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Organized labor recognizing the fact that the great mass of people must

Elevator Constructor work, and that they must work for

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others, recognizes the further fact that the individual unorganized worker cannot bargain advantageously with the employer for the sale of his labor.

Here is the basis of the modern organized labor movement-the application of the natural and universal principle of organization to the relations of the worker with his employer.

Organized labor does not stand for physical force-for "the law of the Huns and vandals, the law of the savage." It does not exist for assault or intimidation, but in harmony with the law of organization, the widest and most effective law of the civilized world.

The fundamental reason for the existence of labor union is that by it and through it workmen are enabled to deal collectively with their employers.

The purpose of the labor union is to combine in one organization all the men employed, or capable of being employed, at a given trade, and to demand and secure for each and all of them a definite standard of wages, hours and conditions.

It does not demand that all shall be paid alike, but that none shall receive less than the standard set as a minimum.

Organized labor is the natural product of conditions produced by modern social and industrial ideals and methods, and its existence is the inevitable result of that advanced intelligence which adapts itself to existing requirements.

Business is organized. Industry is organized. Capital is organized. Labor must be organized, too.

This is the age of organization. In every field and phase of human life, men have combined into groups and work as a unit.

The demand today is for intelligent labor. How shall we have intelligent labor and deny labor the right to intelligently express itself?

The masses are fast learning the lesson that the trades union movement is the only agency upon which they can rely to better their economic condition and raise their standard of livelihood in society as it is constituted at the present time. The labor unions have unmistakably demonstrated to wageearners in all callings and professions that organization means to them higher wages, better jobs, and more comfortable homes; that it means more money with which to buy from the business man, and thus create a better business for the community in which they reside. Trades unions have demonstrated that the organizations of labor mean enthused life in the social and business affairs of the nation. This is a lesson that society as a whole is beginning to learn, for there is no denying the fact that organization is viewed in a far different light by the general public today than it was even as recently as a dozen or SO years ago, and what is even more significant, public sentiment is being more and more swayed by the very principles that the unions persistently advocated many years back.

It is therefore small wonder that one hears of the organization of new unions in all sections of Canada and the United States, and the very heavy increase in membership of the older trade bodies. From the very nature of things if the unions maintain the headway they have been making of late there can be no denying the fact that

in the very near future they will be the dominating factor in the community.

To dam back this tide of beneficent effort is an impossibility, as each day sees it moving on with added momentum, its ranks growing stronger and its influence ever extending. For a hundred years every effort to arrest its progress has ended in failure; for a time its onward sweep may be retarded, only at last to see all barriers swept aside while the torrent sweeps onward with accelerated power. The labor movement lives, and will continue to live, just as long as it battles for justice for the working class. Unionism and progress march hand in hand, and will succeed because the objective for which it strives is right and means so much for the welfare and liberty of the race.

LABOR LAWS DISREGARDED. "Most appalling, indeed, is the utter disregard for the laws relating to child labor, compulsory education and the fifty-four-hour law for women," asserts George H. Hamilton, chief inspector of workshops and factories of Ohio, in his annual report.

He says that in three months it was found necessary to institute 115 prosecutions for violations of these laws. Seventy-two per cent. of the fines in the cases prosecuted were suspended or remitted.

The report refers rather slightingly to uplift and other voluntary societies which are "most annoying to the department."

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LOW WAGES BREED DISEASE

Chicago, Ill. The recent experiment by the health department on feeding people for less than 40 cents a day brings this comment from the Union Leader, official paper of Chicago's organized street car men:

"Did you notice any hodcarriers, street car men, or husky growing children among Dr. Robertson's diet squad? Certainly not; all of them follow light occupations and do not burn up physical fuel like a worker at hard labor, or a healthy, growing child who is racing and romping in the open and can do justice to three square meals a day.

"Yet the diet squad averaged 31 cents a day each for food.

"Now, none of the male members of the diet squad was breaking pig iron or carrying pianos up two or three flights of stairs, and certainly none of its women members was working in a munition factory ten hours a day.

"Notwithstanding these favorable conditions, under scientific supervision, the cost for food for each member of the diet squad was 31 cents a day.

"Applied to the average family this figures $1.55 a day, or $10.85 a week, and $565.75 a year. And for food only. "Then the question arises, can the average housewife buy food as cheaply as the purchasing agent of the diet squad? Has the average housewife the necessary money to buy in like quantities? We think not.

"However, figuring a yearly food cost basis of $565.75, the average worker should have a wage upwards of $5 a day the year round to meet household expenses and live and rear his family in a manner consistent with American needs.

"Among our unorganized workers thousands are receiving a wage of less than $2 a day.

"How do they manage to exist in these high cost times on such a wage?

Take a look at their 'home' surroundings for the answer. Figure out what the future of a country must be where such poverty and neglect of human welfare is permitted to exist.

"If $565.75 a year is the deadline for food cost in Chicago, below which a family of five cannot be sufficiently fed, then the only guarantee of a properly fed citizenship is to establish a wage that will meet it

"General Gorgas, in his successful campaign against disease in the canal zone, found the key to the situation by doubling the wages. He has been advocating this remedy throughout the country ever since, yet none of the health department heads of our big cities seem to have grasped the significance of General Gorgas' discovery.

"The fertile source of disease, poverty and crime is an inadequate wage."

LABOR IS DEFINED.

Labor-That builds our mighty cities and railroads, its aeroplanes and diving bells.

Labor-That cuts the forests and drains the swamps.

Labor-That delves in mines and sails the ships of commerce.

Labor-That plows the fields and grinds the grain.

Labor-That builds our aqueducts and spins fine linen.

Labor-That cuts the stone and digs the coal.

Labor-That rears the monuments of bronze and granite.

Labor That grows the cotton and molds the brick.

Labor-That harnesses the elements and turns them into servants for mankind.

Labor-That from the cocoon draws threads to weave beautiful raiment. Labor-That smelts the iron and molds it into anchors and axes.

Labor-That cuts the trees and

makes the paper and builds the printing press. Labor-That throws a span of steel across the rivers and makes chasms. drives tunnels

and

Labor-That makes pillows of softest down. Labor-That feeds the world and clothes it, and shelters it.

Labor-That turns a wilderness into a garden of beauty.

Labor-That binds our books, digs the graves and fashions brilliant jewelry.

Labor-That does all the useful work of the world.

Labor-That fights the battles for the liberty of the human race.

Labor-That unlocks nature's storehouse for the benefit of all mankind.

Labor-Without it the millions who now revel in luxury would in a few days be without food, or fuel, and soon be without clothing or shelter. The sun would still shine, the rain would

fall, the grass would grow, but there would be none to plow or sow or to harvest.

UNIONISM NEEDED HERE.

Fort Worth, Texas.-In his monthly report President Cunningham, of the State Federation of Labor, makes the following reference to lumber conditions in the eastern part of this State:

"While in Orange I learned of a condition existing in the lumber camps that is deplorable, to say the least. The unskilled laborers in that industry have not had an advance in wages nor a change in hours of labor or conditions of employment in twenty-five years, and yet we are told the lumber interests are making no profits or dividends. The public knows how the price of lumber has increased during this period. Surely it was not the high price of labor that increased the price of this commodity."

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C

"SLICKERS'

NO WAVES WANTED.

It was a crowded day in the lower regions, and the devil's pool of fire and brimstone was filled with unfortunates up to their chins in the fiery water. A big old sinner, weighing about 300 pounds, walked up to the edge as if he was going to make a plunge.

"Are you comin' in here?" asked a voice from below.

"That's what the boss says," replied the big fellow.

"Well, you get down and slide in, then. We don't want no waves in here." The Yellow Strand.

PRIVATE INFORMATION.

A slender young lady named Minnie
Endeavored to learn to play shinnie;
She fell for the game;
That's just how we came

To know the young lady was skinnie.

BRICK AFFINITY.

Two Irishmen, Mike and Pat, stood looking at bricklayers who were working on a building that was being erected, when the following conversation was overhead:

Mike-Pat, kin yez tell me what kapes them bricks together.

Pat-Sure, Mike. It's the mortar. Mike-Not by a blame sight. That kapes them apart.-Harper's Weekly.

MAXIMUM SPEED.

It was a dull day on the wharves, and a bunch of negro stevedores had gathered. After a while the talk turned on one of their fellow workers, who had been shot at the night before. A strange negro who had drifted in asked:

"Did dat nigger run?"

"Run?" replied a witness. "Run? why, ef dat nigger had 'a' had jest one feather in his han' he'd 'a' flew!"

PURE TRAGEDY.

Julia rushed to her mother one day in a most excited frame of mind.

"Oh, mother, we've had the best time! We've been playing postman, and we gave every lady in the block a letter."

"But, dear, where did you get the letters?"

"Why, we found them in your trunk in the garret all tied up with blue ribbon!"

A SHOPPER.

Clerk-Now, see here, little girl, I can't spend the whole day showing you penny toys. Do you want the earth with a little red fence around it for one cent?

Little Girl-Let me see it.-Life.

KEEPING UP.

Philip C. Hanna, former United States Consul at Monterey, Mexico, touching, in the course of a speech on the advantage of keeping abreast of the times, illustrated his point by reference to a traveling salesman who found himself in a village hotel diningroom when a heavy downpour of rain set in.

"Goodness!" he said, addressing the waitress. "It looks like the Flood." "Like what?" the girl inquired. "Like the Flood. You have read of the Flood, and how the ark landed on Mount Ararat, haven't you?"

"No, sir," answered the waitress. "I haven't seen a newspaper for three days."

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