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made to safeguard, conserve and protect the interests and concerns of all the membership, and therefore must be paramount to local laws. Local unions can have the right only to deal with local conditions, and then in such fashion as will not contravene in any way International law which is general and not special. The wisdom of this condition is apparent for the reason that the whole is always greater than any of its parts. The voice of the International is the voice of the entire craft, while the voice of the local is only that of a group of the members and therefore should not be heard to the detriment of all.

Just in proportion as a trades union adopts orderly ways and proceeds according to its own laws does it gain the object for which it primarily exists. It is not established to deal with temporary conditions, but with a situation that continues. Issues arise from time to time, problems that grow out of changing conditions of employment, or progress in craft practices, that must be met and dealt with in a practical way, a course that is only possible when it is supported by a continuing body whose strength rests on orderly growth. This strength is the character of the union, which, like that of the individual, is a matter of steady development and not of momentary production. A trades union can establish its character and demonstrate its full responsibility only by itself giving heed to its own laws and its own agreements. Agreements entered into in good faith must be carried out in good faith, else the union becomes foresworn and loses its standing. Rest assured that no wrong lives so long as that of a broken agreement.

The impulsive, warm-hearted brother whose zeal or enthusiasm may lead him to attempt to persuade you to disregard an agreement you have made, no matter for what purpose, may be a good fellow, a friend on whose fidelity you may rely, but he is a poor counselor. The appeal that stirs him to action one time will arouse him at an

other, and by following his advice you will find yourself immersed in an existence of uncertainty, of irresponsibility and of non-achievement.

No union, however strong, can afford to break a trade agreement for any reason.

A contract, openly negotiated and freely entered into, must be as faithfully carried out, else the whole doctrine of collective bargaining falls into disrepute and the trades union defeats the one great purpose for which it is instituted.

Finally, the laws of a trades union should be respected by all its members, because these laws are made by the members. Not a great or influential trades union exists today but is thoroughly democratic in its organization and government. The initiative and referendum and the recall of officers put into the hands of the members absolute power over their own affairs. Their officers are their agents and employes, charged with the duty of seeing that the laws made by the members are observed, and clothed with the power and responsibility of administering the affairs of the organization in conformity to the will of the membership as expressed in the laws and regulations that have been adopted by the membership. When, therefore, a union man gives attention to the officers of his union and observes its laws and trade regulations, he is simply showing himself respect, for he made or helped to make those laws and regulations and is only exercising manly self-control in cheerfully conforming to them.

And as a trades union respects itself, so will others respect it. Its destiny is in the hands of its members at all times. As they are appreciative of their responsibility and responsive to the laws they make themselves, so will they become established in strength in the relations they must bear to the affairs of the world of which they are a part.

"He that ruleth his own spirit is better than he that taketh a city."

Retirement of Superannuated Government Employees

Resolution of Board of Representa

tives of Federal Employes' Union, Adopted April 13, 1917, Washington, D. C.

Whereas, It is a matter of official record that the government service is seriously impaired because of the large number of superannuated employes carried on the rolls, and

Whereas, In view of the great emergency with which the government has to cope at the present time because of a state of war now existing, it is important that immediate steps be taken for promoting the highest degree of efficiency in the Government service, and

Whereas, We believe that the most effective means for obtaining such results would be the enactment of an equitable retirement law, and

Whereas, We believe that employes who have spent long years in the government service have justly earned a sufficient competence to keep them in their declining years; therefore be it

Resolved, By the Board of Representatives of the Federal Employes' Union at a regular meeting held in Washington, D. C., on April 13, 1917, as follows:

1. That Congress be urged to take immediate action for passing a retirement law which contains the principal features of the Wadsworth-Dale Bill (S. 281), in order that justice may be done many faithful employes who have become incapacitated in the line of duty, and

2. We believe that such action is imperative in order that the several branches of the government service may fulfill in the most effective manner possible the demands of the present emergency to the end that measures for national defense may be successful; and be it further

Resolved, That a copy of this reso

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be true, sir, but, ahemYou know how cheap you feel when you get home at 3.00 A. M.

I sing this plaint for lonely wives, the girls you wed to hold,

And when you think it over, do you wonder that they scold?

They're faithful, and they're patient, and they worry, watch and wait For the thoughtless, careless husbands who were handed them by fate.

When other havens bar us, and the world with frost is rife, You bet you're mighty glad to get back home to Old Friend Wife.

-Cincinnati Enquirer.

The

STOP, LOOK AND LISTEN! We publish herewith an editorial

Elevator Constructor which appeared in the "Public Led

Published Monthly at Perry Building

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ger," of Philadelphia, on Thursday, April 26, last, and which should be read and studied carefully by every American working man or woman as a timely warning. The editorial follows:

An Inexhaustible Source of Labor. There are a thousand indications for those who have the eyes to see that the difficulty to be encountered by this country in meeting, by increased production, the world's demand for food is not the willingness of the people or available soil for tillage, but the impossibility of finding the necessary labor. No matter how carefully we shall "select" the half million or more of men who are to be sent at once into military training camps, there inevitably will be a serious drain on the supply of labor that otherwise would be available for agricultural service. Even before the war, while there were many conspicuous and painful errors in the distribution of mobile labor, the actual shortage of men willing and able to work on the farms was given serious consideration. It was this problem which inspired the back-to-thefarm" cry; it was to meet this actual need that President Roosevelt called his farm-life commission into being; and today, when the country faces a shortage already gravely serious and about to be intensified by an accentuated demand for farm products and by the creation of a large national army, the problem has become acute.

What are we going to do about it? The Congress, with ears open only to the promptings of shortsighted politicians, has raised and strengthened the barriers to the admission of labor from over-seas, even were there now immigrants clamoring for admission. The time may come, may even be here,

when the very life of the nation, the success of the great world enterprise to which we have given our adhesion, may require a radical departure from our present policy in dealing with this labor question and may call imperatively for a decision whether it may not be necessary to draw temporarily upon sources of labor hitherto deemed impossible or undesirable.

No thoughtful person can have failed to note the deep significance of the circumstance that one of the immediate consequences of China's entrance into the war on the side of democracy has been the sending of Chinese industrial laborers into France under contract with their own Government and under the protection of rigid regulation as to wages, food and maintenance. It is said that no fewer than 100,000 are already working in the factories and on the fields of southern France or are on their way there; and both England and Russia are planning to draw upon the same inexhaustible labor supply for the industrial and agricultural development of Mesopotamia, Siberia and Mongolia.

Need there be any surprise if the thought has occurred to forseeing folk in the United States that in this great emergency Oriental labor may be the solution of one of the most pressing of our own national problems? So far as the States west of the Mississippi are concerned, the suggestion may be for the moment beyond the scope of the practical; but in view of the possibility, nay, the probability, that Canada will draw upon China for the men to work her great grain fields when she finds that the American supply is closed or non-existent, it is worth the while of the farmers, railroad managers and mill owners of our own East to look deeply into this question and to consider whether willingly or not, they may not have to

turn to the distant Orient for the man-power without which all their preparedness may be put to naught.

It would be idle to minimize the difficulties in the way, the prejudices that would have to be eradicated, the physical barriers that would have to be beaten down before the doors could be open to labor from China and Japan. It is pertinent to notice, however, that where Chinese labor is being employed in France it is limited strictly to the period of the war; when peace comes the Chinese are to be replaced by European labor and European standards of wage and sustenance are to be restored. The subject is a serious one. There are many things which will be urged against the coming, even temporarily, of cheap labor from the Far East; but the issues that will have to be met by organized labor here as well as by employers and statesmen are whether the safety of the world I will not have to be made a paramount consideration, and large and immediate additions to our labor in America, as well as in Europe and Asia Minor, will not have to be made; and finally, whether we alone can afford to ignore the vast untapped supplies of industrial labor in the lands of nations that are aligned with us in the struggle to make the world safe for democracy.

Every statement in this editorial might provoke only a tolerant smile from organized labor if it were merely the fulminations of some high school boy taking his own progress in economic studies too seriously.

But the editorials of the Public Ledger, of Philadelphia, are not written by top-heavy, high school boys. They are not usually written without very serious consideration and equally serious purpose. Not infrequently, the Public Ledger editorials express most accurately the thoughts engaging our

most influential men of affairs in the financial and business world.

This makes it impossible to dismiss the editorial quoted and its vicious proposals as impossible absurdities. The editorial demands serious consideration as an ominous warning.

In short, the idea behind the editorial appears to be that business is so good, SO extraordinarily brisk and profitable that the stoutest defenders of the protective tariff principle now would break it down for the admission of cheap Chinese labor to increase production and cheapen it so that American labor would be cheated out of its share in the general and abnormal prosperity.

To that end, the Public Ledger and the interests for whom it acts as spokesman appear willing to Chinafy America.

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The editorial starts out with a comparatively harmless plea for farm labor. In the second paragraph it will be noticed that it takes a fling at the protective tariff principle and blames it on "Congress with ears open only to the promptings of short-sighted politicians" who have raised "barriers to the admission of labor from overseas."

The Public Ledger, in other words, believes the time has come to abandon the protective tariff principle. It occurs, then, to the Public Ledger that China has entered the war on the "side of democracy" and that France, England and Russia now are using Chinese labor in Mesopotamia, Siberia and Mongolia.

So why not bring Chinese labor to America? Organized labor may object, suggests the Public Ledger, but adds "the issues that will have to be met by organized labor here as well as by employers and statesmen are whether the safety of the world will not have to be made a paramount consideration."

Now, does anybody for a moment imagine that Americans, not only organized labor but all Americans, are going to permit the Public Ledger economists or the interests they rep

resent to drag America down to the level of Mesopotamia, Siberia or Mongolia? That Chinese labor is employed in those countries will not be accepted by Americans generally as any good reason for bringing Chinese labor to America.

Nor do we believe that the "paramount consideration" of America at any time in her history will be an unlimited supply of cheap labor.

It is of much more importance that America remains for all time Ameri

can.

The world war demands a great many sacrifices from American labor and the sacrifices are readily and gladly made to America but only as long as America remains American.

The Public Ledger and the supporters of its editorial opinions had better remember that America holds the fealty and loyal allegiance of American labor not because she is Mesopotamian, Siberian or Mongolian, but because she is American.

This means many things of infinitely greater value and much higher "paramount consideration" than an unlimited supply of cheap Chinese labor. It means everything for which Americanism stands, it means everything for which this Government of the people, by the people and for the people was established. If those Americanisms are abandoned, America will "perish from the earth.”

America must remain American.The Progressive Labor World.

Imagine Chinese elevator construc

tors.

Would-be Passenger (out of breath from running)-When does the halfpast five train leave?

Porter-Five-thirty.

Passenger-Well, the church clock is twenty-seven minutes past, the post office clock is twenty-five minutes past. and your clock is thirty-two minutes past. Now, which clock am I to go by?

Porter-Ye can go by any clock ye like, but ye can't go by the train, for it's gone."

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