PROPOSED AMENDMENT TO THE GEN

ERAL CONSTITUTION. Submitted by Local Union No. 11, of Boston, Mass.

Amend Section 57 of the National Constitution, so as to read: No Clearance Card shall be granted to a member leaving the jurisdiction of his Local Union or District Council to work for his home employer where board and expenses are required to be paid by the employer; nor shall a member be compelled when so working to take out Clearance Card till after the expiration of sixty days, but if a Union or District Council exists in the town or city in which he is employed, he shall register his name with the local secretary on or before the first regular meeting. Unless so temporarily working for an outside firm a member must belong to the local union in whose jurisdiction he is employed. No member taking a Clearance Card shall be permitted to work for any firm from the jurisdiction from which Clearance Card is taken until after the expiration of sixty days from time Clearance Card is taken.

A member making application for Clearance Card shall be required to state whether or not he is leaving the jurisdiction of his Local Union or District Council to continue in the employ of his home firm in some other jurisdiction. A member violating and using Clearance Card in violation of this law shall, upon proof of such violation, pay to the Local Union issuing the card a fine not exceeding $25.00.

A Local Union accepting a Clearance Card shall at once notify the Union from which card is issued.

A member of the Brotherhood who visits a city or town in search of employment shall deposit his Clearance Card with some official of the Union within forty-eight hours after his arrival.

A member failing to observe this law will be liable to a fine not exceeding $10.00 or to suspension.

Endorsed by the Massachusetts State Conference at the January session, 1918. DONALD H. C. MACINTYRE, President L. U. 11. JOHN T. CASHMAN, Recording Secretary L. U. 11.

RESOLUTION.

Proposing special assessment to provide funds with which to pay benefits upon the death or disability of members serving in the army or navy of the United States or the army of the Dominion of Canada. Submitted by Local Union No. 265, of Chicago, Ill.

WHEREAS, Due to the enlistment and induction by selective draft of many members of our Brotherhood into the army and navy of the United States and the army of the Dominion of Canada, and realizing that other calls will be made during the period of this great world's war, and that general depression of business and the conditions arising from the high cost of living are seriously affecting the members and the treasuries of the Local Unions, and

WHEREAS, No provisions have been made for the protection of said members in said service, to keep them in good standing in their Local Unions and on the rolls of the General Office-should the Local Unions be unable to pay their per capita taxand as it would be an extreme hardship for said members in said service to pay their dues in such a crisis as this, and for the safety of the funds of the Local Unions and of the General Office, and as a fair deal to said members; be it

Resolved, That all enlisted and drafted members be exempted from paying all dues and assessments to any Local Union, District Council or the General Office while serving in the army or navy of the United States of America or Canada and be transferred to the General Office and be placed in a special class to be known as a Special Service Class. And be it further

Resolved, That all Local Unions be exempted from paying per capita tax on all drafted or enlisted members in the said service to any District Council or to the General Headquarters in order to save the treasuries of the Local Unions from financial collapse. And be it further

Resolved, That an assessment be levied on all members in good standing in the Brotherhood (not serving in the said armies or navy) of ten (10) cents per member per month during the following six months of the year, namely: April, May, June, August, September and October. This money to be set aside and placed in a special fund to be known as the Special Service Fund, to be used for no purpose other than the payment of Death and Disability benefits upon or to said members serving in the army or navy and in the amount due according to their standing up to time of death or disability in the service. And be it further

Resolved, That in case this Resolution is endorsed by the general membership and becomes a law the General Executive Board and the General Secretary-Treasurer shall be empowered to levy said assessment not to exceed ten (10) cents per member for the above said six months on all members of all Local Unions (not serving in the army or navy) under the jurisdiction of the General Office. Be it further

Resolved, That the Financial Secretary of each Local Union be instructed by the General Secretary-Treasurer to collect said assessment from all members in good stand

ing or reinstated; all moneys collected from said assessment to be forwarded to the General Secretary-Treasurer of the Brotherhood who shall place such moneys into the fund to be known as a Special Service Fund for the purpose of paying claims as above stated. Be it further

Resolved, That at the close of this world's war and after legitimate claims against said fund have been paid, the balance shall revert to the Death and Disability Fund of the Brotherhood, and under no circumstances shall the General SecretaryTreasurer or members of the Executive Board have power to transfer any part of the said Special Service Fund to any fund other than the General Death and Disability Fund; and that at the expiration of this war all members shall be transferred back in their respective Local Unions and be placed in the same standing that they had prior to their draft or enlistment in the army or navy of the United States or the army of the Dominion of Canada.

Should this resolution receive the endorsement of twenty-five local unions, representing five or more different states or provinces, the G. E. B. shall be authorized to prepare and submit to a referendum of the membership such amendments to the General Constitution as may be necessary to carry into effect and operation the provisions set forth above.

Committee,

H. H. CAMPBELL, Chairman. J. VAN DYK, Secretary.

PLAN PERIODIC ADJUSTMENT OF SHIPBUILDERS' WAGES.

The Department of Labor has issued the following:

Wages will be made to keep pace with the high cost of living if the purpose of a series of conferences between representatives of the Department of Labor and the Shipping Board is realized. If satisfactory figures showing the exact advances in living cost in shipbuilding centers can be worked out, it is hoped that an arrangement can be made by which adjustments of wages will be made periodically.

Wages Outdistanced by Food Prices.

Commenting upon the plan, Assistant Secretary of Labor Louis F. Post said: "Wages and food prices have been racing each other and food prices have outdistanced wages. For every two-dollar advance in wages there is a corresponding three dollars or more in the cost of living. Unless these two things can be equalized the wage earner is going to get smaller and

smaller real wages no matter how much money wages he gets. The cost of living has been advancing at least 2 per cent a month and the man who is getting the same money wages that he did a year ago is only three-fourths as well off. Unless the wage earner can have his pay envelope stabilized in terms of what it will buy rather than in terms of money he is bound to be the loser."

Increase in New York.

Reports of the Bureau of Labor Statistics show the following increase in the cost of living in the New York shipbuilding district from the beginning of the European. war up to December, 1917: Men's clothing, 51.4 per cent; women's clothing, 51.63 per cent; furniture and furnishing, 56.47 per cent; food, 55 per cent; housing, 2.6 per cent; fuel and light, 19.92 per cent; miscellaneous items, 44.68 per cent.

Forty-five per cent of the average family's expenditures go to pay for food, 13 per cent for housing, and 20 per cent for fuel and light. The average expenditure of each of 608 families of shipyard employees was found to be $1,348.64 during 1917.

LaFayette, Ind., March 11, 1918.

To Hon. Newton D. Baker,

Secretary of War,

Washington, D. C.

The General Executive Board of the Brotherhood of Painters, speaking for the skilled workmen in the painting industry, protests against the use of machines in the painting of buildings and ships as impracticable, costly, wasteful of materials, producing poor results as compared with hand work and as destructive to health of men operating machines.

GEO. F. HEDRICK, President;

J. C. SKEMP, Secretary. (Copies of above telegram were sent to the Secretary of the Navy, to President Gompers, of the A. F. of L., and to President Donlin, of the Building Trades Department).

Acknowledgment.

War Department, March 12, 1918. Dear Sir:-Your telegram of the 11th instant, regarding the employment of machinists in the painting of ships, has been placed in the hands of the Emergency Fleet Corporation, as the matter lies entirely with them. Very truly yours,

D. W. ALLEN, Secretary's Office. Mr. George F. Hedrick,

President of the General Executive Board, Brotherhood of Painters,

Lafayette, Ind.

DS

Removing a Misapprehension.

March 16, 1918.

(Attention, Mr. D. W. Ailen.)

Hon. Newton D. Baker,

Secretary of War,

Washington, D. C.

Dear Sir:-Your letter of the 12th instant in reply to a telegram signed by Mr. George F. Hedrick and myself and sent March 11th, has been referred to me for reply.

Your letter describes our telegram as having reference to the employment of machinists in the painting of ships. This is an error. Either the telegram was improperly sent or you misapprehended its contents. We complain of the use of spray machines in the painting of buildings and ships, not of the employment of machinists to do the work of painters. We contend that the spray machine is impracticable, that it is the most costly method of doing

the work, as it wastes material, and that it produces poor results. The health of the men operating machines is also seriously affected.

I note that you have placed the matter in the hands of the Emergency Fleet Cor poration. I presume that is the proper course in so far as the use of the spray machine on ships is concerned, but I understand that it is proposed to use the machine also in the painting of cantonment buildings.

Will you please bring our protest to the attention of the body having jurisdiction over that work?

Accept our thanks for your prompt acknowledgment of our protest.

Yard, both oil paint and water color being applied in this manner. Until recently the spray machine was used in the ship yard of the Fore River Ship Company. Some time ago we had a complaint that red lead was being applied with the spray machine in the ship yards on Puget Sound, Washington.

The Naval Storage Building at Boston Navy Yard was painted with the spray machine. The contract was awarded to Daniels and Company. Forty-five buildings at the Naval Hospital, Chelsea, Mass., were sprayed, the men operating the machines wearing gas masks. This work was done by Frank Cutter, of Boston. The spray machine is being used at the Watertown Arsenal by Stone and Webster and Norcross Brothers. Two buildings have been done and eighteen or twenty are to be done. The spray machine is being used on the Walter Reed hospital at Washington by Pennington and Taylor, painting contractors.

Yours very truly,

J. C. SKEMP, G. S.-T.

PAINTING OF BUILDINGS AT CANTONMENT CAMPS.

Reply to Letter Urging That Work Be Done.
War Department,

Office of the Quartermaster General
of the Army.

Washington, D. C., March 25, 1918. To: Mr. J. C. Skemp, G. S.-T., LaFayette,

1. Your letter of March 19th, addressed to the Hon. Newton D. Baker, relative to painting of the buildings at the various Cantonments and Camps has been referred to this office.

2. In reply you are advised that the painting of buildings which have been erected under the direction of this Division has not been authorized.