the eight gas-electric motor cars recently passengers to a train and eight or ten ordered by the St. Louis Southwestern trains in operation at once, a large numRailway from the General Electric Com- ber of passengers can be transported. pany have been received and are being placed in service. These cars measure 70 feet, 1 inches in length over the bumpers, and 10 feet, 63 inches in width over all, and weigh approximately 49 tons. Automatic Signals.-At a cost of $6,000,000 the Pennsylvania Railroad has equipped 253 miles of its main lines with automatic signals during the past three years, and is said to now have more fourtrack line so equipped than any other railroad in the world. In the maintenance of this signaling equipment it is said that normally some 1,800 men are employed and the maintenance cost is $1,500,000 per annum. Wireless Telegraph Equipment.-A steel tower, 402 feet in height, at Hoboken, N. J., has recently been finished by the Delaware, Lackawanna and Western Railroad as a part of its wireless telegraph equipment. Messages have been sent from this point to Buffalo, a distance of 410 miles. said to be the first all-steel cars in EngAll-Steel Cars in England.-What is land are those of the North-Eastern Railway, which company has built and placed in service some all-steel kitchen cars, communication being had with adjoining cars of the train by means of vestibule connections. Access to the kitchen, pantries, etc., is obtained from a corridor which runs along one side of the car. Falling Rocks Do Damage.-A westbound train on the Pennsylvania Railroad was struck by a falling rock at the Horseshoe curve, October 11th last, which had been released by recent rains. North America's Longest Tunnel.The lead engine and leading car of the The Rogers Pass Tunnel, which is being train were derailed, but it is reported constructed on the Rocky Mountain Dithat no one was seriously injured. On vision of the Canadian Pacific Railway, the same date a Denver and Rio Grande is to be five miles in length and to cost train was struck by a small boulder when over $10,000,000. It will exceed in 18 miles east of Grand Junction, Colo., length that of the present longest tunnel being followed a second later by an im- in North America, the Hoosac tunnel at mense rock which crashed into the day North Adams, Mass., which is four and coach and smoker, resulting in the death three-quarters miles in length. of three passengers and injury to fourteen others. All-Steel Caboose for the Pennsylvania Railroad.-As an experiment, the Pennsylvania Railroad has built and placed in service an all-steel caboose which will be tried ont on the various divisions of the system in order to determine its advantages over the caboose of wooden construction in use at the present time. In the construction of this car the features given greatest consideration on the inside has been convenience, comfort and safety. It is equipped with a stove for heating and cooking, a drop table, water cooler, Twelve-ton Pacific Type Engines for the Panama-Pacific International Exposition. It is reported that, as in the case of the Centennial Exposition at Philadelphia in 1876, the Panama-Pacific International Exposition to be held at San Francisco next year will have a steam passenger railroad. The gauge of the track is to be 19 inches, and the length of the road 24 miles of double track. The motive power will consist of eight or ten Pacific type locomotives, 17 feet in washstand, refrigerator, desk, hopper, length, and equipped with air brakes, standard couplers, electric headlights, etc. The coaches are to be 42 inches wide and 20 feet long, each seating twenty passengers. It is expected that each locomotive will haul a train of ten of these coaches running on regular schedules. With 200 seats. lockers, drawers and cupboards. There are three pairs of bunks, which are located along the sides of the car, the upper bunks being so arranged that when not required may be lowered and used as backs for the lower bunks when used as DISCUSSION OF CURRENT TOPICS RECENT ELECTION NOT EXPECTED TO HELP INDUSTRIAL SITUATION IN COLORADO Carlson, Ammons Successor Known to Be Unfriendly to LaborMine Owners Still Refuse to Accept President's Peace Plan. As a result of the recent election, Colorado will have a governor as successor to Governor Ammons, whose hostility to Labor is said to be one of his chief characteristics, and who is regarded as being as much in sympathy with the Rockefeller mine owning gang as ever Ammons was. Hence the prospects for industrial peace in Colorado have not been by any means brightened by his election, as it is believed that he will request the withdrawal of the Federal troops and place the mine situation again in charge of the gunmen militia. In fact it would seem as though there is only one way in which this can be prevented-only one way in which a renewal of the conditions that prevailed prior to the Federal troops taking charge can be avoided, and that is the adoption by the mine owners of the peace plan proposed by the President of the United States (published in full in our October issue) and which was accepted by the mine workers but refused by the mine owners. When the mine workers accepted this plan they were under the impression that it would, without any question, be established, and they consequently surrendered some of their chief demands in the expectation that the mine-owning interests, too, would accept it in its entirety without delay, and it is to be hoped that all the influence of the Federal government will be brought to bear with a view to having the mine owners accept this plan in the very near future. The issues of the campaign-or confusion of issues-were such that George A. Carlson's election to the governorship should not be taken as an endorsement by the people of Colorado of the Rockefeller despotism. The industrial troubles in that State were kept entirely in the background during the campaign, same being fought out on the questions of Prohibition and the Tariff. In Colorado women have universal suffrage which meant a large vote from this source alone for Carlson as a Prohibition advocate, and as it was claimed that the beet sugar industry, which is quite extensive in that State, has been considerably impaired by the last revision of the tariff, Carlson received a large vote on this issue also. Then it is said the Rockefeller gang spared no expense in supporting his candidacy, that they influenced nearly all of the newspapers of the State in his behalf, and even bought one large daily paper outright to use it in helping to secure his election. In the meantime, in so far as the mine workers and the mine owners are concerned, the situation is that of a truce. The mine workers are simply waiting for the enforcement of the provisions of the President's peace plan, which at the sacrifice of some of their chief demands they accepted in the interest of public peace. It is to be hoped that the President and his advisers will make their influence felt in the interest of law, order and justice in Colorado to the extent of insisting on the acceptance of this peace plan in all of its details, and that the conditions thus sought to be established will soon prevail, and the prostitution of the government of a State to the service of plutocracy in persecuting, subjugating and exploiting wage earners will soon be brought to an end. Let us suppose the case were reversed, and the mine workers, because of the necessity for sacrificing some of their important demands, had refused to accept the President's peace plan and the mine owners had accepted it, how the plutocratic press of the country would have howled and have continued to howl, and how vigorous would be its demands for the mine workers' acceptance of that plan. Inasmuch, however, as it is the millionaire mine owners who are responsible for the failure of the adoption of this peace plan, not a word of protest appears in its columns. Senator Borah Denounces "Gagging" of Employes by Postal Official, Senator Borah scathingly denounced General Superintendent Stephens of the Railway Mail Service in the Senate because of a threat alleged to be made by that postal official in a speech at Indianapolis declaring he would summarily dismiss any of his clerks if they signed petitions for the enactment of the Borah bill to prohibit the "speeding-up" system in the postal service. "A mere petty, impudent, time-serving, slavish, coarse-grained, cowardly attache of bureaucracy; an arbitrary, bullying, vicious, and unconscionable over-employe of the Government," were some of the strong terms used by the aroused Senator in describing Stephens. be distrusted, for he possesses neither the sense of justice nor the conception of manhood indispensable to a trusted employe of the Government. These men, sir, are under him; they are at his mercy. The civil-service law would be futile to protect them for, entertaining such narrow, vicious and vindictive feelings, there is no falsehood he would not father, no slander he would not propagate to bring them within the rules of the civil service and within the pale of his splenetic and revengeful purpose." Continuing, Senator Borah said: "If there is one argument, however, which stands out strongly in favor of this bill, it is that these men are to be speeded up and tested under the supervision and gaze of a man who seems to think that they are slaves and subjects, the despised dumb cogs in a vast machine, to be worked to the limit, and when worn and broken to be kicked into a junk pile as refuse and waste." "A man loyal to our institutions, sensitive in the slightest degree to the admonitions which come to those who would see them preserved, will respect the rights of the humblest and most dependent as In spite of the fact that postal emquickly as the rights of the strong and ployes have a statutory right to organize the powerful. One who would brutalize and to petition Congress, as set forth in the feelings of those who can not, except the Lloyd-La Follette bill for which the at great cost, protect their interests is to A. F. of L. fought, through the Sixty Under this scheme the These second Congress, Superintendent Stephens certain extent. is quoted as saying in a banquet speech Board of Trade is prepared to entertain in Indianapolis: "And let me tell you applications for payment from the Exunions that anybody that signs that petition chequer of special grants to (Borah petition) with that statement is which provide out of work benefits for members. unemployed up before the general superintendent of their this service for removal for lying. Tell emergency grants will be paid by the your fellow clerks that. I do not think Board of Trade in addition to the reany of you gentlemen signed that petition, funds of one-sixth already paid under but whoever signs it is going to come up Section 106 of the National Insurance before the general superintendent for reAct. moval. I have the power and the authority and the inclination and the decision to remove that man from the service." The payment of the new emergency grant will be subject to the following conditions: 1. That the union should be suffering from abnormal unemployment. 2. That it should not pay unemployment benefits above a maximum rate of $4.25 Following the Stephens threat at Indianapolis, Senator Borah received many letters from clerks who signed the petition asking that their names be removed because of the fear of dismissal. Senator per week, including any sum paid by way Borah refused to insert these names in the Congressional Record for the reason that he did not want to "subject these men to the surveillance and to the impudent interference of this tyrannizing satellite of bureaucracy." Unless the utterances of Stephens are disavowed by higher authority Senator Borah served notice that he would go farther with the case. The Borah bill is, in substance, identical with the Dietrick bill, intended to stop "speeding up" in government workshops, and which was recently reported favorably from the House Labor Committee at the request of organized labor.-A. F. of L. News Letter. of state unemployment benefit. 3. That the union should agree, while in receipt of the emergency grant, to impose levies over and above the ordinary contributions upon those members who remain fully employed. The amount of the emergency grant in addition to the refund of one-sixth already payable will be either one-third or one-sixth of the expenditure of the association in unemployment benefits, exclugrant will be determined by the amount of the levy. For example, a union paying unemployment benefits at the rate of £3 a week will by imposing a levy of 4 cents per week on the employed members be qualified for an emergency grant of onethird of its expenditure—that is, a total sive of strike benefit. The rate of the 'Labor Affairs in the United King- refund of one-half, taking into account dom.* It is good to be able to report that at the end of the third month of the war unemployment is decreasing in this country although much still prevails. Many trades that were severely hit when the war broke out have since been able to readjust conditions and of course the vast numbers of Government orders for war material, soldiers' clothing, camp requisites and transport have helped. These orders have come to hand not only from our own Government but from Russia, France and Belgium. In fact, these countries have now fixed up an agreement whereby each will buy all it can from the other during the war. With a view to helping unions to meet the heavy outgo in unemployment benefits that they must necessarily sustain owing to the unemployment that has resulted from the war the Government has a scheme for subsidizing them in this matter to a *Exclusive correspondence to the Locomotive Firemen and Enginemen's Magazine. The the present refund of one-sixth. Unions paying higher rates of benefit adequate. Α war emergency workers' made. Surely if the human element national committee has been appointed voluntarily places itself at the service of representing the chief labor associations the state it is the duty of any Governand trade unions in the war. A London ment to pay for this at least as fairly as convention was held on October 26th to it paid for its coal and its corn. work out a scheme for labor all over the country and local conventions will be held to follow in all the big cities of the country on November 7th. Among voluntary associations which might justly demand consideration the manifesto points out that trade unions stand preeminent. These must be exThe National Committee's program, tended and increased, and wherever trade will cover many subjects, amongst them unions have securities not easily realiz the insistence upon labor representation able these should be taken over by the on local relief committees, the provi- state where request is made and unions sion of work or maintenance for the un- given equivalent in cash. employed, adequate subsidies out of national funds for trade union unemployed, benefits during the war period, the national care of motherhood by the establishment of maternity and infant centers, the compulsory provision of means for school children, and the continued na- allied armies in the Western campaign. tional control over railways, docks, and similar enterprises at the close of the war. Official opinions on the war have of course been forthcoming from the executives of trade unions and of the national trade union combinations. The General Federation of Trade Unions, with an affiliated membership exceeding 1,000,000, has issued one which may be taken to be thoroughly representative. This mani festo points out that the federation is and always has been, on the side of international as well as industrial peace, and has consistently tried to develop fraternity between peoples of different nationalities, while the possibility of war was regarded as one regards the shadow of an indescribable catastrophe. Sufficient for the moment to say that in the opinion of millions of our trade unionists the responsibility for the war does not rest upon the policy or conduct of Great Britain. After referring to Great Britain's duty when once war was declared, the manifesto states: The railway unions in this country have constributed enormously to the ranks at the front whilst other great numbers of their men have gone over to France to assist in restoring and maintaining railway communication for the Over 1,000 men, in fact, had departed by the end of September for this work, composed of trackmen, linemen, telegraphists, locomotive engineers, firemen, signalmen, conductors and yardmen. A number of schemes are on foot to meet the distress caused by unemployed female and boy labor. Women bookbookkeepers and stenographers, milliners, dressmakers, etc., are the most severely hit and attempts are being made to organize work that they can transfer themselves to. Toymaking and doll-dressing in particular are being arranged for as there will be a great demand for these things for the coming Christmas season owing to the total cessation of imports of such things from Germany and Austria, hitherto the great toy and doll suppliers for this country. Industrial Items of Interest.* Forsees World's Peace.-Universal peace will follow the European war-a war of aggrandizement and conquest, to "Not less imperative than the prob- divert people from their constructive work lems of national defense are those prob- of humanizing and democratizing tendenlems which affect the political and cies-were the views of President Gomeconomic life of the State during the war, and which will continue to affect it pers, in a Labor day speech, in referring long after the war is over. The consid- to the present continental upheaval. eration of these does not imply hostility or lack of patriotism. It simply indicates foresight, and a desire to turn the extraordinary circumstances of the war to national account." Measures of relief have been planned, but the management committee is certain that these measures are altogether inadequate, and cannot meet the situation. The Government would act illogically if it hesitated to meet the demand for pay ment for that human element, without which states cannot exist or wars be "The end of this war," he said, "will mean the vanquishment of autocracy, the emergence of a society in which the people shall be supreme, and in which men's thought shall be given to the things of peace. "Civilization had been pressing home the sacredness of human life upon the consciences of men. Knowledge had concerned itself with the problems of life that men might know themselves and the *From A. F. of L. News Letter. |