We start the new year with an even The Painter and Decorator thousand local unions and with 89,470 mem Devoted to the interests of House, Sign, Pictorial, Coach, Car, Carriage, Machinery, Ship and Railroad Equipment Painters, Decorators, Paperhangers, Varnishers, Enamellers, Gilders, Glaziers, Art Glass Workers, Bevelers, Cutters and other workers in glass used for architectural and decorative purposes, and the Trades Un ion Movement in General Statement of Ownership and Management (Required by the Act of August 24, 1912.) The Painter and Decorator is published monthly at LaFayette, Ind., by the Brotherhood of Painters, Decorators and Paperhangers of America. Its editor, managing editor and business manager is J. C. Skemp. Its owners are the members of the Brotherhood of Painters, Decorators and Paperhangers of America, and no individual, firm or corporation owns 1 per cent. or more of its stock; neither has it any bonded or other indebtedness. J. C. SKEMP, G. S.-T. Sworn to and subscribed before me, this 15th day of September, 1916. (Seal) Sam S. Savage, Notary Public. (My commission expires January 9, 1918.) ADVERTISING Correspondence relating to advertising should be addressed to A. S. Murphy, Advertising Solicitor, Liberty Building, Philadelphia, Pa. The publisher reserves the right to reject or cancel advertising contracts at any time. The Painter and Decorator, published at LaFayette, Ind., is the official journal of the Brotherhood of Painters, Decorators and Paperhangers of America and the only publication issued under the auspices of that organization. Mr. A. S. Murphy is the only person authorized to solicit advertising for the official journal of the Brotherhood. Local Unions and District Councils publishing programs, semi-annuals, annuals or souvenir publications of any description should refrain from designating them as "Official Journal of the Brotherhood," either upon the publication itself or on their advertising contract forms or stationery. GEO. F. HEDRICK, General President, 1 Fairmont Ave., Worcester, Mass. JOS. F. CLARKE, 4th Gen. Vice-President, 3806 S. 12th St., Tacoma, Wash. CLARENCE E. SWICK, 5th Gen. Vice-President, P. O. Box 304, Memphis, Tenn. Box 2012, Winnipeg, Man., Can. A. E. SCOTT, 6th Gen. Vice-President, bers in good standing; an increase of 914 over the membership on December 1st, 1916; A hundred thousand men of 7896 over the membership on January 1st, 1916. Each of the past seven months contributed its quota to the total. Gains during the summer and fall we expect, but never before have we made gains, or even held our own, during the months of November and December. The outlook for 1917 is exceedingly bright; work already started or for which permits have been issued makes certain an unusually busy season, while the architects' offices are busily engaged in preparing plans for prospective buildings. We enter the New Year with ninety thousand members-lacking but a few hundreds. We can reasonably hope to maintain this membership during the remaining winter months; springtime will bring us opportunities greater than have ever offered before. We can confidently look forward to an addition of ten thousand to our membership by the close of the year. Here is a task worth while. Let each local union pledge itself, each member resolve to help the good work along. Now for the hundred thousand mark! President Wilson is determined that Congress shall take action upon his recommendations. Representative Adamson-the author of the eight hour law for the men employed in the transportation department of the railroads-has introduced a bill embodying those of the President's recommenda Work or jail tions upon which no action was taken in September and that he repeated in the message he read at the opening of the present session of Congress. The bill provides for the compulsory investigation of disputes between railroad companies and their employes and prohibits either strike or lockout pending the report of the Commission-to be made within ninety days-and one month thereafter. The recommendations of the Commission are not to be legally binding upon the disputants but it is expected that public opinion will make them actually so. Experience and common sense alike condemn the plan as futile and impossible of enforcement. The Lemieux law of Canada, from which the bill is copied, has failed absolutely to prevent strikes. The biggest strikes that have occurred in the Dominion since the law was enacted were called be fore the investigating board had met or while it was in session and in defiance of the law-and not a single man was jailed. Decision after decision in favor of labor has been rejected by the employing corporations. The Trades and Labor Congress, speaking for the trade unions of Canada, has officially advised that the law be ignored. The experience of Canada is a duplication of that of Australia and New Zealand. Compulsory arbitration serves only to give the employer time in which to fortify his position and to undermine that of his employes, to organize a new force to take the places of the strikers, to weaken the loyalty and lessen the determination of the members of the union and to discharge and blacklist their leaders. That the enactment of such legislation would create contempt for the law and intensify the bitterness of industrial warfareserious as such consequences would beare matters of secondary importance. The vitally important feature of the bill is that it would deprive men of personal liberty, compel them to work against their will, that it would reestablish involuntary servitude. That such a law would conflict with the provisions of the Federal constitution and that the scheme would inevitably end in abject failure, does not make it less repugnant to free men. Compulsion in industry once established, progress by trade union methods would be impossible, other and more radical methods would be adopted, evolution would give place to revolution. The principle of compulsory service accepted in one industry, there would be no logical argument against its application to others. If the Adamson bill were to become law it would speedily be amended so that men employed in all public utilities would be brought within its provisions; next it would be extended to coal mining and other socially necessary industries and finally to all employments and occupations. Now is the time to voice our protest, to declare our unalterable opposition to compulsory investigation and compulsory arbitration. If we bestir ourselves, if each local union of every international organization and of the Railroad Brotherhoods will write the Representative from its district and the Senators from its state, urging them to work and vote against the Adamson Compulsory Investigation bill, and if each member will follow this up with a personal letter to his Congressman and to the Senators from his state, the bill will be snowed under and the idea of the compulsory settlement of labor disputes be dis missed from the public mind as repugnant to American traditions and impossible of acceptance by free men. Each local union should make this a special order of business. The bill should be read by the secretary so that every member may be informed of its provisions, understand its far-reaching effect and be induced to do his part in bringing about its defeat. January 1st has come and gone and despite the enactment of the Adamson law the eight hour day has not gone into effect; neither has there been a strike. The eight hour day has not arrived because the railroads refuse to obey the law. The group of men who control the corporations are not Playing with fire. good enough citizens or losers to take their medicine like men. They are pleading with the courts, urging them to ignore the people's will and the law enacted by their representatives. We believe the court will rule that the eight hour law does not conflict with the Federal constitution and that the railroads will be compelled to accept the inevitable. The Adamson bill was one of the chief issues of the recent presidential campaign and the result of the election demonstrated that the majority of the people of the United States believe that the time has come for an eight hour day in the railroad industry. The Railroad Brotherhoods neither asked nor desired the enactment of the law but they are willing to abide by it even though no penalty is provided for its violation. They have deferred action pending the decision of the court. In every way they have shown themselves worthy of respect and confidence. Their attitude is in strong contrast with that of the corporations. Sometimes it seems as though the group of men in Wall Street who hold the railroad system of the United States in the hollow of their hands, are anxious for government ownership. If Congress would issue bonds bearing six per cent. interest and exchange them for the bonds and stock certificates issued by the different railroad companies, they would jump at the chance-a chance they will never get so long as the people of the United States preserve their sanity. When the nation takes over the railroads it will pay for what it gets-the value of the physical property, the road bed, terminals, rolling stock and other tangible things-and not one dollar for earning capacity or other fictitious values. On this basis the bond and stockholders would receive far more than the amount actually invested. The present value of the real estate held by railroads is double, treble, in some instances ten fold the amount paid for it in the first instance. Much of this property was a gift to the corporations. If the Railroad Brotherhoods are forced to strike to establish the eight hour day, the corporations may accomplish things they have not dreamed of. There is a limit to all things, and the patience of the American people with the manipulation and mismanagement of the railroad system is about exhausted. A short time ago Bro. Alfred Crosbie, son of Bro. William Crosbie, of Worcester, Mass., an ex-general vice-president and oldtime member of the Brotherhood, met with a tragic death in Cincinnati. The deceased One of many had been in good standing from the date of his initiation and his parents were entitled to the maximum death benefit of $300. In his letter acknowledging the receipt of the money, Bro. William Crosbie says: "Alfred was in the Brotherhood eleven years and during that time paid into it $92. Deducting this from the $300 that you sent me, and adding $40 that he drew out of our local sick fund, gives a balance, in round figures, of $250-the amount that the Brotherhood paid to him over and above the amount that he paid in as dues. Besides this, there is the one hundred per cent increase in wages which the Brotherhood was the means of gaining for him while he was alive. To tell the truth, I can't realize how it can be done." Bro. Crosbie is right; it can't be donemuch longer. The number of men who pay an initiation fee each Spring grows less each year, as does the number of men who pay a reinstatement fee every other time they pay dues. These were the men-never in benefits themselves-who made up the difference between the amount paid in by the member who kept himself in good standing and the amount paid to him or to his beneficiaries. With the passing of this happy-go-lucky element that had no thought for the morrow, vanishes forever the possibility of paying liberal benefits upon a meagre per capita tax. There is and always will be enough of these thoughtless members to enable the Brotherhood to furnish insurance at a lower cost than it can be had from any fraternal society or insurance company-but not at the nominal figures at which it is now furnished. To stick to a thing through thick and thin-if the cause is just-is an admirable trait and half the battle, but to obstinately insist upon something that has been shown to be undesirable is to become a nuisance. It has always been considered good policy-a part of our system of education-to encourage the people to read. To this end publishers of newspapers and magazines have been granted postage rates that do not pay in cash for the service giventhe loss being largely due, however, to the excessive rates paid the railroads for carrying this class of mail. Killing the labor press Everybody has been satisfied with the arrangement except the officials of the Post Office Department. Each succeeding Postmaster General gets into his head an ideaput there possibly by some persistent subordinate that the Department should show a profit, or at least break even and, with an ambition to obtain this result, recommends an increase in second class postal rates that would compel many magazines to suspend publication and reduce the circulation of all. Each previous attempt has been promptly and decisively defeated but only for the proposition to be resurrected in a different form. This time a "rider" has been attached to the Post Office Appropriation Bill proposing to apply to second-class matter the zone system used in the parcel post; the present universal rate of one cent to apply to the first zone and to be increased with the distance from the city of publication until it reaches six cents a pound for all matter carried eighteen hundred miles or over. conservative estimate this plan, if adopted, would treble the monthly bill for postage on our official journal. The monthly bill under the present rate is about $175.00. Under the proposed rate it would be at least $500. This would be an outrageous imposition. At a Beginning this month (January) we pay one-half of the difference between the price of book paper at the time the contract for the printing of the Journal was awarded and the present price. As explained in the November journal, the price of paper has trebled in the past year. It has been simply impossible for printers to carry out their contracts. The combination that controls the supply of wood pulp and other raw materials used in the manufacture of paper are deliberately taking this money out of the pockets of the reading public. A Government Commission has investigated the paper manufacturing industry and its report shows that this is a hold-up pure and simple, but nothing has been done to relieve the situa tion. Book paper which cost three and onehalf cents in January, 1915, now costs nine and one-half cents. To be compelled to share this arbitrary increase in the cost of paper was bad enough (it may help to bring home to newspaper and magazine publishers the rottenness of the system of private ownership of industries necessary to the general welfare and happiness) but when on the top of that the Post Office Department proposes to hold us up for three prices for postal service, it is time to get busy. Enough is enough and we know when our cup is full. Write your representative in the House and the senators from your state. Tell them you expect them to vote against the rider to the Post Office Appropriation Bill applying the zone system and raising the rate of postage on second-class matter. This raid upon our treasury must be prevented and the proposition can be defeated if our protest is vigorous enough. Getting facts a The make-up of the commission appointed by President Wilson to investigate the operation of the eight hour day in railroad train service meets with unanimous approval. It's members are above suspicion. Colonel Goethals is a master of hard facts, brilliant engineer of wide experience. Dr. Clark has established an enviable reputation as a member of the Interstate Commerce Commission and knows the ways of railroad corporations like a book. Mr. Rublee is a man of exceptional ability with well defined views regarding honesty in business and with the courage of his convictions. We can expect a thorough investigation and an unbiased report. It is hardly likely that the Commission will approve of any radical increase in freight or passenger rates. Its members will not overlook the extravagant salaries paid the higher officials of the railroad corporations. They are aware that the past year has been the most profitable in railroad history and that the increase in net profits is sufficient to cover, many times over, any increase in operating costs resulting from the enactment of the eight hour law. The capitalization of American railroads exceeds seventeen billion dollars. Slason Thompson, expert statistician in the employ of the associated railroads, estimates the actual investment in these properties at six billion dollars. In other words, the American people are paying interest upon eleven billion dollars of fictitious values, of money that has been squandered in commissions or pocketed by promoters and for which there is nothing to show. The report of the Industrial Relations Commission is ready for distribution. The appropriation made by Congress was sufficient to print only one hundred thousand copies of the report, ten thousand copies of the testimony and ten thousand copies of the exhibits-not enough to go around. In order that you may not be disappointed, write at once to the Congressman from your district or to your United States Senators and ask them to forward copies of all three of the documents. They contain a vast fund of interesting and valuable information. 1916 was the banner year for the railroads. For the first time their net earnings -the clear gravy left after up-keep, salaries and wages were paid and allowances for depreciation made were over a billion dollars; a fifty per cent. increase over the net earnings of a few years ago. It will be hard to induce the people to take stock in their plea of poverty, in their protestation of their inability to concede the eight hour day because of the increased cost of operation. If we accept their own figures, this increase would amount to sixty million dollars a year -about five per cent. of their net profits. It would merely mean a little less velvet for the people who get the easy money, whose part in railroading consists of removing the coupons from their bonds and checking up the interest due on their stocks. A few short years ago the Supreme Court declared the Standard Oil Company to be a combination in restraint of trade and therefore unlawful. It was dissolved and its thirty or more constituent companies told to go their way and sin no more. They cheerfully accepted the situation. Each opened a separate set of books and then went on doing business at the same old stand and in the same old way. The stock of the Standard Oil Company of New Jersey, then worth $750.00, is now quoted at $2,000.00 a share. So much for the results to be accomplished by the dissolution of the trusts, so much for the effectiveness of anti-trust legislation. It's a joke-though nobody seems to relish it except the few among whom the loot is divided. If bread and beef continue to cost twice as much as they did a few years ago wages should be double what they then were. Are they? If not, it is time to get busy. |