Double, per week (private bath), $10.00 to $12.00.

Day rates (single), $1.00 to $2.00.
Day rates (double), $1.50 to $2.50.
Can accommodate about fifty.

Hotel Densmore, 9th and Locust Sts. Single (without private bath), $1.00 per day. Weekly, $6.00.

Double (without private bath), $1.50 to $2.00 per day. Weekly, $8.00 to $10.00.

Single (with private bath), $1.50 per day. Weekly, $8.00 to $10.00.

Double (with private bath), $2.00 to $2.50 per day. Weekly, $10.00 to $12.00.

"Double" denotes two beds in a room or otherwise as desired.

Can accommodate with about twenty-five

In the majority of cases, with the exception of Hotel Densmore, the "Double" rate applies to one bed to a room. In making your reservations you will kindly specify what you desire.

Brother D. A. Crosswhite, Business Agent of the B. R. C. of A. at Kansas City, has kindly consented to act as a committee of arrangements and will make such reservations at the various hotels in compliance with instructions from any of the delegates. You are therefore requested to notify Brother Crosswhite at least one week in advance so that all can be suitably provided for. Address letters to Headquarters B. R. C. of A., 507 Hall Bldg., Kansas City, Mo. Any additional information required will be gladly furnished upon request.

I think that with the foregoing list of hotels given and rates quoted, that there will be little difficulty in suiting even the most exacting.

Many other hotels might be mentioned, but we especially recommend these because of the disposition shown by the management to adjust rates to suit; their central location, most of them being on a direct car line route to the Labor Temple; and we believe that everything possible will be done by any and all of them to cater to your comfort and convenience while in Kansas City. It is understood that the salary and expenses of all delegates will be paid by the district or craft whom they represent on each system.

A. O. WHARTON,

President R. E. Dept. JOHN SCOTT,

Secretary-Treasurer.

THE PROBLEM OF THE UNEMPLOYED. Whether we are termed "calamity howlers" or "traitors to our country" or

some other pet name for mentioning the fact that we always have the problem of employment before us and that the army of the unemployed is larger than at any time since the panic of 1907-08 and perhaps larger even than at that time, nevertheless we must face the facts fairly and squarely and ascertain the cause of and the remedy for this, the greatest plague of present day society.

It would be well to state here that the last bulletin issued by the New York State Commissioner of Labor (series on unemployment), gives the number of unemployed, who are members of labor organizations, at the close of September last as some 93,000, which is considerably larger than at any time since 1907. Only about 2,000 are reported idle because of strikes. Since September this number has largely increased and at present, in New York alone (about half the population of the state), the number of unemployed is given as about 350,000. Figures are not available for the entire state but from newspaper reports it is safe to assume that conditions outside of the metropolis are equally as bad as they are in the metropolis.

Reports received from other states also show great increases in the number of the unemployed. These conditions are cited merely to prove that the writer is not a "calamity howler" without good and sufficient reason for so being.

At no time are we without a vast army of unemployed, and because of this army at no time are our jobs secure or wages safe at their present rating whether we be clerks, machinists, firemen, brakemen, engineers, conductors, telegraphers, car workers or any other class of workers. If we are all affected then we should all look into it with a view of settling the question once and for all. We need not investigate the effects because we meet with them every day and are well acquainted with them. But all effects have their root in a cause and once the cause is ascertained the remedy can be applied which will end both cause and effect.

The cry is that unemployment exists because of "overproduction." If this be a fact then everyone has plenty to eat, plenty to wear, plenty of enjoyment, and we are all spending most of our time either touring the country in our automobiles or leisurely passing away the time at Palm Beach, Florida, or some other pleasure resort. But

we know that this is not a fact. We know that the great multitude of our unemployed is either starved or half-starved, is either half clad or unclad, that it is reduced to pauperism, that it is without a home or shelter, that enjoyment and happiness is a thing unknown, that the daughters of our unemployed workers are forced into prostitution; that the unemployed fathers and sons are forced into crime, and that our penitentiaries are full to overflowing. These are the real conditions.

Then we are satisfied that unemployment is not due to "overproduction."

The workers coupled with nature's resources produce all the clothes we wear, all the food we eat; build the houses in which we live; construct and operate rail. roads, steamships, telegraph and telephone lines; mine coal, copper, iron, etc.; transform iron into steel and out of it construct all the improved modern machinery; do all the necessary work of the world; create all mills and factories; in fact, everything that is worth while that requires labor is done by the workers. Then why should a large number of the workers be idle as long as any of us are in need of the essentials named? Simply because the law of supply and demand is determined by the captains of industry-our modern capitalists. They control, through investment, all the means by which the workers live and they determine what share the workers shall receive of his product. The majority of the workers are allowed barely enough on which to exist and continue to produce for the capitalist class. They produce and produce and produce. Until every one has plenty? No, we have already decided that point. Remember they receive barely enough on which to exist. They produce material worth five or six times as much as the amount they receive as their share. This material is sold back to the workers at six times the amount they received for producing it. They can therefore buy back but one-sixth of their product at the most. The other five-sixths is shipped to foreign markets until they have a sufficient supply and then the storehouses are filled. When the storehouses are filled and there is no further sale for the product, there is no more profit for the captains of industry, or capitalists, if you please. There is then but one thing to do. Either discontinue production or greatly moderate it. And by this

process the workers are thrown out of employment in large numbers. This, of course, deals in a large part with industrial crises which are becoming more numerous and with increasing disastrous effects each time they happen. The standing army of the unemployed can be traced to the same cause.

Now what have we decided? We have decided that the cause of unemployment is due to under consumption. The workers cannot, with the share of their product received, buy back the product of their toil. Hence the capitalists have plenty while the workers starve. We have also decided that under-consumption is due to the regulation of industry by the captains of industry for the interest of their dividends. Then we must do away with these captains. Ah!

What is the remedy? The workers of the world must own the means by which they live. They must seize, through the power of the ballot, or otherwise if it can be peaceably done, all the means of production distribution and exchange and through collective ownership and democratic control so regulate industry as to produce only enough to provide themselves with their needs and desires, and to the end that they shall receive the full social product (sixsixths) of their toil. When this is accomplished unemployment cannot but cease, except in cases where individuals deliberately choose to loaf. And it is safe to assume that such cases will be very rare. They at least will not cause the widespread misery that is felt today.

JESSE J. FINN, President Lodge No. 124.

LACK OF INTEREST DISPLAYED IN REFERENDUM VOTE.

The Board of Tellers, composed of Brothers M. H. Murray, of Providence, R. I., R. P. Dee, of New Orleans, La., and the undersigned, met in compliance with the Constitution and By-Laws of the Brotherhood, at the Grand Lodge Headquarters in Kansas City, February 19, 1914, for the purpose of counting and tabulating the Referendum vote.

The laws of this Brotherhood governing the referendum are simple and specific; so constructed that any member of this Brotherhood could construe them correctly if he or she would only study them for a moment. Notwithstanding this, we found a number of the members who voted on the proposi

tions submitted, first voting for proposition No. 1 and at the same time voting in the affirmative on proposition No. 2. Under the laws this is not permissible and those ballots should have been thrown out and not counted.

Irregularities of all kinds confronted the Board of Tellers; some of these came from the individual members; some from the Secretaries of Lodges. We found Postoffice Money Orders and letters in the same envelopes with the ballots-envelopes plainly marked "Ballot." We found other envelopes contained ballots and money orders; yet the envelope was not marked "Ballots." We found a number of ballots made out, apparently by one man; no Lodge number or card number being shown.

The referendum vote, if it means anything, it means all that it implies; it is a secret ballot expressing the individual opinion of each member and unless the proper precaution is taken to safeguard the ballot the wishes of each member does not always prevail, and the laws of the Organization are ignored or overlooked altogether. We are of the opinion that a number of Lodges and individual members have not given the proposition the consideration they should. The least that any member could do is to exercise his right of membership and vote according to the dictates of his own conscience and to the great benefit of the Brotherhood as a whole.

The referendum is a new innovation with this Brotherhood, and we fear it will die before it has had an opportunity to be given a fair trial unless our members take more interest in future referendums than they have in the one just taken. If we do not want the law, we should repeal it. If we want that law we should uphold it and comply with all the requirements regulating it. Fraternally yours,

JAMES B. DOWNING,
Sec'y Board of Tellers.

ORGANIZE TO FIGHT UNEMPLOYMENT. New York, Feb. 21.-Regularization of business, efficient public employment offices and a just and economical system of unemployment insurance are three remedies for unemployment suggested by John B. Andrews, secretary of the American Association for Labor Legislation, in an illustrated bulletin issued today from the association's headquarters at 131 East 23rd

street, this city, announcing the National Conference on Unemployment to be held here on February 27 and 28 with the American section of the International Association on Unemployment.

"The labor market is unorganized, resulting in confusion, waste and loss to employers and employees," declares the bulletin, which goes on to state upon authority of the United States Census that in 1900 nearly 6,500,000 working people, or about 25 per cent of all engaged in gainful occupations, were unemployed some time during the year. Of these over 3,000,000 lost from one to three months' work each, over 2,500,000 lost from four to six months, and over 700,000 lost from seven to twelve months. Upon the low wage basis of $10 a week, it is estimated that approximately $1,000,000,000 was lost through unemployment that year alone. Similar data collected for the 1910 census, it is stated, are still unpublished. Figures taken from the 1905 census of manufacturers, however, show that in that year out of seven million workers in manufacturing industries nearly two and a half million were either unemployed or compelled to seek a new employer during the year..

"There are jobs without men and men without jobs. Let us bring together the jobless men and manless jobs," says the bulletin, in urging the establishment of a widespread system of closely knit, efficient labor exchanges. A full page map shows that nineteen states and twelve municipalities, following European precedents, have already made provision for public labor exchanges.

Mayor John Purroy Mitchell will address the opening session of the conference in the Aldermanic Chamber in City Hall, at which official delegates will be present representing the governors and mayors of cities in the leading industrial states. The reports of these delegates on the state of employment in their respective localities are expected to give a clearer survey of the situation throughout the country than has yet been obtained. Irregularity of employment and suggested remedies are to be discussed by employers. employees, and employment bureau officials. Special stress throughout the conference will be laid upon constructive proposals for reducing irregularity of employment during normal times.

A feature of more than ordinary interest is a joint session with the People's Institute at Cooper Union on the evening of February

27. Frederick C. Howe, director of the People's Institute, will describe "The German System of Labor Exchanges," of which he recently made an extensive study. Other speakers are Henry R. Seager, President of the American Association for Labor Legislation, who will address the meeting on "The English Method of Dealing with the Unemployed," and Charles R. Henderson, secretary of the Chicago Commission on the Unemployed, who will from his study of the subject in many countries tell of the worldwide struggle against unemployment.

Among the official delegates are Andrew J. Gallagher, San Francisco, California; Fred C. Croxton, President Association of Public Employment Officials; M. B. Hammond, Ohio Industrial Commission; Wm. H. Leiserson, Wisconsin Superintendent of Employment Offices; Charles R. Henderson, Chicago Unemployment Commission; Emily Perkins Bissell, Wilmington, Del.; John H. Ferguson, President Maryland Federation of Labor; J. W. Magruder, Baltimore Federated Charities; Frank A. White, Mary land Commissioner of Labor; Richard L Drake and James V. Cunningham, Commissioner of Labor, from Michigan; Harry J. Goas, New Jersey Department of Labor; H. J. Lyons, Norfolk, Va.; John Schneider, Louisville, Ky.; Benjamin J. Flood, Texas Labor Department; Wm. H. Farley, Rhode Island free employment bureaus; H. W. Smith, Smith Typewriter Co., Syracuse, N. Y.; Mary C. Wiggin, Massachusetts Consumers' League, James A. Lowell, Boston; William Green, Secretary-Treasurer United Mine Workers of America, from Indianapolis, and W. R. Fairley, Pratt City, Alabama.

"ARE BACHELOR GIRLS HAPPY?" A pert young miss with a sharp pencil writes a Western Editor as follows:

"Your editorial deploring the fact that so many young women are taking men's places in office and shop is amusing. Why don't the men marry us and keep business for themselves? If you are of the impression that women prefer banging typewriters, or selling goods over the counter, to making homes for loving husbands and prattling kiddies, why then you are a goose of an editor, and a very unobserving man.

"All this talk about the modern desire of women to be independent of man is absurd. The pictures you see in the magazines of happy bachelor girls are lying documents