Washington, June.-Every Congressman's secretary in Washington is working over time mailing out copies of the final report of the Commission on Industrial Relations, 100,000 copies of which have just come from the Government printing office under the resolution ordering that number as a first step to supply the extraordinary demand.

So swamped are Congressmen with requests for copies of this document that the Committee on Industrial Relations found it impossible to obtain more than a handful of copies for the use of former members of the Commission and others who were closely associated with the work. It is now apparent that the edition of 100,000 is totally inadequate.

"I have six requests for every copy allotted me," was the reply of Congressman after Congressman in politely but firmly turning down the Committee's request.

Every member interviewed asserted that never before had he known such a demand for any public document. Many Congressmen tried to obtain extra copies from fellow members, but without success. Enough mail sacks bulging with copies of the report have left Washington within the past week to fill several mail cars.

An additional edition can be published at little expense. Any citizen who has written his Congressman for a copy of the report and does not receive it within the next two weeks should write his Congressman again urging that another edition of the report be authorized.

turers during the two busy periods or seasons of the year. Yet the average length of time in which these workers are given employment is twenty-four weeks, less than one-half of the year. The average rate of wages for the men during the whole of the year is only $11 a week, because of their long periods of unemployment. The average for women workers, who constitute about 20 per cent. of those employed, is around $5. At least three-fourths of the men workers are married and have an average of six people to support. The result is that during slack seasons and seasons of no work at all, they must borrow money or live on credit.

These are among the chief facts brought out in a report to the Committee on Industrial Relations by investigators within and without the union, under the direction of Juliet Stuart Poyntz and Dr. Trachtenberg of the Rand School.

The Manufacturers' Association is trying openly to break up union organization among the workers. The members of the Association are defiantly telling the public that they have no obligation toward the 60,000 workers, the 200,000 workers and dependents, whose services they must have during busy periods.

In fighting to maintain their organization these union workers in the most important industry in New York are trying to protect the public interest as well as their own.

"A recent study by the United States Public Health Service of the health conditions of the workers engaged in the garment industry in New York city reveals the fact that the garment worker as a class exhibit a large number of defects and diseases," says the report to the Committee on In

dustrial Relations. "The specialists who have made a thorough medical examination of representative groups of garment workers report that only about two per cent. can be considered free from defects.

"In searching for the cause of the prevalence of tuberculosis among garment workers, the investigators for the United States Government showed that in their effort to provide for those dependent upon them the workers are likely to reduce their personal expenditures for necessities to the minimum, and in this way diminished resistance to the disease is produced through insufficient diet and inadequate clothing. In addition to this, the necessity for earning the greatest possible wage in order to tide over the dull season would, especially in the case of piece workers, lead to unusual exertion, diminishing vital resistance and predisposing to tuberculous infection.

"The finishers, with the lowest annual income, had the highest mortality among the garment workers. The average rate of mortality of children in garment workers' families is estimated to be about sixteen per cent."

An investigation into the home conditions of the garment workers was undertaken. The report says: "The average family numbers six people. The average number of rooms OCcupied per family was found to be three. They are almost invariably dark; often two of the rooms had only airshafts. Here were crowded usually five, six or seven people. Only occasionally was there any sign of a bath that could be used. The toilets were generally in the halls and were used by occupants of the entire floor. The halls were dark and narrow. The rent paid never fell lower than $10 a month, and sometimes reached as high as $28. The average was about $16. It was quite usual to take in a boarder, or perhaps two, to help with the expenses.

"Something more than one third of these workers have dependents other

than their immediate family to take care of."

These workers, who have been forced on strike by the lockout by the manufacturers, are clinging desperately to their union organization. It is all that protects them from the most horrible exploitation in sweatshops. They are exploited in sweatshops now, through the devices of the employers who put out most of their work to contractors and sub-manufacturers. One man told an investigator that if the bosses offered him $50 a week for the rest of his life to leave the union he would refuse it and stick to the union. This perception of the value of their union has come to these workers through seeing the determination of the men who exploit them to break up the union.

Here is an industry that has made many men in it worth hundreds of thousands of dollars, and often millions of dollars, in a few years; and yet it drives those who produce that wealth to the verge of starvation for a great part of the year. Some of the worst conditions are in the contractors and sub-manufacturers' sweatshops kept by the leading facturers in the Manufacturers' Association

manu

The fight of these workers in New York for a decent living has attracted nation-wide attention. The lines are drawing tight between employers in New York as well as in Pittsburgh and other industrial centers to crush out the unionism that gives the workers their only chance for self-protection.

There is now little, if any, doubt that the unions are going to win their fight. The justice of their cause and their courage have won them popular favor. They have resisted efforts of the employers who have hoped by taking advantage of their poverty to force them back into the shops as helpless, unorganized, sweated workers.

She-I see you're back from the front.

He-Good gracious! Have I got as

thin as all that?

LADY ELEVATOR CONSTRUCTORS

NO. 1.

Minneapolis, Minn., May 29, 1916.

To the Editor:

I never can find time to get in a monthly write up-not that my brain works too slow; I would not admit it if it were the fact, but other things seem to crowd the days so full (and the nights belong to the cats).

We have had such dreary, cold weather all spring that we decided to hold our picnic meeting for June at the home of Mrs. Ed Carlson, partly for this reason, but mainly owing to the fact that Sister Carlson broke her arm some time ago and as it has been slow to heal she missed our last meeting and would have to miss this, so we thought it a bright idea to go there.

Sister Johnson's luck is still running bad. Her father was seriously ill at our last club meeting, and I understand they have laid him to rest since.

We have another large concern here, Ladies' Outfitters, who are on the unfair list, Root & Hageman, and the bargains they put in the window to tempt the women are positively sins. It makes one think of the first temptation. The story reads: "That old serpent, the devil, etc." In another place it says the devil was originally "Lucifer, Son of the Morning." So you see the men are still at it. Have been since the beginning, and yet Eve must always bear the blame.

Yet another firm is also on the unfair list. The Twin City Taxicab and Transfer Co., I think the largest of its kind in the twin cities.

The work here for elevator companies seems to be rather slack, so many of the old men are working along other lines while they wait for things to pick up.

We are very glad to hear of the organization of our sister club in Atlanta, and have sent personal greetings from the club here, and we hope the secretary-treasurer did the same (but we know he did). We hope to see a list of officers in THE ELEVATOR CONSTRUCTOR soon. Come on, No. 3. Sister Hughes has our sympathy, also her husband, in their trouble. But we hope "Brother" Hughes will recover quickly with no serious reminder of his accident left behind.

We shall look forward to the write ups of the new club as we would watch for a personal letter. May they not be long coming.

Well, more another time.

No. 3 is enjoying the fruits of the new agreement with the various companies, which went into effect May 1, thanks to the spirit of arbitrament displayed by both employe and employer.

A school of instruction on elevator construction and erection, for the boys of No. 3, has been inaugurated here, and we have for our instructor the eminent Mr. Cooley, of the Otis Company, who has imparted a world of knowledge to those who attend the classes.

Business in our line is getting better. The men are all working at present.

Brother Ed. Jones, who was unfortunate enough to get crushed some weeks ago, is out and doing nicely; also Brother Wilson, whose motor cycle got frightened at a passing horse and ran away with him, is out and working.

I wish to commend the editor on the improvement in the Journal.

The St. Louis preparedness parade, which was held June 3, was a grand success. Speaking about preparedness, is not that the very thing we live by and for?

The world was prepared for us, then we were prepared for the world, and on down the line. We get up in the early morn and prepare for breakfast, which has been prepared for us (some times). We work through the day to be prepared for tomorrow. We save a few eagles during the summer to prepare us for winter, and also prepare in the winter so we can enjoy the beautiful summer (fishing, maybe). I certainly stand for preparedness for country and home. The bed has been prepared; now I'll prepare for it. Good night.

C. E. LOW.

SAN FRANCISCO, CAL.

To the Editor:

The trials and tribulations of No. 8 in its efforts to secure proper and adequate laws governing the safety of the operation of freight and passenger elevators in the city of San Francisco is a long story, but I believe it will interest some of the readers of No. 8 and show them where some of their money has gone, and no doubt cause a smile to emanate from some of the readers of the Journal in other parts of the United States of Elevator Constructors.

The State is in charge of the job now and our prospective, the State's tentative and the property owners' protestation against and the advanced ideas of those who are paid to think and tell you the kind of laws to pass are going to be boiled up and served us as a State issue, but somebody will be in authority, and that is more than California ever had before on elevator safety.

Our old friend, Brother E. A. Stem, ex-President of No. 8, was appointed on the State Committee last summer, and in the winter he was succeeded by President Ed McGee, as he was called out of town on insurance inspections.

President McGee is now on the committee, and as I have been on the "broken leg list," I have been attending some of the meetings of the State Board, "just to see how the little fellow makes a stand against the boss, the architect, the owners of buildings and the bosses of buildings." No. 8 was represented rightly, and not every man in the local could have done so well.

Commissioner Wm. J. French, of the State Industrial Accident Board, is with No. 8 and for safety, and he is with us also as a friend. The Governor of the State believes in French, and he is going to do things that Mr. French suggests in these tentative laws, "and Governor Johnson may yet be Vice to Teddy." I am just relating these things to show No. 8 men we are becoming a factor in State issues and some of us may become "Inspectors for the State of California," with a little SEAL that does not say, "I recommend, Mr. Money Bags," that such and such be done, but rather the safety of working men must be protected.

That is how the case stands now, and to show the part No. 8 has played, we will go back to December, 1909, when Brothers J. Buckley, C. W. Fitzpatrick, F. B. Hanbridge, A. B. Moon and C. Leatham were appointed a committee to formulate elevator safety laws for a city ordinance to be passed on by the supervisors of San Francisco. The committee was given full power to act and draw on the treasury of No. 8. They first hired a little lawyer, and he says, "I'll get that passed by the supervisors for $100, and if I don't it will only be $25." He got $25.

They hired a big lawyer and had to pay him $100-even if he did nothing, he did it-"nothing." The last lawyer we had was the attorney for the labor council. He charged nothing and accomplished nothing, but he came the nearest of any of them. got the city to print our proposed laws through the assistance of Supervisor Gallagher and got the law as far as

He