enjoy, but wherever he goes he will find the same average level. There is no escape, for he is a worker, and, as such, is forced to compete with every other worker in his industry. A job he must have and any job that he gets is owned by some employer. He may change masters, but that is all he can do under the existing order of society. He cannot even begin to think of abolishing the existing order, for something better, until he has learned that organization is the first step.

Pointing out the shortcomings of the labor movement will not do much good, unless such criticism is backed up by constructive action, and constructive action means that the individual must sink his identity in that of the mass. In other words, he must organize and become an integral part of some organization.

If the entire labor movement should be suddenly devastated it would be but a very short time before every unorganized worker, scoffer, and critic would face the grim reality that something had happened, for it would be brought home to them forcibly in the shrunken pay-envelope, in the lengthened hours and in the abusive attitude of every petty boss with whom they came in contact.

Those Who Divide the Ranks Are

Devil's Own Henchmen

Those nefarious schemers, who are bent upon the destruction of organized labor and who seek to smash its principles and high ideals by injecting discontent and creating discord in the ranks, serve no man. They are the devil's own henchmen. These men promote their sinister purposes by many underhanded methods, chief among which is a persistent effort to discredit the American Federation of Labor. For example, they claim that the American Federation of Labor opposes effective federation of workers or any and all forms of industrial organization and this is just one of the many deceptions that communists and other revolutionists present to earnest wage workers of this country.

As these revolutionists recognize no moral code that will postpone the establishment of their communistic society, they glibly state absolute untruths when fighting an opponent. Their mental attitude-"nothing must stop the revolution"-justifies them in brazenly ignoring facts as they assure wage workers that the A. F. of L. insists on small groups of craft unions, instead of having workers united in powerful combinations. This is part of the revolutionists' grand

"strategy"-of attempting to weaken the A. F. of L., and Building Trades Department wherever possible.

At the Portland convention of the A. F. of L. this policy was again exposed, and it was declared that "an examination of the roster of the affiliated organizations of the A. F. of L. disproves that false imputation and stigmatizes those who would advance such untruths either as being ignorant or deliberate frauds."

The convention unanimously adopted a committee's report which included a recommendation that the executive council's report on this subject be carefully read. Attention was also called to the implication in several "amalgamation" resolutions "that affiliated 'crafts' unions can not co-operate, federate or amalgamate because of some fancied power of resistance alleged to be exercised by the A. F. of L. Again, an examination of the records of the A. F. of L. brands such an implication as false and untrue.

"It is not, however, so much the false implications and imputations involved in these so-called 'amalgamation' resolutions that they should move us to renewed vigor and drastic action as it is the motives of the prime movers who are continually urging these proposals upon the councils of labor," said the committee.

In

"Demonstrative proof is overwhelming that those who are constantly at work dividing the organized workers on abstract discussions of forms of organizations and spreading the poison of suspicion against the officers of trade unions, have never been loyal trade unionists and have always antagonized the trade union movement. addition, the self-acclaimed 'amalgamationists' are not bent on amalgamation, but upon the disruption and destruction of the organized labor movement of America. In this they serve well the employers who would again assume complete mastery over the destinies of the wage earners.

"The purpose and aim of these destructionists as well as their standing within our communities, is no less savory than that of private detectives who would sell the soul of their fellow man for the jingle of gold. In the religious world such men are excommunicated. In the political world such men are ostracised from society, if not treated more severely through the operation of laws relating to treason. In the industrial world we have tolerated them altogether too freely.

"These sinister agents, propagandists and destructionists of a foreign foe to our

American institutions should be singled out wherever found and the light of day be thrown upon their nefarious work."

Aid Brotherhood's Growth; Let That Be 1924 Resolution

Mightier than the force of arms or barriers of isolation, is the conquering march of Trade Unionism and as a movement its time has now come. Unionism is the most irresistible thing in the world. It knows no creed or color boundaries, no party lines, no territorial limits. Unionism has come out of a profound conviction and must be heralded to all the world.

Providence seems to have prepared the way for the advancement of our fraternal and beneficial organization. With the mighty strides of fraternalism we are carried through the centuries of the Christian age, past the mountain peaks of the journey until today Unionism stands crowned as the greatest achievement of mankind for the betterment of the wage earner.

Ours is a new world and a new age. Only a few years ago, comparatively speaking, nations were isolated, vast continents were uncharted, and human relationships were vastly different from what we have today. A marvelous change has passed over mankind. The passion for the blazing of new trails has gripped the mind of man which has led to the discovery of new colonies and the establishment of our great fraternal fellowship. So at present the harvest for organizing was never so abundant and the need never so universally insistent as today.

Thus far, the year 1923 has been very satisfactory in the accumulation of funds for the Brotherhood, but we need more new members. The appeal is made to each and every member as well as to the officers and business agents, that they redouble their efforts for the remaining days of this year and procure the application of at least those whom they know are qualified as craftsmen, eligible to membership in the Brotherhood.

whom he meets, to join the Brotherhood. The members should realize that the brotherhood is not an impersonal corporation in the life insurance business, but is an alliance of men like himself, organized for the purpose of mutual protection.

Be Ardent Fan in Great Human
Game Played by Labor

The labor forces are engaged in a great human game just as the baseball players are participating in a national game. And if we union men would but foster the spirit of enthusiasm over our game-the labor game—in the same proportion that the baseball fan does over his game, victory would be achieved with far less trouble and heartache. There is as much difference between an honest-to-God union man and a socalled card member as there is between a red-blooded game of baseball and a knitting contest.

can.

The "honest-to-God" man is in the union to put into it everything he can; the card man is in the union to get out of it all he It behooves the honest man to stir himself to fully assume and fully sense his individual responsibility. In order to know your duty it is most important that you keep yourself well informed regarding the mission of the labor movement and be ever ready to defend its principles and explain its logical program.

The labor press, especially the progressive labor papers, a large number of splendid books, your own journal and other literature on the labor movement and on the social question will all aid you to form sane judgments and help you to come to sensible conclusions.

The game of labor is the most worthy in the world. Each man, if he is true to his team, feels that an important responsibility rests upon him not to fail in a single instance to make good for his team. Opportunities do not come alike perhaps for each member of such a team to make the winning score, but no one connected with the game knows for sure what part of it the next

Social gatherings offer the opportunity for members to invite their friends and fellow craftsmen, whereby they become enlightened as to the advantages accruing from membership in the Brotherhood. It is very seldom any person voluntarily makes a request for membership in any organization. Therefore it is incumbent upon those who are members to ask those working at the craft, whom he knows personally or

Therefore the player must be on the alert every moment and be equal to his job and thus render a great service to his teammates and credit and reward to himself.

There is constant need in the labor movement for just such a personal interest on the part of each unit of the organization. This interest must be put on legs and made to run, to fight, to use every means to win an honest game. We must be everlastingly at it. The most celebrated musicians must

practice conscientiously every day or soon the critic will notice the defect and then the audience. To score in the labor game we must get actively into the game and keep everlastingly active in its behalf.

I

IMPORTANT

T is a very dangerous habit for our members to be late or tardy in making payment of monthly dues to the Financial Secretary. It is still more dangerous for the Financial Secretary to delay_sending to the General Secretary-Treasurer the monthly report, together with the Day Book sheets, showing the monthly payments as required by our laws.

Monthly dues are payable on the first day of each and every month, and must be paid to the Financial Secretary on or before the last day of the month. (All Locals should establish the quarterly payment of dues in advance.)

It is not only wrong but very unjust for the Financial Secretary of a Local Union to hold the report because some few members are habitually late in making payments.

Members who have paid promptly to the Financial Secretary should be reported promptly in accordance with the laws of the Brotherhood to the General Office. In the future no payments of per capita will be accepted by the General SecretaryTreasurer if on the face of the day book it is showr. that dues have been accepted by the Financial Secretary from any members after the suspension date. Whether that be a one day suspension or not, each such member will be recorded suspended and reinstatement fee demanded.

This is a word of warning-not only to the Financial Secretary, but to the members who have formed the habit of being late about making their monthly payments.

CHAS. J. LAMMERT,
Gen. Sec'y-Treas.

Men, like trains, are at their best when on the level.

A receipt for perpetual trouble-believe all you hear and repeat it.

APPOINTED JUDGES FOES OF PEOPLE; ELECTION CURE..

Election of judges by popular vote is the remedy for those un-American institutions known as injunction judges and injunctions in labor disputes, according to a ringing declaration by the 1923 convention of the Illinois state federation of labor.

"Since the dawn of civilization the most effective enemies of progress, on the part of the masses of the people, have been the appointed judges," declares the convention.

"The judge was appointed by the king, and he served the influences who made and kept him, the king.

"He manipulated the arrest and imprisonment of individuals sought to be gotten out of the way, delayed trials, misapplied and misinterpreted laws to suit the wishes and interests of those who gave him his appointment and, permitted him to remain in that position.

"Wherever constitutional governments were set up it was the encroachment upon that constitution by the appointed judge which destroyed it, and with it destroyed the constitutional form of government as well.

"In our day it is the great financial interests that corrupt elections and control government who secure the appointment of these judges, and the judges who secure their positions by this process now are, if anything, more responsive to the desires of those interests than they were in the early days of human history."

Referring to the injunction in the railroad shopmen's strike issued by federal District Judge Wilkerson, at the request of Attorney General Daugherty, the convention declaration says:

"It is doubtful if there is a specific act in the history of the whole human race where a judge so abjectly surrendered himself, and the power and influence of his position, to serve such interests, by taking away the inherent rights and liberties and constitutional guaranties of so large a section of the population, as was evidenced by the injunction made permanent by the United States federal district court against the striking railroad shopmen.

"Until this institution of apopinted judges is abolished, or the powers of these judges are restricted, there are no rights or liberties of the people that are safe.

"If we are to have a democracy in government in any real sense, the appointment of judges must be abandoned and provisions made for them being elected by the people.

"In the meantime we can make some substantial progress if in voting for judges who are elected we will vote only for those who will refuse to issue injunctions in labor disputes, and if in voting for executive officers who have the power to appoint judges we will vote only for executive officers who will refuse to appoint judges who will issue injunctions in labor disputes."

B

Portland, Ore., Nov. 30

OLSHEVISM got a red hot condemnation at the hands of Frank Hodges, secretary of the British Miners' Federation, who addressed the American Federation of Labor convention.

Hodges declared that Bolshevism, "born in an Asiatic mind" made intellectual, moral and economic slaves and offering nothing to Western civilization. Hodges warned especially against the communist nuclei, "borers from within," who comes unseen, working by stealth to rot down the structure of trade unionism.

In

"You here," said the British Miners' leader, to the accompaniment of deafening cheers, "are going through the same battle of ideas as we are in the old country, and, for that matter, as we are in Europe; but as long as there are different mentalities there will always be a clash of ideas. Europe, as here, the old idea of parliamentary democracy, and democracy generally, is being challenged; it is being challenged by an entirely new theory of government; it is being challenged by the cast iron theories developed in Moscow.

"Those theories are established with the purpose of showing to the world that democracy as popularly understood is played out; that liberty and fraternity are just figments of the imagination and that the British labor movement, as indeed they have said to the German labor movement and the French labor movement: 'You are on the wrong track. What is required for the emancipation of the working classes is the Soviet system of government.'

"Now, we don't regard that change as being something of which we take into account. We invite the apostles of this new theory of government to come out into the open and declare from public platforms how it is that this theory of government can be regarded as something infinitely superior to our ideas of democratic government. We invite them out into the open; we say, 'Table your arguments; let the world hear what you have to offer.' And the more you invite them on the platforms the more obvious it becomes to the ordinary mind that this form of government has nothing to offer or to improve upon our democratic form of government.

"I feel sure that the American leader and the American working man is something like the Britisher in this regard. He hates, despises and rejects dictatorship of any character or description. Why, I have often said we are so open-minded in the labor movement that we can scarcely tolerate each other's views, much less tolerate such a view as this. We treat a man's views

with courtesy and respect, but we immediately react and rebel against that man if he attempts to impose them upon us. That is as being individuals.

"When it comes to great and fundamental issues of the evolution of a great community of people whose degree of attainment in culture is marked by the free expression of the human spirit, then all that is best and noblest in us revolts against the idea that our opinions are to be taken ready-made from some superior authority.

"It is only, it seems to us, both in the trade union movement and in the political movement, when each individual regards himself as a living unit, conscious, full of individual feeling, exercising his own judgment in affairs of both himself and a nation that he is exercising the prerogatives of a man, not when he is accepting the dictatorship of anyone above or below. There is only one danger, not in the clashing of ideas, we can hold our own and show that our system, which implies the freedom of the human spirit, is the best system; but what is to be guarded against is what is described in Europe as 'boring from within,' the ruining of a movement from the inside.

"You cannot quite lay your hand on the guilty person, but his devastating work you can see in the crumbling of the trade union movement. In your trade union movement, whether it be in the local, in the branch, in the district or in the national, be on your guard against the individual who gets inside the organization and by stealth, by cunning, by methods which do not lend themselves to the light of day endeavoring to break up your organization for the purpose of making you become the intellectual, moral and economic slaves of the system that is hidebound, cast iron, developed in an Asiatic which bears no relation to our Western conceptions of democratic freedom."

If a man stumbles it is a good thing to help him to his feet. Everyone of us needs a helping hand now and then. But if a man lies down, it is a waste of time to try to carry him.

If you think your job is disagreeable, how about the poor bank clerk who spends every day counting other people's money.

A mule cannot kick when he is pulling; neither can he pull when he is kicking.

It is as hard to keep a good man down as it is to hold a poor man up.

Put things over with a punch-but not on the other fellow.