appears on the surface as a most prosperous and successful one, unless some unknown and unforeseen complication should occur. Owing to the awful calamity that is taking place on the other side of the water, the war in Europe, a scarcity of licorice is taking place—this ingredient is principally obtained from those countries-and the high cost of glycerine, which is causing the manufacturers a great deal of trouble and inconvenience, are the only reasons that I can assign that would impede the prosperity of the tobacco industry during the coming year of 1916. So in appealing to the members of our International union, I would advise each and every member of our local unions to act as a committee of one to call on every man and woman working in the tobacco industry and induce them to become members of our organization, as that is the only means of bettering the conditions of the workers who are compelled to labor in our industry. I wish to again call the attention of our membership to their duty towards other organizations in demanding the union label on every purchase, thereby living up to the motto, "Do by others as you would have them do unto you." Thanking you for your patience and forbearance,

Respectfully submitted,

A. MCANDREW, Int. Pres't.

REPORT OF U. S. COMMISSION

ON INDUSTRIAL RELATIONS.

Continued from January issue WOMEN AND CHILDREN IN INDUSTRY. The investigations and hearings of the Commission justify the conclusions:

1. As a result of their unprotected condition, women and children are exploited in industry, trade, domestic service, and agriculture, to an extent which threatens their health and welfare and menaces the well-being of future generations.

2. The competition of women and children is a direct menace to the wage and salary standards of men.

3. Under present conditions, children are permitted by their parents to go to work largely because their earnings are

necessary for the support of the rest of the family. The restrictive legislation of the past quarter century, although admirable in purpose and ultimate results, has thrown a heavy burden upon their fathers and mothers, who, at existing wages, have been barely able to support their families. The evidence shows that the burden of child labor legislation has rested upon the wage-earners rather than upon employers. It is the testimony of enlightened employers that the employment of children is unprofitable, and that the effect of excluding children from factories has been to increase rather than decrease profits. In the interest of society as a whole, further restrictions on the employment of immature children are necessary, but it is important that they should be made with an understanding that the burden will rest primarily upon the wage earners, whose self-sacrifice should be fully recognized.

4. The increasing employment of women has been due to two primary causes: First, the low wages of men, which have made the earnings of women necessary for the support of the family, and, second, the inducement of employers to substitute women for men because they will accept lower wages and are less likely to protest against conditions. The substitution of women for men has been greatly assisted by the introduction of improved machinery, which makes strength and technical skill unnecessary.

5. The increased employment of women, under present working conditions, is a serious menace to their own health and well-being, to the wages of their husbands and brothers, and to the ideals of family life upon which American civilization has been established.

6. The conditions under which women are employed in domestic service and in agriculture, merit the attention of the nation no less than does their employment in manufacturing and trade. Not only is the economic condition of women employed in agriculture and domestic service a matter of grave concern, but they are subject to overwork, unreasonable hours, and personal abuse of various kinds, from which they have been largely relieved in factories and

stores through agitation and legislation.

7. The position of women in industry has been rendered doubly hard by reason of their lack of training for industrial work, by the over-supply of such labor and the consequent competition, by their traditional position of dependence, and by their disfranchisement.

8. A very thorough investigation in the New England States failed to show a single manufacturer who had left a State as a result of restrictive factory legislation. On the contrary, the majority of manufacturers expressed the opinion that the legislation regulating conditions for women and children had been advantageous to the industry as a whole, particularly because it placed all competitors upon the same footing. Similarly, an investigation of the effects of minimum-wage legislation failed to show any calculable effects upon the cost of production or upon the employment of women, after a sufficient period had elapsed to allow the necessary readjustments to be made.

9. Nevertheless, there is a strong and increasing demand on the part of manufacturers in the more progressive States that regulation of factory conditions should be undertaken by the Federal Government, in order that competitors in all parts of the country should be placed upon an equal footing in this respect, The same demand comes also from the representatives of labor, not only because the argument of "interstate competition" is creating strong opposition to progressive legislation, but because of the great economy of effort which would result from having to make the right for better legislation only at the National Capital instead of in fortyfive states.

It is suggested that the Commission recommend:

1. The recognition both by public opinion and in such legislation as may be enacted, of the principle that women should receive the same compensation as men for the same service.

2. Until this principle is recognized, and women are accorded equal political rights, the extension of State protection of women, through legislation regulating working conditions, hours of service,

and minimum wages, is highly desirable. 3. The increased organization of working women for self-protection and the improvement of their industrial conditions.

4. The inclusion of all women working for wages, whether in industry, trade, domestic service, or agriculture, under future legislation regulating their wages, hours, or working conditions.

5. The extension of the principle of State protection of children and the rapid increase of facilities for their education as outlined elsewhere.

6. The enactment by Congress of legislation embodying the principles contained in the so-called Palmer-Owen bill, which was before Congress at the last session.

PUBLIC UTILITIES.

The report discusses conditions of employment in the two principal telegraph companies, in the telephone service, in the service of the Pullman Company and on the railroads. It says:

The investigations of the Commission show:

1. The scope of the Newlands Act, which applies only to employes engaged in the operation of interstate railroads, is too narrow and leaves the public service in the transmission of intelligence and in the handling of interstate commerce likely to be interrupted by labor disputes without any adequate legal provision either for mediation and conciliation or for making the facts involved in the dispute known to the public.

2. Even as applied to train service employes, the Newlands Act provides no maens of bringing the facts before the public, except when both sides agree to arbitration.

3. The selection of impartial members of arbitration boards has almost without exception developed upon the Board of Mediation and Conciliation, owing to the inability of the parties to agree. This not only imposes an unpleasant and burdensome task upon the Board of Mediation and Conciliation, but tends to greatly weaken its influence. The experience in Great Britain shows that agreement can be reached by joint conference of employers and employes during a period

of industrial peace for the selection of a panel of impartial persons from which arbitrators can be selected when they are needed, and seems to indicate that in the United States the inability of the parties to agree upon impartial arbitrators is due at least to the fact that they are always selected during the heat of the conflict.

It is suggested that the Commission recommend:

1. The extension of the Newlands Act to cover not only all classes of railroad employes, but all employes of public service corporations which are engaged in interstate commerce.

2. The functions of the Board of Mediation and Conciliation under the Newlands Act should be extended to provide for the creation of Boards of Investigation, to be formed only by consent of both parties and to make a report of facts and recommendations which will not be binding upon either side.

3. The Board of Mediation and Conciliation should be authorized by Congress to create an Advisory Council, composed of equal numbers of employers and employes, for the purpose of creating a panel of names from which impartial arbitrators may be chosen by the Board of Mediation and Conciliation.

TELEGRAPH.

The investigations and hearings of the Commission justify the following conclusions:

1. The workers employed by the two principal telegraph companies (the Western Union Telegraph and the Postal Telegraph-Cable) are not only underpaid, as admitted by the highest officials in their testimony before the Commission, but subject to many abuses, such as the denial of proper periods of relief while on duty, the establishment of arbitrary speed rates, which frequently result in overstrain, the arbitrary discharge of employes without notice for any cause or no cause, the employment of young boys for messenger service under conditions which can result only in their moral corruption, and the employment of women for telegraph service at night.

2. Such conditions have existed practically without change at least since 1884,

in spite of the facts having been made public by three Government investigations.

3. The workers are practically unable to improve their condition because these two companies, which control practically the entire industry, deny them the right of organization. The suppression of organization is effectively carried out by the discharge of all known to be union men or union sympathizers, by the use of spies who fraudulently secure the confidence of employes and report all known to be union members or sympathizers, by the use of an effective system of blacklisting, and by the control even of the personnel of the operators upon leased wires even in the offices of brokers and other private individuals.

4. The two companies have a monopoly of the transmission of telegrams, and no effective competition exists between them. These companies are performing a service in the transmission of intelligence which has been held by the Federal Supreme Court to have been reserved by the Constitution specifically to the Federal Government.

5. The telegraph companies are enormously overcapitalized, and their rates, which are graded to pay dividends upon large amounts of stock which do not represent the investment of cash, are very much higher than the cost of service warrants.

To be continued in next issue.