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IXDTAXA UXIYEESITT 



loca] industry has adjusted itself to these conditions, and the 

 cutters are no longer a problem. Only once in recent years have 

 they threatened to pro\^e a serious disturbance to the industry. 

 In the fall of 1904 the national organization demanded that all 

 planeimen be taken into the cutters' union, and that five men 

 be employed on each planer under the cutters' wage scale. For 

 a time, ov.ing to the strength of the organization, this demand 

 appeared formidable, though it was unreasonable. The prob- 

 lem, however. Avas general and not merely local, and in the fol- 

 lowing spring the demand was A^ ithdrawn. 



About 1900, other classes of labor in the industry around Bed- 

 ford began to organize. At first the charters of organization 

 were held directly from the American Federation of Labor; and 

 the Federal Labor Union, the Stone Sawyers' Union, the Planer- 

 men's Union and the Quarrymen's Protective Union were organ- 

 ized in that way. The engineers, including those in other in- 

 dustries, were organized under the International Union of Sta- 

 tionary Steam Engineers. The saAAwers and planermen haA^e 

 more recently secured charters from the Federation. These or- 

 ganizations are not mutually exclusiA^e. The Federal Labor 

 Union comprises employees of other industries, as Avell as some 

 classes of quarry employees Avhieh the Quarrymen's ProtectiA^e 

 LTnion also admits to membership."' 



During the months of 'May and June. 1903, practically all the 

 quarries and mills in the Bedford district Avere closed on account 

 of labor troubles. The total number of men affected is estimated 

 at eighteen hundred, of AA'honi the great majority AA^ere non-union 

 men.^- 



PreAdous to 1903. the Avages paid by different establishments 

 for the same kind of Avork had A^aried Avidely. The dissatisfac- 

 tion AA^hich this condition caused AA^as doubtless increased after the 

 formation of the unions, OAAdng to the more accurate knoAvledge 

 of conditions Avhieh organization brought about. The saAvyers' 

 union Avas the first openly to complain of this condition. The 

 Avage rate for head saAvyers A^aried from tAventy cents to tAventy- 

 six cents per hour, vlnle for assistants the range of rates Avas 

 from fifteen cents to tAveiity-tAvo and one-half cents. In JanuarA^ 

 of 1903, therefore, the union asked for a uniform scale of Avages 

 for all saAA^^ers in the Bedford district, to take effect ]\Iay 1, 



■and. Labor Com.. lA'. 47. -40. 51. 



32 For details of the strike^ and its settlement, I have drawn largely upon the 

 Fourth Annual Report of the Indiana Labor Commission, supplemented by inter- 

 views with employers and workmen. 



