o finance it.

In 1886 Messrs. George W. Childs and A.J. Drexel of Philadelphia
presented to the International Union the sum of ten thousand dollars.
This donation was to be used in any manner the union might see fit. For
some years an active discussion as to the best use to be made of the
fund was carried on, and in the meantime the sum was being increased by
contributions from members of the union.

It ultimately became evident that some plan for applying this fund to
the establishment of a home for aged printers would best satisfy the
membership. In 1887 the Austin, Texas, union announced that the Mayor
and City Council of Austin were willing to present a site for such a
home. In 1889 the Board of Trade of Colorado Springs offered to donate
eighty acres of land for the same purpose, and other offers of land were
received from time to time. The International Union finally decided to
accept the offer of the site at Colorado Springs, and this decision was
approved by a referendum vote.

The Home was opened on May 12, 1892. Applicants for admission were
required to have been members of the union in good standing for five
years. Persons incapacitated either by age or by illness were admitted
to the Home. The number of residents has increased from twenty-two in
1893 to one hundred and forty-three in 1907. A considerable part of the
residents are sufferers from tuberculosis, and the union has made
provision for treating them according to modern methods. A part of the
inmates, however, have always been persons whose incapacity was solely
the result of old age.

About 1904 an agitation began to be carried on in the union for making
more adequate provision for the maintenance of aged members. The
establishment of the Home had made provision only for those
incapacitated members who were willing to leave their families and live
in an institution. It was argued that the Home benefited one class of
the aged, and that another class, equally worthy, was left entirely
dependent upon its own resources. Moreover, certain innovations in the
trade had made the union highly sensible of the helplessness of its aged
members. The introduction of the linotype caused many old members to
lose their employment. The New York local union established an
out-of-work benefit in 1896 which has since been maintained. This
benefit, while nominally an out-of-work benefit, was in many cases
really a superannuation benefit. In 1903 the Chicago local un