months entered upon a campaign to convince our people, particularly the employers that they should follow in the course of New Zealand and adopt compulsory arbitration. It was our privilege at the time to be present on one of the occasions when Mr. Lusk was addressing an influential public meeting. We took the issue with him, and though made to bear the brunt of adverse criticism by the opponents to our movement and through a portion of the public press, the position we took was thought compelling. For several years we had to meet the advocates of compulsory arbitration in the various legislatures and in the United States Congress, as well as upon the public platform. A turn in the tide of opinion came and employers generally agreed with labor that compulsory arbitration should not be made part of our economic or political system-that is, compulsory arbitration by the state or nation. Owing to the attitude of organized labor we have, therefore, escaped the enactment of compulsory arbitration laws in the states and the United States. Employers and those having the better understanding of industrial conditions and the industrial relations of employer and employe saw the undesirability and ineffectiveness, and, above all, the injustice of such a law. Organized labor believes in a policy of conciliation and arbitration, but believes in arbitration only where conciliation has failed, and it contends that arbitration, when entered into, should be voluntary and labor should voluntarily and faithfully abide by an award rendered; that this is the only method to obtain and maintain the largest degree of industrial peace consistent with human liberty. We believe in an investigation of some of the industrial disputes and controversies which arise; but the fullest advantages and best results with the least injury to the people and their rights would accrue from unofficial or quasi official investigation rather than investigation conducted by a commission created by law with power, with penalties, punishments, and what not. It is exceedingly interesting to note to what extent some men want other men to do by law. Such a bill as the Townsend bill simply means the forerunner of an attempt at compulsory arbitration by law with all that that implies. The Townsend bill, it is understood, has been changed by the committee having it in charge, but the changes are verbal and in no way change the essential features of the bill. There are several other features in connection with this matter which we have now not the time to discuss here, but which, if opportunity affords, we shall present for further consideration. EDITORIAL NOTES. The American Federation of Labor has endorsed the label of the American Society of Equity, the organization of the farmers. It is the desire and intention of the farmers' organizations to establish exchanges where the products of the farmer can be purchased direct by the members of organizations of labor and friends to the mutual benefits of both the farmers and the labor organizations. Organized labor every where should co-operate to the fullest in this matter. The farm upon which Abraham Lincoln was raised is to be transformed into a national park known as the "Lincoln Farm Memorial Association." His home will be preserved and a perpetual monument erected to the memory of this great defender of human rights. All labor men and labor organizations are requested to co-operate with and assist in the aims and purposes of the Lincoln Farm Memorial Association. Existing conditions demand that every effort be put forth by our fellowunionists to more thoroughly organize the yet unorganized workers, that they and all may be benefited by the beneficent influence of associated effort. Now, more than ever, is it necessary for labor to be organized, united, and federated, so that the interests of all may be protected and promoted. Let it be clearly understood by all that the toilers are not responsible for existing financial difficulties, and will not be made the victims of the attempt at industrial depression; that wage reductions will be resisted by every lawful means at our command and that the reasonable demands which the toilers make for congressional and legislative relief for the redress of wrongs, and to attain the rights to which they are entitled, will go on uninterrupted with greater persistency than ever before. The Norfolk convention again recommended the system of minimum. dues of $1 per month, in order to properly protect and promote the interests of the membership of the various organizations. Many trade disputes would be avoided and unavoidable strikes more quickly won if employers knew in advance that the union involved had a strong treasury. Organized labor 'recommends that the second Sunday in May be set apart for the general observance as Labor's Memorial Day. It was specially recommended by the Norfolk convention that the American Federation of Labor organizers in every part of the country should give particular attention to the formation of local women's label leagues to be affiliated with the Woman's International Union Label League. Every effort should be made to encourage the organization of the women, who are really the purchasing agents of the family, and to more fully inform them as to the importance of demanding union label articles. PR LABOR'S MASS MEETINGS. RESIDENT GOMPERS was invited to address not less than 35 of the mass meetings held in various portions of the country April 19-20. He accepted the invitation to speak at the Brooklyn, N. Y., Labor Lyceum on Sunday afternoon, April 19th, and also addressed an immense mass meeting at Grand Central Palace on Sunday evening. Among the cities inviting him for the same evening was the Washington, D. C, Central Labor Union, which held a mass meeting at Columbia theatre. To them he addressed the following letter: AMERICAN FEDERATION OF LABOR WASHINGTON, D. C., April 18, 1908. Mr. SAMUEL DENEDREY, Chairman Committee, Mass Meeting, Columbia Theatre, Washington, D. C. DEAR SIR AND BROTHER: The invitation to address the mass meeting tomorrow evening came duly to hand, and I assure you that I employ no idle words when I say that I sincerely regret my inability to be with you and our labor men and our friends on that occasion. I have accepted the invitation to address a mass meeting at the Labor Lyceum, Brooklyn, N. Y., on Sunday afternoon, and at the Grand Central Palace in the evening in New York City. In other words, while your meeting will be held in Washington I shall meet with the hosts of labor and our other friends in New York, meet with them to demand the redress and the justice to which we are so fully entitled. These are momentous times, and they are not merely momentous for the working people, but for all our people. not only of today, but for the future. If through judicial usurpation in the matter of injunctions, or through interpretations of laws, the rights and the liberties of the working people can be shorn from them, it is not difficult to discern that the liberty of all our people is on the wane and that the dangers of decadence in our national life as a republic made up of sovereign, free citizens is but a matter of time. It is by the insidious filching of the liberties of one portion of the people at one time so as to quiet the fears of others, and then taking the freedom of others at another time, that the gravest danger to free institutions is encountered. I am neither a faddist nor an alarmist. I have faith in the republic of our forefathers. I have confidence in the patriotism, intelligence, and independence of our people, and that right and justice will prevail, and that our freedom will be safeguarded; but we can not afford to defer to another time what must be done now. We must hold to a strict accountability every man in whose hands is vested the power to remedy the wrongs of which we justly complain and to secure and safeguard the liberties and the freedom which are justly ours. At your meeting let there be no mincing of words, and let the views of labor and labor's friends and the resolutions which your meeting may adopt, ring clear and emphatic; that the workers will not flinch, but manfully stand out for their rights, and that the workers and their friends throughout the entire country shall pledge themselves without regard to party affiliation, without any divergence of opinion, make one common stand and effort, unmasking the open or hypocritical opponent and sending to political oblivion those who, by negligence or antagonism, fail to respond affirmatively and give their full support to the specific measures which labor, in the name of all our people, presents to them for their consideration and action. Convey to the assembled hosts, if you can, my earnest wish that I could be with them, and for the triumph in the cause of justice and right. Sincerely and fraternally yours, SAMUEL GOMPERS, President, American Federation of Labor. AMERICAN SOCIETY OF EQUITY. By O. D. PAULEY, Secretary-Treasurer. HERE ARE annually thousands of young men leaving the farm to take up work in the towns and cities where there is already an ample number of laboring men to do the work equired in these cities. It is not natural that a oung man or young lady who is raised and educated on a farm should leave it and take up some other occupation; therefore there must be some cause for their action. The education in rural schools is equal to that of the cities, and the young men and women of the farm have as good a general education as that enjoyed by any other class of people. They are endowed with reasoning powers the same as all other persons, and they see that under present existing conditions there is little to be gained by remaining on the farm. It takes the combined energies of the farmer, his wife, sons and daughters, by working early and late, to make a reasonable living, and with this they are deprived of some of the social features which persons working in the towns and cities enjoy. Knowing that under the present conditions they can expect nothing more, they then decide to leave the farm and take up some occupation in the cities where they can enjoy the social pleasures of their city cousins. In carrying out this resolution they begin to crowd the already over-crowded cities, demanding employment that they may live, and at the same time creating a surplus of labor above that needed for carrying on of business. They do not create any more business in the cities, but oversupply the help needed to perform the labor of the factories, which are already established, and the natural consequence is that they, by not being acquainted with the labor movement, offer to work for a lower price than that asked by labor organizations who have made a study of conditions in the cities and know what it costs to live. Thus the union laborer finds the proposition of keeping his wages where they belong a much harder proposition than would be the case should these young men and women remain on the farms where they have been reared. Not only does this situation embarrass the union laborer, but it as well works an injury to the farmer. It takes from the farm the best help which a farmer can have, the young men and women who have been raised on the farm and know the work as a trade. During harvest and seasons when a greater amount of help is needed, the farmer must rely on persons coming from the cities and they are those who can not secure employment in the cities and naturally are the poorest help for farm work, but who do not hesitate to demand wages far above what the laborer of the city receives. To counteract this we must find a remedy and I believe that there is no other solution which will be of as great benefit to all union laborers as that brought about by the organization of farmers and their sons in the American Society of Equity.. The aims of the American Society of Equity are such that no one can have any objection, who does a legitimate business. All that we, as members of the American Society of Equity, ask is a fair, equitable price for what we produce as compared with the amount of labor and capital invested. To prove that it is essential that we organize to bring about this end. I wish to state that today, for instance in the northwest, farms have increased in value three times in the last 20 or 25 years, the cost of farm labor is more than doubled, the cost of machinery and horses has increased, the cost of everything which a farmer consumes has increased, yet the crop produced per acre as com pared to 20 or 25 years ago has decreased about one-half, but the prices received are about the same or less than that received 20 or 25 years ago. When large crops were produced, labor was reasonable, and horses, machinery and all other commodities consumed by the farmer were cheaper. When looking this problem square in the face, one can readily see that something must be done or farming will become abject slavery, but on the other hand, if after the farmers become thoroughly organized in the American Society of Equity or other farm organization and figure the cost or production of a crop on account of labor, machinery, and cost of land, and set a price on this which will pay them a reasonable profit each year, you will find that the thousands of young men and women who are leaving the farm today will remain there. They will enjoy the social features there the same as they will in the towns and cities; they will have their holidays, their picnics, and this influx of labor to the cities from the farms will be stopped and the surplus of labor in the cities will be eliminated. When this surplus of labor in the towns and cities is eliminated, you will no doubt find that the question of securing a fair and just wage for your labor will be easily settled between the laborer and the employer. But so long as the employers know that there is a surplus of labor, they will try to force the price of your labor down and that much harder will it be for you to keep your wages where they should be. I am sincere when I say that when any union laborer demands that the products of the farm which he consumes carry with them the union label of the American farmers, he will be helping our organization and will be helping himself to the same extent. We hope in a short time to be so strongly organized that we can furnish to all union laborers the products from farms whose owners and tenants are entitled to the use of our union label. For a DEPARTMENT OF LABOR. OFFICE OF AMERICAN FEDERATION OF LABOR, WASHINGTON, D. C., March 23, 1908. Committee on Labor, House of Representatives, Washington, D. C. GENTLEMEN: When the bill introduced by Hon. Wm. Sulzer for the creation of the Department of Labor was under consideration by your honorable committee last Friday, I was in hopes I would be able to be present, and to add a word in favor of the passage of the bill. An important conference of labor representatives was in session and interfered with my purpose. I understand that the courtesy has been, extended of addressing a communication to your honorable committee upon the subject, and I find no better way than stating to you what I said in my report as president of the A. F. of L. to the Scranton convention of 1901, that no keen observer disputes that the all-absorbing and burning question of our time is expressed in the terms, The Labor Question. In the effort to establish the rightful relation of the workers to society, in the production of wealth and in its distribution, are encompassed all the complex questions of our lives. That justice should be meted out to all workers, no thoughtful man will deny. Anything which is not based upon ethical considerations for all, no intelligent trade unionist asks. Questions often arise in the official family of the President of the United States in which justice, fair dealing ethics, and the law and its administration must frequently be under consideration, and, unless there is some representative of the workers competent to speak in their name, to advocate their cause, to convey to the executive head and his advisers the laborers' side of labor's contention, he and they must be deprived of valuable and far reaching information. It is to supply this present deficiency that the A. F. of L. has asked for, and repeats and never ceases its efforts to secure, the enactment by Congress of a law creating a department of labor, with a secretary who shall have a seat in the President's cabinet. There are some who are advocating the passage of a law creating a Department of Industry and Commerce with a secretary at its head, providing for him a seat in the President's cabinet. The several propositions which have been submitted all subordinate and minimize the question of labor, and even the present Federal Department of Labor. Against such a plan we have entered, and should again emphatically enter, our protest. As a matter of fact, without a single exception, the members of the cabinet are now representatives of the employers' and business men's side of industry, commerce and finance. Our ambassadors and consuls to the foreign countries are agents and advocates of the same interests, and there can be no good excuse for the creation of a department on the line just indicated unless it is proposed as a pretext to prevent the enactment of a law asked for by labor. The committee to which this report was referred made the following recommendation, which was unanimously adopted by the convention: "We endorse the views of the President upon the desirability of establishing a department of labor, with a secretary having a seat in the President's cabinet." In my report to the convention of the A. F. of L. at Boston, in 1903, I said that: "A law was enacted creating a new department of government known as the Department of Commerce and Labor, with a secretary as its chief officer, who is a member of the President's cabinet. Under the law several departments and bureaus were detached from other departments of the federal service and were placed under its jurisdiction. Among the departments transferred was the Department of Labor, which was independent from any other department and is now designated as a bureau. While there is cause for regret that the Department of Labor has been deprived of its independent existence, we yet have the assurance of the Hon. George B. Cortelyou, Secretary of the Department of Commerce and Labor, that it is his purpose to have the department serve the best interests of labor." The committee having this subject under consideration, expressed its regret that the Department of Labor was absorbed in the new Department of Commerce and Labor. The A. F. of L. adopted the following: Resolved, That the American Federation of Labor, through its executive council, devise means and put into execution some plan whereby the incoming national administration and the Congress may be urged to consider the advisability of establishing a department of labor and the merging of the bureaus alleged to be in the interest of American citizens who are or desire to be employed as tradesmen, artisans, mechanics, and laborers; and that if necessary to accomplish this result, a committee, geographically selected, be hereafter appointed by the Presi dent to assist in advancing this and other approved measures. Resolved, That each general and local organization embraced in the American Federation of Labor be requested to promote the plans agreed upon in this connection, and make appeals to their representatives in Congress to favor. ably consider and advocate through this means and aid to peace, prosperity, and patriotism. It is earnestly hoped that the oil for the creation of the Department of Labor, the secretary as its chief executive officer having a place in the President's cabinet, may pass and prove a lasting benefit to all our people. Very respectfully yours, SAML. GOMPERS, President, American Federation of Labor. |