Or mute-it little differs, Until her guilt Has all been spilt And hence she seldom suffers. Should some poor youth A deed uncouth Commit and have no rich friends, Then swift as light The power of right Upon his sad lot descends. Thus on we float In a gold boat, O'er waves of tumult brewing, And headlong sweep Out toward the deep Our fatal course persuing. The hand of God Shall stop this fraud, Where justice is not heeded, And by some hand Our native land Must of this plague be weeded. -JOHN C. MAC CAFFREY. A CALL FOR MEN. There's a call for men Courageous-sincere! Who hate all pretense-who follow the light With never a thought of cringing or Men who believe in the triumph of right! There's a call for men Pure-hearted and good! Too great to be base or sordid or mean, Who practice spirit of true brotherhood Men who are chivalrous, loyal and clean! Men of principle, purity, pow'r True to themselves and God ev'ry hour! There's a call for men-for men! There's a call for men Large-hearted and wise! Masters-not slaves of the things they possess! Willing to give till it costs sacrifice, Who know the secret of true happiness! Men of muscle, of heart and of brainWho live not for gold nor greed of gain! There's a call for men-for men! There's a call for men Farsighted and keen! To tackle each task-with cheer-see it through! Men who have vision beyond what is seen! Men who are eager to dare and to doMen of purpose, of poise, and of pray'r— Heroes-the burdens of life to bearThere's a call for men-for men! -Joseph Henry Ayres. I LOVE MONEY, BUT— I would like to have money and all it would buy, But I never will lie to obtain it; For wealth I am eager and ready to try, But there's much that I don't do to gain it. I won't spend my life in a money-mad chase, There are prosperous things that are crusted with shame That I vow I will never engage in. There is many a crooked and dishonest game With a large and glittering wage in. But I want to walk out with my head held erect, Nor bow it and sneakingly turn it; Above all your money I place self-respect, I'm eager for gold-but I'll earn it. -Detroit Free Press. IT PAYS. It pays to wear a smiling face Our laughter or our frown. It pays to make a worthy cause It pays to comfort heavy hearts -Fannie E. Emmis. THE DETROIT CONVENTION. By J. F. Riley. Next month we again meet for the purpose of enacting laws for the government of our Brotherhood and outlining policies affecting the quarter of a million railway clerks in the United States. No doubt, as in the days gone by, the lodges have selected their brainest members to represent them in the 1915 convention, and upon these members will rest a grave responsibility. Three years have elapsed since the Boston convention, years fraught with many changes in the industrial and economic life of the nation; changes to which we, as an important factor in the sum total which constitutes our institutional life, must conform. In every age there have been two extreme types of thought and opinion as to human institutions. The self same views exist among us of today, just as they did among the cave men as they lay sunning themselves upon the rocks thousands of years ago. One is the view that each individual is sufficient unto himself. The view of the ancient sophists once combated by Socrates in the streets of Athens. Predominations of such view would rend our institutional life into millions of antagonistic atoms defying each other. Then there is the other extreme: The view which insists that all individual power or acquisition must be subordinated to the benefit of the whole. The world has seen this view in concrete form. It has seen it in the civilization of India in the interest of cast. It has seen it in the civilization of China in the interest of ancestral worship. It has seen it in the civilization of Egypt in the interest of priestly class, and it has seen these three civilizations fade, wither and die. The true line of progress lies between these two extremes; in a proper conception of liberty and justice without invading the rights of others. These two extreme types of thought and opinion exist today in the industrial world. They exist in our Brotherhood, and perhaps it is well that they do, for they are combatatively antagonistic and help us to find and to follow that true line of progress which lies between them. There are those who believe, or pretend to believe, that each individual is the arbiter of his own destiny. The radical believer in this extreme is the chronic non-unionist. Then there is the semi-radical, the unionist who believes in union isolation; believes that our Brotherhood should set itself up on a self-constructed pedestal of industrial aristocracy. There are also those who believe that the power and acquisition of our craft should be subordinated to the benefit of the industrial world as a whole. The one big union idea-eliminating all lines of demarkation and inviting chaotic destruction of the entire labor movement. So let us find and religiously follow the only logical line of progress, which lies between these extremes. We have in the past been too prone to swerve toward semi-craft isolation. Let us at the 1915 convention correct this detrimental tendency; let us extend our jurisdictional lines to include all white station employes outside the telegraphic service. Then let us decide upon future policies relating to amalgamation, federation, etc. Experience convinces me that our jurisdiction should not merely inIclude the clerks, but all station employes not performing telegraph duties, irrespective of the nature of their work. When it becomes necessary to fight for our rights does it not seem the height of folly for the office employes to leave their desks and the men in the warehouse, on the docks, in the baggage rooms, etc., to continue? Such generalship in time of war would justify court-martial and execution of those guilty of it. But that is just what we have been doing in the past and will be forced to do in the future if we sacredly adhere to our limited jurisdictional lines. There is now nothing to prevent their extension, and thus |