The Elevator Constructor

tures. Anyway, he arranged the group so close together the picture was too marred. We are sorry the picture was not plain, for we wanted to show the other locals what a fine looking bunch we have here.

Well, I believe I will close. This weather is very hard on the constitution and makes a fellow kind of long for the nice weather we had last winter, but of course, when the cold does come, then we will long for this nice hot stuff. The cost of honest living is becoming so high and the food control bill so slow getting through, I am afraid the people will become desperate and raid some of our war gardens. We get it coming and going you know in elevator work. Not out of gardens, but out of the hatch, see? Fraternally,

Then some prompt, decided action will be called into demand, And you'll slide clear to the bottom if you haven't any sand.

You can get to any station that is on life's schedule seen,

If there's fire beneath the boiler of ambition's strong machine, And you'll reach the place called Richtown at a rate of speed that's grand

If for all the slippery places you've a good supply of sand.

-Caxton's Magazine.

"I thought you told me that your husband didn't approve of your wearing such short bathing skirts. Has he changed his mind since last year?" "No, but I've changed husbands."

Professor-Doesn't it make you sad to see women wearing feathers of the poor little birds on their hats?

Married Man-It isn't the feathers that make me sad-it's their bills!

The Price of the New Emblem Button Remains the Same

The style and design are the same as the original button, proportionately reduced to one-half inch diameter. Solid gold (guaranteed).

Price 75 cents

Orders taken by the Local Secretaries.

Edison Phonograph Company Employees on Strike

One hundred and eight union metal polishers and buffers stood out for patriotism and the honor due the natal day of the Father of his and their country, George Washington.

The employers of these men, the powerful Edison Phonograph Company, of West Orange, N. J., stood out and are still standing out against the men and their notions of patriotism. The Edison Company set its doors against them-locked them out.

The fight has been on since thenan embattled group of your brother unionists against an organization which measures it patriotism in the volume of roars it can send from the housetops. The 108 men constitute the whole of the union metal polishers and buffers of the Edison Company. They are members of Local No. 44, affilated with the Metal Polishers, Buffers, Platers, Brass and Silver Workers' Union of North America.

The story of this lockout is peculiarly forceful at this time of countrywide allegiance to the flag and all pertaining to it.

The workingman of West Orange is as fond and reverent in his love of country and human liberty as is his brother in other cities. It was not strange that he looked forward to observing with his family the birthday of the founder of American liberties and equal justice. The natal day of George Washington had, in the past, been a hallowed day. And it was not even remotely suspected that even so powerful an organization as the Edison Phonograph Company would dare intrude its money-making upon that sacred day of all days in times like these. It had been the custom for the workers there to lay down their implements of toil on that day.

But the Edison Company ordered that labor go on. The union men bred to a tenderer regard for America's

foremost name stood aghast at the order. They had made their plans for the day. They and their children had long discussed the plans. It was a day to teach children in story and song and patriotic exercise the history of the great Virginian who had blasted out the path for American liberty. The country was on the brink of war. The day had a deeper significance that its predecessors in this time and generation.

The union men were disappointed, but they bowed to the will of the masters in the Edison plant. However they made a provision. They believed the Edison people could make the usual holiday allowance of time and a half pay. It was a very small thing to ask of a firm which was willing to put its people to toil on such a day. The firm flatly refused and apparently was pleased at the prospect of trouble with its union metal polishers and buffers. It promptly discharged them. The swiftness spelled eagerness.

The next day the company re-hired a few of them and began employing non-union men. The union protested. Its members were then discharged and the lockout went into effect and has been in effect since February 21. Through it all the union men have been steadfast.

It seems ridiculous that a company manufacturing a device and records of the sort that so many music-loving workingmen must install in their homes in lieu of the more costly piano should deliberately slap that element in the face. Other Phonograph companies are operating on an eight-hour basis and playing squarely with their men, but the Edison Company now has a ten-hour day and fatuously is spurning the protests of organized labor. Now that the fight is on it must be carried through. The men are still on picket duty.