The Salt Lake Herald

UNION PRINTERS ENACT NEW LAWS

Priority Rule Permitted to Remain as It Has Been in Force Heretofore.

BIG ATTENDANCE NOTED

BOSTON COMMITTEE CANNOT DO TOO MUCH FOR VISITORS.

Burt White, who, with Charley Hirsch, was a delegate to the International Typographical union at Boston, returned yesterday. Mr. White is enthusiastic about the convention and its work, and cannot say enough in praise of the welcome given the visitors by the Boston committee.

Some of the laws of the typographical union were considered with a view to amendment. The most important of these laws is the priority rule, which, in effect, gives the senior "sub" the first vacancy, and prevents hostile foremen from discriminating against the first in line and favoring another workman for personal reasons. The "Big Six" of New York favored a revision of this rule, but the old law was allowed to stand.

To Try Pension System.

As an experiment, it was determined to try a pension system for old-time printers. In general, this law runs that one who has been twenty years continuously in the printing business and is 60 years of age may draw a pension of $4 a week.

The rules governing the conduct of the printers' home at Colorado Springs were slightly changed with a view to extending the accommodations. Henceforth, persons five years members of the union are eligible to admission to the home.

The proposition of the Phoenix, Ariz. union to build a sanitarium in that state, principally for the treatment of printers who suffer from tuberculosis, was turned down.

The life insurance feature came before the international again, this time in modified form. The plan was killed, with the recommendations that the members find insurance and protection for their families in recognized and reputable insurance companies.

Have Jolly Good Time.

"The Boston committee could not have done better in the way of entertainment," said Mr. White, "if it had hired the whole state for a playground. Our meetings were held in the Ford hall, which was erected by the founder of the Youth's Companion, a most beautiful structure. There were excursions to the Point of Pines, Bass Point, automobile rides through historic Boston and a visit to a squadron of eight battleships, cruisers and destroyers, which were in the harbor.

"The convention consisted of 360 delegates, and there were present about 3,000 visitors. Speaking of conventions, Boston certainly holds it over anything I know of in that line. During the week we were there twenty-three conventions were in progress.

"The international decided to expand a bit, and will send organizers into Mexico and Cuba to 'round up' the printing trades in those countries.

"While we were in session the Stereotypers' international was holding a meeting in the Revere hotel, only a block away."

Delegates to Hearst Convention.

Mr. White and Mr. Hirsch were not only delegates to the typographical convention, but as well they were delegates from Utah to the Independence league convention in Chicago, having been appointed by Abner Thompson, who is some sort of a Hearst chairman in Utah.

Mr. White was one of the committee on platform at the convention, and in that capacity met many of the chief men of the Hearst movement.

"Are you bound to vote for Hisgen or to support him by reason of the fact that you were delegates to the convention?"

"By no means," said Mr. White. "We went to the convention as a compliment to Mr. Hearst, and in token of our appreciation of what he has done for the printing craft."

Bryan Logical Candidate.

"I do not believe," continued Mr. White, "that Samuel Gompers ever pledged himself to deliver the labor vote to Bryan. I know that he could not deliver the typographical union vote—not for one second—neither he nor any other person. The typographical union has always side-stepped politics and it is doing it still.

"Mr. Gompers' advice, as I understand it, is that the laboring people vote for their own interests. There cannot possibly be any hope of securing anything from Taft, and so the logical candidate for the working man is Bryan, the other being admittedly hopelessly beaten before they begin.

"Gompers thinks, and I guess a good many other labor leaders think, that Bryan is the best man for the laboring classes, and for that reason whatever Gompers says will carry a deal of weight, he being the head and front, practically, of the American Federation of Labor."