worker. Award of part of his compensation in a lump sum gave him the capital to open a shop after four months' instruction. His business now warrants the employment of two assistants, and he is supporting his wife and two children. Mr. Edward G. received an injury in cranking a truck which totally disabled his right arm. His former employers commended his intelligence and pluck and felt that he might be trained as a foreman in their construction work. In four months he learned to use his left hand for writing and drawing, employing blue prints which they supplied, and went back to the firm for in struction under a foreman. Two months later he himself was put in charge of a group of men on street work. Heart disease had made is impossible for Mr. J. K. to work for a year, when his case was brought to the bureau's attention. He worried keenly over his inability to support his wife and two children. His physician agreed to let him try vulcanizing and tire repair. At the end of three months he showed such proficiency that the school at which he was studying engaged him as a teacher. Best of all, the medical reports improved markedly after less than a month of regular work. HEART OF THE OPEN SHOP ISSUE (An Editorial from the Christian Science Monitor Which Is a Challenge to the Organized Union Haters.) NDERLYING the momentous protest of the coal miners and railway employees of the United States against proposed wage reductions, that if temporarily ended by a compromise still leaves the questions in dispute to be raised again in the near future, there is the deeper and wider issue of the continued existence of the labor unions. During the past four or five years there has been a concerted movement on the part of many great American industrial corporations looking to the elimination of what is known as "the closed shop," in which such organizations as the National Founders Association, the National Association of Manufacturers, and the National Erectors Association have taken a leading part. The disadvantages of what is said to be Labor control of industry; the regulation of working hours, fixed wage rates for all labor of a certain class without regard to unit efficiency, and limitation on the number of apprentices that are allowed to learn a trade, have been widely submitted to the press and public through the United States Chamber of Commerce and other agencies. The challenge thrown down by the employers has been met by the trades-union leaders with an unqualified defiance. They insist that the warfare against the closed shop is, in reality, waged against trade unionism in any form, and that the open shop means the destruction of all unions and a return to the long hours and other unfair conditions that so often prevailed before labor learned to organize. With the charges and counter charges of union despotism and employers' greed for large profits the impartial onlooker may not be greatly concerned. What is of great importance is the admission by both sides of the existence, even in the most prosperous periods, of large numbers of idle workers who are forced by their necessities to take the places of men who are "locked out" or "on strike." Many of these unemployed are "non-union" because for some reason they are not permitted to join their trade organ. ization. They are men and women with equal rights to live and to work for a living. But the remedy proposed by the employers, the open shop, will not in any way mend matters. If idle non-union workers take the place of union labor, the displaced workers will then be idle, and there has been no net gain in reducing unemployment. The urgent duty of both employers and Labor unions is to take a wider view of what is persistently mistermed the conflict between Labor and Capital, for the purpose of finding the causes of involuntary idleness, and applying the remedy. There are no indications that the proponents of the "open shop" system have any suggestions to offer for finding work for idle union labor that is replaced by other workers. Until they can devise some practical system under which all willing workers will be given an opportunity to work, they may expect the bitter hostility of organized Labor, and but little sympathy from the general public. STATE INSURANCE BEST. Sebring, Ohio, Dec. 30.-The speed of the state-controlled compensation insurance for injured workers is shown in the case of William Kind, a member of the Pottery Workers' union, who lost an arm in a brick yard a few weeks ago.. Kind was quickly awarded $3,000 to be paid at the rate of $14.45 per week. These payments will therefore continue for four years. The injured man was employed in the brick yard less than half a day when he lost his arm. If a nation expects to be ignorant and free in a state of civilization, it expects what never was and never will be.-Thomas Jefferson. A LAW INJUNCTION GREAT MENACE NOTHER organization has been formed in the east to "protect the constitution." Each member must pledge to maintain the fundamental principles of the federal organic act. Will the members of the new organization do this without playing favorites? And if they do, how can they avoid condemning the labor injunction? Will the sponsors for the new organization have the courage to remind injunction judges that this government consists of three separate and distinct branches-law making, executive and judiciary-and that no branch must encroach on another? Will they notify injunction judges that under the constitution workers have the right to strike, and that when workers are charged with being parties to a conspiracy this is a matter for the executive branch of the government and not for the judiciary branch? Will they declare that an attorney general or a federal judge who violates one single guarantee of the constitution should be thrown out of office by impeachment proceedings? Will this new organization adopt a uniform policy toward all constitution wreckers, or will it ignore the anarchist in high places while it serves big business by opposing progressive legislation on the plea that it is "un-American?" This is the usual system of professional constitution defenders. Their voices are never raiced in defense of human liberty. They are only interested in that portion of the constitution which protects dollars. Labor stands for all of the constitution because its strict observance means government by law-it, means a set of working rules that assure protection to all persons, regardless of their station in life. Under government by injunction workers are subject to the moods, whims, caprice and passions of a single individual who smashes these rules, and who is as unfettered as a prairie jack-rabbit. The injunction judge sets up one-man government. He revives the discarded theory of the divine rights of kings. Under government by law this judge is powerless to vent his prejudices and his private opinions. He is guided by the constitution and by the law-the working rules -which have been passed by the law-making branch and approved by the executive. Under government by injunction the judge is lawmaker, law interpreter and law enforcer. He throws aside the constitution, denies free speech, free press and popular assemblage, and jails men without trial by jury. The law injunction is the greatest menace to constitutional government that has yet been devised. It is doubly dangerous because it is used and defended by alleged friends of the constitution. No patriot can exclude the labor injunction judge from the list of enemies of the constitution. Honesty and truth are mocked when men talk of defending the constitution while they ignore and even applaud-government by injunction. Let labor emphasize this point when these constitution defenders are abroad in the land. Pin them down to facts. Force them to publicly explain how the labor injunction process can be justified in a country that is pledged to government by law. Exchange, STOCK DIVIDENDS AND LABOR VER a billion and a quarter dollars in stock dividends have been announced or actually distributed by seventy-seven leading corporations in the United States during the months of September, October and November alone. The Labor Bureau, Inc., has compiled a detailed list of these issues. The total adds up to $1,387,309,000.00. The list was made up on the basis of public statements appearing in the press, in economic journals and financial information services. It includes nineteen banks, trust and life insurance companies; fifteen oil concerns; ten textile firms; eleven automobile and machinery manufacturers, and twenty-two miscellaneous companies. Part of the list is given below. Its most sensational features are dividends of 400 per cent, or $500,000,000 issued by the Standard Oil Company of New Jersey; 200 per cent, or $150,000,000 by the Standard of New York; 33% per cent, or $30,000,000 by the Singer Sewing Machine Co.; 600 per cent, $30,000,000 by the Victor Talking Machine Co.; 200 per cent or $16,600,000 by the Northern Paper Co.; and 900 per cent or $45,000,000 by the Atlantic Refining Co. The Labor Bureau list is not complete. There have undoubtedly been a large number of stock dividend issues which have never been made public. Some of the largest concerns in the country are close corporations. Their financial affairs are never known except to a small circle of stock holders. Their dividend records are an unknown quantity. A Billion and a Half in Melons. It is probably safe to estimate that the stock dividend total during these months has reached the staggering sum of one and a half billions of' dollars. This orgy of melon cutting has probably never before been equalled in American history. The immediate cause for this particular flood of stock dividends is undoubtedly a desire to avoid the taxation by the Federal Government of corporate surplus which is now threatened. These dividends prove, however, that in spite of the depression, these particular concerns have accumulated enormous surplus accounts. They show that there was no economic justification for these concerns to reduce wages, during the past two years. In this respect they are typical of conditions in large scale industry as a whole. The big concerns have had sufficient surplus to have carried them through the depression without any reduction in wages at all. Whatever they prove of the past, these stock dividend distributions have an even more immediate interest for Labor. They will make wage increases more difficult in the future. They place an additional charge on the future earnings of these particular firms in favor of the stockholders and at the expense of the workers themselves, which will amount to over one hundred millions of dollars a year. The new shares of stock which have been issued as dividends will, in turn, require the issuance of cash dividends in the future. In most cases the dividend rate on the new stock has not been announced. Of the four cases where it has been announced, two show increases over the previous rate on the outstanding stock. In one instance the same rate was continued on the new shares and in another the old rate was slightly reduced. The National Biscuit Company, for example, issued a 75 per cent, $30,000,000 stock dividend and placed the dividend rate on the old and new stock at 9 per cent-2 per cent more than the previous dividend level. In the case of the Atlantic Refining Co. it is intimated that the cash dividends to be paid on the new stock will be double the payment on the old shares. A $140,000,000 Charge on Industry. The Labor Bureau, Inc., has compiled in detail an estimate of how much the dividend payments on the new stock will amount to per year. Assuming in cases where the rates on the new stock are not announced that the existing rates will remain, the total adds up to $143,000,000 a year. This represents the additional charge against earnings which will operate as a block to the payment of future wage increases. Take these seventy-seven concerns. During the next year they will turn into their treasuries the income they receive from the sale of the goods or of services they pro duce. During the year the usual proportion of that income will be spent for materials, etc., or be set aside to pay interest on and eventually retire their bonds, to replace worn-out machinery, to expand the business and for other "fixed charges" and reserves. The balance will be available for the payment of wages and dividends. It is then a simple matter of arithmetic. The more that is paid in dividends the less can be paid in wages. Some $143,000,000 more must now go into dividends, so less can go into wages. It is true that during the past few years most of these corporations have been earning enough to pay these additional dividends without increasing their prices further or reducing wages. But they have been stowing away their profits in surplus accounts. Now, instead of doing this, they evidently intend to pay more out to shareholders. What the shareholders are going to get in addition to their former returns, labor might receive with no injury to these corporations. To make the situation even more concrete. Suppose there are 300,000 workers employed in these seventy-six concerns. If it were not for the necessity of paying $140,000,000 extra in dividends next year each worker could get $500 more in his pay envelope. The exact number of workers is not known, but 300,000 is a large estimate. If there are only 150,000 each one could get $1,000 more. It is significant that of the seventy-seven concerns in the stock dividend list only one is on the list of firms which have granted wage increases since the upward swing of wages began. It is possible that some of the seventy-seven have granted wage increases of which no public mention has been made; but at the most the proportion is negligible. The connection between stock dividends and the workers' weekly pay envelope is close enough to arouse considerable interest in the present situation among labor union circles.-The Railroad Worker. MAKING LABOR LAWS AVAILABLE. A copy of every law affecting labor that is passed in all the world is sent to the International Labor office at Geneva. Regardless of the language in which it is written it is read and digested. If it is of any importance, if it could be of any use to any student of labor law anywhere else in the world, it is printed. It is printed in three languages, English, French and German. All such laws passed in a given year are compiled in a weighty volume. They are made available to all the nations. So does it become possible for the legislator who, in South Africa, Finland or Chile, is preparing a statute on child labor, factory inspection, or safety devices, to have at his elbow all that has been done elsewhere in the world. It is one of the handy chores that grows out of international co-operation. A LOYAL PAINTER'S PRAYER. Lord, let me live like a union man With union friends and true; Let me play the game on a union plan Oh, give us a regular chance in life, Let me know the lot of humanity, And raise a union family Of union girls and boys! Let me live to a good old age, With honest snow white hair, Having done my labor and earned my wage, Pointers For Painters Clealiness may be regarded as the first cardinal principle in the painter's business. Not to control, but to help others control themselves; that is the fine art of managing men. Raw oil is bad to put in any size, as it will sweat out through the leaf, impairing the lustre. "Prospects," even in the most nominal way, is an incentive to which every man responds. Whitewash or kalsomine brushes should not be put into newly-slaked lime or hot kalsomine. Cement set brushes should never be put in any alcohol mixture, such as shellacs/or spirit stains. There is nothing assures success in big things, later on, so much as success in little things today. It stands to reason that the man who makes no mistakes is a man who accomplishes no new things. There is nothing encourages a workman to improve his condition in the future so much as a little improvement at the moment. Proper light and ventilation are absolutely necessary to facilitate the proper drying and hardening of varnish. It is unwise to borrow trouble till it knocks at your door. Many troubles are more imaginary than real, Dignity does far more than arrogant force. Gain the goodwill of your men and they will do far more in your interests. Pure Indian red, like red oxide, must be thinned out as thin as it can be worked to insure best color when used by itself. When mixing tints in a light shop remember that the color will not look the same when used in a comparatively dark room. There is a possibility of wasted money being acccumulated again; it does not go out of existence. But wasted time is lost and gone for ever. Good brushes are just as essential as good paints, and it is just as necessary to use the right brush at the right time as it is to use the right material. Don't bewilder a man by piling on him too many instructions at a time. It is like putting his head in a sack, so that he's bound to walk into a hole. Gold size of any sort should be used as sparingly as possible to secure the finest effects. That is, care should be taken to apply ít thin, rather than thick. True mechanics, as well as true artists, put their individuality into their work. Such men or women are not "eye service" people; they do their work for the love of beauty and truth. You will find it a difficult job to recognize adulteration in colors by the eye. The safest plan is to properly test the tinting strength, making a comparison between two makes of the same color. A man without ambition certainly never gets anything more than what happens to drift his way, and we all know how much of a success there is likely to be in picking up nothing but driftwood! Sometimes tacky paint can be made to dry hard by going over it with a mixture of japan and turps-one part of japan to five or six of turps; but when the paint is too soft, this is liable to fail. Strength is not all there is about the value of a dryer. Sometimes a strong dryer is the worst thing you can bring in contact with some delicate colors. Lightness in color, as well as strength, is necessary. OFFICIAL If Of Brother Archie H. Conrad, No. 90632, a member of L. U. 9, Kansas City, Mo. found please forward to S. M. McConnell, F. S., of L. U. 9, 3228 Oak St., Kansas City, Mo. Of Brothers J. A. Haag, W. H. Snedacor and Gerald Robinson, members of L. U. 555, of Portsmouth, Ohio. If found please forward to M. O. Neary, 1943 20th St., Portsmouth, Ohio. Of Brother Cornelius Hickey, No. 43017, a member of L. U. 844, of Greenfield, Mass. If found please forward to A. Beaulac, F. S., of L. U. 844, 140 High St., Greenfield, Mass. RESOLUTION ON DEATH OF WHEREAS, We, the Ladies' Auxiliary No. 5, of Local Union No. 79, Denver, Colorado, of the Brotherhood of Painters, Decorators and Paperhangers, have received word that our beloved Sister and Past President, Ida Doerr, has passed into the Great Beyond, and WHEREAS, Sister Doerr was a successful worker and a true friend to all; therefore, be it Resolved, That the charter of this organization be draped for thirty days and that we extend to Brother Doerr and family our most sincere sympathy; and be it further Resolved, That a copy of these resolutions be spread upon the minutes of our meeting and a copy sent to Brother Doerr and family and one to the headquarters for publication. (Signed) MRS. GEO. A. JOHNSTON, MYRTLE CUNNINGHAM, ANNA PETRI, MINNIE E. WEAVER, LAVINA BROCKER, MRS. CLARA FREEMAN, MRS. GRACE SMITH, MRS. ELSIE GEORGE, MRS. F. RAYMER. FINED. Brothers J. A. Solomon, No. 64255; Willis T. Holden, No. 128307; A. D. Griggs, No. 129125; D. B. Beal, No. 102258; S. C. Faulkner, No. 101863; Raymond Corley, No. 150839; Wm. H. Martin, No. 92828; H. C. Ray, No. 145136, of L. U. 432, Montgomery, Ala. Brothers John Fellows, No. 157333, and George Smith, No. 88478, of L. U. 970, Charleston, W. Va. WATCH YOUR BENEFITS. Local Unions in Arrears. Any L. U. becoming two months in arrears for per capita tax to the General Office shall at once be notified by the G. S.-T., and failing to settle all arrearages within twenty-one days from date of such notice its members shall not be entitled to benefits except where the local union is on strike or locked out, or for equally sufficient reasons is given an extension of time in which to make payments. Section 15 of the Constitution. Unions two months in arrears on closing accounts December 31st, 1922: 651, 710. 152, 235, 252, 330, 338, 353, 369. 384, 397. 439, 472, 509, 529, 573, 600, 606, 725, 726, 739, 746, 756, 760, 812, 840, 846, 859. 865, 872, 879, 914, 973. 915, 934, 945, 1000, 1027, 1041, 1047, 1060, 1068, 1080, 1084, 1113. 1129, 1131, 1132, 1133, 1169, 1184, 1243, 1264, 1267, 1286, 1289, 1311, 1328, 1339, 1340. The union label is the medium through which the public may enforce its rightful power of arbitrament between employer and employe. Decay is the enemy of structures, and paint the foe of decay. Limit your line of business to your qualifications. |