An editorial in our July issue assigned reasons showing why the Executive Council of the A. F. of L. refused to place a boycott upon the breweries of Allegheny county, Pennsylvania.

Since that time, and before, several central labor unions passed resolutions censuring the Executive Council for its refusal to do what the officials of the National Union of United Brewery Workers wanted done. Some of the central labor unions, like the officers of the United Brewery Workers, resorted to language more forcible than polite, and altogether unwarranted, in protesting against the Council's action.

The American Federation of Labor has charged its Executive Council with the responsible duty of passing upon the merits of boycotts placed by affiliated organizations before giving them the endorsement of the A. F. of L.

In discharging this duty the Council members are not guided by sentiment, but by the evidence in each case.

It is possible that the Council may err at times, but if so the error should be credited to misinformation and not to malevolence.

The following correspondence clearly proves that the Executive Council was justified in not placing a boycott upon the breweries of Allegheny county, Pennsylvania:

INDIANAPOLIS, IND., Aug. 9, 1895. Mr. Cal Wyatt, Secretary United Labor League, Pittsburgh, Pa.:

My Dear Sir-Some time ago the National Union of Brewery Workers asked the Executive Council of the A. F. of L. to place a boycott upon sixteen out of seventeen breweries in Allegheny county, Pennsylvania. The Council did not believe the facts presented for their consideration warranted such action on their part and refused to levy the boycott.

The officials of the Brewery Workmen's Union declare that we have done them an injustice by said refusal.

Being on the ground, your membership has a better opportunity of knowing whether or not your breweries should be classed as "fair" or "scab" breweries.

If "fair," they are entitled to recognition; and if "scab," they should be so declared by organized labor of Western Pennsylvania.

The organized wage-workers of Western Pennsylvania have always been loyal to the cause of labor, and in this case the cause of labor demands that your organization should decide and report as to the fair or unfair status of your home breweries. If they are "scab" breweries their products should be boycotted; if "fair," their trade should not be hampered or interfered with by false or misleading statements.

The Executive Council of the A. F. of L. has no axe to grind in this matter, and does not call upon you to act simply as a means of endorsing their position as against that of the Brewery Workmen's National Union. We have acted as we thought best. We may or may not be right. We want to know the truth and do what we can to support it and the cause of labor.

We ask, in justice to yourselves, the brewers, the brewery workmen and our Executive Council, as well as the cause of labor, that you take this matter up and in a friendly, business manner investigate and determine whether laboring men shall hereafter treat the Allegheny county breweries as "fair" or "scab" brewFraternally yours, JOHN MCBRIDE, President A. F. of L.

eries.

UNITED LABOR LEAGUE OF

WESTERN PENNSYLVANIA,
PITTSBURGH, PA., Sept. 17, 1895.

Mr. John McBride, President of the A. F. of L., Indianapolis, Ind.:

Dear Sir-Your inquiry of August 9 came duly to hand, but I have been unable to authoritatively answer the same until the present time. I laid the inquiry before the League at the meeting of September 1. Owing to the long pending dispute which the brewery workers of this vicinity have indulged in, the League deemed it advisable to make a thorough investigation.

Your communication was referred to the Executive Board with instructions to invite all interested parties to be present at its meeting. Representatives of both the K. of L. and the Brewery Workmen's Union were present and made full and exhaustive statements to the Board.

Following is the Executive Board's report on the inquiry propounded: SEPTEMBER 9, 1895.

To the Officers and Members of the United Labor League of Western Pennsylvania:

Your Executive Board, in accordance with your request, met on the above date and made a thorough investigation of the brewery workers' difficulty. We find, after hearing both sides, that there are sixteen union breweries in Allegheny county, fifteen of which are controlled by the I. O. K. of L. and one by the National Brewery Workers' Union. THOMAS GAUNDY,

A. F. of L., President Executive Board.
M. P. CARRICK,

Brotherhood Painters and Decorators, Secretary.

JOHN T. McCoy,
Typographical Union, No. 7.
L. R. THOMAS,

Pattern Makers' National League.
JAMES MICHAELS.

L. A. 300, Window Glass Workers.
S. A. SNEATHEN,

Cigarmakers, K. of L.
NEAL MCFARLAND,
Teamsters, I. O. K. of L.

At the regular meeting of the League on Sunday evening, September 15, the above report was presented and approved, and I was ordered to forward the same to you.

You will observe by the above report that the League declares that at the present time there is not a single "scab" brewery in Allegheny county.

Fraternally yours,
CAL WYATT,

Recording Secretary. The United Labor League of Western Pennsylvania, with headquarters at Pittsburgh, is one of the largest and strongest central labor organizations in the conntry. It is not affiliated with the A. F. of L., but many of its locals belong to the A. F. of L. through their national and international unions.

"TENEMENT TALES OF NEW YORK." Former readers of the Standard, published by Henry George in 1886-7, in New York, will remember a number of bright, short stories from the pen of "Hudore Genone," who later contributed to Hugh O. Pentecost's Twentieth Century. "In Tenement Tales of New York," recently issued, they will be agreeably surprised to recognize their old favorite in the person of J. W. Sullivan, who represented the New York State Federation at the Denver convention. Mr. Sullivan has succeeded in embracing almost all phases of human character, in which he shows himself an adept student, in the small volume. "True to life," everyone will say arising from its perusal. In "Cohen's Figure" anger, shame, sorrow, are experienced that such tragedies should come to pass in our midst, and yet no one can doubt its daily truthfulness. "A Young Desperado" shows vividly, illustrating street Arab life, how character is but the whim of circumstance, and is made for good or evil by its environments. "Not Yet," a sketch of the sweater's den, sends the blood hotly coursing.

"Threw Himself Away" hits hard the shallowness and snobbery of the elite, so called, while "Leather's Banishment" makes the profes sional charity dispenser-a penny's worth of bread with a pound of advice absurd. There are other stories of similar merit, all pointing an object lesson in no uncertain words, and yet touching the burning problem in such a way that makes the subject deeply interesting as well as instructive.

It is a good book with which to gain recruits where ordinary teaching fails. The price is seventy-five cents, and it is sold by Holt & Co., 29 West Twenty-third street, New York City.

THE VALUE OF STATISTICS.

Good reading matter always appears in the Typographical Journal, but something exceptionally good, in the form of a statistical table, was given to its readers in the issue of August 15.

The statistical tablę referred to gives the number and character of type setting machines used by the unions reporting; the number of union and non-union operators of machines; the price of hand and machine composition per 1,000 ems per hour and per week, for both day and night work, together with the hours of labor per day and per week.

The total number of machines reported was 2,195, and of machine operators 2,868. The machine operators, with the exception of 393, were members of the International Typographical Union.

The Journal says of type-setting machine labor:

We have all experienced a feeling akin to grief on hearing of and seeing the number of men being displaced by machines, but have seldom stopped to inquire what the result would have been was it not for the wholesome restraint our organization was able to put on the natural cupidity of men, especially highly developed in those engaged in business. We find that there is but a trio of unions working sixty hours per week on machines, while 125 make forty-eight hours or less a week's work, thirteen of these reducing the number to forty-two, and two have actually achieved the ultra respectable figure of six per day. Seven unions could not do better than obtain a nine-hour day. Of hand labor it says:

A glance at the hours for hand composition is also of interest, and will perhaps be surprising to those who are fond of asserting that book and job men are content to work ten hours per day. Seventy of the 309 unions reporting insist on fifty-four hours or less constituting a week's work, and nineteen of these are in the eight-hour day column. Fifty-nine hours entitle members to draw a week's pay in 133 jurisdictions, and in fifty-six another hour is necessary.

The great object lesson taught to printers, and to all wage-workers, by the statistical table and the deductions made therefrom, is alike instructive and encouraging. It clearly demonstrates that while the introduction and use of type-setting machines was displacing hand

labor, the solidarity and power of the Typographical Union not only succeeded in maintaining the standard of wages, but by reducing the hours of labor per day, both for machine and hand workers, they furnished employment for more workers and lessened the toil of the employed. In this way the International Typographical Union has evidenced the force of organized effort, when properly directed, to make machinery benefit rather than injure productive and constructive labor. The work day of labor should be shortened as rapidly and as . far as the productive power of labor is aug. mented by invention and machinery.

Another valuable feature of the statistical table referred to is that which informs and educates the members of the union as to the status of craft conditions in all sections of the country. This knowledge not only makes union men broader and more liberal-minded, but it gives confidence, and confidence based upon knowledge so equips officers and members of a union that they are enabled to do the right thing at the right time, and in a manner calculated to win and maintain public approval.

The lack of statistical data bearing upon trade conditions is one of the principal weaknesses of our trade unions and their officials, while usually it constitutes the foundation of employers' opposition arguments, and is chiefly relied upon to turn public sentiment in their favor and against labor.

The statistical table compiled by the Typographical Union may not be perfect, and considering that it is their first attempt made in that line, it would be miraculous if it were, but it is sufficiently so to warrant the time and money expended upon its compilation.

The Typographical Union is to be complimented upon this departure from old methods, and all of our affiliated bodies would do well to follow in their wake.

the rebellion, when corporations and capitalistic syndicates were unknown, the workers owned 621⁄2 and the non-producers only 37% per cent of our country's wealth, but since the war an era of corporation rule has been allowed, and as a result the census of 1890 credits to the workers only 17 per cent and gives the nonproducers 83 per cent of our entire wealth. In a period of forty years capital has gained and labor lost 451⁄2 per cent of the wealth of the United States.

Had labor and capital in 1890 held the same relative position they did in 1850, the workers would have owned $38, 125,000,000 and the non-producers $22,875,000,000, but owing to the change in the ratio of distribution the non-producers in 1890 owned $50,630,000,000, while the workers only owned $10,370,000,000. Thus, in forty years time, by reason of governmental favoritism to capital and the indifference and neglect of wage-workers to the system of robbery practiced, capital gained and labor lost $27,755,000,000 out of the country's total wealth of $61,000,000,000. Labor has paid dearly for its folly when measured by its loss in dollars and cents, but when the curtailment of personal liberty and the failure to secure a fair share of the benefits accruing from invention are considered, the actual loss which labor has suffered is inestimable.

The rapid strides made by this country within forty years toward enriching the few and impoverishing the many might easily be judged by the surface indications which are everywhere visible.

Great Britain, the home of land and money aristocracy, according to Mulhall, has only one millionaire to every 9,719 families, whereas the United States in 1890, according to George K. Holmes, of the census department, had one millionaire for every 3,460 families. It is evident that Great Britain is "not in it" with the. United States when it comes to making mill. ionaires. We may not have too many millionaires, but we have too many paupers. We may not have too many palaces, but we have too many hovels. The making of millionaires would not be felt so keenly were it not that the masses were hungry, naked and comfortless because of the process by which millionaires were and are made.

Capitalism, pauperism and crime go hand in hand, and the history of the world evidences the fact that wherever the former increases the two latter spread and flourish.

In the last thirty or forty years the force of aggregated and concentrated wealth, aided by labor-displacing machinery, has kept hundreds of thousands of honest, earnest wage-workers in almost continual idleness, and as a result

·

Such statistics are not creditable either to free government or to a supposedly Christian civilization like ours.

The value of labor's production, per employe per year, in the manufacturing establishments of the various countries, according to Carroll D. Wright, was as follows:

United States, $1,888; Great Britain, $790; France, $545; Germany, $545; Russia, $381; Austria, $409; Italy, $265; Spain, $364; Belgium, $545; Switzerland, $433.

The amount paid in wages per employe was: First, United States, $347; second, Great Britain, $204; third, France, $175; fourth, Belgium, $165; fifth, Germany, $155; sixth, Austria, $150; seventh, Switzerland, $150; eighth, Italy, $130; ninth, Spain, $120; tenth, Russia, $120.

By noting the amount paid in wages it will be seen that labor in the United States receives a larger sum in dollars and cents than is paid in other countries, but by comparing the value of product and wages paid per employe, it will be observed that our workers receive less of their actual earnings than is paid to labor in the other countries named.

The percentage of wages paid to labor, out of its actual production, in each country is as follows:

United States, 17.8; Great Britain, 25.5; Belgium, 25.5; Germany, 28.4; France, 32.1; Russia, 31.2; Spain, 32.6; Switzerland, 34.6; Austria, 36.6, and Italy, .49.

The employers received the following percentage of labor's product:

In the United States, 82.2; Belgium, 74.5; Great Britain, 72.2; Germany, 71.6; France, 67.9; Russia, 68.8; Spain, 67.4; Switzerland, 65.4; Austria, 63.4; Italy, 51.

These figures clearly demonstrate that our capital is the best rewarded and our labor the poorest paid, according to the value of its production, of any. employing capital and employed labor in the civilized world.

said:

Noah Webster, over a century ago, "An equal distribution of property is the foundation of the republic."

It is time the foundation was commenced. The people must own and operate natural monopolies. The railroads, telephones, telegraphs and mines should be nationalized. Municipalities must own and operate street railways, gas, water and electric plants.

The future welfare of the country demands that the power of the government be expanded as rapidly and as far as the good sense of an intelligent people and the teachings of experience shall justify, along the line of collective ownership, by the people, of all such means of production and distribution as the people may elect from time to time to operate.

Vox populi, vox Dei!

HIGHER WAGES FOR MINERS.

An agreement was made in August, between the officers of the United Mine Workers organization and the coal operators of the Pittsburgh, Pa., district, which provided for an advance of 9 cents per ton in miners' wages, to take effect on October 1.

At the time of making the agreement, miners who were unacquainted with the conditions surrounding the Pittsburgh district denounced the officials for making a settlement on such terms, and openly declared that the advance would not be paid.

The result proves the officials to have been right. The Pittsburgh operators have paid the advance agreed upon, and now the Ohio and other fields within the competitive district will pay a similar advance and a hundred thousand mine-workers will be benefitted thereby.

The settlement not only secured an advance on October 1, but secured it without friction with operators, and in such a manner as to practically insure the adjustment of future wage disputes by joint conventions of miners and operators.

The fulfillment of the agreement terms will most likely lead to an early joint convention to agree upon prices to be paid during the next scale year, and, judging from the sentiment expressed by a number of leading operators, it is safe to say that mining rates will be still further advanced by the convention.

The coal miners have had a hard time of it during the past three years, and it is to be hoped that the advance in wages made on October I will make a turning point in mining affairs that will bring both improved conditions of labor and better pay for labor performed.

THIS magazine is published in your interest, is owned and controlled by you. It voices labor's side of every question. All members should endeavor to increase its circulation.

Jottings.

To those of us who have been in the union harness from boyhood up, the situation is encouraging. To organize is now looked upon as the regular, the customary thing to do in all fields of labor. It is popular in the advanced thought of the day. And employers themselves, while they often resist, do not question the right of workingmen to combine and get what they can. There has been a decided change of thought during the past ten years, in almost all circles, on the subject. We can well remember the time when we were told there was no labor question, no necessity of labor unions, the workingman was happy, prosperous, contented, and these agitators and walking delegates ought to be summarily dealt with. Every daily newspaper, almost, in the land was arrayed against them, who told us the idea was foreign, an importation; but the trade unions stayed on just the same, slowly, gradually creeping, meeting to-day, breaking up to-morrow, meeting again stronger than ever, so that now the crop of agitators grows larger every year, and we meet them in unexpected places. The change in public sentiment is remarkable. It has come in spite of press, pulpit and state, so that the labor movement is now respectable, and he who is not able to intelligently discuss the principles involved is a back number in educated circles.

IF the labor unions done nothing else than call attention to the misery that abounds, their existence would be justifiable; but they have done more, they have not only called attention to the effects, they have shown the causes. They have done more still; they have produced remedies, upon the merits and demerits of which professors, editors and ministers now discuss and advocate. Labor unions have produced thinkers and educators from out their own ranks, and have drawn, also, students and teachers from the wealthy and professional. And more yet; while doing this, they have bettered the condition of thousands of families, by securing higher wages, shorter hours and greater independence, individually and collectively. The result is something to be proud of. The carpenter, the printer, cigarmaker, clerk, mason, shoemaker, tailor, working long hours on short rations, have stepped boldly to the front and worked revolution in American thought. It is a fact, beyond cavil. A few short years ago, the only important issue in political campaigns was the war relic and office spoils. The great unrest among the working people, the strikes and lockouts, directed the thought, of the politician to other channels. The discussion included new elements, and a change was had in parties. The bloody shirt was dropped, and a national debate on tariff ensued. But this was not satisfactory. The mere displacement of labor from one country to another, and the increased cost of production involved by artificial growth, could not settle the problem. Free trade in products, while being correct, could not avail while monopoly in production remained. And so it proved. The attempt in that direction afforded no relief. Then the mind of the politician traveled off on to the financial question, and the debate waxes merrily. But there will be no lasting relief here either. The next presidential cam

paign will be fought out on a hybrid combination of protective tariff and free silver, and the best that we will get out of it will be the education that is now going on, and that will ensue. Anything that will remove restrictions from production, whether it be in transportation or exchange, is good, is in the line of freedom, and while believing in free transportation of products, known as free trade, and in enlarged facilities of exchange, known as free silver, neither one nor both will afford adequate relief. Because of this plain fact: there can be no relief in facilitating exchange of products, while the product itself, or the means to produce it, is monopolized.

And so after all this debate on side issues, changing of coats and parties, the politician will find that the labor question is still unsettled and the trade union is still here, and greater than ever. What then? If the trade unionist will not go to the politician, the politician must come to the trade unionist. And that means that the next issue will be the labor question, based upon fundamental rights, the right to work and the full product thereof.

WHEN Charles Dickens visited this country he later wrote that what impressed him most was the entire absence of beggars. What would be say were he alive to-day?

It is this change in industrial conditions that the upper classes, so called, were loth to realize. It took a long time to disabuse their minds of the belief that men in this free country actually could not secure employment and often went hungry through no fault of their own. They clung to the Dickens view. They were not aware that conditions were changing, had changed. They could not realize the great difference that existed in the early history of this country, when land and natural resources were free to all, with that of the present time when all the doors are closed. And when they did they sought false laws, protection and restriction on immigration. But protection has failed, and we know that were immigration entirely restricted it would afford no relief. It was here that labor came in with its new political economy and taught that there could be no relief until the bars were thrown down and labor given a chance to employ itself. Such is the idea which is rapidly gaining ground. Whether it will be successful or not remains to be seen. may be sure that those who hold the key will fight hard before unlocking the door. Certain it is that nothing can or will be accomplished unless the dispossessed wake up, take hold, and demand that all be given an equal opportunity to life and liberty, as laid down in the constitution of the United States.

We