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test of all the early struggles, trials and tribulations of the American labor movement and who has come out of that struggle as one of its real, big

men.

We have seen Duncan smile in victory and in defeat. We have seen him angry, too-real angry-fighting mad; but only in the cause of fair play and justice.

We have seen Duncan handle some American hot bloods, radical and irresponsible labor agitators and make a good, two-fisted job of it. At this distance, it appears to be this kind of a job that Russia needs done and we know of no man better qualified for its than James Duncan.

Somebody apparently is trying to rock the Russian boat.

They will have something to rock when James Duncan gets in it. He is the best little piece of ballast we ever knew, and when it comes to a question of getting people to listen to reason and common sense, Duncan has powers of persuasion beyond the grasp of most men.

It is a good many years ago now that James Duncan, the humble granite cutter of Quincy, Mass., endeavored to get the master granite cutters of New England to listen to reason and common sense. They didn't take kindly to Duncan's words of advice.

But when Duncan went out and got his fellow granite cutters to organize, the New England masters listened. They didn't like the idea, however, and they got ready to finish off this man Duncan and get rid of him and his industrial justice ideas for good and ever.

They raised a big fund of money to put Duncan and his union out of busiiness.

But by the time the bosses got ready to count their money and see how much they had to spend on the job of breaking up Duncan's union and wiping it off the earth, they discovered that Duncan had a fighting fund, too—

only his was a trifle bigger than the bosses'.

Duncan was one of the very first labor leaders of America who had the courage of preaching high dues as the only safe insurance against higher strike expenses. He gathered a strike fund of $1,000,000 in his union treasury and then the bosses decided there was no necessity for a strike, and there was none and the Granite Cutters' Union, with James Duncan at its head, went right on doing business as one of the most prosperous and successful labor organizations in America.

The labor movement in general then claimed Duncan and in fight after fight it has had him with every ounce of punch and good common sense that is in him.

No matter how dark things might look for any labor organization, it could always count on James Duncan as its last trump card. And when Duncan had finished playing his last trump card in behalf of any labor organization in distress that organization generally found itself on a new road to success.

Here in Philadelphia we well remember the year 1905, when the building trades, after three years of the bitterest fighting, faced a dark and gloomy future. Many people lost heart and did not care to make any preparations whatever for the celebration of Labor Day. Things were so bad that some prominent national leaders did not care to make their Labor Day address in Philadelphia.

But not so with James Duncan. Sure, he would give the Philadelphia labor organizations a rattling good talk on what was the matter with them and what they ought to do to mend matters.

"If there are only fifty union men left in Philadelphia, I'll parade with them, and at the end of the parade we will get together and start something worth while to put Philadelphia labor back again where it ought to be," said good old James Duncan. "You go ahead with your parade arrangements and I'll be there."

Duncan's words alone started something, and the parade was not only pulled off, but was pulled off mainly by the discouraged building trades which had taken new courage from Duncan's example.

Then came Duncan's Labor Day speech of 1905, in which he told Philadelphia labor how much it owed to its battles, how it was the very best that could have happened for-it, how fighting for a right principle was the only thing worth while in life and was the only foundation stone for any movement, better even than New England granite.

And Duncan went on and told of his own experiences and how no fight was ever lost by the labor mevement because every dollar spent by labor in a fight cost its opponent a hundred dollars and forced that much experience and wisdom on them.

Before Duncan was through talking, Philadelphia labor realized that instead of being at the end of a long, bitter, losing fight, it was at the beginning of a prosperous, peaceful, well-earned rest, during which it would reap the fruits it had sown in its battles.

Best of all, Duncan's words came true. Every union that stuck to its colors won out in the end, and benefited and prospered through losses of the past.

The war problems did not bother him. He was glad to have lived to take part in their solution. He was glad to be able to take a hand in the biggest job ever put up to him. He was still of the same opinion that this is one grand, little world, and that it is a joy to be privileged to live in it and with it, and do something to help it move along and get on.

And when this type of American labor leader gets to Russia, we can imagine what a leaven he will be among the dark, pessimistic, mistrusting, brooding Slav theorists of higher missions in life.

If any man can bring the embittered, suspicious Russians back to their balance again and infuse them

with a more optimistic view of their immediate future, that man is surely James Duncan.

May he be able to give to the Russian labor forces some of his own cheerful, tireless, optimistic, practical, all conquering common sense.

Somehow, he looks so big to us that the mere fact that James Duncan is in Russia and on the job, will make us feel easier about the fate of Russian democracy.

God speed James Duncan. The Progressive Labor World.

FOOD GAMBLING IS PROBLEM. San Francisco. "The hysteria howl that coolie labor is needed here to harvest the crops and produce food is as hollow as it is hypocritical," says Organized Labor, official paper of the California State Building Trades Coun

cil.

"According to the authorities who have made a study of this question, and the statement of President Lubin, of the California Housing and Immigration Commission, there is a sufficient supply of labor in the country to take ample care of the food production problem. In fact the production is not the problem which is confronting the country, but to keep the food after it is produced away from the speculators and gamblers. That is the problem. "Give the farm laborer better wages

and better conditions; organize and mobilize them as required by the different seasons in various parts of the country; conserve the food products and keep them out of the hands of the speculators and scoundrels who take advantage of the war to starve the people. Let the Federal and State Governments bend their best efforts in that direction; let them call a halt on the harmful hysteria which is rooted in greed and which is trying to tear down all that union labor has built in the last 50 years; then the officials will be able to meet every crisis and incidentally help to popularize and win this great world's war for democracy. That can not be done by opening the flood gates to millions of Asiatic coolies.

"England, Australia and Canada, after nearly three years of active war, have neither permitted nor found it necessary to import Oriental coolie labor for the purpose of producing foodstuffs.

"Why should the United States of America do so?"

BEEN THROUGH THEM. Mr. Bacon-Do you know, dear, I have only two suits of clothes to my name?

Mrs. Bacon-Yes, John; I have noticed that you have very little change in your clothing.

SPECIAL NOTICE

To Members of the International Union of Elevator Constructors:

We are in receipt of a request for copies of "The Elevator Constructor" of year 1908, for months of January to November. Any brothers having same will oblige by communicating with

THE EDITOR.

A LOOK INTO THE FUTURE.

I see a world where thrones have crumbled and where kings are dust. The aristocracy of idleness have perished from the earth.

I see a world without a slave. Man at last is free. Nature's forces have by science been enslaved. Lightning and light, wind and wave, frost and flame, and all the secret, subtle powers of earth and air are the tireless toilers of the human race.

I see a world at peace, adorned with every form of human art, with music's myriad voices thrilled, while lips are rich with words of truth-a world in which no exile sighs, no prisoner moans; a world on which the gibbet's shadow does not fall; a world where labor reaps its full reward; where work and worth go hand in hand; where the poor girl, in trying to win bread with the needle-the needle that has been called the "asp for the breast of the poor"-is not driven to the desperate choice of crime death, of suicide or shame.

or

I see a world without the beggar's

outstretched palm; without the miser's heartless, stony stare; the livid lips of lies; the cruel eyes of scorn.

And over all, in the great dome, shines the eternal star of human hope. -Robert Ingersoll.

My advice to workingmen is this: If you want power in this country; if you want to make yourselves felt; if you do not want your children to wait long years before they have the bread on the table they ought to have, the opportunities in life they ought to have; if you do not want to wait yourselves, write your banner so that every political trimmer can read it, "We never forget." If you launch the arrow of sarcasm at labor, we never forget; if there is a division in Congress, and you throw your vote in the wrong scale, we never forget. You may go down on your knees and say, "I am sorry I did the act," and we will say, "It will avail you in heaven, but on this side of the grave never!"— Wendell Phillips.

In Memoriam

Whereas, It has pleased the Almighty to remove from our midst Bro. A. J. Nygrun, a member of Local No. 12, I. U. E. C.

Whereas, In view of the loss which our organization has sustained, as a just tribute to the memory of the departed, who was always a loyal member, therefore be it

Resolved, That Local No. 12 share in the condolence of the family of the deceased brother, that the charter be draped for a period of sixty days, and these resolutions be spread on the minutes of the Local.

Local No. 12, I. U. E. C.

L. H. SKOGGS, Recording Secretary.

"SCORN PROFITS"

IS GOMPERS' IDEA. Washington.-Writing as chairman of the Committee on Labor, Advisory Commission, Council of National Defense, President Gompers makes this suggestion to T. G. Cranwell, president Continental Can Company, Syracuse, N. Y.:

"Suppose you and your fellow manufacurers were willing to suspend entirely, in this hour of the country's emergency, the pursuit of profits; would there be any possibility of a shortage of tin cans?"

The manufacturer urged a modification of laws governing the hours for women workers, which was disagreed to by President Gompers, although the trade unionist says he fails to understand how he can be of "assistance" in this case.

"It is to be regretted that there is no public method by which such as

sertions may be proved or disapproved.

"There may be a scarcity of some kinds of labor in your district at lower wages than are acceptable to unemployed persons who might fill a demand at what they regard as living wages at steady work.

"In all these cases the absence of public employment agencies which might indicate the movement of supply and demand of workers, leaves the interested observer without other help than their own or other men's guesswork."

President Gompers quoted statements made by officers of the Amalgamated Association of Iron, Steel and Tin Workers in a conference with Secretary of Commerce Redfield and himself that the deficit in the output of cans could not be laid to the door of labor, as it could be shown that in certain places members of this union are not working full time.

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