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Railroad Employees Take $50,000,000 of Second Liberty Loan

Reports received by the Railroads' War Board indicate that the railroad employees of this country have taken more than $50,000,000 worth of the second Liberty Bond issue.

For the first bond issue 241,280 members of the rank and file of the railroad army subscribed an aggregate of $20,427,966.

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Reports on the subscriptions to the second issue, although incomplete, show clearly that the amount which railroad men will contribute to this loan will be at least two and one-half times as much as to the first loan and probably more.

On twenty-one of the largest roads entering Chicago, 63,106 employees subscribed $5,341,000 to the first Liberty Loan. All these roads report that the subscriptions to the second Liberty Loan will run over three times as much as the first loan. Not only more employees are subscribing, but larger amounts are being taken out.

Subscriptions by Pennsylvania Railroad employees to the second Liberty Loan approximate $5,000,000 as compared with $3,444,600 subscribed to the first loan.

In Texas approximately 2,600 employees of the Southern Pacific Lines have subscribed for $209,800 of the new Liberty Bonds.

Incomplete figures from Cincinnati show that 3,450 Cincinnati railroad employees have bought $230,000 worth of the second issue.

Incomplete figures from the New Haven indicate that 241 N. Y., N. H. & H. R. R. employees have subscribed through the company for $20,950 worth of the bonds.

Employees of the Missouri, Kansas & Texas Railroad made approximately 7,000 individual subscriptions, amounting to an estimated minimum of at least $350,000.

The Baltimore & Ohio employees, who took $459,000 worth of the first Liberty Bonds, report that they expect their total for the second issue to be well over $500,000.

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Only forty-four out of the 640 railroads of the country have made preliminary reports to date of subscriptions by railroad employees to the second Liberty Bond issue, but these reports show 438,878 individual subscribers for an aggregate of $14,107,050.

Labor Press Publicity, Union's Sharpest Tool; Devoted
Editors Merit Greater Co-operation

Excerpt from Speech Delivered at the Annual Convention of the American Federation of Labor, Buffalo,
New York, by David J. Berry, Editor of the National Labor Journal, Pittsburg,
Vice-President of the National Labor Publicity Organization and Executive
Committeeman of the American Alliance for Labor and Democracy.

Almost anyone can be an editor. At least, that is what the average man thinks. Anybody can be an editor. If If you asked a plumber to take a flying machine ten thousand feet up in the air, he would think you were crazy. If you asked a bricklayer to carve out a beautiful image in granite he would think you were a nut. If you asked a member of the United Mine Workers to cut and polish a diamond, he would say frankly,

"I'm, a classy guy at my trade, but there are a whole lot of other things in this world that I don't know."

But anybody can be an editor. That is to say anybody can tell the editor the proper way to do things. He thinks he can and let me place the emphasis on the word "thinks." He is always ready to write in to state that a member of the Typographical Union-the busy printers who are some intellectuals

themselves to say that an "e" was left out of his name, or, more important, that some enemy of his, in the labor movement, had not been roasted and toasted sufficiently enough. He wants blood, bloody blood. If you talked to him on the street, you find he is a normal conservative, self-contained man, rather pleased to boost the other fellow, and very sparing of his enemies. That's his personal platform and a splendid one, but he'd like the editor, and he tells everybody his opinion, to roast his enemies, to do all the dirty work in print, and in public that he himself doesn't dare to do in private life, and, in his relations with his fellow laborite, on the street.

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Now, the labor press is not a commodity to be bought and sold for a subscription or a few kind words. Like labor itself, it is not an article of commerce. Publicity—that is, the consistent placing of labor ideals before the great public, is today the most masterful measure in the entire labor movement. No person can quarrel with this statement. Every person must admit that publicity—proper publicity—is our sharpest weapon and our most efficient tool.

The National Labor Publicity Organization, of which I have the honor to be vice-president, and one of the founders, has been very successful in bridging this gap. Since its organization, nearly a year ago, it has maintained a news service, portraying labor's triumphs and struggles, just as effectively as the Associated Press. This service reaching the labor papers and the big newspapers, as well, has had much to do with rallying the great American public to its cause, during the war. Labor has won more victories this year in wages and living standards than in its entire history. Why? An enlightened public sentiment has backed up its just demands.

Whence this public sentiment? Simply by proper publicity. It is enough to say that the wonderful propaganda of the American Alliance for Labor and

Democracy goes through this publicity channel. The weekly bulletin of the American Federation of Labor is another powerful weapon.

The publicity given to the labor movement, particularly in its strikes, and struggles for the betterment of living standards, often appears in the daily newspapers. But how? Invariably, in a distorted, twisted form, oftentimes designed devilishly to deceive the man on strike and weaken his faith in his brothers and in the American Federation of Labor. Invariably, when the issue is clean between the worker and money, that is, between the organized worker and organized money, the newspaper is found fighting the battles of the employer, the exploiter, and of capitalism.

This is not strange. This is not remarkable. Every dog, if he is a good dog, answers his master's whistle. He comes when he is called. It so happens in America that it requires millions of dollars of capital to publish a big daily paper, and wherever a million dollars is present, there is a little worry about the common workingman. Newspapers take the attitude-and it is a very sensible attitude that "God helps those who help themselves." Accordingly, if workers don't help themselves and fall willing, eager victims to their enemies, it is ridiculous to expect that the press. which is "getting away with it" should Vouchsafe them a single thought. Strictly speaking, they don't deserve it.

Now, does labor deserve the tremendous and self-sacrificing support given the movement by hundreds of local labor papers throughout the United States? Do they give half the support that capitalism gives to the publicity organs? This is a time for plain speaking and I regret to say that labor is not on the job with the proper support. This lack does not seem to hamper the labor press for the reason that the editors, with fire in their eyes, are determined to battle for the cause that they

love. However, this indifference makes the labor papers skimpy. It reduces their circulation which ought to be enormous, and I believe that if the gospel of publicity outlined by our peerless president, Samuel Gompers, were given its full recognition, we would see a well-supported labor press which would be the most incisive and powerful dreadnought in America. President Gompers says "Publicity is a mighty force propagating any cause. No mat

ter how worthy or how noble the purpose of the government, if it cannot be correctly presented and brought to the attention of the people, the movement loses its effectiveness and force."

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President Gompers further says: "Labor papers have done much to clarify public thought and to impart correct impressions of the purpose and the policies of the workers. The men giving their time to those labor papers are performing a work very necessary to the success of the organized labor movement."

"Regular and burdensome is the duty whose great regard is the satisfaction. of promoting the well-being of the workers. Many are the temptations to turn aside for a handful of silver, the office or the honor offered. But, true to their conscience and humanity's best interests, this group of labor editors stay faithful by their chosen work and help mold public opinion and conscience that the people be aware of the tendencies and their meaning. All the workingmen owe these labor editors both moral and financial support and honor and gratitude for the services rendered day after day. They are doing a work for formative power that will have a telling effect upon history, but their services should be recognized by the men of today as well as in the pages of history.

I've shown you that anyone thinks he can be an editor of a labor paper. This is a disease, but there is a cure-a sure cure. Just say to the malcontent, "All right, go ahead and edit. You've shown me a dozen weaknesses in the paperyou've been a genius at fault-finding.

Now, sit down and show me some strength. Let us see your constructive powers. You know that any anarchist or I. W. W. can blow up, destroy and reduce to smithereens this wonderful Hotel Statler. Any nut can destroy. But it took thousands of skilled workmen, carpenters, plasterers, mechanics, plumbers, bricklayers, etc., to construct this edifice."

Now, don't judge from my remarks that I am a pessimist-that I am a sorehead on this subject. Quite the contrary. In the Pittsburg district, speaking intimately for the National Labor Journal, and the American Alliance for Labor and Democracy, the greatest, most hearty co-operation has been given. If I were selfish, I'd be very smug, self-satisfied and proud. But I'm not. I see hundreds of labor papers every week and I see, just as plain as day, that they are not getting the squarest kind of a deal, although they are uncomplaining.

This is no time to throw bouquets at ourselves and talk about the dignity and power of the labor press. The dignity and power are there, all right, just as every one of you, my friends, has brains and muscle. But you've got to hunt the feed-bag, breakfast, dinner and supper, to maintain that strength. Therefore, I don't bespeak the Pittsburg paper I represent, but hundreds of struggling labor weeklies throughout the land, when I say, "the labor press is getting kind words, but unfortunately they do not pay for expensive white paper, postage and operating expenses."

Accordingly, my message is simple. and it is brief:

Boost your local paper-the official Federation mouthpiece. Boost it, morning, noon and night. Boost it, when the editor slips up and makes a mistake

just as you've been making mistakes all your life. Boost it, if you don't like the editor personally. It is the cause the great cause that countsnothing else in the world matters. Boost brotherhood-that's all.

Protection For Working Mothers On War Contracts

Protection for mothers employed on government war contracts is recommended by the Committee on Women in Industry of the Council of National Defense. "No woman," says its bulletin on industrial standards, just issued, "shall be employed during a period of two months prior, or two months subsequent to childbirth."

Such a prohibition is already in effect in four states in this country, but no provision has yet been made for the care and support of working mothers when thus deprived of their wages.

All European countries that have this restricted period also have maternity insurance, according to of ficial reports, as a protection against suffering, destitution, and impaired impaired strength of both mother and child. To

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afford full protection of motherhood
among families of industrial workers
in the United States, the workmen's t
health insurance bill prepared by the
American Association for Labor Legis-
lation in co-operation with the Ameri-
can Medical Association provides for
maternity benefits, including medical,
nursing and obstetrical care, as well as
cash payments.

Maternity insurance to accompany the restricted working period for mothers, it is being urged, is necessary in the United States as in the allied countries, to safeguard effectively the health and well-being of women workers now entering industries in greatly increased numbers, and to contribute to the nation's industrial power after as well as during the war.

On Shooting One's Daughter

Down on Staten Island, on Sunday, there was enacted a little tragedy that should make men think. A man tried to kill his child, failed, and killed himself. He was no maniac, just a victim of the economic system in which we live, a system of "the devil take the hindmost." When sickness came upon him, he was one of the hindmost. So the devil took him.

His name was Thomas Newhort and his daughter Agnes was ten years old. He told her in the early morning that if it wasn't for leaving her alone in the world, he would end it all. She was frightened. So later, when she saw him taking something gleaming from his bureau drawer, she fled from the room. He fired two shots after her, but missed. He had decided not to leave her alone in the world. When she came back with a policeman, her father was dead.

The steers on the plain, the bees in the hive, the ants in the hill, all stand together. It is the wolves in the pack who turn upon a fallen comrade and rend him. Is modern society much bet

ter than that? Thomas Newhort had fallen victim to rheumatism, which had compelled him to give up his business. A year ago he tried to commit suicide by gas. He gave the last warning of distress, but the aid did not come. Surrounded by demonstrations of the vast organized powed of society, he was left an unorganized individual to fight alone at a time when his earning power was gone. In the blackness of despair, in the abyss of want, he was told to struggle with disease alone.

Think of the mighty power to fight disease which we possess today! Shall that power be available only for the wealthy classes? Baths and scientific treatment would have restored Thomas Newhort to health. It would have given him his courage back, his earning power. Agnes would have grown up in a home, with a father to guide her. The treatment which Thomas Newhort needed should have been his and not out of charity. It should have been his as a rightful return for the contributions which he, in his earning days,

made for a social insurance fund designed to care for just such things.

Not only Thomas Newhort has failed. You and I and all who ought to have been organized to help himwe also have failed. The social organization has failed.

Is it not time for us to drop this selfish laissez-faire policy of "the devil take the hindmost" and substitute a policy of "all of us help the hindmost"? If we have no leadership capable of rising to meet these problems, the leadership we have will be repudiated like so many leaders of the past.

The cruelty of this social order turned Thomas Newhort's love for his daughter into attempted murder. Because he loved her, he chose not to leave her alone in the world he was voluntarily quitting. If we are not careful, other natural sentiments will be turned into their opposites in men of Thomas Newhort's class. Love of country, belief in leadership, trust in religion will be turned into a fierce and active resentment against a system which treats the worker like an orange-to be sucked dry and thrown aside.-Editorial in the New York Evening Mail, November 20, 1917.

Who Was Responsible for the War, and Why

BY BEN TILLETT.

Ben Tillett, one of the best known British labor leaders, first became prominent as one of the organizers of the great London dock strike of 1889. This successful strike was rendered possible by Mr. Tillett's preliminary work of organization in the dockside districts.

Toiling in a brickyard when eight years old, serving on a fishing smack, then apprenticed to a bootmaker, then in the Royal Navy, and afterwards in the merchant service, he began his work as an organizer, with a wide knowledge of men and of the harder conditions of

labor.

In addition to his work as secretary of the Dock, Wharf, Riverside and General Workers' Union of Great Britain and Ireland, Ben Tillett has worked unceasingly for the national and international federation of labor.

Despite our former pacifist attitude, the forces of labor in England have supported the government throughout the war. We realized that this is a fight for world freedom against a carefully engineered plan to establish a world autocracy.

The real answer to those who still declare that the war was devised, in

stigated or encouraged by England, can best be found in the condition of our country when war broke out. We were wholly unmilitary and wholly unprepared. The entire structure of our national life had been built up on the supposition that we would never again be engaged in a really great war that would tax our resources to the full.

We had no national army and no universal system for the defensive training of the people. Our navy was not prepared for the menace of the submarine. Our financiers had taken so few steps to guard themselves against war con

ditions that had not the national credit been quickly mobilized our banking system would have been ruined. Our industrial and manufacturing life were unfitted to meet war demands. The problem of making them fit had not even been faced.

Our statesmen had not given sufficient weight to the fact that Germany's remarkable and carefully fostered industrial growth had greatly added to her offensive strength. Against her army of millions, equipped as never army was before, we had an army of 150,000 to put in the field. Even this small number were not fully equipped

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