industrial disputes investigation act, which has been denounced by Dominion trade unionists.

The only exception is that the Canadian act applies to all public utilities, while Congressman Adamson's proposal refers to common carriers, although his term is used in such a manner that courts would undoubtedly extend its application.

The bill provides that where the Federal Board of Mediation and Conciliation fails to adjust a dispute the President shall appoint a board of inquiry to whom the controversy shall be referred. A report must be made within three months.

Pending these efforts and for 30 days thereafter, it shall be unlawful for employes to strike or employers to cause or declare a lockout. This means that workers are prohibited from striking for four months. If an employe violates this section he is liable to a fine of $1,000 or a year's imprisonment, or both.

Congressman Adamson would not only handcuff workers to their jobs during these four months, but he would empower courts to sit in judgment over the acts of other citizens and a free press and free speech. Section 13, of the proposed law, says:

"And persons inciting, encouraging or in any manner aiding any employer or

HARV

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The Tobacco Worker.

THERE'S SOMETHING WRONG.

There's something wrong when a few can feast

On viands dainty and vintage red. When many shiver by fireless hearths, And clamorous thousands cry for

bread.

There's something wrong when the rich

can wear

Silks and laces and jewels fine; While the poor to rags and to husks are heir,

And feed as the prodigal did—with swine!

There's something wrong when a few can dwell

In mansions of marble carven fair, While housed in hovels with rotting roofs The toilers struggle with life's despair! There's something wrong when the children spin

Their small lives into the thread they make;

Or weave their hopes by the shuttle's din Till the small hands ache and the small hearts break!

Arthur Goodenough.

No. 2

THE ART OF "CATCHING ON."

Like Men, Some Unions Miss Golden Opportunities By Refusal To Grasp Good Things As They Pass.

For a quarter of a century the writer has been associated with the work of organizing the butcher workmen, which has necessarily brought him in close touch with the rank and file of the entire movement, and our experience in that line reminds us of an article that went the rounds of the press some thirty years ago, which applies to the various members and locals of butcher workmen which go to make up the international body. The article was headed "Catching On," and runs something like this:

"Here Comes a Farmer!"

"The old-fashioned bells, deep, rich and mellow, are ringing away out King Street, and the boys-yes-the girls, get ready to catch on. And they generally succeed. No matter how fast the sleigh may be moving, a number catch on and the rest miss it or are left sprawling in the discolored snow. Catching on is an art. Some people never learn it; they never 'catch on.' They can't catch on. The sleigh would have to stop dead before they could get on and then they would do it awkwardly. Others would catch on if it were going at a 2:30 clip. Some people can cut a corner; others can't; they have got to go around the angle if it takes them all day. When I look about me at the successful or famous men that I know I am impressed by the fact that they caught on. Some of them had many a hard tumble, and many have plowed the snow or dirt with their noses, but that didn't discourage them—they caught on to the next thing that came

along. I am going to a funeral tomorrow -that of a man who was always in misfortune and who died in poverty.

"I hope he'll get across the dark river all right, but I doubt it. He will either miss the ferry or get on the wrong boat or fall overboard and get drowned. He never could get home from here to Jerico Junction without breaking something or getting lost or held up or tumbled into the ditch. Unless the golden chariot stops for him he will get left, for he never could catch on."

And the same is true of the labor movement. Many local unions that we have helped to organize have started out with bright prospects and the possibilities of securing greatly improved conditions; but, unfortunately, among them would be a few who could not catch on. The world seemed a dark and dreary place to live because they failed to find the deed of a house and lot in their next mail after investing a dollar as an initiation fee with the local union; they shout, "What does the union amount to?" They have failed to catch on, failed to understand that the trade union movement is one of education and slow growth, and takes years of patient service to secure results. Another local union will go on for a time successfully, and then run up against some trouble that brings on a strike or a lockout. They make a fight for what they believe as their rights, and in the end are beaten, compelled to go back to work under old conditions, some perhaps blacklisted and cannot get back at all. They who have failed to catch on-in fact, have plowed the snow with their noses, and some of the cuticle has been rudely removed-and they, too, shout failure, and in many instances imitate the small boy who has failed to catch on, shouts "whip behind" in order to get back at the more fortunate one who, by virtue of his push and vim, secured a seat on the passing vehicle.

Now, gentlemen, think it over. Is your local union among those who have failed

to catch on? Are you among those who are continually appealing to the balance of the organization for help for some one to come and do the work you should do yourself? If so, decide that from now on you will make a determined effort to catch on and secure the best seat on the band wagon and ride on successfully to industrial freedom. It can be done.-The Butcher Workman.

The next time I go into a store for a purchase, I will ask for the union label.

HOLD YOURSELVES WELL IN HAND.

All the predatory forces that menace the welfare of wage earners do not come from employers. There exists among the workers and in the labor movement an element which is either misguided or is so depraved that it is willing to lead workers into unnecessary suffering and useless misery.

There are both extremes in this element. Its highest fringe contains the irreconcilable impossibilities who think that nothing but revolution and destruction can right the wrongs of workers.

Its lowest depths are those who are in the pay of corporate and employers' class interests to lead workers into the morasses of ill-advised action and thus fritter away their opportunities to make real progress.

There are those who go among the workers, whose present wrongs are great enough to appeal to the compassion of any human being, and lead these workers into strikes and then urge them to employ the methods of revolution, to refuse to enter into agreements with employers, or to accept any improvements because the full rights to which they are entitled are not granted at once.

Wage-earners have a right to inaugurate a revolution if they think such action is justified, but no leaders have a right to involve workers in revolutions under guise of strike. A strike is some