higher wages for themselves, but not to stop the arbitrary reduction of the wages of one, or a few, of their organized fellow-workmen !

We point out, parenthetically, that the attempt to outlaw sympathetic strikes in support of one or more members is quite as futile as it is unwarrantable. Men can not be compelled to work against their will, and they can not be compelled to give a reason for striking when determined to do so. But this does not affect the law and the ethics of the question. The people of Massachusetts should not permit the courts to settle the law on this important right for them finally and permanently. The legislature can legalize the strike, whether direct or sympathetic, by positive enactment, and the courts will, of course, reflect the policy of the state as determined by the lawmakers. Courts have nothing to do with matters of general policy and no American state can afford to abolish or limit the freedom to work or not to work-to strike.

WILL HOLD CONGRESS RESPONSIBLE.

Correspondence Between a Member of Congress and President Gompers-Adjournment Without Enacting Labor's Legislative Program Will be Construed as a Refusal to Legislate.

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The people will hold them (members of Congress) responsible for the vote to adjourn as though they had voted against the (labor) measures to which I refer."

The sentence above quoted is taken from the correspondence, herewith reproduced, between Congressman Brumm and President Gompers, as to the possibility that Congress would adjourn early in May and thus avoid a vote on the amendment to the Sherman anti-trust law and other wise and reasonable measures demanded by the workers for the restoration and safeguarding of their rights and those of the whole people.

Congressman Brumm points out that Speaker Cannon intended to prevent legislation on these lines.

President Gompers shows that an evasion by Congress will be held. by the workers to constitute a refusal to do its duty.

The correspondence is a matter of general interest, as it portrays the growth of new conditions and the infusion of a new spirit since labor sounded its protest against the indifference of Congress and expressed its

firm determination to defeat its enemies and elect its friends and to judge its friends by their record rather than by fair promises.

MR. SAMUEL GOMPERS,

Briggs House, Chicago, Ill.

WASHINGTON, D. C., April 30, 1908.

DEAR SIR: Referring to the suggestion by you as to the status of legislation, I wish to say that I solemnly protest against the proposed early adjournment of Congress as it will be impossible to act upon and pass such legislation as is demanded by the people and asked for by the President.

I will be willing to join with others to insist upon the several bills being brought out of the committees and acted upon promptly.

There is no disguising the fact that Speaker Cannon intended to prevent legislation on these lines by referring the President's message and other bills to the Congressional crematory, known as the Judiciary Committee.

Very truly yours,

C. H. BRUMM,

M. C., 12th Dist., Pa.

CHICAGO, ILL., May 2, 1908.

Hon. CHAS. N. BRUMM,

Member of Congress, 12th Dist. of Penn.,

House of Representatives, Washington, D. C.

DEAR SIR: Having business of importance in this city and vicinity for a few days your favor of April 30th was forwarded to me here, the receipt of which I gladly acknowledge and perused it with the greatest interest.

It is because I know you are concerned in the necessary legislation in the interest not only of labor, but of all our people, that I asked you as to the status of legislation in Congress. Your answer justifies the position which, together with others, I took before the election of Mr. Cannon to the speakership of the present Congress and since. Mr. Cannon is the embodiment, and in himself represents all that is antagonistic to the protection and reformatory legislation demanded by the people of our country.

You will remember that an effort was made to arouse the Republican members of this Congress to elect another than Mr. Cannon as Speaker; you have not forgotten the gusto with which they "unanimously" nominated and then elected him to show "that man Gompers" that "Uncle Joe" Cannon has the entire confidence of "all" the Republican members of ConThese Republican Congressmen and the newspapers which belabored and derided me because I knew the "genial Uncle Joe" and, "the interests' for which he stood, can now realize the position in which labor and the people generally are placed by Speaker Cannon and his small coterie of beneficiaries; how he packs the committees and blocks the passage of legislation which even Republicans, the newspapers and labor, aye, the people generally, require, even for their ordinary, as well as imperative needs.

It is gratifying to know that you are willing to join with others to insist upon the several important measures being brought out of the committees and promptly acted upon by the House. There is no doubt in my mind that it is the duty of those members who believe with you to at least make the effort to crystallize that thought into action.

From my knowledge of the members of the House I am fully persuaded that there are enough members of the majority who would act with the minority members on the necessary bills to secure their passage and have them go over for the Senate's action before the adjournment of this session of Congress.

Aye, with you I join in protest against adjournment of Congress before these measures are enacted. There is no reason for adjournment before

legislation for the protection and restoration of natural, human rights of the toilers and of the people, of which they have been shorn by the interpretation by the courts of the Sherman anti-trust law; by the abuse of the beneficent writ of injunction denying to the workers the constitutional right of equality before the law-unless the members of the House, responsible for legislation or failure of legislation, are more concerned with "the interests," with politics, than with broad and enlightened statesmanship to conserve human liberty and freedom to maintain for all time the underlying principles which form the theory and basis of our republic.

Surely no one will be fooled should Congress adjourn early to avoid the passage of the important measures which are awaiting consideration and action. Those members who are responsible for legislation or its failure, who vote for adjournment before the enactment of these measures, may imagine themselves in a fool's paradise, but I am quite confident that the people will hold them responsible for the vote to adjourn, equally as though they had voted against the measures to which I refer. In the name of labor, in the interest of all our people, we urge and must insist upon the enactment of

The Wilson bill, H. R. 20584, amending the Sherman anti-trust law; The Pearre bill, H. R. 94, regulating the issuing of the injunctive writ to its original and beneficent purpose;

The extension of the eight hour law to all government employes and to employes of contractors or subcontractors performing work for the government;

A general employers' liability law applicable to all workers, so far as the federal jurisdiction extends.

The above measures are specifically mentioned because they are some of the most important to the needs of the workers of our country, the workers who by their very numbers and the service they render to society are the most important, necessary, and patriotic citizens of our republic and upon whom in the last analysis must devolve the mission to secure, maintain, and perpetuate true freedom for all our people, now and for all time to come.

You know I speak neither as a Republican, a Democrat, or as a member of any other political party, but rather as the representative of the organized wage-workers of America. And it may, perhaps, not be amiss to add that to

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very large extent the organized labor movement represents the hopes and aspirations of even the unorganized men and women of labor. Nor is it out of place to state that there is a constantly growing conviction among a large part of the thinking men of our country, that the demands which labor makes upon Congress, and upon society as a whole, forms the cogent, reasonable, evolutionary movement for justice, right, and progress.

The wage-workers and the farmers' organizations, as well as masses of other right-thinking Americans, now have their eyes and thoughts directed to Congress as perhaps never before. They are not likely to take fair Congressional promises for the future in the place of refusal to perform peremptory and plain duty now.

The toiling masses of our country and their friends are thinking and propose to act more independently, industrially, and politically than at any time in the past. They propose to stand by their friends and advocates and elect them; to oppose those who are indifferent or hostile to their interests, rights, and welfare, and defeat them. And this independent thinking and acting applies not only to candidates for Congress, but to all who aspire to public preferment from candidates for the great office of President, down.

Very truly yours,

SAMUEL GOMPERS, President, American Federation of Labor.

Age Limit for Child Workers Raised to Fourteen Years in District of Columbia.

The House Committee on the District of Columbia reported a bill for the prohibition of child labor in the District. The bill provided that the age limit should be 12 years. Immediately upon the introduction of the bill in the House the following letter was written by President Gompers to Mr. Olcott, chairman of the committee:

HEADQUARTERS AMERICAN FEDERATION OF LABOR,

Hon. J. VAN VECHTEN OLCOTT,

WASHINGTON, D. C., April 28, 1908.

Chairman, House Committee on the

District of Columbia, House of Representatives.

DEAR SIR: I see that the Committee on the District of Columbia has reported a bill to the House upon the subject-matter dealing with the question of child labor in the District of Columbia. I note, also, that the bill provides the 12-year age limit—that is, that labor of children in manufactories, etc., under the age of 12 years is prohibited.

In connection with the subject-matter, may I submit to you the fact that the enactment of a bill containing the age limit of 12 years can do naught but work mischief and great injury to the movement which seeks to eliminate the worst elements of child labor in the industrial affairs of our country. No one in our time undertakes to defend the exploitation of young and innocent children for profit in industry. The heart and the conscience and the good sense of our people have been aroused against the great wrong and injury resulting from the labor of young and innocent children. So far as this reform movement has gone, in 35 of our states the law upon the statute books provides the 14-year age limit, and in only nine is there a law providing for the 12-year age limit.

If the Congress of the United States were to enact a law by which the age limit of the labor of children would be set at 12 years it would be the severest blow which this humane movement could receive. Here in the capital of the United States, with Congress legislating upon this subject, it would seem that even a fair conception of right and duty would permit the enactment of a law that shall set the age permitting children to work in the industries of Washington at not less than 14 years.

The fact that there is no law upon the statute books regulating or limiting the labor of children in the District of Columbia is a severe reflection in itself. To now enact a law that would set the permissive age at 12 years for children to labor would not only be a serious mistake and contribute to retard the progressive movement toward eliminating child labor, but, as already stated, would be regarded as reactionary in the extreme. It were far better that Congress would not enact a law upon the subject at all than to pass the bill reported by your committee to the House.

I am sure that I but reflect the sentiment, and the deep-seated sentiment, of the demands of all the people of our country when I urge that your committee and Congress will change the proposed bill so as to raise the age limit to 14 years.

Very respectfully yours,

SAMUEL GOMPERS, President, American Federation of Labor.

Upon receipt of this letter, Mr. Olcott consulted his colleagues and obtained their consent to change the age limit from 12 to 14 years.

TALKS ON LAbor.

An Address Delivered at Chicago on May 1, by Samuel Gompers, on Labor Legislation Demanded from Congress and Recent Supreme

Court Decisions as Affecting Organized Labor.