The San Francisco Call. Newspaper, January 21, 1906, Page 11

in that room of ordered ant and self- ring a sort of sub- dence in his ability and ities r stout man, going about his The Call compos- in a stick, & a linotype machine, justifying The Call's your eye over your he man whose ef- an those of e brought about for his ancisco g wedge for t the Typo- of the working ¢ fellow-workers here ix cially president of I'ypographical Union No. 2 been made, besides gnition of his services in he 3 ght for an eigl da of the Allied de which is composed of « es of the thirteen trades den . the printing industry 1 ask him for the story of the r t-hour day—a story eig I rtance to all work- live as well as work— without oratory or effects. emc His mental attitude, indeed, is care- fully judicial in fairness. Like 11 Yoreceful. clear thinkers, he m we prefaces “are not timental for purposes: tney're article of faith with him, ever his inmost feelings are been stirred by this fight or this cause, he has never lost w hav ed by of it With wh wisdom and patience and fairness a fight for a right can be made —and with what tact and watchful- ness and finesse—he makes clear to me. “The eight-hour day has, of cou , long been looked forward to, and when, August, 1904, the convention of the International Typographical Union was held in St. Louis, it was talked over, and the opinion on it crystallized into a resolution.that was sent to the referendum In the Typographical Uniont the delegates do not settle the affairs of the union in convention. That is left to the union as a whole, each member having the chance'to express mself individually on any question. So the delegates at the convention Louls presented the suggestion of making an effort for the| establish- nt of a universal eight-hour day in the form of a resolution, and then it left to every man in the union to upon it for himself.” in in St vote fatuous folly it to think of the earnestness of men. dingly noisy world it is rprise to see how quietly are set in motion: houw, oak doth from the affairs ile the hundreds of thousands who thronged the Louislana Purchase [Exposition were pursuing the frivolous tenor of their ways along its Midways and Streets of Cairo—or whatever that special form of diversion was called there, or were with goggle-eyed con- scientiousness getting knowledge at wholesale toiling through the exhibits of *“educational wvalue,” there was among them this little company of men come together for their own earn- est purposes, for the benefiling of their kind. €0, surely and relentlessly, world driven onward. 1 would not hint that for the printer mien the Midways had no charms and the educational exhibits no interest, but there in the midst of distractions and eddying humanity, quietly and de- liberatively the springs of action were set in motion to realize the greatest and most cherished hope of their or- ganization, without hullabaloo or dec- lamation. “Late in the year of 1904,” Mr. Tracy goes on, detailing consecutively the steps of the fight, “the vote was taken upon this resolution in favor of an eight-hour day. That is. a vote was taken as to whether our men wanted to engage In the struggle to have an eight-hour day, and whether this was a propitious time for such a struggle. “There are actually enrolled as mem- is the bers of the Typographical Union in the : United States and Canada 48.000 men ana ninety:five per cent of thiem vot~s\ S “~ on this resolution, the vote belng in favor of making the fight. “Then January 1, 1906, was set as the date upon which to establish a uni- versal work day of eight hours. This meant giving a year’s notice to employ- ers, which was the right and fair thing to do, for it was felt that the change from a nine-hour to an eight-hour day would affect existing contracts, and the notice was given so that employers might have the opportunity to adjust such matters, and avoid the losses that hasty and incons'derate action on our part would occasion. “To offset our Typographical Union the employers have .the Typothetae, and that of course is opposed to the eight-hour day. “The fight for the eight-hour day, springing from the action of the In- ternational Typographical Union taken in St. Louis, was to be an International fight, and the notice of our action and when it would be taken was made in 4 spirit of fairness. “Instead of waiting until January 1, 1906, to enter upon the struggle, the Typothetae made an attack in advance of the time set—in last July.” Strategy, you see, did not die with the Homeric heroes. Nor did strategy to meet strategy, as you will see, fail with the fall of Troy. Mr. Tracy goes on relating dispas- sionately, with that same attitude of Judicial fairpess, that: “The Typothetae fixed upon San Francisco as the first point of attack, perhaps because San Francisco is ac- knowledged s a stronghold of trades unions. It thought that if it could break the printers in San Francisco— the Gibraltar of trades unfonism—it would be then a comparatively easy matter to defeat the eight-hour day movenient in the rest of the country. “Consequently last July, when the Typographical Union wus preparing for its fight, cngaged in raising the lirge amount of mouey that would be re- quired to carry on such a widespread strike as might result, the Typothetac set about undermining the strength of the printers here by trying to import non-union printers and put them in the places of the union men here. “It was an undertaking,” and here Mr. Tracy dves not step out of his dis- passionate attitude for even one fleet- ing moment of gloating, “that was, au signal failure. “The Typothetae sent out agents to gather up printers-and induce them to corae here by promising them good po- sitions, by offering to pay their trauns- portation, including Pullman and din- ing car expenses, and to put them up at good hotels here upon their arrival. “They spent a good deal of money doing it, for the = transportation ex- THE SAN FRANCISCO SUNDAY CALL. WL V)Y penses includ2a the familles of men who were indiced to come and the set- tling of the finuncial obligations they had at home in order that they could come. “Our headquarters is in Indianapolls, and where interests ate involved, we are watchful. The agents for im- porting printers were at work in St. Louis, and, naturally, we were soon aware of what they were doing. Con- sequently we got to work on our own account, for this was practically the opening of the fight. “Well —— of the twenty-five print- ers who started on the trip out here only six were landed willing to go to work, and they were not good work- men, The better workman a man is the more loyal he is, to his craft—and union- ism, That was rather an expensive ex- periment, and very unsatisfactory—and it precipitated the fight here. . “Locally we had already reached the eight-hour day struggle.. The Typo- graphical Union had entered into a two years' coutract with employers, gradually working toward the eight- hour day In this way. During the first six mouths the day’s work was to be decreased fiftecn minutes, during the second six months another fifteen min- utes, and so-on to the end of the time, thus arriving gradually and fairly at the eight-hour day. The action of the Typothetae in importing printers was to defeat this arrangement In its progress by putting enough non-union men to work here and there to break the printers when the final demand for eight-hour day came. And this précipitated our strike.” A 3 hadn’ of- “No, you wouldn't. The prum trade is peculiar in that, perhaps; with a printers’ strike there is / v 't noticed any - .ovld-nur 3 very lictle need of picketing or public demon- stration, or anything of that sort. “A strike is a purely business proposi- tion, and we try to carry it on in a busi- ness way. “We are pretty thoroughly organized. Our members Lave a good deal of feeling for their union: and most of the com- petent workmen are members of the un- fon. You can’t take a man out of the crowd and set him at work. It takes five years for a man to become a journey- man—to learn his trade thoroughly, and then, even after that, he goes on learning, increasing his competence, becoming a more usefyl workman every year. ““We have, you see, a corner on the la- bor market, so far as our trade is con- cerned. “We say to employers we have eight hours of labor to sell to you for so much, “We fix thg working day at eight hours because a man who works eight hours faithfully has done a good day's work. You have scen the work in The Call com- posing-room, you know what it 1s.” Truly I do, I agree. I recall how each man, with his special skill, is benging his every effort and carrying his special share of responsibility in the one general aim—fo get out the paper completely, cor- rectiy, handson:ely and on time. You who scan its pages casually at your breakfast tatle can never know how much that involves—how much of many lives is givén to the production of that lightly valued necessary—your morning paper. We, who are on the inside know— but that, of course, is another story. ~ “It means a good deal of a strais—and elght hours of that kiud of work is, enovgh for a man. It is enough for the employer, too, for with the improved ma- chinery the product of his abor is so much greater and worth so much more. “If a man works eight hours, and has ambition, he 'has the time to improve himself and further his ambition. “If he has a famlily he has the time to enjoy his home life, and to zet acquainted with his children, which under the old system of nine and ten hours a day it was {mpossible to do. *“‘After nine or ten hours’ work a man is tired and unfit for study or home life or social pleasures. His last hours of work are not even so good. There Is nothing passible to him except to go home and recuperate his strength for the next day's work. , “Life is too short to put it in that way. *“The eight-hour day is reasonable, and being so we say to employers we have eight hours ofglabor to sell to you. If you think'it is not worth what we ask we will arbitrate. ‘““That was exactly our position here during the strike. ‘“The employers had their committee of five men, we had ours. “*We met at the California Hotel and in the Typothétae headquarters and final- 1y at the Savoy our efforts to ‘come to an agreement, with the result that the Typographical Unfon won its fight here and.printers have an eight-hour day in~ 8an- Francisco. “And let me say that while we were at swords’ points over the eight-hour day 16 our conferences were carried » and 1 do not think that is to-day in San Francisco an printer who would say an {ll word § E s i a member of the Typographical Union. It was a business matter, adjusted in a business way ’ And there is. you see, magnaminity in industrial as well as in military warfare. Strategy is but a part of the game. The man who won the fight in San Francisco, and won with it respect for b:mself and his fellow craftsmen, is very hepeful of success for it elsewhere and everywhere. “If you're right, if you're standing for a princigle, you can’t lose.”” And this time he speaks not quite.so “dispassion- ately. “The eight-hour day IS right, and it S fair; it is all that a man should do. “The newspaper proprietors, the em- ployers that have been most extensively affected by it, are friendly to the move- ment.” “Is it because they are friendly to the eight-hour day,” I ask, “or because they want: the labor union friendshiz? “It is because they have had a prac- tical demonBtration of the benefits of an eight-hour day, and of the value of the union to them, as well as to the union men. ““There is no such thing as an open shop. “Why, suppose my son were to study law or medicine, what would he fina when he graduat That he would have to conform to the ethics of his prefes- sion as defined and determined by the Medical Assoclation or Bar Assoclation, or be an outlaw m vractice. *“How is {t with the ministry? “With the Merchants' Association? “With ths Board of Trade? “With the Stock Exchange? “And why shouldn't the printers have a closed shop—an organization to regu- late our business and keep in touch with business men and business methods? ~So far as our union is concerned, the universal cight“hour day works both ways in simplifying the printing busi- ness. It puts men on an equality so far as their labor is concerned, and it puts employers on a firm and substantial basis as far as competition is con- cerned. They all start from the same basis, so many hours a day at so much, and cmployers are relleved of all the anxiety about how much So-and-So is paying his men that he can underbid them. ““fhe free lance in a trade—the man who has only his present personal inter- est in mind—is, as soclety is constituted n a pirate on soclety. ou can imagine the chaotic condi- tion of affairs that would exist if each printer were a separate unit in looking for work. “And as for an open shop—there is no discipline in such a place. I run an open shop—I want you to work ten hours, twelve hours, as long as I please, and when you're through I'll pay yvou what I think you're worth. If I happen to need you I'll keep you. Where are you there? “No. Organization is the greatest thing in the world—whether it is organization in m, ‘or politics, or the printer's trade. : “Where there is a ‘great aggregation of men doing the same thing, with the same interests, it {s necessary. *“With our organization, the Typograph- S of dolng business In a business w: and tc realize that we have to do busi- ness with business men “This fight hour day a prineiple of men or principle, for soon down it will grow again “Qur ur like this t a prin as as tk on “We raise no stone w A member of th can come here from the East, from.Canada. from Au from England, fro Africa, sent his card to at he i a member, and go to work. An employer of union labor can empl one of our members no matter where he comes fron: So far as the fight for the eight-hour day a question of t concedes the eight-hour long as we :ance our men. And print- ers are v el Printers ARE clannish, and that is be wny the: wan T officers te thoroughl atattve It is bec Tracy is, as well as beoguse he a» so much at heart, that president of the Allied Pr ades Council and the president of U n Neo. 21 Mr. Traey is first of all a workman, who learned his trade In the good old way as devil in the office of a couatry newspaper at Monmouth, IIL a week and I had to get tamuly, “I worked for 50 cen ltved with my employe up and make the fire or bring in the wood, bring home the cow, and then, the fire made for the family to get up by, I had to hustle off to the out fire office, make the and sweed there before I could get my breakta When he learned his trade he went out, with bhis means of elihood un- der his hat and at his nds, o see the world, and over the East and South, from case to case, seeing every important city. Then he went back to Monmouth and started a paper—the first daily in Mon~ mouth— “And I did such yeoman service in electing the Congressman from our dis- trict that he beguiled me into going to Washington into the Government ser- vice.” = Mr. Tracv looks the last man in the world to be content trying to hold a Gov- ernment job, and the way he tells me confirms his look. However, he did work in the Govern- ment Printing Office, and in a little time was given charge of the printing of the Congressional Record—an important post. I joined the union when to belong to & union was regarded as disapprovingly as being an chist. My skocked and I believe guar as a sort of family skek But belonging to the union first became of importance to him in the Government Frinting Office when the men employed there had their pay cut down eighty cents a day, and the fight was made with him one of the initiators, to have it re- stored. This was dene, and Mr. Tracy was for two termis president of the Type- graphical Union in Washington. Then he was given the commission te take the Government printing plant at Manila, and there he had pa ular charge of the linotype machines sent out that had been especially built to print the laws enacted there, machines that could be used to set matter in English and Spanish, and the native dialects. He spent two years in Munila and helped to establish a printing plant that toek on 200 Filipinos to learn the trade i all its brapches as weil as doing the printing for the Government there, making it a training school for Filipino boys as well @5 a Government Printing Office. He extended his knowledge of the world by trips through China and Japan, and then came here, presented his union card at headquarters, was found in good standing, walked into a printing effice, took off his coat., took up his stick and ‘Wwent to setting type. A good workman at his. trade, widely in- formed, broad-minded, a cool counselor, and a lover of fair play, he seems to the unprejudiced outsider the right sort of a man to be at the head of a trades union council. And it is. perhaps, because the printer men have the good judgment to put men lke that in such places that their Typo- graphical Union is bringing about so peaceably and surely the conditions they desire for themselves. It Is, 1 know, a revelation of how such things may be done to hear a man lke ‘Mr. Trasy tell the story of thelr strugsle. - b