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as breaks in the continuity of service, but the time lost shall be deducted in reckoning the length of service.

5. No credit shall be given for time lost from 1st October, 1923, through leave of absence, suspension, lay-off (except in seasonal occupations) or disability. Employees will lose all credit for previous service if they remain absent from the service longer than six (6) months on account of leave of absence or suspension, or longer than two (2) years on account of lay-off due to reduction in force, or disability, provided, however, that employees injured while on duty may retain credit for previous service until termination of the period for which statutory compensation is payable, if such employee then immediately returns to work. Employees who quit the service will lose credit for all previous service. Employees who are discharged from the service will lose credit for all previous service, unless re-employed within six (6) months.

6. Pensions shall be paid to the pensioners in person, at the close of each month after the date of commencement, which shall be fixed in each case by the Committee and until revoked by the Committee or until the month succeeding that in which the death of the pensioner occurs.

7. Pensions may be suspended or terminated in case of misconduct on the part of the pensioner or for any other cause sufficient in the judgment of the Committee to warrant such action.

8. In order that direct personal relations with retired employees may be preserved and that such employees may continue to enjoy the benefits of pensions granted them no assignment of pensions will be permitted or recognized under any circumstances neither shall pensions be subject to attachment or other legal process for debts of the beneficiaries.

9. The decision of the Committee determining the rights of employees under these regulations shall be final, subject to a right of appeal to the Board of Directors provided notice of appeal is given within thirty days of the date of the action of the Committee against which the appeal is made.

The decision of the Board shall be final and conclusive.

10. Neither the erection of this scheme nor any other action at any time taken by the Board of Directors or the Committee, shall give to any employee a right to be retained in the service, and all employees remain subject to discharge to the same extent as if this Pension Scheme had never been created.

11. The pension scheme and the regulations respecting it may be amended or repealed at

any time by the Board of Directors at its discretion.

arrange

Special Arrangements.-Special ments must be made to meet conditions in connection with Dominion Iron and Steel Company, Limited, which was incorporated in 1899, less than twenty-five years ago. None of the employees can qualify for pensions under the regulations which require twenty-five years service and there are in the employ a number of persons who have reached the age limit.

Some of these may be able to qualify through previous service with Dominion Coal Company or Nova Scotia Steel and Coal Company or some one or other of the Companies which have been taken over by them.

Others may require to have service imputed to them, or to have special exemption from the regulation in respect to service.

In order to meet this condition generally and to add flexibility to the scheme, power is given to the Board of Directors in section 6 under the heading Pensions, to nominate as pensioners such employees as may need to be superannuated but are ineligible because they have not served the full term of twenty-five years or for some other reason.

Hudson's Bay Company's Immigration Plan

The Hudson's Bay Company has formed an emigration agency in Europe under the title "Hudson's Bay Company Overseas Settlement Limited."

At present the company is confining its operations to placing persons coming to definite positions, and the new organization will be used by persons already settled in Canada to bring out their friends, still in Europe, to join them in their new homes. A larger scheme for settling families on the land is still under advisement at the head office in London.

The Hudson's Bay Company has approximately 3,000,000 acres of land to settle, but in the scheme which is in process of development, it is intended that the services of the Overseas Settlement organization shall be open to persons wishing to settle on lands other than those owned by the company.

A distinctive feature of this new service is the company's paternal interest in the newcomer. The best advice is available through its offices with regard to settlement and later purchase of land. Immigrants are met by company representatives, on arrival, and are kept in touch with until they have "dug in," in their new homes, and settled down happily and contentedly.

PROGRESS OF GROUP INSURANCE

A SPECIAL article in the New York Times

of February 21 states that group insurance has gained so firm a foothold in the United States in the last decade that its underwritings amount to about three billion dollars. Experts regard the mass method of insuring as a means of bringing employer and employed into close and harmonious relations. Since the day ended when the "boss" knew every one of his men by name, the human bonds that used to bind industry together have disappeared in many quarters. Group insurance tends to restore the old friendly relationship, and thus, it is argued, exerts a stabilizing influence in business.

The most recent offspring of the group insurance family is the thrift insurance plan. Under it the worker has an endowment savings account increasing month by month and maturing through the payment of $1,000 cash at the age of 60, provided he is less than 50 at the date the agreement is entered into, and that he remains with the company continuing specific contributions until he reaches the age of 60. If his age is 50 to 59 at the start of his account he will receive $1,000 cash ten years from the day he has joined the plan, immediate life insurance protection of $1,000 in addition and total and permanent disability benefits.

The cost of membership depends upon the age of the employee at the time of his entering into the plan and the length of his continuous service with the company. Once he has joined, the cost to him remains the same. Here, again, the plan is contributory. The longer the employee's service the more the company pays.

All groups insured by a typical company must be composed of at least fifty men. Above that number membership is unlimited. This form of insurance covers life, accident and sickness. The owner of a business having come to an agreement with the company, and having settled upon the conditions under which the plan is to operate, lays the proposal before his men. If 75 per cent of their total number acquiesce group insurance becomes valid for the entire organization. Each indi- Development of Pulp Industry in vidual entering into the plan is required to sign a slip authorizing the paymaster to deduct a predetermined sum from his pay check, which covers the cost of his premium. The scale of premiums is, as a rule, settled upon by the employer and his Board of Directors, and it is common practice to base it on salary and length of service.

Aside from being less expensive than the ordinary policy, group insurance has this advantage-all men are accepted without physical examination. Many who are bad risks and who could not get an individual policy are thus eligible as one of the group.

"When we first began with group insurance nine years ago," said James E. Kavanagh, Second Vice President of the Metropolitan, "the employer bore the entire expense. It was not long until both the executive of the big companies and we ourselves found that this was not a workable scheme. The Santa Claus idea did not succeed. The hard-headed business man did not like the paternal attitude, but agreed to enter into our proposition if we could devise a way whereby the wage earner carried his portion of the expense."

Soon the "contributory plan" was worked out, employer and employee sharing in the cost of the insurance, the wage earner's portion to be deducted from his pay before it reached his hands.

New Brunswick

The Bathurst Company, Limited, recently announced plans for large developments in the pulp and paper industry, contingent on the passing of the necessary legislation at the session of the Legislature which opened on March 11. The proposed additions call for an expenditure of $5,000,000. Some hundreds of men will be employed in the erection of the plant, and on its completion the company will give employment to more than 1,000 men in the mills and woods. Authority is being sought to increase the hydro-electric power of the Bathurst Company to 20,000 continuous horsepower. At the present time the company's power plant on the Nepisiquit river is capable of developing 10,000 horsepower. This peak, however, is only available at extreme high water. In order to make available the full capacity of this unit and to add a further ten thousand continuous horsepower the company will expend some $1,750,000.

At the present time the Bathurst Company has one paper machine running with a capacity of 65 tons per day. When the mill was constructed provision was made for the installation of a twin unit bringing the present mill's total capacity up to 130 tons of newsprint per day. The old ground wood pulp mill, now operating, has two machines and is capable of producing 110 tons of pulp per day.

LEAGUE OF NATIONS INTERNATIONAL LABOUR ORGANIZATION

Thirtieth Session of the Governing Body

THE

HE Governing Body of the International Labour Office held its thirtieth session in Geneva from January 28 to 30, 1925, under the chairmanship of Mr. Arthur Fontaine, French Government delegate.

The Governing Body considered what items should definitely form the agenda of the Tenth Session of the International Labour Conference, which is to meet in 1927. It was unanimously decided to place on the agenda the question of freedom of association and the question of sickness insurance.

The right of free association, the principle of which is among those embodied in the Treaty of Peace, is a question which has been more than once raised in connection with the International Labour Organization.

As regards social insurance, the detailed studies undertaken by the International Labour Office and the discussions on the subject at the 1925 Session of the Conference led the Governing Body to the conclusion that national legislations as a whole had sufficient in common to enable this question to be made the subject of international treatment.

The Governing Body also decided that a third question should be included in the agenda of the 1927 Session. The choice was between accident prevention, annual holidays with pay, and the method of fixing minimum wages in certain non-organized industries in which wages are exceptionally low.

By 13 votes to 7 the Governing Body chose the last-mentioned question, which had been submitted to it on several occasions as a suitable subject for discussion by the International Labour Conference.

The Governing Body proceeded to consider the scope to be given to the three questions which it had already decided to include in the agenda of the 1927 Conference. It was decided that the consideration of methods of fixing minimum wages should be directed chiefly, though not solely, to home work. As regards sickness insurance, the Governing Body was of opinion that the consideration of this subject might also include the consideration of questions concerning the position of foreign workers in relation to insurance. Further, as regards the question of freedom of association, it was unanimously agreed that this should be the subject of as wide and extensive a discussion as possible in the Conference.

In discussing proposed amendments to the Standing Orders of the Conference, the Governing Body considered the procedure of "two readings" of Conventions and Recom

mendations, introduced by provisional rules in 1924, and referred to the Governing Body for further examination, in view of certain criticisms to which it had given rise, by the by the Standing Orders Committee and was Conference in 1925. A report was submitted adopted, with slight amendments, by 16 votes to 6, for submission to the 1926 Session of the Conference. Under the proposals made in this report, the Conference would no longer be called upon to decide a second time on a Draft Convention or Recommendation adopted at a previous Session. The procedure would be this: At one Session the Conference would hold a general discussion on a given question which might form the subject of a Convention or a Recommendation, and at the following Session the Conference would take a decision on a final text for such Convention or Recommendation.

It was decided by a majority vote that in future the sittings should as a rule be public, but that they might be converted into private sessions in certain specified circumstances. Before this vote was taken, the Workers' Group declared itself unanimously in favour of complete publicity for the proceedings of the Governing Body.

The next Session of the Governing Body was fixed for April 21, 1926.

Mr. J. Bruce Walker, Director of Canadian Immigration in London, was appointed as one of a group of experts to attend a meeting of the Permanent Emigration Committee of the International Labour Office, which is to be held shortly to discuss the subject of inspection of emigrants on board ship, which is to come before the Eighth Session of the International Labour Conference in May next.

Great Britain and the Eight-Hour

Day Convention

The King's Speech at the opening of the 1926 session of the British Parliament contained the following statement:

Invitations are being issued to the Governments of Belgium, France, Germany and Italy to attend a conference in London to consider the possibility of securing an effective international agreement for regulating hours of labour.

Mr. Baldwin, the Prime Minister, in the course of the debate on the Address in reply to the Speech, said:

"The question of the conference which is to be held on the matter of hours of labour arose in this way. The House will remember the Washington Conference and the regulation as

to hours in the Convention. I have always felt, and I know many Members on this side of the House have felt, that one of the most valuable methods in which we may be able to help and maintain our standards of labour in this country is to get more and more uniformity among the principal manufacturing countries, at least in regard to hours.

"It has always been a very simple matter to say that in this or that country you have 60, 50 or 40 hours, or any number of hours per week that you like, but you have to be sure in concluding agreements in which many countries speaking many tongues are joined together in ratification that you all mean the same thing by what you say; otherwise, you will find, owing to the exceptions allowed, and different interpretations of words and so forth, that you may have at the end of twelve months a completely different standard in each of those countries, and your last stage will be worse than the first.

"Without casting any reflection on other countries, I will say with regard to our country that when we make an agreement of that kind we do our best to fulfil it literally. Therefore it is all the more important that the literalness of the word should be understood. The House knows the difficulties which arise in interpretation between two bodies of men who trust each other-difficulties that arise about the interpretation of words on either side, sometimes of a single word or the meaning of a phrase.... If that is the case with the English language alone, how infinitely more difficult will it be when you come to half a dozen languages.

"So the Minister of Labour is inviting the Ministers of Labour of the principal manufacturing countries, together with Mr. Thomas, of the International Labour Office in Geneva, to meet in London and to come if possible to an agreement as to the terms employed in the limitation of hours, the forty-eight hours' week, and to have a careful examination of the exceptions that have been made, are being made, or are being suggested and to get complete agreement between those concerned.

"It is an extremely difficult task. I do not know whether we shall be successful. We shall do our utmost to secure complete agreement and understanding. If that agreement is reached, the ratification of the Washington Convention by the participating countries will then be possible, and we shall proceed to ratify, but we are not going to ratify until we are convinced that we all mean the same thing. Even if we do not come to a definite agreement, or an agreement so definite that we may be able to effect that particular ratification, yet I have every hope that we may usefully come to some agreement and get to make some

real and substantial step forward in bringing about a unification, between the principal manufacturing countries, of hours of labour. I think it would be invaluable for all of us." Railwaymen and the Convention.-On January 27 the terms were announced of an arrangement reached between representatives of the British railway trade unions and representatives of the General Council of the Trades Union Congress and the National Executive of the Labour Party, as the result of a discussion on the Washington Hours Convention in relation to the conditions of employment on British railways under existing agreements.

It was generally agreed, says the London Daily Herald, that the British Government should not be given any opportunity of making the alleged objections of the railway unions to the ratification of the Convention an excuse for its failure to introduce a Bill.

It was further agreed that the ratification of the Convention ought not, in any circumstances, to prejudice or disturb the existing agreements between the railway unions and the companies for a guaranteed day and a guaranteed six-day week; and that, as the railways and transports are a public service, where the working conditions are exceptional, a special clause should be drafted to meet these conditions.

A few days earlier, in the course of a declaration of policy made in the Reichstag, the German Chancellor made the following statement:

"The Government will submit to the House a Bill codifying existing labour legislation and regulating anew the hours of work. The Government stands by the declarations made by former Governments with regard to the ratification of the Washington Hours Convention. Germany is going to bind herself to an international regulation of hours of work if the Convention is ratified simultaneously by Great Britain, France and Belgium also."

When it is recalled that (1) Italy has already ratified the Convention conditionally on its ratification by Belgium, France, Germany, Great Britain and Switzerland; (2) a Bill authorizing ratification by France when Grmany has ratified, has passed the French Chamber and is now before the Senate; and (3) a Bill for unconditional ratification has been approved by all the sections of the Belgian Chamber, it may be hoped that the combination of legislative and diplomatic action now in progress may presently produce decisive and valuable results.

The sixth anniversary of the foundation of the Central Council of National Catholic Unions of Montreal was celebrated on February 28.

UTILIZATION OF WORKERS' SPARE TIME

Recommendation of International Labour Conference on this Subject brought before the Dominion Parliament and Provincial Governments

REFERENCE was made in the LABOUR

GAZETTE of August, 1924, to the Recommendation which was adopted by the International Labour Conference (League of Nations) at its Sixth Session in 1924 concerning the development of facilities for the utilization of workers' spare time. The text of this Recommendation was laid on the table of the House of Commons on February 22 by the Hon. Dr. J. H. King, Acting Minister of Labour. In bringing this Recommendation before Parliament Dr. King observed that the proposals contained therein were considered by the law officers of the Crown and were found to be mainly within provincial jurisdiction. An Order in Council, dealing with the extent to which the subject matters of the Recommendation fall within the competence of Parliament or of the provincial legislatures, was also tabled by the Acting Minister of Labour. Copies of this Order in Council have been sent to the respective provincial govern

ments.

The text of the Recommendation concerning the development of facilities for the utilization of workers' spare time is as follows:

Text of Recommendation

Whereas in adopting at its First Session, held at Washington a Convention on hours of work, the General Conference of the International Labour Organization had as one of its principal aims to secure for workers, beyond the necessary hours for sleep, an adequate period during which such workers could do as they please, or, in other words, an adequate period of spare time; and Whereas during such spare time workers have the opportunity of developing freely, according to their individual tastes, their physical, intellectual and moral powers, and such development is of great value from the point of view of the progress of civilization; and Whereas a well directed use of this spare time, by affording to the worker the means for pursuing more varied interests, and by securing relaxation from the strain placed upon him by his ordinary work, may even increase the productive capacity of the worker and increase his output, and may thus help to obtain a maximum of efficiency from the eight-hour day; and Whereas while giving full weight to the customs prevalent in the different countries and to local circumstances, it may nevertheless be useful to lay down the principles and methods which at the present time seem generally best adapted to secure the best use of periods of spare time, and it may also be instructive to make known for the benefit of all countries what has been done in this direction; and

Whereas the value of this information is particularly great at the moment when the ratification of the Convention on hours of work is being considered by the Members of the International Labour Organization;

The General Conference makes the recommendations hereinafter appearing:

1. Preservation of Spare Time.-Whereas it is agreed that in countries where limitations have been placed

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on hours of work by law, by collective agreement or otherwise, if all the benefits which may be expected from such measures are to be secured both for the wage-earners and for the community, steps must be taken to ensure that the workers shall have the undiminished enjoyment of the hours of spare time so secured to them as aforesaid; and

Whereas it is important that, on the one hand, the workers should fully appreciate the value of the periods of spare time which have been secured to them and should do their utmost, in all circumstances, to prevent this spare time from being encroached upon, and, on the other hand, that employers should always aim at establishing wages corresponding sufficiently with the needs of the workers to make it unnecessary for them to have recourse during their periods of spare time to additional hours of paid work; and

of

Whereas prohibitions against the continuance paid work in their own occupation for the same or another employer, in excess of the legal working day, are recognized as being difficult to enforce, and may even at times, seem to infringe the workers' right of using their periods of spare time as they choose, the Conference nevertheless considers that attention should be drawn to the steps which have been taken in this direction in a number of countries;

The Conference recommends that Governments should encourage and facilitate the conclusion of collective agreements which will ensure a normal standard of living to workers in exchange for the legal hours of work, and which will determine, by voluntary agreement between employers and workers, the measures to be taken to prevent workers from having recourse to additional paid work.

And whereas it is agreed that every facility should be given to the workers to enable them to make the best use of the periods of spare time so secured to them as aforesaid, the Conference recommends:

(a) That each Member, whilst having due regard to the requirements of different industries, local customs, and the varying capacities and habits of the different kinds of workers, should consider the means of so arranging the working day as to make the periods of spare time as continuous as possible;

(b) That by means of a well conceived transport system and by affording special facilities in regard to fares and time-tables, workers should be enabled to reduce to the minimum the time spent in travelling between their homes and their work, and that employers' and workers' organizations should be tensively consulted by public transport authorities or private transport undertakings as to the best means of securing such a system.

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II. Spare Time and Social Hygiene.-Whereas the utilization of the workers' periods of spare time cannot be separated from the general measures adopted by the community for promoting the health and welfare of all classes of society, the Conference, without attempting to examine in detail each of the great welfare problems, the solution of which would contribute to improving the workers' status, recommends to the Members:

(a) The encouragement of individual hygiene by the provision of public baths, swimming pools, etc.;

(b) Legislative or private action against the misuse of alcohol, against tuberculosis, venereal disease and gambling.

III. Housing Policy.-Whereas it is of advantage to the workers and to the whole community to encourage

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