ployer are always taken care of. Should larger profits accrue from the products produced under the trade union agreement, then the wise and fair employer is willing to concede to the trade unionist employed by him an increased salary proportional to the increased profits reaped by him. That is what we assume as a result from industrial reciprocity.

During my experience in the labor movement, extending back for some twenty-three or more years, I remember as a boy of 10 years of age, working in the tobacco industry, how I had to commence work at 6 o'clock in the morning, had a half hour for dinner, and then labored until 9 or 10 in the evening without any compensation for overtime, and was only too eager to receive the munificent salary of $2 for my week's work. Wages were continually getting lower and lower among the men and women who were employed in the tobacco industry. In the spring of 1885 while the Knights of Labor were in their zenith, an organization was formed in the city of Cincinnati, Ohio. When we had been in existence about five years, conditions had not beer bettered. Our wages remained the same and the consequence was that large numbers of the members naturally fell away until finally we were out of existence. In the year of 1895, the National Tobacco Workers' Union was formed which afterwards was changed to international. With its inception a trade-mark, or union label, was adopted to assure the public that such tobacco as bore this label was manufactured under union-that is, humane and sanitary-conditions. As a result of the agreement between the tobacco manufacturers and the tobacco workers' unior, the manufacturers were prohibited from employing either men or women under the age of 16 years, and at a salary that did not reasonably compensate them for the amount of labor performed.

During my sixteen years as a member of the union, and my term of five years as international president, the wages in the union factories have increased in the South 15 per cent and in some instances among the Northern factories 40 per cent; accompanied by a reduction of hours in soine cases from eighteen hours to eight or nine hours. These improvements show the power of an organized body of men and women. We realize that the employers of our craft do not use the union label for their undying love of it, but for its commercial value which increases the sales of their products and returns to them a profit. We, however, realize also that the extended use of the label by our employers gives us steadier employment, and an added right to negotiate for higher wages, shorter hours, and more sanitary conditions for our membership.

BENEFITS FROM DEPARTMENT
ORGANIZATION.

By ALBERT J. BERRES, Secretary-Treasurer, Metal Trades

Department.

The longing for better conditions, the cry for human rights, and the growth of the labor movement go on unabated and with a determination that bespeaks victory. There is no wavering-no letting up in this movement of ours, because its mission is so broad, so noble, and so just, that it inspires all those who think right, with its great

ness and its contributions to the general wellbeing of the workers. Its wonderful achievements and accomplishments stand as monuments on which is inscribed: "By my work I shall be judged."

Some one has said, "This age and the American people do not want medieval shams; they want light, daylight, electric light, yes, and sunlight. They want realities, they want character, they want learning, they want good judgment, they want independence, and they want these free from barbaric and aristocratic subterfuge."

The American labor movement, marching under the banner of the American Federation of Labor, has for years portrayed not only the wants but the needs of the people more forcibly than any other institution in this country. It has been the advance guard of progressive thought and the protector of the rights, the wants, and the needs of all the people without reserve. It has kept march with the times, taking advantage of every opportunity that would even in a small degree, quicken the step of the march and bring the goal nearer. It has not lagged back nor has it loitered, but it has exercised good judgment in marking out the way and the policies to make progress faster.

An organization of the crafts that were closely related and whose environments were such that by agreeing to act jointly where our interests were at stake, was ordained to speed the settlement of disputes or differences. In other words, it was felt that to some extent these closely-related organizations should be centralized. No one today would want to place himself so far out of line with progressive thought as to condemn this form of organization unless he be "a reactionary." Progress is being made, and a general development for good is noticeable in all quarters.

With

Eight-hour laws have been passed and eight-hour amendments have been inserted in various appropriation bills to such an extent as to convince the most bitter opponents to legislation of this character that they could no longer prevent the passage of a general eight-hour law. these amendments applying to certain ships authorized in the several naval acts, and with careful watching by the metal trades to see that the law is enforced, we have been able to get encouragement from certain large shipbuilding concerns through the influence of this legislation, along the line of placing their entire plants on an eight-hour day basis within the very near future.

So at last the real charm, the real goal, the real dream of the membership of the metal trades is to be realized. It can be seen in the not far distance, for day by day we bring it closer, day by day a greater interest is being displayed in one another through this closer association of our metal trades unions. When this equal division of the day comes, when we shall sleep eight hours, work eight hours, and recreate eight hours, we can say that this closer association of the trades hastened it on. The membership of our affiliated organizations is increasing, and improved conditions have been established in many localities. A tendency to work and to act together is generally manifesting itself, which is convincing evidence that the policies, the character of organization decided on by the American Federation of Labor, are of the kind adequate to meet the wonderful and rapid changes in the industrial field of today.

O

LONDON, July 27, 1912. N JULY 27, the Loudon transport workers' strike concluded its ninth week, and when we remember that the previous great London dockers' strike of twenty years or more ago only lasted four weeks, the intensity of the present struggle can be imagined. Sixty thousand union men remain out on strike and the few that have gone back in the last two months induced by every variety of reason do not number more than a thousand at the most. There are perhaps 15,000 blacklegs working in the docks, but their services are very inefficient. That this is so may be gathered from the fact that it was not until after the strike had been eight weeks in force that the first ship was able to load here and leave the London docks. Ships that usually come in, are unloaded and reloaded, and away within a week, are taking five and ten times that time, and wharves, warehouses, and ships' holds are cumbered up with a vast collection of things that can not be handled.

The unions concerned have had to cease handing out strike pay owing to the serious diminution of their funds, and the strikers have to depend upon grants from other unions and philanthropic funds, the latter of course being nfore concerned with the wives and children than with the men. Fortunately, the children of school age are entitled to a free meal once or twice a day at school, but owing to the vast number recently applying for these meals the food supplied has been reduced in quantity, quality, and variety. At the present time the average striker's child is fortunate if he gets, twice a day, slices of bread spread with jam and a cup of cocoa. Men and women alike are suffering practically in silence.

Lord Devonport is now perceived to be the dictator of the docks. This man made his money in the tea and grocery business and, along with his partner, Tonge, is the proprietor of about 200 grocery stores spread about the country. The company he runs, controlling these stores, has just issued its annual report showing a profit of $700,000 on the year. After building up his business he went into Parliament as a member of the Liberal party and was eventually given his title as a reward for services rendered to the party-financial and otherwise. He is detested by the strikers naturally and is not regarded with any friendly eye by the thousands of merchants and agents whose goods are held up in the docks through his obstinate refusal to accept anything but the most base and unconditional surrender of the men. Representations from Parliament, from the bishops of the Church of England, and from many other non-partisan sources are of no avail. The men must practically come back on their hands and knees and promise to be good for ever after. It is not surprising, therefore, that at the great strike meeting on Tower Hill, on July 24, 50,000 assembled strikers chanted solemnly after Ben Tillett, their leader, the prayer, "Oh God, strike Lord

Devonport dead!" This was at once seized upon by the servile press and denounced as blasphemy, but it is a true indication of the intense hatred that this scoundrelly despot has achieved. His town house is guarded by relays of police day aud night.

The return to England of Havelock Wilson, along with the co-operation of Tom Mann after his release from prison, looks at the moment of writing like changing the whole face of affairs. These two men are great favorites with the organ-. ized workers of the country and they are now on a mission to the various ports with a view to testing local feeling and seeing whether a proper national strike can be organized to assist the London dockers. At the eleventh hour, therefore, hope once more reigns, and very high hope indeed.

Furthermore, a proposal is gradually integrating for common action between transport workers, the railway men, and the miners. Correspondence is passing between the executives of the various unions with a view to a combination to bring about a great national strike of these three great industries in support of the London dockers rather than see one great brigade of the army of union labor defeated by the employers.

The British miners are anything but satisfied with the way the much boomed Minimum Wage act is working out and on July 15, Premier Asquith met the leaders of the Miners' Federation of Great Britain upon the point. The deputation consisted of twenty miners' leaders representing the various mining districts of Great Britain. The complaint was the inadequacy of the minimum rates fixed by the joint boards under the act. Premier Asquith declared that the case did not justify parliamentary interference; he considered that the miners had derived great benefit from his. measure and that was all he had to say.

A local strike broke out in Liverpool on July 15, against the new clearing-house system there. This was a scheme springing from no doubt good motives for the decasualisation of dock labor in that great port. Outside philanthropists, who have discovered that even in the busiest time of the year out of over 27,000 available dock laborers only 16,000 could hope to find work on any one day, consulted with James Sexton, the leader of the local dockers, and what is known as the Clearing House System was elaborated.

The scheme is necessarily elaborate in detail, but it is simple in principle. According to its promoters its purpose is to make a beginning with the decasualisation of labor at the docks without bearing too hard on those who at present supply that labor. Its kernel is registration-the limiting of employment to men duly registered, with, as a consequence, the discouragement of the old, limitless influx of the destitute and the undesirable. Its first effect, in short, is to set limits to the amount of casual labor, and its ultimate effect is intended to reduce that amount to manageable pro

portions, because registration is not to be granted to new applicants where the supply of labor is found to be excessive. The scheme also aims, by means of better organization, to make a more equable relation between the labor available and the labor in demand. There were before about 100 "stands" where laborers are engaged daily in the port of Liverpool, and between these, stretching along the whole seven-mile length of the docks, there was no intercommunication. A surplus of labor at some stands might, and often did, co-exist with a shortage of labor at other stands.

To avert this disorganization the scheme divides the docks into specific areas, and provides for each a clearing-house, all the clearing-houses being in communication with a central office. The management of these clearing-houses is left to joint committees of masters and men, but the work of them is carried on by the officials of the Labor Exchanges (the Government employment bureau), the capital cost and salaries of staff being borne by the Board of Trade. Incidentally, the machinery thus set up serves two other most important purposes. In the first place, it serves to provide a means for the more convenient payment of wages; and in the second place, it serves to provide a simple method of arranging for the payment of the compulsory weekly contributions under the new National Insurance Act which came into force on July 15. Without such a scheme the application of the act to the casual labor at the docks would have presented many difficulties.

Under the old system dockers who might have been working for several employers, were obliged at the end of the week to collect their earnings at the several offices-often widely separated. The task involved much loss of time, and a great leak

age of the earnings, owing to the temptations of hanging about. Under the clearing-house scheme all money earned, no matter from how many employers, may be collected at one office.

The strike that broke out was caused by the dockers getting the idea that the clearing-house tallies were meant to replace and discredit the union badges and to smash the men's union. A further scheme for making the men entirely dependent on their employers was also seen in it. Ten thousand men struck on July 15 and although many returned a number still remained out. The dockers' union officials are entirely in favor of the new clearing-house system.

By 18,096 votes against 3,905 the members of the Amalgamated Society of Engineers have ratified the agreement between the Engineering and Shipbuilding Employers' Federations and the twenty trade unions in the industry, which provides for the settlement of demarcation disputes without any stoppage of work.

A large proportion of the small strikes and stoppages in this industry occur through quarrels as to what workmen shall do certain kinds of work. Owing to constant introduction of new processes of manufacture it is essential that machinery for deciding claims of work should be established. The agreement now accepted by a majority of the men provides that in the event of a demarcation dispute no stoppage shall take place, and the men involved shall temporarily accept the decision of the works' management. The ultimate decision, which shall be final and binding for at least twelve months, will be made in a joint conference of the local employers' association and the trade union representatives of the men. All parties will bear their own costs.

-HORACE TRAUBEL.

Building trades are busily employed at this writing. Brewery workers obtained increased wages and better conditions recently.

CALIFORNIA.

Pasadena.-Thos. J. Johnson:

About 90 per cent of the building trades here are organized. Union men steadily employed, but the condition of unorganized workers here is bad. Cement workers, meatcutters, shoe cobblers, and building laborers are organizing. The label league is doing splendid work.

Santa Barbara.-C. F. Edie:

Work is more plentiful than for some time past. Prospects for the future are good. There are no changes in conditions to report at this writing.

San Francisco.-John O. Walsh:

Organized labor in good shape, but the condition of unorganized workers is not good. Employment is not plentiful at this time. Labor Commissioner is working actively to enforce the six-dayweek law, by arrests and fines in case of violation. Saw filers are organizing.

San Mateo.-J. B. Falvey:

Conditions here are improving. There has been a greater number of initiations in the past three months than at any time in the past five years. About 80 per cent of all mechanics are steadily employed. State Labor Commissioner is enforcing the six-day-week law.

DISTRICT OF COLUMBIA.

Washington.-P. J. Conlon:

Union men here receive about 25 per cent more wages and work shorter hours than the nonunion men. The eight-hour bill has been passed by Congress.

FLORIDA.

Tallahasse.-Thos. E. Andrews:

Practically all trades are steadily employed. The workers are organizing throughout this section. Plumbers and colored carpenters are forming unions at this writing. Union label committee is doing splendid work here.

Titusville-Luther L. Hitchcock:

There are practically no unorganized workers here, except the unskilled laborers. Employment is steady, and all trades are busy. Mechanics here have established a standard wage of $3 per day and eight-hour day.

GEORGIA.

Brunswick.-H. C. Walker:

Organized trades are in very good shape. Work is fairly plentiful. Carpenters have secured the

eight-hour day without strike. Union men are given the preference on all work here. Longshoremen are organizing. All union men demand the union labels.

Lithonia.-A. G. Wilson:

Organized labor is in first-class condition. Employment fairly steady. We have gained increase of 10 cents per day and forty-five-hour week, to take effect January, 1913. The Georgia Federation of Labor has a number of good labor measures pending in the Legislature.

Macon.-Frank M. Hobbs:

The various unions in this locality report working conditions good and no friction of any sort. There are prospects of several new unions. Continued agitation for all union-label products is bringing results.

Savannah.-Robt. Fechner:

Condition of organized labor continues good. There are but few non-union men in this vicinity. Employment steady, especially in the building trades. Electricians are organizing. The State Federation maintains a standing Union Label Committee and this year it has undertaken to systematize the work among all the central bodies in the State. The results so far are very promising, especially in the smaller towns. The barbers of Savannah have almost reached the 100 per cent mark, after being organized only about four months.