home may fare even worse. He will not be able to find work in the shops and will be compelled to take work for himself; the bosses, being signed up will "frame" upon him and complain that he is taking work cheap; the Local will place a fine on him which he cannot or will not pay and the organization has lost what was once a good union heart.

At this writing we have discarded our old pass-word, "Confidence." That is what is needed in our organization-confidence. When you can place enough confidence in our Organization to know that whatever else may happen you are not going to die in the poor house you will have an organi. zation, not only in name but in reality. For example, most all fraternal orders of standing have homes for their aged members; why not our organization have the same? As a labor organization it is one of the foundations of all fraternal orders. Through it a large number of the members of the fraternal orders earn the money by which they enjoy the privileges of their favorite order. Relatively speaking you might compare organized labor to other fraternal orders, as the main line of a great trunk railway; it is a feeder for all the branch lines on the road. If the feeder did not exist the branch lines would not prosper. Through the union painter you get your hours and your scale of wages and he is entitled to reward.

At times we pass a subscription list for some sick brother who is not eligible to sick benefits; it is right that this should be done. The brother in question is a young man temporarily impaired in health; after a while he gets well and forgets all about it. You ask, did he save his money, or did he have any money to save? You did not donate money to the man in particular, you were respecting his union card, you were helping yourself to keep above high-water by contributing to your brother's card. With the older brother it is a horse of a different color. He is permanently done for; there is no come back for him; his day is past. He has been exactly where the young brother is today only the money he received in wages was not quite half what the young brother receives today. Ask the old man why he did not save, and he will point with feeble hand to bygone strikes and lockouts that were the real foundation for the success of our organization; when the keynote of success had to be struck he was there with the goods and started the ball rolling. That has resulted in your pay envelope bulging twice the size it was when he was a young man. If he had thought of

hoarding his little mite, or of paying for a piece of ground 50x100 feet, he might have it now. But it is pretty certain you would still have your 20, 221⁄2 and 25c per hour and your full 10 hours per day. If these are not facts, show me!

It is only a matter of time when every brother will be aged should he live and how many know how they are going to manage when old and feeble, no one to care for them. Now then, such cases would not happen if the aged painter had an independent home at his back. Instead of taking abuse he could go to a home that would welcome him and where he could find companionship (should he not wish to leave his wife or friends, he could take a pension in the amount it would cost to keep him at the home).

It is not necessary to look up proof for the good judgment of a home; the United States Government furnishes both a home and a pension for the old soldier, and you will find hundreds of old soldiers at the Soldiers' Home who have children well to do. They feel more independent at the Home than they would be with their kin folks. Human nature, the pride of the aged, makes that possible. Often you find the aged brother wandering from town to town, willing and happy to get a chance to earn a dollar, but unable to find employment. That brother has no home, he is the man on a cold night that asks permission to sleep in your warm meeting hall. Have you ever paid a visit to your County Poor Farm? You should do so; as a law abiding citizen it is your duty. You would see the kind of a home capital provides for aged people, and the sight would make you feel bad. You would see wrecks of men suffering and waiting for the kind grasp of death to relieve them. You should see and know these facts for we may have to seek a place for shelter in our old age and this may be the place.

When you took your obligation you promised not to wrong or see a brother wronged when it lay in your power to prevent it. Now I claim it lays in the power of our organization to prevent the suffering of our aged brother when he is no longer able to care for himself by placing a home within his reach that he may spend his retiring days in peace and comfort; a home that will be a blessing to the outcast union painter, a home that will keep him from becoming a pauper and that will save him from being buried in a pauper's grave.

When our organization will guarantee that the young brother can point to it with pride, the home will be the back bone of

the organization and you can count on once a union man always a union man.

A home and a pension are what we need from a practical point of view. The home is first, the home could be made self supporting and any brother not desiring to go to the home could be allowed a pension the amount to be agreed upon later. The brothers this home proposition is to benefit have no home and a pension only would not fill the bill. If a brother is sick-and the aged are more or less so all the timehe would still have to go to some charitable institution as his pension would not pay for doctor, medicine and keep; the pension is all right for a brother who has a home or friends. But when he gets to where he is entirely dependent he might find the Painters' Home a God-send.

JOHN H. HARRISON,
The General.

Local 935, Tulsa, Okla.

Endorsed by L. U. 935.

L. G. WOOD, President.

D. C. 36 OF LOS ANGELES DISAPPROVES

PROPOSED AMENDMENT.

To the Membership at Large:

You may have noted in the September and October issues of the Journal a proposed amendment, resolution and explanation submitted by L. U. 92, of Pasadena, Cal. If the proposed amendment should become a law it would leave it optional with local unions whether they should affiliate with District Councils or Building Trades Councils. The possible evil consequences of the amendment can readily be realized where District Councils exist. Any local with a real or fancied grievance could withdraw and, by the autonomy it is proposed to grant, could lower the wage scale or in other ways violate the trade rules, agreements, or working conditions established by a District Council. A more vicious attack upon discipline and order was never made. If this measure becomes a law it would be an utter impossibility to guarantee to any member or employer protection of established rules. Agreements could be broken at the whim of a local union which felt so disposed.

A measure of this character should be viewed with considerable concern. The dangers pointed out should be considered by district councils and local unions and, if the proposition be found to be detrimental to the best interests of the Brotherhood, local unions and district councils should take such steps that will assure the defeat of the proposed measure. Trusting that the

Auto Painting

is Profitable

You

OU can make much more money this fall and winter painting automobiles, trucks and wagons than you can painting houses. Many house painters are doing it. There are no idle weeks without paydays. .

Any good painter can quickly learn this work and only enough capital is required to buy a few tools and materials. You can get more jobs than you can possibly handle at from $35.00 to $150.00 and there is mighty little competition.

Tools, materials and methods needed to do fine work after a little practice are fully described and illustrated in the new book Automobile Painting, by F. N. Vanderwalker. Every important fact fact and little detail about the work is covered specifically in simple language. It is substantially bound in cloth with heavy covors. Size 51⁄2 x 7%, 209 Pages, 36 Illustrations. Price $1.50, Postpaid. Sent C. O. D. for part payment of 25c. Money refunded if book is not satisfactory.

THE TEXT BOOK CO. 12129 Eggleston Ave., Chicago, Ill.

necessary action will be taken, we beg to remain,

DISTRICT COUNCIL No. 36,

OF LOS ANGELES AND VICINITY.
G. A. TWITCHELL, Rec. Sec'y.

(District Council 36 has a correct understanding of the purpose that Local Union 92 hopes to accomplish, but it is as mistaken as is that local as to the effect of the proposed amendment were it to become a law. That the local union might be saved from possible disappointment the General Secretary-Treasurer in acknowledging the proposed amendment tried to explain to the local the misapprehension under which it labored. To relieve the anxiety of District Council 36 and other councils, unions or members who may be perturbed over the proposed amendment, the letter to the local is printed below).

August 30, 1917.

Mr. H. C. Bricker, L. U. 92,

356 Parke St., Pasadena, Cal. Dear Sir and Brother:-The combined resolution, proposed amendment to Section 42 of the constitution of the Brotherhood and statement of the purpose L. U. 92 has in mind, enclosed with your letter of August 23rd, is received. The resolution, amend

ment and explanation will appear in the September number of our official journal and the amendment will be submitted on January 1st, provided it receives the required number of endorsements.

I may, perhaps, call the attention of the local to the fact that the section which it proposes be amended does not govern the affiliation of local unions to District Coun. cils or Building Trades Councils. It merely provides that where a District Council exists the wage scale or working rules of a local union of paperhangers, sign painters, glaz iers, or other special branch of the trade, shall be submitted to the Council and be approved by it. The reasons for this requirement is that the local union will expect the District Council to give it support in enforc ing its wage scale or working rules; if necessary, will call out members of other local unions to that end.

"The trade autonomy" referred to in section 42 is the right of a local union whose members are engaged in a special branch of the trade to formulate the wage scale and working rules to govern that branch of the trade.

The provisions of the laws requiring local unions to affiliate with District Councils, or having a direct bearing upon that requirement, are set out in Sections 34, 64, 162, 173, 174, 175. The affiliation of local unions with Building Trades Councils is required under paragraph 8 of the General Laws, page 64. The paragraph and the sections enumerated would have to be amended or repealed, in whole or in part, in order that it might be made optional with a local union as to whether or not it shall affiliate with a District Council or Building Trades Council.

It is doubtful whether the amendment to Section 42 proposed by L. U. 92 would secure the object the local union has in view. The statement that the local union desires to change the law does not suffice when the amendment proposed not only does not provide for the desired change but has no relation to it.

The part of Section 42 that it is proposed to strike out serves to prevent friction between local unions of special branches of the trade and the district councils with which they are affiliated. To strike it out would give rise to such friction, and, in my opinion, would not affect the laws requiring the affiliation of local unions to District Councils and to Building Trades Councils.

This is merely a personal opinion expressed in the hope that it may save L. U. 92 from the disappointment that might result from a misconception of the intent of

Section 42 and of the effect of the proposed amendment to that section.

With best wishes.

Fraternally yours,

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

A TRIBUTE.

I wish to pay a tribute of respect, friendship and admiration to our late brother, Aaron Slutzsky, who served the members of the Brotherhood, and of Local Union No. 777 in particular, with zeal, industry and ability. He was the first president of Local Union 777, financial secretary, delegate to District Council No. 10 and at the time of his death was its recording and corresponding secretary. He filled with credit and distinction the position of Business Agent of District Council No. 10, was president of the Council, and its delegate to the Building Trades Council and State Conference Board. From October, 1902, when Local 777 was organized, until his death on October 24, 1917, Bro. Slutzsky was constantly active in union affairs.

In the order of Nature-that moves with unerring certainty in obedience to fixed laws-Aaron Slutzsky has gone to that repose we call Death, but there is no death for those who believe in God and live true to that belief.

It was my pleasure to be personally and very intimately acquainted with Brother Slutzsky for more than twenty years. He always convinced me of his earnestness and enthusiasm in matters of interest to those whom he represented.

He was an able and fearless Brotherhood member, guided by but one light and that light his conscience. He won the friendship and esteem of his fellows, and all respected him for his determination at all times to stand for what he thought was right. The important positions and high honors to which his fellow members in Local Union 777 and District Council No. 10 promoted him, indicate that he merited and held their confidence and esteem. As a member of the Brotherhood, he was able, diligent and faithful.

Aaron Slutzsky made warm friends and his friends loved him, because he loved his friends and was true to them. He was fearless and tireless in the performance of his duties, yet he was tender hearted and obliging. His death was hastened by hard work; he took but little thought of his physical weakness. His only thought was to do something worth while for his people and his fellow workmen.

In his death the Brotherhood and Local Union 777 of Newark have lost a noble and

beloved brother and member, the nation has lost a true citizen and I have lost a lifelong friend.

His home life was happy, for his good wife and eight faithful children shared the fortunes of his life with a generous encouragement, whether the days were dark or bright.

Brother Aaron Slutzsky left to his family and his people and co-workers a priceless heritage-a life well lived and filled with service.

"A good name is rather to be chosen than great riches,

And loving favor rather than silver or gold." FELIX KAUFMAN.

Member of L. U. 777.

LABOR DAY AT BILLINGS.

"We landed at Billings a little before noon. It has a population of about 18,000 and an altitude of 3,050 feet. It is an enterprising, clean and beautiful city-a city that its own people are proud of-and it has more paved streets and good buildings, better schools and more churches than any other city in Montana depending upon agriculture for its development. Nestled there on the banks of the Yellowstone in the embrace of a productive, beautiful and healthful irrigation project, it is indeed an attractive city. And who has not heard of the great beet sugar factory located there?

"It was labor day and the great brawny men from the shops and their families were just conducting their parade. All Billings had joined to make it a success and there is something so impressive about a Labor day parade in a city of shops and industry. Did you ever notice the majesty and the dignity and the spirit of mighty power that pervades such a parade and overcomes all observers? Maybe it doesn't affect everyone as it does me, but I never watch a parade of laboring men that I do not feel almost overawed by something connected with it. And, I can scarcely define that something. Maybe it is the determined, strong look in the eyes of the men. Maybe it is that mighty muscle and brawn and strong, vigorous step. Maybe it is that settled appreciation of what labor means to me and to you and to all America. But there is something about a Labor day parade that is different from any other.

Praises Parade.

"In the afternoon the crowds went to the fair grounds and there they had some splendid games for men, women and children. While all this was going on, down yonder on the banks of the Yellowstone the people from Iowa were having their Iowa picnic. Up yonder in another clump of trees the people of another state, I think it was Nebraska, were having their picnic. And over yonder was a Sunday school picnic. It was Labor day in Billings and all the people for miles and miles around were giving heed to this honoring of the men who make the wheels go around and make demand for the farmers' bread and the