Season's reetings As we enter into the activities of a This Journal is more or less a med- CHARLES J. LAMMERT, General Secretary-Treasurer T ACHIEVEMENTS OF YEAR JUST ENDED Your Brotherhood's Accomplishments Reviewed By GEORGE F. HEDRICK General President Brotherhood of Painters, HE year 1923, just closed, has, in our opinion, been one of the most prosperous in the history of our Brotherhood, in view of the fact that we regained practically all that we lost during the years 1921 and 1922, which were years of depression in the building industry. It was during those years many of our local unions accepted reductions in their wage scales, due to the prediction that it would stimulate building all over the country and also reduce the high cost of living. The promise to reduce the high cost of living did not materialize and neither did it start the predicted building activities. This resulted in many of our district councils and local unions demanding and receiving their former wage scales, which, in a large measure, were restored, and permitted them to live according to American standards. During this same period our members in a number of cities and towns managed to secure the five-day or forty-hour week, which, in our opinion, is absolutely necessary on account of the hazardous occupations of our trade, many of our members being subject to the terrible disease of lead poisoning and other ills, resulting from the use of turpentine, benzine, benzole, naphtha, wood alcohol and other poisonous substances too numerous to mention, used in the manufacture of materials with which the members of our organization come in contact while at work. We are, therefore, especially pleased to report that our five-day week has been firmly established in New York City and Brooklyn and practically their entire vicinity; Boston, Mass. and its surroundings; Sign Scene and Pictorial Painters' Local Union of Chicago; Seattle, Wash., and several other Pacific coast cities, so that we can truthfully say the five-day week has been obtained by at least one-fifth of our membership, which gives our members in those cities and towns forty-eight hours' rest to throw off the poisonous substances inhaled during the forty-hour week, and making them better fitted to begin work in a healthier and stronger condition each Monday morning. We eventually hope to have the five-day week established throughout the entire industry and all of its branches, which will result in lengthening the lives of our members to the extent that they may live to the same ripe old age as men working in other less dangerous occupations. Remarkable Membership Gain The membership of our Brotherhood at the close of November, 1922, was 99,168, while at the close of November, 1923, we have 109,837, showing an increase of 10,671, which is remarkable in the face of so much opposition. We are, therefore, proud of our achievements during the year just passed, but still there is much left for us to do and we have advised our membership to watch every opportunity to advance their wage scales and better their working conditions wherever and whenever they find trade conditions will warrant them to do so, providing it does not interfere with existing agreements. For we, as an international organization, realize that the prosperous condition of our country is due only to good wage scales, fair conditions, and sufficient employment. We are also advising our membership to keep their local unions intact so as not to be caught napping, for our enemies are ever ready to take advantage of any weakness shown in our ranks to reduce the American standard of living to the wage earners of this country. What is true of our Brotherhood no doubt applies to the labor movement in general, particularly in all the building trades, and it is up to all of us to organize and assist each other in every way possible, realizing that with every increase in our membership and with a united labor movement at our back, better results can always be obtained. In conclusion, we should all strive to make the year 1924 the banner year of our grand labor movement, led by the American Federation of Labor, its various departments; international organizations and their affiliated local unions, to organize and keep organizing the unorganized in every craft and calling so that we will be in a position to shake off some of the intolerable conditions that still exist among some of the working people of this country. The aspiration of the union label knows no bounds. Its ambition is to redeem a world. Nothing in the whole realm of unionized labor is capable of such effective and continuous utility. Other agencies have varying degrees of potentiality, and are Unhappily, intermittent in effectiveness. they sometimes fail to win public sympathy, translate indifference into antagonism, intensify the suspicion of employers, and energize auction pens into a malevolent assault upon the labor movement. The union label facilitates organization by increasing the demands for the products of organized workers. YOUR BADGE OF SECURITY-THE December, 1923. To Organized Labor, Greetings: Our enemies are always on the alert and are keen enough to sense whether the workers are united and acting in unison, or whether they are becoming lax and forgetting their watchword-UNITY. Each time you forget the union label, card or button when spending money, you are helping those opposed to us to make good on the money which they spent in trying to eliminate the use of the union label. Each time you allow a merchant to convince you with the ancient argument that "It is union made but without the union label," you are again helping the enemies of organized labor in their campaign against T the union shop. You are also giving the merchant a chance to laugh up his sleeve at your simplicity. After you leave he tells his associates about the trades unionists who believe his arguments rather than the truth which is preached to them day after day, year in and year out, by those interested in the betterment and advancement of all those who labor. Again let the warning go forth to all organized labor and their friends not to be deceived by those opposed to us. Demand the union label, shop card and working button! They have been bequeathed to us by those valiant trades unionists whom we all love and revere. Let us do our share and carry on the work, not falteringly, not waveringly, but bravely and persistently. Fraternally yours, JOHN J. MANNING, Secretary-Treasurer, Union Label Trades Department. 1924-ITS OBLIGATIONS AND DUTIES By Samuel Gompers, President American HE year 1924 brings great tasks to the trade unionists of America. The year just closed has placed our movement in a position of strength and solidarity that fits it for the tasks that lie ahead. In 1923 our country measurably recovered from the period of depression and the fight of the so-called open shoppers and wage cutters practically came to an end. It lost its driving power. Ahead of us in the immediate future is a national political campaign. Ahead of us also is a great general campaign of organization, reaching into every field of activity. The enemies of our movement say that we are not in politics. The fact is that we are in politics to the limit, determined to make our influence felt for progress and human freedom. It is of the utmost importance that every trade unionist take an active part in the campaign now opening. It is important to see that trade unionists participate in the nominating of candidates and also in the selection of political convention delegates. It is important that labor should participate where nominations are made and where platforms are formulated. The American Federation of Labor national non-partisan political campaign will this year be conducted on broader and more energetic lines than ever before. Labor's effectiveness must extend into every precinct in America-and with the co-operation of the great farming population this will be accomplished. On the industrial field the organization of the wage earners is always our first and primary task. Our convention has ordered a number of special organizing campaigns, and these are either under way or are being planned. It is my hope that during the year our movement may add a million new members to its rolls. This is easily possible. Protection and promotion of their rights and interests and proper participation of the workers in the affairs of industry make organization necessary. The proper conduct of industry, the proper safeguarding of the rights and interests of the toilers, the proper and necessary stabilizing of industry, make organization of first importance to labor and to employers as well. We live in an age of collective effort. No where does the individual live and work in a world of his own. Working together, it is necessary to organize so as to plan together, to function properly in every direction, to make life better and to make industry better. Every wage earner ought to join the trade union of his trade or calling and every trade union member ought to be an organizer. The year 1924 will bring its rewards, but it also will bring its obligations and duties. Let us all, as trade unionists, do our utmost to make our movement a credit and a constructive force in society. If we are good trade unionists, we shall be good citizens of our Republic and America will be the better for our efforts. NO SEASONAL DECLINE REPORTED IN BUILDING OPERATIONS Expectations based on all prior experience except in the one year of 1922, was that after the remarkable activity of the spring and summer, building operations would decline during November, as compared with October. So far is the record from showing a decline, that a small gain, 5 per cent, is reported. What a remarkable month this November was to the building industry and the extent to which the building handicap of winter is being ignored is indicated by an increase in the entire country of 30 per "T cent over the November of 1922. In the 287 cities represented in the Strauss & Co. consolidated report, the figures named in the building permits issued during this last November reached the gross sum of $301,056,967, and the month stands third in a list in which March stands first and April second. Of this total, New York City supplied $99,253,659, Chicago, $27,130,550; Los Angeles, $13,512,042; Detroit, $8,390,556. No other industry had the importance of the building industry in ending unemployment and bringing back old-time business conditions. Experts venture no predictions as to the future, but it is enough to know that its activity will continue at a recordbreaking seasonal pitch during coming months. Liberty is power and the tenure of power by man is upon condition that it shall be exercised to improve the condition of himself and his fellow men.-J. Q. Adams. PORTO RICAN LABOR ASKS RELIEF Don't Seek Independence From U. S. HE wage workers of Porto Rico do not believe island politicians who tell them that independence from the United States will solve our economic burdens," said Santiago Iglesias, senator from Porto Rico and president of the Porto Rican federation of labor. He recently was in Washington to interest the new congress in the Porto Rican situation. In a visit to President Coolidge he suggested the creation of a federal industrial commission to investigate the economic and industrial situation in Porto Rico. Senator Iglesias presented to the president a letter from President Gompers urging that some action to help the workers of Porto Rico be recommended by the president in his message to Congress. "Porto Rico is deserving of a status that will permit a better development of the life of the island. Our people need better education, better homes, better clothing and better food. The island produces all of life's necessities, but too much of the fruits of Porto Rican effort is exported for the benefit of absentee owners," said the trade unionist. "Porto Rico wants an elective governor; it wants an island government responsible to the people of the island. It wants citizenship to mean something, as it does to those who live on the mainland. The masses of the people of Porto Rico have no desire to set up independent government, but they do want to share in the full benefits of the American form of government, American institutions and American citizenship." Senator Iglesias referred to the financial report of the Cuba cane sugar corporation, just published in Wall street, as indicating how Porto Rico is exploited. The corporation shows a net profit the past year of $9,336,276, after interest, discount and taxes were paid. "These corporations grow the cane, manufacture the sugar and transport it, and make a profit on each transaction," " said Mr. Iglesias. "Wages are $1.25 for a 10-hour day. Unemployment is at all times to be found on the island, and these corporations are draining the island of its resources and putting nothing back. on "There are 776,396 acres of the island's choicest land under the control of 447 American, Spanish and French corporations and individuals. We have all the evils of absentee ownership, and faulty systems of education, industry, credit and sanitation. "The people of the United States have exercised a most profound influence Porto Rico, which is just emerging from a monarchial system and its autocratic ideals. The wage workers are far enough advanced in economics to know that their problems will not be solved by independence. Instead, a sympathetic congress can do much toward strengthening the bonds between the common people of Porto Rico and those of the United States." A study is to be made of the PanamaPorto Rican situation, and in line with the resolutions adopted by the Building Trades Department and American Federation of Labor Convention, our General Executive Board appropriated five hundred dollars as the Brotherhood's share for organizing purposes, and has directed President Hedrick to join the delegation to visit the zone. |