i!i.:..blic lighting c(lllunissirlT!. \Ve lIavt: peti1ioned them for redress, but they iJa,·(. Ilot even considered OUI" petitiulls worthy "r .ran 8nS\\'c:r. !:J?"*l

"In concius;.on we wish to say we ido net :,;::lievt:: tile oppositi(l:t' t)f tTl'! puhlic lig-tit~!lg C'omlni!:s!OH to th-=- pronoi~rl. orJi­tlau~<; i.; ~t!na1Jle f r('~".. t 11(". . i:."cl th(-i,t they oJ.'~111.v ~~l1d })'!.:hliciy lnnde the 3~~s~·rtioi~ th!l.t they '\~:;o"..ljtl oppose the p~'esent urdin­r:.~('e or ~~ylhln~~ else'lhat e-Tll~t':at~(l fi."o·!l the Sal!Je SOlln~t::, an a~~~~tic;! th::i \\1(: h~­!ieve cl'-:·i:!.!"iy cenlnnstrate:i "'!i.e tnl~ in· ... ;:J-~­nt~S O~; t.lie-;r (':!)pc!sjtit~t\ •. ·"\",,"e th~refore d.o n·)t be1if:';~ thaf V{')llt '"honorable j,'id"," tlf!­sires {o be-c0!!le- a purty to or inflorse the

-.~==':=':

vindicti,'e spirit of sC"me of ti.e put-Ii.: light ir.g :':U!.!lll'i~~i'Jlll;rf, ill tl.h:!.( -:')I·P'-I~.~'.:'·':J to Jabo!." organi7.a! ions." "

Foruc:\' C'Oc.lnlullicaliull ?isl) 'j.~:!.t~5 tbat the pruposi,d slmlting "Ill of ~I;"i(ie wire­men \\"ho L~·.nl-:('t pc.~.s au ('Xuul,;.:iatloli i:~ for their OWl! I<ovd, although n:) inside wir\!­III en hSf eVer ajJjJea\"ed beior;:, a COlll;C·il

(Onlulittet aud a~k~,l fo!" tii~, ordiuar!t"". It h:1.s Lecll ~·tls1}ec. bv the El~~c! ;:-j.- ,II \ .. : 01'"r:­

e~s' union, ,\"hich i~- !1uldc "11;' :'J: o;'lt;~i~e \\o"lreUlen.

If the mayor signs tilt: ,mIl !Ip.llce, the puhlic lighting cOlllllnssiol: .,.,in probabl'.' rdnst! to enforce it, for the\· believe it ·,11:· necessary, and no a ppropriaiions ita \"e heeu made to pay the expense. 1'l.e l;x~mi1:la·· tions and permits would cost money. and it has bee.n stated that the pro\" isiol1 Ft;;­

qnirillg the separation of wires wo~,:J, if ellforced!'1ead to the erection of Illlndriih; of new poles ill the city. which W01!)':. c .... "'~ several thousand dollars. It i;; dc-laci h" the commissioners tha.t two c:-::'.t1 ,:> ca.:' rightly be chargcd to the .:omu':"'.i ~ ·.;;!,·s method's or policy.

The Chicago Common r. ..... lIncil has ad'll,t .. ed an ordin;!nce provi<iing lor the u:li;'·11

label on all municipal work.

TECHNICAL EDUCATION 50. CENTS

-, A WEEK I,or ,2 down and 1!i2. mo,n.h. we g .. e is liDt:CATlO)/ in:

Pays hi9hest commissia:-o on rlub~ (If s.~ O~ ml.',·e POi~ai br~r'{::; SAMPt£ C~i~'i r,t e~tiroat~:~ on

llf}-:EilAi. 11':;1 1~) "" t~ ~~ 1'( f¥f I:~ L~ ii 0 f{ J.t' .u .... ~ !r~ .ill: .. ~)j, -"'~ ~..,..-.~."..~!!';O: :~. !.w " .... _ ,. "". ~"., ;.~

f~ : '11- .. 'i:. . ."$ " ~-.ti \ rl r .·'iT·';; r }N We \, ~

~' '..it f ;; \Vallt \'4

lQ,Q..')() IH5W \, .:.a .J &ubscribel·~ \ {

"I and are th~ro- \. ?ij J tore making & spe- .. , 1

J cial trial rate, lor a \ ... ~_., .1 Iimilc<1 tim!!, whle!! you "; I can fllJd cut ubout by writ· \. .. ~~ iF Ing us. If Interested it) \. .j l. .. electrlc!ty &E:ld for trell sample" J 1 J COT"), of the; '-\:: ~ ~I . ~

if IHESml'·VDlJ VIlH1mr)TI'I1\\' \~ ~. 0 n Luli' lJ1iLVhlLV 1-111 q ..d f~, W/l!'U you see thc S:ihlp!C you'll wantf~ r \, It every week. W" can liIi orders (.) ~ 1>.. {or any. electrical I1<lok put>· I' 1

."!-. lI'lJcd, on receipt 0: prlce../ ,"

( . ~\.:enll for ~a~IOg.. ,/ 1 \ EloclrlclanPub,Co" .I ~ ~~ 51. Matt!tltftf.~ ,/ " -~~

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