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leadership; unwise strikes have taken place. But, whatever the cause of their falling away, it may be confidently asserted that after men have once experienced the help of the union, never will they be again satisfied with the state of non-unionism. They know that most of the betterments they enjoy come to them, and are maintained, through the power of organized labor. Three millions, therefore, is too small a number for trade unionism. If it were as easy for men to enroll themselves in a union as in a political party, trade unionism in America would today count its four million-or five or six, whatever number is necessary to cover the vastly predominating force in all the trades and callings that have been covered by our modern industrialism. It is, indeed, true; trade unionism envelops in its folds more than are enrolled in the unions.

When we begin an estimate of the number of active non-union wage workers, we quickly come to a halt. Professional strike breakers are not non-unionists. They are mercenaries, on hire to whoever pays them their price. Should the unions outbid the employers they could buy the strike breakers, whose principles have nothing to do with honest work. Their characer is notorious; the jest of the newspaper, the thorn in the side of employers, the worry and surprise of the innocent university leaders who once deemed non-unionists heroes. The steady and usually fair wage worker who at times refuses to come out on strike and give up his job, may have yet in him the making of a true union man. may be sufficiently educated, he may have had more experiences with the pioneers of organization in his trade, he may feel that unnecessary sacrifices are being demanded of him and his shopmates; yet time may bring him around, ready to perform the duty the good of his fellowmen requires.

He

No workingman of principle can rest content outside organized labor unless he has not considered the questions that its progress has evoked to

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society. What, for example, has nonunionism to offer in the place of the insurance features of unionism? answer is, mostly, some form of pauperism or mortifying dependence. But for unionism, would there exist a single State Labor Bureau in the country? Whence could be obtained the enormous body of facts recorded in the bureau reports, if not from them? How could trade agreements be reached, except through the unions? For, it is a certainty, nonunionism cannot promise a condition in which there would be no strikes. The ugliest of outbreaks are at times by non-union labor. What would the prevailing workday be but for the unions? Have, or have they not, brought the eight-hour day to many of the trades? What as to the laws for the protection of workers in mines, in the factories, on the railroads? Have non-unionists ever fought child labor? Under the heel of the tyrannical shop foreman, under the rigid rules of avaricious corporations, under the neglect of society, what would be the daily existence of the wage workers should they accept permanently the tenets of nonunionism?

When such questions are troubling the conscience of the wage worker not enrolled in a labor organization, he finds himself going further in selfexamination. Has he a right to remain standing aside from the men who are doing what they can for their fellows? Would he not be guilty of a form of treason to his fellow workers, and of short-sightedness respecting his own interests, in taking the place of a striker? The conditions of labor being what they are, is there any truth, whatever in the claim that any wage worker has the moral and social right to work how, when, and where he pleases? No more has he than has a man a right to injure himself.

In among the workers, the nonunionist can offer no live argument for his beliefs, no moral principle in self-defense, no sentiment of brotherhood, no just reason for standing aloof from his fellows.

From Committee on Industrial lations, Washington, D. C.

Washington, D. C.-Privilege and special interests have tried to set up complete control and ownership over this present Congress of the United States. And they have come mighty near doing it. They will do it in the next few weeks if the people, the workers and farmers especially, don't realize mighty quickly that while they, the people, are having their minds taken up by war talk and preparations of war, vastly valuable privileges and vastly valuable sums of the public wealth are being grabbed off right under their noses.

Not for ten years at least have there been such bold attempts and so many bold attempts to grab wealth and power away from the people as are being perpetrated right now in the Senate and House of Representatives of this present Congress.

And not for ten years at least has there been a Congress with so much disposition to let the plunderers get away with their plunder.

of a

Look at this

This is not a guess. record: First, look at two things bad as they can be, that have been actually done, one by the House and one by the Senate:

The House of Representatives adopted the "Madden Amendment" to the present Parcels Post Law limiting the weight of a parcel that could be carried by the United States postal service to fifty pounds. That the rightful authority

took which

away

the Postmaster General now

Re

By Dante Barton

mistaking the issue there presented, because there were many speeches and long debates on the floor of the House. As Lynn Haines says in his "Searchlight on Congress," "David Lewis of Maryland, 'father of the parcels post,' led a fruitless fight to make this branch of the postal service on a par with that of the leading European countries."

has to raise the limit of weight on parcels and packages to any amount the government thought fit. Only the

in

companies and allied wanted that limit to fifty The people all wan

express terests pounds put on.

ted to

extend the public service of

carrying things at as near the bare

cost of the service as possible. There was not any possibility of

Now turn to the Senate for another completed transaction as far as the Senate could complete it, of what the special interests are getting, or grabbing at, at the expense of the public service and the public wealth:

The indefensible Shields Water Power Bill, which has passed the Senate and is now in the House of Representatives of Congress, will give away, forever and substantially without any compensation to the people, all the water power of all the navigable rivers of the United States. If that remaining natural resource of wealth and power were developed rightfully (if not directly by the government at least by a leasing system under direct government control and with adequate compensation to the people) the people would have a vast source of public income, and cities, States and the nation would have a splendid preventive of extortion by coal trusts, electric lighting and power combinations, gas interests and manufacturing "combines."

But the Senate would give that away to the privileged financial interests, to make them richer and more powerful and to make the people poorer and less powerful.

With those two instances as a starter to show the prevailing quality of both the Senate and House in their attitude of favor toward privilege and special interests as against the public rights, consider the imminent danger that there is in these further

iniquitous measures

and enormous grabs at wealth and power which committees, or other groups, of the Senate and House are threatening to put across:

The public lands committee of the Senate has taken a fairly good land leasing bill that passed the House and has made it about as bad a bill as any public plunderer would want. The committee struck out all provision as to the proper leasing or the proper other development of coal lands, leaving coal land monopolies secure from competition or free to grab some more under old imperfect laws when the public had its back turned. As to oil lands it put in a lot of jokers in the shape of references to old forgotten statutes and practically waived all right of the public to the lawfully remaining oil lands of the public domain-confirming old grants to private grabbers that would otherwise be illegal.

Just to show that it knew what it was doing, this same public lands committee of the Senate recommended the passage of a bill, introduced by the chairman of the committee, Senator Myers of Montana, which if it is enacted will grant to a private corporation, the Republic Coal Company, a subsidiary to the Chicago, Milwaukee and St. Paul Railway Company, more than 2,000 acres of coal land in the State of Montana, but belonging to all the people of the United States, which is officially estimated to contain ten million tons of high grade coal, worth about thirty million dollars. The bill would give it all away for about $82,000!

That coal grab has been beaten twice in two Congresses. But see the persistency with which the plunderers return to the attack. They think they know this Congress.

The Water Power on Public Lands Bill has also been changed in the Senate public lands committee from the mildly respectable bill that the House passed into a bill that is almost as bad as the Shields Bill, the latter referring only to the water power of navigable rivers.

A fake Rural Credits Bill has been approved by the Senate Committee on Banks and Banking, while the House Committee on Banks and Banking has made up its mind also to approve it, although the House Committee has not yet made its reports. This misconceived Rural Credits legislation is all in the interest of bankers and investors and all against the farmers and others who need credit. It puts on the back of Labor another enormous bankers' trust and an enormously expensive governmental machinery to help keep a borrower from getting money at reasonable interest. It stands in the way of really good rural credits legislation.

Along this same line, the House of Representatives voted down, by a vote of ten to one, a few weeks ago, the proposition of Representative Howard, of Georgia, to increase the amounts that can be deposited in postal savings banks and to increase the usefulness of those absolutely safe depositaries of the wage-earners' money. The banks did not want the competition of the postal savings banks. And so the House of Representatives did not want it either.

These are only the most glaring instances of what the powerful privileged interests are doing with this Congress.

Now let Labor watch where these men of the Senate and House propose to lay the taxes-the burden of paying for "preparedness,” for war if it is forced, and for the ways of peace in government.

Watch how these interests that are using Congress for their grabs of public wealth will use Congress, if you let them, to place more taxes on Labor and to dodge rightful income taxes, inheritance taxes, taxes on war profits and taxes on privately monopolized social values.

By GEORGE P. WEST Washington.-Conduct contrary to the interests of the country and to every principle of fair dealing and justice is charged against the Cramps

Shipbuilding Company of Philadelphia, in connection with the strike of 1,100 riveters and helpers now in progress, by the Committee on Industrial Relations.

Although they were assured that the strike could be settled if they would meet a committee of their men, General Manager Hand and Manager Mull, of the Marine Department, refused to meet the committee and summarily rejected the proffered aid, first of United States government mediators, and then of Mayor Smith, of Philadelphia.

The company has been delayed by bad weather on contracts now being executed for new ships. Its management welcomed the strike as a means of saving large sums of money through the operation of strike clauses in its contracts.

Manager Mull boasted to an agent of the Committee on Industrial Relations that, because of the existence of these clauses, the strike had proved a blessing. He asserted that the longer it continued the better pleased the company would be.

The building of four torpedo boat destroyers for the United States Navy is included in the work now under way at the yards.

All delay in the constructions of ships can be laid to the strike, and by this means, and by speeding up the men not affected by the walkout, the company can prevent otherwise serious losses. At least there seems no other reasonable conclusion to be drawn from Mull's boast that the strike is saving the firm "big money."

The company's attitude was given to George P. West, of the Committee on Industrial Relations, by Manager Mull as follows:

"The men have serious grievances; no one knows it better than I do. We've had blizzards and bad weather, and the men have not been able to work much more than three days a week. The cost of living has gone up, and they are being pinched at home.

"But when men go on strike, we're through with them! I'd rather pay

the cost of a 15 per cent. increase to find out what the other side are up to. And I do find out. I know every move they make. I've organized two unions myself, and the national organization thought they were bona fide unions.

"This strike is the best thing that could have happened for us. We have a strike clause in every contract and the longer those men stay out the better we'll like it. It gives us a chance to clean up the yard, and it saves us a lot of money."

The committee's representative had gone to Mull to tell him that the strike could be settled if he would meet the men's committee. His reply is contained in the foregoing. The committee had not intended to make public the substance of the interview, but decided to do so when Mr. Mull stated that he would "sit up 24 hours to let every employer in the country know of the meeting" between himself and the committee's representative. Mull alleged that he had not understood the purpose of the visit although this had been made perfectly plain to the clerk who arranged the interview. Mull himself boasted during the interview that he had a complete check on the movements of all outsiders and told the committee's agent of his movements in Philadelphia.

Subsequent to this interview Mediators Dr. G. F. Davis and William Blackman, of the United States government, called at the Cramp office and asked for Mr. Hand, general manager. He sent word that if they wanted to talk about the strike situation he would not see them. He repeated this refusal and ignored a letter from the government.

After the government mediators had failed in their effort to obtain an "audience," Mayor Smith, of Philadelphia, offered his aid to the company in bringing about a settlement. The Mayor's offer was promptly turned down.

After the President's final note to Germany created a situation where delay in construction work could not

be tolerated, Hand sent for the committee of the men, but after considering their list of grievances for two days, he notified them that their demands would not be granted, and broke off negotiations.

Washington.-By forcing the greatest financial interest in America to yield after a strike seemed unavoidable, President John P. White of the United Mine Workers has obtained concessions for the 176,000 anthracite mine workers that would not have been dreamt of a few years ago.

White did it by throwing down the gauntlet to the operators at a final conference and placing squarely on their shoulders the responsibility for the national disaster that a long and bitter strike would mean at this time. He made them see it in terms of human misery, civil disorder, bitterness, and property loss.

Knowing that more than 100,000 union miners stood solidly behind White and the district officers with him, ready to fight for their demands, the operators yielded, and peace is assured in the anthracite field for the next four years under better conditions than the miners ever knew before.

The hours of 110,000 men are reduced from 9 to 8, and the shorter work day is established for all time in the anthracite field. Contract miners, already the highest paid men in the field, receive 7 per cent increase, while the 110,000 day men get a 3 per cent increase in addition to the

same pay for 8 hours formerly received for 9 hours. Figured on an hourly basis, this is equivalent to a 152 per cent increase for the vast majority of mine workers.

Even more important in its final effect is the recognition accorded for the first time to the United Mine Workers of America. The agreement is signed in the name of that organization, where in previous years the operators refused to admit that it had any existence. The fight of fourteen years to establish real collective bargaining in the anthracite field is won at last, and the operators have abandoned for all time the theory that they and they alone have anything to say about wages and working conditions.

During the negotiations there was a striking demonstration of the power of a strong union to wring a square deal from newspapers and the business community. The United Mine Workers had the respect, good will and support of practically every element in the anthracite district, with its nearly 2,000,000 population. Leading papers of WilkesBarre, Scranton and other big towns in the district urged union recognition and condemned the operators for rejecting the demands, thus contributing to the final favorable result.

Following the victories gained by the United Mine Workers in both the bituminous and anthracite field, this great organization is assured of still further growth in numbers and power, and is today immeasurably stronger than ever before.

Car Men Win Short Strike

Washington.-After a two days' strike motormen and conductors employed by the Washington and Old Dominion Railroad have secured recognition of their newly organized union, reinstatement of all strikers, discharge of strikebreakers and a promise by the company to take up grievances within 10 days. This in

terurban line runs from Washington to the Blue Ridge Mountains, a distance of 50 miles. The refusal of the management to treat with the new local of Amalgamated Street Car in Men resulted a suspension of traffic through that section of Virginia.

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