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gress of 1908, was introduced to the Convention by President Gompers, and before presenting the formal report said:

"Speaking for myself personally, and as a preliminary to the report proper, desire to say that the political condition in Great Britain is vitally and fundaThey mentally different from our own. have the pure parliamentary system of government; we have not. Any individual can rise in his seat and direct inquiries that must be answered to any of the representatives of the different ministries who are present in the House, and there is no special permission from the Speaker needed in order to do this, either. As a consequence, a few men in the House of Commons who have the ability and strength can raise quite a row, and they do so once in a while. 'Blessed be those who raise a row!'

"Dealing with the industrial condition as we found it there, I want to say to the Machinists in the United States that they had better look to their laurels, because we found women attending the lathe in England. They are pitting the sexes against each other in industry, and the children against both. Personally I believe if they would get the children out of the work shop and the women back into their homes, especially during the period of bearing and nursing children, they would have done very much to have changed the condition and very much to take away from England its permanent army of unemployed." REPORT OF FRATERNAL DELEGATES ΤΟ BRITISH TRADES UNION CONGRESS, NOTTINGHAM, ENGLAND, SEPTEMBER 7 TO 12,

1908.

To the Officers and Members of the Twenty-Eighth Annual Convention of the American Federation of Labor. Greeting: We, your delegates selected by your last Convention to attend the Forty-First British Trades Union Congress, held at Nottingham, England, from the 7th to the 12th of September, this year, respectfully beg to report as follows:

It may be said that in a sense the Congress began on Sunday, the 6th, with a church parade, which began at the Market Place, passed through several streets to St. Mary's church, where the bishop preached a sermon, in which he stated that twenty-five years ago, as a young curate, it had been his privilege to preach to the Trades Union Congress then held at Nottingham. He characterized the labor movement generally and the trade union movement especially, as co-workers with himself in the great work of lifting the down

trodden and lightening the load of the burden bearer.

The membership of the Congress, in passing through the streets, had seen sights which, if it was necessary, gave the point and application to bishop's discourse. The procession was taken through the poorest part of the city and the sidewalks on both sides were of lined with evidences extreme poverty, women and children under-fed, nay, starving, and clothed scantily and in rags, evidently, at least in the majority of cases, through no fault of their

own.

It was a revelation to the delegates and even to local men, so much so that it formed the topic of conversation, not only during that day, but the next, and was frequently referred to in one way or another by speakers during the Congress.

Your delegates frequently discussed this matter with local men, trying to ascertain the cause most immediately at hand, and we learn that there was a great trade depression, that there were three women to one man in Nottingham, that the women work at nearly all kinds of work, even in machine shops, and that the employment of children was general, that in good seasons the wages of the women and the children was, necessary, owing to the low wages paid to men, and that when either of the three, through depression in trade, became unemployed want immediately set in.

On the third day of the Congress, in accepting an invitation from Sir Charles Seeley to partake of a luncheon at his magnificent country estate, the estate being seven miles out in the country, the fact that struck your delegates most forcibly in looking at the beautiful green fields, was the absence of cottages. It seemed as though no one lived on the land, and upon inquiry we were told that probably the large part of the agricultural workers lived in the city. Judging from the appearance it would seem that the agricultural population has moved into the nearest city, or village, either from choice or have been driven there in order that their competition might assist in creating a surplus force of labor to bid against their fellows and thus keep wages down. That such arrangements should intensify the poverty and want in periods of depression follows as a matter of course.

On Sunday night there was a great meeting of the unemployed on the Market Place. The meeting seemed intensely in earnest, but aside from that was remarkable in the calm and peaceful demeanor of the crowd. There seemed to be demonstrations of the unemployed over the whole country, and there had been a kind of Coxey's Army, calling themselves the "Hungry Marchers," going from provinces towards London. In one of two instances there had been incipient bread riots, notably at Glasgow. It was inevitable that the Trade Union Congress meeting under such conditions, would be deeply tinged with the situation in the country generally, and that there would be numerous prop

ositions before the Congress, having for their purpose temporary or permanent remedies for the existing evils.

Resolutions offering relief or remedy were offered on the following lines:

First, such resolutions as would tend to increase wages, shorten hours and take the children out or the industrial competition and send them to school and would, at least, in recognized unhealthy employment either regulate or forbid the employment of women.

Second, such as maintained a right to work, at least, at a living wage and would make such a right to run against the state, making it the state's duty to create the employment needed.

Third, nationalization of the land, railways and canals.

Fourth, education, in which was included demand upon the community for medical inspection of the children and furnishing them with the necessary food, as well as general instruction, from which the resolution would exclude all teaching of religion in any form; indeed, earnest appeared a section of the movement and of the people in this matter, that at a meeting neid on Sunday afternoon a statement to the effect that the Ten Commandments were unfit to be taught to children was applauded.

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Firth, with a view of preventing reductions in wages, threatened, owing to conditions, resolutions providing for compulsory inquiry in labor disputes, industrial appeal court to prevent men from being victimized, compulsory conciliation and arbitration, and the establishment of a legal minimum wage, especially in what is commonly called "sweated industries."

The remedy offered by a large and influential section of the press is tariff reform on the line of protection, and about this a pretty general opinion seems to be amongst the workers that this would only intensify the evil by still more increasing the cost of living; in other words, that if it is to come at all it will include agricultural products of all kinds. There is much in the public discussion on the market place and in the press that reminds your delegates of the discussion at home in 1894 and 1895, the evident purpose being, justly or unjustly, to make use of existing conditions to change the policy and the government.

Dealing with the unemployed problem from the point of view of shortening the hours of labor, excluding children and in dangerous occupations women from the industrial competition, the Congress considered resolutions asking for a legal eighthour work day, eight hours for bakers, miners, reduction of the hours of labor for shop assistants, the abolition of Sunday work, the payment for Sunday work on the railways, direct employment by the government in all government work so as to abolish all kinds of sweating in all government workshops, the abolition of what is called the "Premium Bonus System" (special inducements to bring employes to a rate of speed beyond their natural capacity), a minimum wage and maximum hours in all government establishments, the abolition of contracting out on government work, abolition of piece work, especially in dangerous occupations and dealing with plosives, and, as subsidiary to these reso

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lutions, condemnation of any form of employment of those employed by the government in any capacity in competition with workmen in private establishments. In the discussion on these propositions it was evident to your delegates that the passing of the Trades Dispute Bill, which restored to the unions their power of self-help, had increased their courage and self-reliance, especially so in trades that in proportion to the men engaged therein are well organized and on sound financial basis. These sundry resolutions were all adopted, many of them simply agreed to without a formal vote.

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Dealing with the remedies grouped under the second head, the Congress dealt with resolutions for the immediate absorbing of the present unemployed, in different ways, and laying the foundation of a permanent organization of industry on co-operative basis, compulsory state employment, legal minimum wage and the granting of subsidies during times of panics to organizations paying out of work benefits. The Congress refused to adopt any resolutions looking to the permanent reorganization of industry upon co-operative basis, but called upon the government to further extend steps already taken to begin at the earliest opportunity any public work of utility, already determined upon or in serious contemplation. The seriousness of the whole situation may well be judged from a resolution introduced by the London Compositors and adopted by the Congress, calling upon the Prime Minister and the Chancellor of the Exchequer to receive deputations upon the subject of granting subsidies to trade unions paying out of work benefits.

The more permanent remedies aside from the taking of children away from industrial competition and measures looking towards doing the same with women, is in the third group, under which Congress dealt with and adopted resolutions for nationalization of railways, canals and the land. Speaking about this last subject, your delegates found considerable discussion in the public press advocating the revaluation of the land, there having been no valuation for purposes of taxation since the reign of Queen Anne; it is stated that such revaluation is necessary as a preparation to any possible further action.

Fourth, education-It may seem somewhat far fetched for your delegates to report upon education as a sub-heading under unemployment, yet the contents of the resolutions offered, the main reasons given for their passage and the avowed purpose to thereby minimize some of the worst results of unemployment, we think is full justification for so doing. The resolutions dealing with education require, first, individual medical inspection and record of physical development of all children attending state schools, the establishment of properly equipped centers for medical treatment. the state maintenance of school children and that the cost of education should be met by grants from the Imperial Exchequer and by restoration of misappropriated educational endowments. It will be seen that this has to do with the physical development, that it recognizes the parents' inability to furnish it, the importance to the state of children's proper physical

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development, and, therefore, does not alone bear upon the remedying of immediate need, but would, so it is hoped, produce a type of men and women developed, physically as well as mentally, as to be better prepared than now to hold their own in the struggle of life; associated with this power and duty of the state to take care of and be responsible for all children, there is a resolution which would prohibit the state from teaching any form of religion or of ethics based thereon. Its champions insist that it would put all religious denominations on the same level, and that religion in any form is better taught in the home and Sunday School than in any public school. This resolution caused more debate and more signs of feeling than any other considered, and was finally adopted by an overwhelming majority on a formal vote.

Other remedies dealing with the prevention of reduction in wages and the waste arising from labor disputes, such was the statement of its champion, Congress considered and adopted resolution asking for legislation to prevent the dismissal of employes because they are members of trade unions or co-operative societies, and other means to reach the same end, the establishment of Industrial Appeal Court, the extension of the Conciliation Act of 1896, condemnation of federated employers locking out their employes and refusing arbitration. There

was considerable discussion on the two resolutions dealing with compulsory inquiry and industrial appeal courts, and it appeared to your delegates, viewing it as a matter of course from their own experience, that the action taken by the Congress can hardly be considered final. The resolution for an industrial appeal court was passed on a card vote, which indicates, we think, an imperfect appreciation on the part of the delegates of the full meaning of the resolution and results necessarily to flow therefrom. The resolution dealing with compulsory inquiry was defeated by about the same majority with which the appeal court was adopted, and your delegates believe that a full understanding of the inevitable results of a compulsory inquiry and report during the pendency of an industrial dispute will be such as to call for a greater condemnation than that which was administered to the proposition. The sundry resolutions dealing with compulsory arbitration were grouped together, and, after a short but direct discussion, were defeated by a vote of about two to one.

Arising out of the condition of unemployment there have been, for some time past, agencies established for the purpose of collecting together groups of men who have been sent to continental countries to be used as strike breakers. Congress dealt with a resolution on this subject, emphatically condemned those engaged in the traffic, as well as those who permitted themselves to be hired for this purpose, and the Congress, treating them as mercenaries, asked that the foreign enlistment act be applied in order to stop an evil which can have none but evil consequences to Englishmen as individuals or as a nation.

On motion of the Cigarmakers. Congress adopted a resolution calling for the passage of a clear law authorizing the

issue and specifying the ownership of trade union labe.s.

A large number of resolutions were introduced and adopted to give further protection to the health, life and limb of working people, amongst them resolution urging that engines and boilers on shore should not be placed in charge of any except those who, upon examination, had received a certificate certifying that they were competent to do the work; on the same line resolutions calling amendment in the Employers' Liability Act. Another number of resolutions dealing with the safety of life in mines were, by unanimous consent, withdrawn, pending the report of a royal commission on that subject.

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Closely related to this system of legislation is a system of industrial insurance, through which the employer relieves himself of individual responsibility by insuring himself agains. law suits, thus defeating the real purpose of all employers' liability acts, which is not payment for being hurt or crippled, but enlisting the employer's self-interest in his workers' safety. As a consequence Congress asks for a full inquiry into the industrial insurance systems and methods and for legislation based upon such facts as shall develop.

In the matter of old age pensions, which have been adopted by Parliament this last year, Congress asked for a minimum pension of at least five shillings per week and a reduction in the age limit from seventy to sixty. The Congress

also considered and adopted some resolutions which may be considered as purely political, dealing with changes in the Parliamentary procedure, the establishment of a Minister of Labor, electoral reforms, including adult franchise, female as well as male, and the amending or abolition of the present system of the House of Lords.

It also considered and adopted some amendments to standing orders, so that its Parliamentary Committee would not be compelled to serve as a compulsory arbitration court in jurisdiction disputes.

Relating to the political movement we can report that there is in the House of Commons one member elected as a Socialist, thirty-one distinct Labor Party members, twenty-three Trade Unionists, mostly sitting as Liberals, all acting in perfect unison on any question recognized as a labor question. The Labor Party is financed by an affiliation fee of fifteen shillings per thousand per year, to be used as a working fund, and two pence per member per year for what is known as the maintenance fund (out of this fund members of Parliament elected under the Constitution of the Labor Party are entitled to two hundred pounds per year). Some of the members accept it, others turn it into their societies, from whom they get their maintenance in a regular yearly wage and who pay all the election expenses, except twenty-five per cent. of the returning officers' fee. The independent Labor Party has twenty thousand members, outside of the membership of trade unions, and pays proportionately into the fund. Co-operative societies are admissible, but have so far not taken much advantage thereof, there

being but two small co-operative societies in the Labor Party.

We found from government publication, dealing with wages and hours of labor from 1898 to 1906, that there has been a gradual decrease in the hours and increase in wages in all lines where there is fairly effective organization, and less in proportion as the organization is less effective or non-existent, and that the tendency to go to the government for indirect and then for direct aid increases in proportion to the weakness of the organizations and its numerical strength in proportion to the number of men or women working in the same calling, and, therefore, entitled to affiliation. Speaking with individuals who had an opportunity of comparison, we were informed that there prevailed at this Congress a stronger and more distinct leaning to trade union methods and trade union remedies, as compared with those usually called socialistic and having due regard to the feeling and temper produced by the present industrial stagnation and the vast number of unemployed, the Congress was remarkable for the calmness in its discussion and the conservative tendency and caution in nearly all of its action.

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The Congress was composed of 518 delegates representing 213 societies and membership of 1,776,000, as compared with the last session held in Nottingham in 1883, when there were 163 delegates representing 163 societies and a membership of 471,651. At its opening it was welcomed by the mayor, the sheriff, the three members of Parliament sitting for Nottingham, the bishop of the diocese. and the president and secretary of the local movement. Aside from your own fraternal delegates, there were seated fraternal delegates from the Labor Party, the Federation of Trade Unions and the Co-operative Society.

The work of the Parliamentary Committee for the year was submitted in printed form and distributed amongst the delegates, considered point for point and adopted with very little objection on the part of any of the delegates. The vast majority of it was, indeed, received and adopted under manifestations of genuine appreciation.

The address of the Chairman of the Parliamentary Committee, and by virtue thereof, Chairman of the Congress, Mr. D. J. Shackelton, who will be pleasantly remembered as the fraternal delegate at the Norfolk Convention, was an able paper and was received with very cordial applause and every manifestation of approval by the Congress. Besides the many other good things contained in the report. it referred to the International Convention seventeen years ago called by the Emperor of Germany with a purof arriving at international agreement on legislation for the preservation of health, the safety of life and limb, the protection of women and children in industrial occupations, and then goes on to state that the government would be acting in accordance with the desires of organized workers of this country if they took the lead and arranged for such a Convention to be held in London, such gathering to have

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proper number of actual representatives of labor in its membership.

The chairman stated that in this matter he should be glad of a direct expression of approval or non-approval of the Congress on this particular subject. The approval of the Congress was swift and decisive and heartily in accord with the report.

The reception accorded your delegates on the other side was of the most hospitable character. It was not confined to the members of the Parliamentary Committee, or the Trades Unionists or people of Nottingham, but every one we came in contact with in England seemed to take particular delight in making our stay as pleasant as could be possibly done and which your delegates hold in the keenest remembrance and the highest sense of gratitude.

Among the many pleasant entertainments in which we participated, none impressed us more forcibly than the Temperance Fellowship Tea. This Temperance Fellowship consists of officials and representatives of trade and labor unions only, organized for the purpose of promoting temperance among the officials of the labor organizations.

We were requested by the Parliamentary Committee, stating they felt sure they spoke for the Congress as well, to bring back to the United States an invitation to President Gompers to come to the Trades Union Congress next year, coupled with a special request to the American Federation of Labor to send him as a special representative, in no way interfering with the two regular delegates. The next Congress will be held at Ipswich, and Mr. A. H. Gill, from the Amalgamated Cotton Spinners, and Mr. J. Wadsworth, of the Miners' Federation, were elected as fraternal delegates to the American Federation of Labor.

In conclusion your delegates desire to express the opinion which is the result of several years of thought, and which has not been altered by our presence at the Congress, that in order to get the most possible good out of the exchange of fraternal delegates we should invite the British fraternal delegates to the American Federation of Labor to participate in the discussion at the Convention whenever in their judgment they could be helpful in coming to a right conclusion, by stating the experience which they have had with the same or similar subjects or matters in Great Britain.

Thanking you for the honor conferred and the opportunity given us as your fraternal delegates, we are, Very respectfully and fraternally

yours,

ANDREW FURUSETH, JAMES J. CREAMER.

President Gompers introduced to the Convention Mr. Hugh Frayne, fraternal delegate to the last session of the Canadian Trades and Labor Congress.

Before presenting the formal report Delegate Frayne said:

"There are two particular subjects that came before the Trades and Labor Congress of Canada I will speak of, on which I shall quote the verbatim report as it came before the Congress. I shall not be expressing my own opinion. One of the subjects deals with independent political action; the other is the report of their special representative to England in regard to immigration as carried on by the Salvation Army. I report this as it was presented to the Congress by their representative's report and in a speech by J. Kier Hardie."

REPORT OF FRATERNAL DELEGATE TO THE TRADES AND LABOR CONGRESS OF THE DOMINION OF CANADA.

To the Officers and Delegates of the Twenty-Eighth Annual Convention of the American Federation of Labor: Brother Delegates: As your delegate to the Twenty-Fourth Annual Convention of the Trades and Labor Congress of Canada, held in the city of Halifax, Nova Scotia, September 21st to 26th, 1908, I desire to submit the following report for your consideration and approval:

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Convention opened Monday, September 21st, at 9 a. m., in the Legislative Assembly Chambers. The session opened with an able address of welcome by Mr. R. E. Scott, President of the Halifax Trades and Labor Council. Hon. Geo. H. Murray, Premier of Nova Scotia, and Mayor Crosby of Halifax, also welcomed the delegates as the official heads of the Provincial Government of the city of Halifax. Their warm welcome was fully appreciated by the delegates, who liberally applauded the sentiments of good feeling expressed toward them.

To give you a full report of the doings of the Convention during the week would be almost impossible. I will only deal briefly with a few of the most important matters considered. The report of the executive officers dealt with the matter of independent political action, immigration, interviews with the federal government on the appointment of a minister of labor, the passage of a Dominion workman's compensation act, the Lemieux act, technical education, eight-hour day law, establishment of old-age pensions, international trades unionism and many other important questions affecting the wage earner of Canada.

One of the most important reports to the Convention was that of Mr. W. R. Trotter, the delegate sent to Great Britain by the Congress last year to report on the misrepresentations alleged to have been made to intending immigrants to Canada. His report, which was an exceedingly lengthy one, made numerous strictures on the immigration schemes of the Salvation Army. After showing that the unemployed problem was becoming pressing in Canada, and that men were coming in where there was already an overflow of labor and thus adding to the number of unemployed, he proceeded to deal with the Salvation Army scheme thus:

"With the exception of the manufacturers' association, no society meddling with immigration has earned for itself such universal condemnation as has this body. The workers of the Dominion, who are in the best position to know and understand the efforts of their policy, are now up in arms against a continuance of this system, and as the public become better acquainted with the methods employed by these people a revulsion of feeling will set in which will demand that public money shall no longer be disbursed by irresponsible parties, whose lack of knowledge of the effects of their interference in the labor market is now historical. The Salvation Army has now entered into the immigration business as a commercial speculation. Existing solely as it does on the unquestioning benevolence of an indulgent public who have been grossly misled as to the nature and extent of their so-called 'social work,' the 'Army' is enabled to advertise and boost its own schemes upon the money thus subscribed, with the result that to-day it ranks as the most widely known combination of immigration touts in the British Isles. Almost every newspaper contains advertisements of the supposed advantages of booking to Canada through their agency. Huge posters decorate the boardings, and in some places electric signs tell you to 'book to Canada through the Salvation Army.' In the immigration section of the 'Army' one notices all the features of the old time agency, combined with just enough of the odor of sanctity to blind the aforesaid indulgent public, and to some extent disarm criticism."

His report went on to show that where city councils that sent out immigrants by the Salvation Army, the councils had all the expense and the "Army" got all the glory, besides a considerable margin of profit in each case. The report also said the Army mutilated Immigration Department booklets by pasting labels over sections of them that referred to free information from the Dominion agents.

Brigadier Howell and Colonel Lamb, of the Army staff, were present and were given an opportunity to reply. Colonel Lamb, who is in charge of the Army's immigration work to Canada, took up a large number of Mr. Trotter's charges and replied to them. Brigadier Howell, in replying to the various statements, said he did not think anything he could say would bring about a better understanding. He would like to get on a friendly basis with the Congress, and suggested that a committee be appointed to meet the Army and discuss the various questions. The Army had tried not to interfere with any labor questions. and whatever may happen in the future he would be glad to consult representatives of organized labor in placing men. As a result of Mr. Trotter's report and the Army officers' attendance at the meeting of congress, the following telegram was received later by SecretaryTreasurer P. M. Draper, from Brigadier Howell of the Salvation Army: "It might interest the Trades and Labor Congress to learn that we have decided to discontinue chartered ships of next year. We will also exercise greatest

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