ll not make a lengthy speech, however. It appears to me perhaps that I have been put up mostly to supplement what has been lacking in His Worship's speech. There is very little lacking, but if I am here to supplement anything I will only supplement by adding what he usually says, and what he forgot in this case. His Worship has always been known to be a big man, noted for his even temper, noted for his amiable disposition, noted for his generosity and his liberality, and in all his career in welcoming the various associations and conventions that have happened in the past to meet in Toronto he has always given them a most pleasant welcome and tendered to them the freedom of the city. I think he forgot that this morning. I don't know what actuated him in not giving you the freedom of the city, whether the year is drawing to a close and the election will soon be on again; but I am sure I can take chances with the American Federation of Labor assembled here as well as and a great deal better than many associations that have met here. And if he does not see his way clear to give you the freedom of the city, in the name of the Government of Ontario I give you the freedom of the whole Province for all the time you are here.

If some of our visiting ladies and gentlemen from the United States find that a week or two weeks is not long enough to see the beauties and enjoy the hospitality of our country, why, just apply to me for an extension of time.

I regret very much that the Premier of the Province, Sir James Whitney, through unavoidable circumstances, could not attend. He was called out of the city on important business, and it will be impossible for him to return until this evening. He has requested me to do what I have done-give you the freedom of the City and of the Province and welcome you-which I do with a great deal of pleasure.

I understand this is your first Convention in this country, but I hope it will not be the last. I do not know all the bodies that make up this gathering, but I believe you have the federated organizations and the Dominion Trades and Labor Congress. At all events, I understand that each province or each municipality has its own autonomy, as it were, and regulates its own scale of

wages, and this certainly is a wise provision, for the same conditions do not obtain all over the country.

I am proud to welcome you and to meet you. I desire to say, and to say with a great deal of earnestness, that you certainly have a right to organize to better your conditions. How could I ever refuse to a fellow-citizen the right of organizing when I have been

in

have.

the habit of doing it myself for years? I have been engaged in the practice of medicine, and in our own little way we have never forgotten to meet and organize and establish a rate of tariff and have it ratified by the government. You have the same right I You are not, I hope, denying the right of employers to organize also. have seen many of them endeavoring, sometimes with a great deal of difficulty to make ends meet, through competition and on account of products imported from the old country. However, I don't think I will speak of that because it belongs to the tariff.

We

When you are here we obliterate all geographical lines; but it does not affect the loyalty of anyone, whether he is a Canadian or a citizen of the United States. I live on the border and I know how loyal they are in the United States; in fact, I married one myself and I have had occasion to find out. I might tell you a little story, but I will keep that for the time the ladies are not present. I know the people of the United States are most loyal. I know that those of Canada look upon that flag as the symbol of civil and religious liberty. Lines, however, are obliterated and you are working under the folds of another banner, that of united labor.

I understand one of the great principles you are advocating is arbitration. I think it is one that ought to be put in force as much as practicable. We all know, as beautifully illustrated in the address of his Worship, the Mayor, that conditions have changed. We have reached an ag of steam, of electricity. or natural gas, in a great many places, an age of structural steel in building. Where you formerly saw small shops and a few men employed, now you see large factories, and they are gradually being expanded. You know in the United States how you have expanded. We have not kept up, perhaps, such a great pace, but we are getting on to the pace

and we intend to keep it up.

I don't want to take up any more of your time

(Cries of Go on, go on.")

Dr. Reaume: Well, I will. It is easy for a politician. You may have to coax me to keep on on an occasion like this where the Opposition is not here, but if the other side were here, you might have difficulty in getting me to stop. It is an We have a Labor Bureau. institution that is doing a very good work, and we are trying to keep it up and improve it. We are preparing yearly statistics. We met with a great deal we are of difficulty at times, but now We meeting with fairly good success. We first are extending our usefulness. had only the Central Bureau in Toronto, but we are establishing branches various cities like Ottawa and London, where employers can go and find the extent to which they can secure labor and where the unemployed can go and register and secure employment. By the demands I have from all the other cities and towns and provinces. I understand it is giving great satisfaction to the employers, to labor and to the people at large.

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I repeat a most hearty welcome to our City and our Province.

President Gompers-The next gentleis the Presiman who will address yo dent of the Canadian Trades and Labor Congress, our own fellow unionist, Mr. William Glockling.

President Glockling of

the Canadian

you saw fit to hold one of your great We feel esConventions in Canada. pecially proud in Toronto because you happened to select our city as the place We feel it will do for your first visit.

a great deal of good to Toronto and to We have in this every city in Canada. country a movement on foot which has for its object the division of our forces I think the visit you and our influence. are making to this country will, to I believe it some extent, offset that. will demonstrate to those who were fearful of the trend of your business, that you are not the people you have been The division I speak represented to be. of is possibly not very large, and we are going, as far as our ability lies, to We have not offset it at every stage. said very much of the demonstrations that have been made, for various reasons. We are somewhat in the position of the man from whom his wife sought a divorce; one of the grievances cited against him was that he had not spoken to her but once for two months. Judge questioned

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There is an idea existing in the minds of many of the international officers that the Congress is somewhat similar to a State Federation. We take issue on that point. State Federations of course are under the direct domination of your government. We are governed by a different country. We have here many provinces to contribute for to which have we The Dominion legislative purposes. Trades and Labor Congress is solely a We have to watch legislative body. We have to watch, not every Province.

only the Federal, but also the Provincial Houses in our efforts to obtain legislation. That demands considerable money. In your case the State Federation always have the direct support of the American Federation of Labor. You have also possibilities of raising revenue that we have not.

Many of the international officers are under a misconception as to what they have to pay upon. One of the interna

tional officers the other day said he would affiliate immediately; that he had always been under the impression that the Dominion Trades and Labor Congress required per capita tax on the entire membership. All we ask you to pay on is the membership in the Dominion of Canada. You may possibly say, "Why don't your locals do that?" They would were it not for the fact that from a legislative standpoint our locals are not as keen as they ought to be. They want to see-some of them at least a dollar for twenty-five cents. We are a part of the movement on this Continent, and I earnestly ask you to give us that assistance. I take this opportunity, as President of the Dominion Trades and Labor Congress, to make it tc Canada or the United States to make this appeal. You want, as well as we do, to make this a big movement in Canada. We are part of you, and for that reason we think you ought to give us all the assistance you possibly can.

We have a struggle going on at the present time in a national way. Many are of the opinion that this national movement is not entirely a workingmen's movement. Many think there is a slight tinge of politics in connection with it. If that is a fact, we are between two fires. I want to tell you a story that will illustrate our case more vividly than I can in my own language. I have told this before, but it is very appropriate to the occasion. A man living in a country where polygamy was permitted had attained to middle age and his hair had become streaked with grey, when he concluded that he could, at that time, take two wives. He married a middle-aged lady and a young lady. The young lady, being of a vain nature, after being married a short time, feared the neighbors might think she had married too old a man, so she commenced to pluck out the grey hairs. The middle-aged lady, seeing what was

going on, and fearing the neighbors might think she had married too young a man, commenced to pluck out the black hairs, and between them they soon plucked the poor man bald. Now, we are between two fires, and if you do not give us your co-operation we will be plucked bald.

I cordially and heartily extend to you a welcome to this city. There is not a man in Toronto who works among the labor ranks who was not more than pleased to learn that you had selected this as your convention city. We hope you will enjoy yourselves during your visit here, and if you can see your way clear at some future time, we will be glad to have you bring your convention to Canada again. We have other great cities in Canada that will welcome you as heartily as we do.

Secretary Morrison read the following communications:

Ottawa, Ont., Nov. 8, 1909. James Simpson, care American Federation of Labor, Massey Hall Toronto: I greatly regret that public duties have rendered it necessary for me to be in Ottawa to-day, and will prevent me from being present at opening meeting of the American Federation of Labor this morning. Will you kindly express to President Gompers and the delegates from the United States my wish that their sojourn in Canada may be both pleasurable and profitable. and to all present best wishes for the success of the Convention.

W. L. MACKENZIE KING,
Minister of Labor.

American Consulate. Toronto, Ont., November 2, 1909. James Simpson, Esq., Sec'y-Treas., American Federation of Labor Convention Committee, 167 Church Street, To

ronto:

Dear Sir.-I beg to acknowledge the receipt of yours of the 2nd instant, inviting me, on behalf of your Committee. to be present at the opening of the Convention of the American Federation of Labor in Massey Hall, on November 8th, at 10 a. m., and in reply regret to say that I have made arrangements to leave Toronto this wek for a business trip to California, and am therefore unable to accept your invitation.

In regard to the two flags that you desire, I have to say that if you will send someone to my office I shall be glad to meet your wishes, if we have on hand such flags as you desire. With renewed regret. Very truly yours

R. S. CHILTON, Consul.

President Gompers-Ladies and Gentlemen: I think I can specak for the delegates to this Convention, although anything I can say will but faintly con

vey to you our apperciation of your welcoume. We appreciate not only the welcome itself, but the evident sincerity of the language in which it was conveyed, as well as the enunciation of some great thoughts contributed to this great cause in which we are engaged. In addition to appreciation for your welcome, if we can do so in this informal way, we wish to convey through you to the great departments and constitutencies and the government you represent, our appreciation and gratitude.

It is true that this is the first Convention of the American Federation of Labor held in Canada but we are not strangers to Canada. I do not think I need have any hesitancy in expressing my opinion that fully thre-fourths of the delegates to this Convention have, at some time or other, visited Canada on official business in connection with the great Labor cause, and many of them many times. The Executive Coun-cil of the American Federation of Labor held one of its most important sessions in Canada. We have gone through several of the cities of the various Provinces; we have visited the men of labor; we have mingled with the people of Canada. The officers of the labor movement, national and international, have visited Canada so frequently that if it were not for the fact that sometimes they are hampered for a moment or two by the interruption of a custom house inspector, they would not know whether they were in the United States or Canada.

I want to refer in a word or two to the statement made by President Glockling of the Canadian Trades and Labor Congress in regard to the effort of some Canadian workmen and perhaps, from what I am told, there are fewer native Canadian workmen in that movement than there are in the American trade ounion movement of Canada. An effort to try to bring a schism between the organized workers of the Dominion of Canada is being made, but it is difficult to reconcile the attitude of these men with coservation of the interests of the men of labor. I would not, if I could, our movement would not if it could, and it could not if it would, take from th loyalty of Canada's workers to Canada.

What may be in store for you and for us on the other side of the border line

we do not know. We have Our day dreams, and sometimes in our impatience we may run ahead of the development, but whatever the future may have in store for us in common, we do know this: that while we hope to establish the best possible relations betwen men of all nations, there is one common destiny among the English-speaking people-to fight out the battle for civilization and right.

In the American Federation of Labor and in our international unions, I venture to say-and I am confident I am within the limit of truth in the statement-that among the men called upon to officer the international trade unions of the American Continent, there is a greater percentage of Canadians who are in executive positions in the international unions, as compared to numbers, than there are natives of the United States. I venture to make the assertion again-and know it is within the limits of truth-that, in comparison to payments, as well as per capita tax. there is as much, if not more, expended out of the funds of the American trade union movement in Canada than there is in the United States. In the American trade union movement we recognize this one fact, that the border line the imaginary line that designates in the mind or on a map that this side is Canada and the other is the United States-does not interfere with the unity of the interests of the employing class on both sides of it. It should not interfere with the unity of the American workers-and I use the term American in its broadest sense, including every man, woman and child on the North American Continent. That is my conception of American. When I speak of my own country, I refer to it as the United States of America, and when I say America, I mean all America, not a part of it.

We were all impressed with the brief, though very pointed and graphic, sketch drawn by His Worship, the Mayor of Toronto, when he traced the growth of the city from the Indian village to the settlement and to this great modern city. It occurred to me to make application of my own point of view to this thought. Horace Greeley once said, "It is all in the point of view." Out in the northwestern part of this coun

our

try, you may see great, giant trees. Three men may be looking at one of these great growths. One man, from his point of view, will praise Almighty God, and recognize in that tree one of the wonders of His power. The other, looking at it, will see in it all the beauties of nature, its symmetry of form, its colors, its grandeur, and pay tribute to it from the artistic point of view. The other will look at it and, mentally calculating, say, "I wonder how many feet of lumber that will make." And So, when the Mayor referred to the growth of Toronto, I could not help thinking of my point of view of point of view. To whom, after all, are the great growth, the triumph of architecture, the material prosperity of Toronto due, if not to the men of labor? There must be a conceiver and designer; there must be the men who dream these things; but it takes the men of labor to hew them out and to rear the great structures to the skies. And what applies to Toronto applies to all Canada, to all America, to the whole world. And in spite of the fact of the great service which the workers contribute to society and to the possibility of civilization, it has been the workers in all times and in all eras who have had to bear the burdens of injustice and tyranny. And under the pretext, under the pretense, under the hypocritical guise of standing for the liberties of the working people, many of the employing class are seeking to perpetuate that tyranny.

One of the most amusing incidents that came to my attention recently was when I read in an English paper-The Cotton Factory Times-a letter written by a millowner in India, who protests against the Government of England passing any laws to restrict the hours of labor of the Hindoo workmen, and thus interfere with their liberty to work when they wanted to. Imagine, if you can, the Hindoo's liberty being infringed upon by a law limiting the hours of his labor! Imagine a cotton millowner in India protesting against the Government of Great Britain passing a law that should stand between the millowners of India and the poor, helpless Hindoos of that country! I do hope that the great Government of Great Britain will see to it, in its onward movement for democratization of the institutions of Great Brit

ain, that the Hindoo laborers of India shall be protected also.

All over the world there is the same struggle in some form or other, and we have the same, or very nearly the same, conditions to meet. We are not going to be driven into revolution. The American labor movement is a rational movement; the American labor movement is the historically developed protest of the workers,and we are going to hold together. We realize the wrongs of the past and of the present; we do not underestimate the power of our opponents; but we propose to work out our own emancipation in our own way, not by revolution, but by evolution; and if there be a wrong done by any class of society, the men of labor,, of the organized labor movement, will be found defending themselves, not the aggressors in wrong. Whoever may be wrong, the labor movement must always be right. We appeal to our fellow-men everywhere to aid us in the most laudable cause and movement that has yet existed in this world of ours. We want to work out this great struggle rationally and peacefully, and as good citizens, and not only as workers, but as men and as citizens to organize, to federate, and to instil into the minds of men the duty they owe to each other and to themselves, to help bear each other's burdens, to work for others, and not for self alone.

I feel that I have rather trespassed upon your time in acknowedging the welcomes so heartily and generously extended to us, and yet I could not escape the expression of these thoughts, or evade what I deemed a duty devolving upon me. I want again to extend to Your Worship, to Dr. Reaume, to you, Brother Glockling, and to the members of the Common Council, our appreciation of the honor you have done us in participating in our opening ceremonies this morning. I want to thank you and the visiting ladies and gentlemen for your presence here this morning, and to say to the visitors that this hall will be open during all the sessions of the American Federation of Labor Convention. We have nothing to hide from the whole world. The National Association of Manufacturers, when it meets in convention or otherwise, meets with closed doors, and if, perchance, some news. paper man should find entry into the