on; also, the gay and tuppenney-colored of various kinds, it is also the centre of cowboy, for the future cattle-barons were an important and rapidly developing ligeven then establishing themselves, and nite coal industry, and the great centre cattle ranged the open prairies. But of supply of the extensive country to the gradually the small farmers beat the cat- north known as the Peace River country, tlemen. The wheat-growers drove out the the development of which has hardly beranchers, and the ranges were fenced off gun. The beautiful Parliament buildings and seeded. Immigration suddenly in- are established on the North bank of the creased with a mighty bound, and new Saskatchewan River, on the site of the settlers began to flock in from all parts. old Hudson's Bay trading post and the In every direction one saw farm-houses, Provincial University on the South Bank. from every quarter was heard the hum Edmonton's location is most picturesque. of reapers. The virgin soil of the prairies Other important Alberta cities are began to yield the treasures it had been Medicine Hat and Lethbridge the former MALTING BARLEY AS FAR AS THE EYE CAN REACH, FOR THE CANADA storing up since time immemorial. West- famous for its great natural gas fields, ern Canadian wheat became a factor in owned by the municipality, and the latter Idian beef took its place at Chicago. tural territory and the centre of large Western Canada is far from complete coal mining activities. settlement. Only about two per cent of Eighty miles west of Calgary are the the total land area of the province of Rocky Mountains, the backbone of the Alberta, six per cent of the area of continent, and the coming playground of Saskatchewan, and four per cent of Mani- America. Here is the Canadian National toba, was actually under cultivation in Park, situated amongst the finest mounthe year 1913. tain scenery in the world which Edward Edmonton, the capital city of the prov- Whymper, the celebrated Alpinist, deince of Alberta, has a population of 68,- clared equal to fifty or sixty Switzerlands 000. It has ninety wholesale houses and rolled into one. The visitor to Alberta a large number of industrial enterprises could no more miss Banff, Lake Louise, Field or Glacier than the visitor to Washington could miss the Capitol. E. Corrigan, Assistant Grand Chief Engineer, Brotherhood of Locomotive EngiMountain climbing-with real Swiss neers, and E. P. Curtis, Vice-President, guides if necessary-hunting, driving, Order of Railway Conductors, telling of boating, swimming, fishing, are some of the discrimination of the Mexican Govthe attractions of this magnificent dis- ernment against American railroad emtrict. Deer, caribou, wapiti, mountain ployes, as a result of which several hunsheep, mountain goat, black and grizzly dred engineers and conductors were combear, mountain lion, and antelope, are pelled to withdraw from the service of amongst the big game to be found in the the National Railways of Mexico. EXECUTIVE COMMITTEE OF THE GENERAL ARRANGEMENTS COMMITTEE, CALGARY CANADIAN GRAND UNION MEETING Canadian Rockies, while grouse, chicken, There has been no change in conditions duck, and other birds, and salmon, trout and other varieties of fish, afford plentiful opportunities for the sportsman. on the lines named that would warrant American railroad men in accepting employment thereon, as the strike inaugurated in June, 1912, is still in effect. Notwithstanding the published statement be Strike on National Railways of fore referred to, it would appear that Mexico Still on. some of our members are not informed There was published in the June, 1912, regarding the situation as is evidenced by issue of the Magazine a portion of a a letter recently received by President statement issued over the signatures of Carter from Grand Chief Stone of the Brotherhood of Locomotive Engineers in which is quoted a paragraph from a letter received by Brother Stone from a member of Division 438, B. of L. E., at Laredo, Texas, to the effect that the writer of the letter had just met two B. of L. F. and E. engineers who had intended to go into Mexico until he informed them of the existence of the strike. No Work in Superior, Wis. We have a communication from Brother John H. Ellis, Recording Secretary of Lodge 296, Superior Wisconsin, in which he advises that business at that point is very dull at present, and that it is useless to look there at this time for employment in engine service. He also advises that no change of business is looked for until the fall crops begin to move. dent of the United States, Hon. Woodrow Wilson, to complete the enactment of this just and greatly needed measure.' Workmen's Compensation. A presentation of the question of Workmen's Compensation by Brother J. T. Ward, Secretary-Treasurer of the Board, and which was embodied in the minutes, is as follows: "We believe that every industry should be made to bear its own costs, not merely of the inanimate factors of its plant and materials, but also of the lives of human beings consumed in its activities. Just as provision must be made for the constant deterioration and ultimate destruction of all its perishable physical properties, even so the same provision must be made for the loss of lives and the personal injuries sustained among its employes and incident to the work in which they are engaged. "The death of a human being occasioned in the course of employment in an industrial occupation is the destruction of a part of the industrial plant itself. A stroyed engine must be replaced, and the value of the life which has ceased to exist Texas Legislative Board Takes Ac- dead man must be replaced just as a detion on Important Questions. The Eighth Biennial Convention of should be paid to those who were dependthe Texas Legislative Board of our ent upon it. A business which will not Brotherhood met at Fort Worth April produce a profit sufficient to pay for its 14th to 19th last, but a report of same outworn and cast away facilities is did not reach us until after the June abandoned. Even so, a business which doomed to bankruptcy and should be issue had gone to press. As is usual will not pay for lives that are lost and inthe Board took vigorous and unequivocal juries that are sustained in its service, is action with a view to the advancement existing by continually defrauding a part of the interests of labor in general and of its creditors. Such a business should of railroad wage earners in particular. be wound up, and the capital, skill and On the question of immigration legis- energy which are being used so unprofitlation, action was taken through the ably should be diverted to other channels. adoption of a resolution presented by these propositions, it necessarily follows Brother Joseph S. Myers setting forth that we believe also in full and absolute that the admission to the United States compensation for industrial injuries to annually of more than a million immi- employes not occasioned by the wilful wrong of the injured person. Such com grants "Convinced as we are of the truth of “is proving a menace to American institu- pensation is not a charity bestowed, nor a tions, the American home, and the Ameri- donation made to a worthy object, but is can laborer, and the resulting competition a recognition of a moral right, and admits with the working people of our land is of no compromise. causing bitterness and even anarchy in our industrial life, and" the United States has opened its gates to ciples of natural justice. We are not the "We ask the enactment of legislation "while which will give legal effect to these prin to the Oppressed and a home for the un- this legislation shall take, but we do de fortunate, still this great country has no mand that our rights shall not be whitright to carry its hospitality one step tled away in the future as in the past. over the line where American institutions The compensation which we seek is to be and American workingmen and the Ameri- adequate and equal to the injury suscan standard of wages and living is tained. brought into serious peril" and as "the "We know this equality cannot be at National House of Representatives has tained by fixing arbitrary sums to be paid passed the Burnett Bill-H. R. 6060, con- in all cases to all employes receiving taining a literacy test and other provi- equal pay and suffering injuries which are sions which we believe will properly re- roughly estimated as being of equally strict immigration into this country, and serious consequence. The assumptions law now on the statute books relating to such provisions cannot be sustained for this subject" ."we respectfully ask our United States Senators and the Presi they are not true. Unfortunately, it is not even true that all employes of the same rank, in the same employment, and earning the same money, are of the same value, either to themselves, or to those dependent upon them. The differences are too great and too constant to admit of the application of off-hand estimates as rigid, cast iron limitations upon compensation for personal injuries. "We are the greatest sufferers because of laws which are too productive of litigation over the injuries which we sustain while at work, and it is only natural that we should object, even with bitterness, to a condition which does us so much harm. But we are not willing to accept a change which cannot fail to be for the worse. "There are two methods of preventing undue litigation. The one is to diminish possible recoveries until a claimant cannot afford to sue. The other is to fix liability so clearly and justly that there are but few disputable questions of law and fact. It is the latter character of legislation that we are urging, and it is against the former that we protest. "We have gone into detail as far as is possible in a statement of this character. What we want is a definite, clear and positive statutory declaration that our industrial losses, because of injuries in the course of employment, be made good, in full that we shall be compensated in proportion as we suffer without arbitrary deductions of any sort." A resolution was adopted on this subject setting forth: terfere with, impair or obstruct the operation of the Federal Employers' Liability law, or of any State employers' liability law"; and that "we believe that it is to the best interest of railroad employes that no workmen's compensation legislation be attempted by the United States Congress, but that that body direct its efforts along that line to strengthening and improving the present Federal Employers' Liability law in the interest of railroad employes." Labor Safety Bureau. S. A resolution by Brother Jos. Board Denounces Atrocities Against nounced "That there is at present no proposed Workmen's Compensation legislation pending in the United States Congress that would, if enacted, provide adequate or certain compensation for injuries sustained by railroad employes in the performance of their duties as such, nor that would provide adequate or certain compensation for the heirs of railroad employes who meet death in the performance of their duties as such," and as the "Sutherland bill' not only does not proA resolution also by Brother Myers vide adequate or certain compensation, was adopted in which the board debut by its terms and exceptions, would in many cases, defeat recovery of any "the barbarous practices pursued in recompensation whatever, and in others only cent labor disputes by mine owners of allow nominal compensation, and in place Colorado, Michigan and West Virginia" of reducing would increase litigation. We believe that it is to the best interest of railroad employes that the Federal Employers' Liability law be maintained and amended up to the highest degree of efficiency and that no exclusive federal workmen's compensation law should be passed which will repeal the federal and all State employers' liability laws and segregate railroad employes in a class to themselves to be dealt with under the provisions of such Federal Workmen's Compensation law, on terms miserably inadequate and grossly discriminatory," that "this, the Eighth Biennial Convention of the Texas Legislative Board of the B. of L. F. and E. is opposed to the enactment of an exclusive federal workmen's compensation law or of any federal workmen's compensation law that would in the slightest in "their actions in importing strikebreakers, deceiving them as to wages, working conditions and the existence of strikes in their mines, using armed guards and other means of force to compel them to remain on trains conveying them to the mines; their importing armed bodies of men for guard service, most of whom were notorious gun men; their use of armored trains and automobiles, machine guns, and bloodhounds on defenseless men, women and children, and their having caused the right of free speech and freedom of action to be abridged, and the writ of habeas corpus to be suspended in those States," and the secretary was "instructed to transmit a copy of this resolution to members of Congress from Texas, asking their support of any bill that has been, or may be introduced, to remedy the evils men and to the public to allow the shifting of Hours of Service-Safety Inspectors. "Congress realizing that conditions under which men work have changed, and that the doctrines of 'fellow servant' and 'assumed risk' have no place in modern jurisprudence, have substantially stripped these defenses of their force, and" as "the employer may and does still plead these defenses that should have long since been abrogated with the passing of the conditions that called them into existence," and, as "the courts inform us that the confusion incident to the pleading of assumed risk and contributory negligence on the same statement of facts is the most prolifie cause of errors and appeals in such cases, and that whenever assumed risk could be pleaded under the present statutes the rights of the defendant, even if the plea was just under modern conditions, are fully protected by the plea of contributory negligence" and, "as every industry should be made to bear its own cost, not merely of the inanimate factors of its plant and materials but also of the lives of human beings consumed in its activities, it is unjust both to the employe adopted. The Board's Committee on National Legislation recommended in its report "that this Board go on record as favoring a National 14-hour-service law, and the national legislative representative of this Chairman be instructed to notify our action and to work for the passage of such a measure," also "that our national legislative representative be requested to favor an appropriation to increase the number of boiler and safety appliance inspectors to the end that railway employes and the public may receive in full the protection guaranteed by the boiler inspection and safety appliance laws." Both these recommendations were OUR EASTERN MOVEMENT-CLOSING ARGUMENTS OF CHIEFS OF COUNSEL BEFORE (Continued from June, 1914, Magazine.) last and the following is the continuation of the closing argument of President Carter, chief of counsel for the The closing argument of Elisha Lee, chief of counsel for the railroads, was concluded in our issue of March Brotherhood of Locomotive Firemen and Enginemen. (Chief of Counsel Carter-Continued) During the cross-examination of cer road companies, perhaps not excepting We never, in fixing this rate, gave a tain witnesses, and the examination of thought to physical exertion. certain witnesses for the railroads, great purpose was to fix a rate, regardless of stress electric firemen have but little or no phy- cause was placed upon the fact that the size of the electric locomotive, besical exertion. we recognized that the factor of dence could be brought out with regard I think the same evi- physical exertion was absent. many other men in the service of rail Ο If we had deemed that physical exertion had much to do with it, we would |