By SAMUEL GOMPERS, President, American Federation of Labor Always Preach and Practice Unionism Legislation Hostile to Progress 333 338 AMERICAN FEDERATION OF LABOR Warning to Advertisers! Protect yourselves from being defrauded. Read the following Report of the Executive Council and action of the Convention of the American Federation of Labor, at Scranton, Pa., on December 14, 1901, in reference to DECEPTIVE PUBLICATIONS: A NUMBER of souvenir books have been published in which the name of the American Federation of Labor has been used without authority or sanction of any kind from either the American Federation of Labor or its offieers. The good name of our movement is thereby impaired, the interests of our fellow-workers injured, and fair-minded business men imposed upon and deceived. During the year we have endeavored to impress upon all that the only publication in which advertisements are received is our official monthly magazine, the AMERICAN FEDERATIONIST; and we have also endeavored to influence a more straightforward course by those who have transgressed in the direction indicated. In this particular we have not been as successful as we should be pleased to be enabled to report to you. However, we are more concerned with the future than the past; and in order to be helpful in eliminating this cause of grievous complaint, we make the following recommendations: FIRST-That we shall insist that no body of organized labor, nor shall any person issue a souvenir book claiming that such book or any other publication is issued for or on behalf of the American Federation of Labor. SECOND-That any city chosen by a convention of the American Federation of Labor to hold the convention following shall not directly or indirectly through its Central Labor Union or otherwise issue a souvenir book claiming that such book is issued for or on behalf of the American Federation of Labor. THIRD-That in the event of any such souvenir book being projected or about to be issued, directly or indirectly, by the Central Labor body in the city in which the convention was selected to be held, in violation of the letter and spirit of these recommendations, the Executive Council may change the city in which the convention is to be held to the one which received the next highest number of votes for that honor. FOURTH-That the Executive Council is hereby directed to prosecute any person or persons in the courts who shall in any way issue souvenir books, directories or other publications in which the name of the American Federation of Labor is used as publisher, owner or beneficiary. FIFTH-That it be again emphasized that the AMERICAN FEDERATIONIST is the official monthly magazine of the American Federation of Labor, and is the only publication in which advertisements are received. EXECUTIVE COUNCIL, A. F. OF L. Report of Committee to Convention on the Above Report. Perhaps there has been no more prolific source of dishonesty perpetrated in the name of organized labor than that involved in the publication of souvenir books. Unscrupulous projectors have victimized merchants and other friends of the movement in a most shameful fashion, and your committee heartily agrees with the strictures of the Executive Council upon the subject. We emphatically agree with the suggestions offered as a remedy and recommend their adoption. As an additional means to this end we would recommend that there be published in a conspicuous place in each issue of the AMERICAN FEDERATIONIST a notice to the effect that the American Federation of Labor is not sponsor nor interested in any souvenir publication of any kind. Adopted by the Convention of the American Federation of Labor, December 14, 1901. DEVOTED TO THE INTERESTS AND VOICING THE DEMANDS OF THE TRADE UNION MOVEMENT MAY, 1915 ol. XXII AND YET THEY WOULD "WISH" IT "S ON US By SAMUEL GOMPERS WOCIALISM makes provisions for everything except liberty," asserted Brand Whitlock. The best verification of his assertion is found in New South Wales. There have been established all manner of governmental agencies for regulating industry and industrial relations. Now regulation of industrial relations is not a policy to be entered upon lightly establishment of regulation for one type of relation necessitates regulating of another and then another, until finally all industrial life grows rigid with regulations. New South Wales began by establishing agencies to prohibit strikes and lockouts. But strikes could not be banished at command in New South Wales or elsewhere, since they are the result of industrial wrongs. It was found necessary to extend the authority given the governmental agencies to include the regulation of wages, hours of work, overtime and any industria] matter. To make one regulation effective, authority to regulate other relations was necessary. New South Wales is known as a labor governed state and the workers expected to gain great benefits from state regulation. King Midas expected to gain all the joys of existence from the gift of golden touch-but the golden touch made food somewhat indigestible. The workers of New South Wales have found that governmental regulation has undesirable results. In the last issue of the AMERICAN FEDERATIONIST was described the nature of the control exercised by the present system of regulation. The power vested in the Court of Industrial Arbitration is absolute. Recently Judge Heydon has demonstrated that he is the czar of New South Wales so far as relates to industrial relations. No. 5 It is well to estimate carefully the value of benefits to be gained by governmental regulation of private industry, for those benefits must be purchased at the cost of industrial freedom. Workers there are no longer free to decide so far as they are concerned upon their hours, terms and conditions of work, or even whether they shall work or be free enough not to work. To be sure responsibility for these things is shifted upon governmental agents-but shifting responsibility means shifting power and shifting opportunity. Shall a free worker sell his birthright for a mess of pottage? Esau didn't find that a profitable agreement. Benjamin Franklin with his homely wisdom told a story of how he learned to estimate costs. His supreme boyish ambition was to own a whistle-just a plain tin whistle. The first spending money he had he hastened to a shop and without asking its price offered his entire shilling for the joy of owning the whistle. Later he found he had paid twice the value of the whistle-but the experience often made him stop to ponder whether or not "he was paying too dearly for his whistle." A whistle may afford its possessor much joy and may within reason afford joy to the whole neighborhood, but if the price it costs compels the owner to do without other things necessary for growth and development, then its price is too dear. There are numerous developments which indicate that the workers of New South Wales have paid too dearly for their whistlesgovernmental regulation of wages and working conditions. When the great war of Europe began, the system of industrial regulation had to endure for the first time the test of falling markets and general alarm. The system proved to be no superior protection to the workers. Judge Heydon suspended all actions upon applications for increased wages. His decision upon such applications was as follows: "The court is entering upon the consideration generally of the question-in what cases, under the present war conditions, boards should refuse to entertain applications for increases. The decision of the court will have a bearing upon this case, and if it should be necessary, the present decision will be modified to conform with such rules as the court may lay down. "I, therefore, suspend until further order the operation of this judgment in those respects in which increases of pay would result." Although he refused to consider applications for increases in wages, he invited applications for decreases in wages: "As the fact that an extensive European war has broken out, in which the Empire is involved, may bring about great changes in industrial conditions, even in a very short time, which may make awards in their present form no longer suitable, I wish to point out to the industrial world that the general rule that awards are to run their term, and not lightly to be re-opened applies, of course, only when matters are pursuing an ordinary course, and not to times of violent and sudden change. If the parties concerned in any award should find, therefore, that it ought to be altered, or that fresh provisions are required to meet a state of things never contemplated, they have only to approach their boards or the court. If those who are interested consent to the changes, immediate action can be taken; if, on the other hand, conditions are asked for by one side which are disputed by the other an inquiry can be made at the shortest notice and with the minimum of delay." The employers in the leather trades group promptly appealed from an award increasing wages and the award was suspended. On September 3 Judge Heydon, Justice of the Court of Industrial Arbitration, gave the following explanation of the flexibility of a living wage: "The rule laid down is that the lowest class is to get the living wage. It sounds very final, and complete, and conclusive, very nice. As a matter of fact, it is the most uncertain and shifting thing in the world, because the living wage depends on what you want to live on; it depends on your standard. However, we will take it as a fixed thing; we will take it as £2 8s. Bad times come. Bad times means a lessened demand for labor; that is to say, it means there is more labor offering than is needed; there becomes a super abundance of labor. That, in all stages of human history, has been accompanied by a reduc. tion of wages. That is nature's remedy for the short demand. The demand is stimulated by the lower rate. If wages are lower under circumstances like those, how are they to be lower if a hard and fast rule is to be applied? You are not to give a man who is getting a living wage any less, and you are not to give those above them any less than their usual proportion of superiority. How can you bring wages down at all? They can not be brought down at all. Clearly, if they are to come down and you are to preserve the living wage, they must come down from the top, because the man who is getting the living wage is resting on bedrock apparently. Of course, he is not really resting on bedrock, because he can lower his standard. And that is what always happens. At this very moment I suppose 99 people out of 100 in this community have lowered their standard; I suppose I may say all. There would be exceptions, no doubt, but the great bulk of them are spending less than they used to spend. That is lowering their standard. And the bedrock wage is not really and truly a bedrock wage, because it rests on a standard. But assume it is, where is your lowering to take place if you don't begin at the top?" The workers of New South Wales found that their problems were not solved by the establishment of living wages by minimum wage boards. They were threatened by a deluge of wage reductions decreed by the authority of a judge acting under the Compulsory Arbitration and Wage Board Laws. The workers' plight was made all the more distressing by another regulating board that had been established to control prices-the Necessary Commodities Commission. That board was considering applications for increasing prices; the costs of living were rising. Wage boards were forbidden to consider increasing wages. Judge Heydon seemed anxious to demonstrate his theory that a living wage can be reduced by the simple process of living less. The court was pronounced unfair, but Judge Heydon gave way before the storm of protests and appeals for justice. The will of a single man controls the welfare of the workers of New South Wales. His pronouncement was in part: "On the whole, therefore, the conclusion has been reached that to meet this impression of unfairness some relaxation of the rule should be made. Boards may now, therefore, consider claims for increases. Even where old awards have been continued applications need not wait till the extended period has run out-that was expressly laid down in the pronouncement itself. But the boards should take into account the existing state of things and the effect of the war upon both the industry itself and the community, and doing this may perhaps bring about the same result as the pronouncement, but the manner of doing so will be less open to misconstruction. Where this has not been done, and awards have been drawn up as under normal conditions, and are now held in suspense till an appeal can be heard. If there is no appeal, there will be nothing to wait for. As regards government employes, the pronouncement only considered and confirmed an earlier judgment which still stands good. They will, therefore, not come under this relaxation, but if they desire to have claims heard must submit special circumstances as to present. The pronouncement pointed out that the existence of bad times modified one of the terms of the |