Reports of the Industrial Commission (Volume 12) (Paperback)

Purchase of this book includes free trial access to www.million-books.com where you can read more than a million books for free. This is an OCR edition with typos. Excerpt from book: ness, as assessor, attempted to collect taxes upon a larger valuation, but at the time of his testimony an Injunction was pending against him to prevent him from willing the property of the company for delinquent taxes. (540, 541.) II. LABOR IN WESTERN MINES. A. Labor organizations.?1. Extent of organization movement.?Mr. Coates, president of the Federation of Labor of Colorado, says that trade unions have had a continual growth in that State during the last ten years, and are now in a better condition than ever before. The membership tends to increase during strikes. A certain proportion of those who join at such times do not understand the benefits of organization and afterwards drift out, but many become permanent members. (245.) Mr. Smith, deputy labor commissioner, says that the growth of trade unionism in Colorado has been irregular. At present the witness thinks that perhaps 25 per cent of the employees in all industries are members. Nearly all of the coal miners are organized, and perhaps 70 per cent of the precious-metal miners. Unskilled labor in Colorado, as elsewhere, is not so well organized as skilled labor, largely owing to its lower standard of intelligence. (211-213.) Mr. Thomas, State coal-mine inspector of Utah, says that there is no organization among the Utah coal miners. He regards this as due to the fact that employers and employees have no disputes. It is probable that the fact that many of the men who mine coal during the busy season, in the winter, work in the summer on their own farms, has something to do with it. Though the men have no regular union, they generally deal with their employers through representatives. (623, 627, 629.) Mr. Callis attributes the absence of miners unions in Utah to the fact that the people are disposed to conci...