IN every community there are people who are highly regarded for their reliability. They are respected and trusted by high and low. Their word is as good as their bond. The Dutch Boy Painter products possess a quality like the character of these persons. Whenever it is promised that a Dutch Boy product will do a certain thing, the product may be relied on to do that certain thing. DUTCH ROY WHITE-LEAD will always, when mixed with pure linseed oil and applied by a good painter, protect and beautify the surface to which it is applied. DUTCH BOY RED-LEAD will always protect metal surface from corrosion. DUTCH BOY LINSEED OIL is always absolutely pure, well filtered and settled and of uniform quality. Any article that bears the Dutch Boy trademark will do exactly what is claimed for it. At this critical period in the history of our country, I believe it is the duty of every patriotic American to stand back of our President in the spirit of loyalty and cooperation. I am convinced, however, that the cause of humanity can never really be served by methods which array men against their brothers. in a spirit of suspicion and hate. Justice cannot be permanently secured by means which prove merely the might, not the right, of a nation. Honor cannot be maintained by the organized slaughter of men by men. The most precious possession of mankind is the spirit of brotherhood and cooperate service. Without it there is no life worth the living. Civilization advances just in proportion as men act upon a belief in their fellow-men. Since war destroys this spirit of brotherhood, which is humanity's greatest possession, war is humanity's greatest foe. The people of every land are longing for the time when love shall conquer hate, when cooperation shall replace conflict, when war shall be no more. This time will come only when the people of some great nation dare to sacrifice the outworn traditions of international dealing and act to make the present what they want the future to be. The United States can be the nation and this is the time. It is America's supreme opportunity. Unflinching good will, no less than war, demands courage, patriotism, and self-sacrifice. To such a victory over itself, to such a leadership of the world, to such an embodiment of the matchless, invincible power of good will this otherwise tragic hour challenges our country. WHERE WE STAND Determined to avert war if possible; if we fail, ready to give voluntary service to our country; insisting in return that the workers shall have a voice in national affairs and that union conditions shall obtain and be respected on government work and in industry in general. Declaration of the Executive Council of the American Federation of Labor endorsed by conference of officers of International Unions and the Railroad Brotherhoods held in Washington, D. C., March 12, 1917: E speak for millions of Americans. We are not a sect. We are not a party. We represent the organizations held together by the pressure of our common needs. We represent the part of the nation closest to the fundamentals of life. Those we represent wield the nation's tools and grapple with the forces that are brought under control in our material civilization. The power and use of industrial tools is greater than the tools of war and will in time supersede agencies of destruction. A world war is on. The time has not yet come when war has been abolished. Whether we approve it or not, we must recognize that war is a situation with which we must reckon. The present European war, involving as it does the majority of civilized nations and affecting the industry and commerce of the whole world, threatens at any moment to draw all countries, including our own, into the conflict. Our immediate problem, then, is to bring to bear upon war conditions instructive forethought, vision, principles of human welfare and conservation that should direct our course in every eventuality of life. The way to avert war is to establish constructive agencies for justice in times of peace and thus control for peace situations and forces that might otherwise result in war. The methods of modern warfare, its new tactics, its vast organization, both military and industrial, present problems vastly different from those of previous wars. But the nation's problems afford an opportunity for the establishment of new freedom and wider opportunities for all the people. Modern warfare includes contests between workshops, factories, the land, financial and transportation resources of the countries involved; and necessarily applies to the relations between employers and employes, and as our own country now faces an impending peril, it is fitting that the masses of the people of the United States should take counsel and determine what course they shall pursue should a crisis arise necessitating the protection of our Republic and defense of the ideals for which it stands. In the struggle between the forces of democracy and special privilege, for just and historic reasons the masses of the people necessarily represent the ideals and the institutions of democracy. There is in organized society one potential organization whose purpose is to further these ideals and institutions-the organized labor movement. In no previous war has the organized labor movement taken a directing part. Labor has now reached an understanding of its rights, of its power and resources, of its value and contributions to society, and must make definite constructive proposals. It is timely that we frankly present experiences and conditions which in former times have prevented nations from benefiting by the voluntary, whoie-hearted cooperation of wage-earners in war time, and then make suggestions how these hindrances to our national strength and vigor can be removed. War has never put a stop to the necessity for struggle to establish and maintain industrial rights. Wage-earners in war times must, as has been said, keep one eye on the exploiters at home and the other upon the enemy threatening the national government. Such exploitations made it impossible for a warring nation to mobilize effectively its full strength for outward defense. We maintain that it is the fundamental step in preparedness for the nation to set its own house in order and to establish at home justice in relations between men. Previous wars, for whatever purpose waged, developed new opportunities for exploiting wage-earners. Not only was there failure to recognize the necessity for protecting rights of workers that they might give that whole-hearted service to the country that can come only when every citizen enjoys rights, freedom and opportunity, but under guise of national necessity, Labor was stripped of its means of defense against enemies at home and was robbed of the |