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Trainmen in possession of these facts. "There can be no mistaking the position of the Brotherhood in this matter. Other organizations of the same kind have preceded this one, and after doing all they could to wreck our organization they have fallen of their own impracticability. The new movement already has been gathering in the 'progressive' wreckers, and will undoubtedly start out with every force at its command to wreck the present organizations.

"There are many members of the Brotherhood who will remember the trail of disaster that marked the progress of the American Railway Union. This is the same thing only it proposes to be wider in its scope."

At the present writing the convention has been in session two days with upwards of two hundred delegates, representing, it is estimated, upward of 175,000 wage earners. An incident of the second day's proceedings may be considered a very correct keynote of future deliberations: "Lawyers are parasites on parasites," shouted Daniel De Leon, the New York leader of the Socialist Labor party. "They live on the blood-money of the capitalist. There is not a dollar of interest money that is not tainted with the blood of the laboring man." Now, this all came about from the fact that one Boudin, a lawyer, wanted to be seated as a "fraternal delegate without a vote." We submit that it is a little bit difficult to see what harm a "delegate without a vote" could do, but it must be there was some hidden dynamite in the attempt somewhere, because it had the effect of dividing the forces into Boudin Socialists and Debs Socialists, and as long as we don't know Boudin, we are sorry he lost out. Hayward, of the Western Federation of Miners, was there as chairman, and we venture the prediction that he stood ready to fall toward the winning side. Of course there was a hot fight over this point and the report of the proceedings states that Debs was there but did not make a speech. Whether this statement was a piece of humor on the part of the reporter or not, we cannot say, but it's a pretty hard tax on the imagi

nation to think of Debs being in a convention of that kind and not making a speech. No mention is made in the reports of the presence or absence of Moyer in the convention, so it is easy to suppose they are holding him back as a joker to take the last trick, whatever that is.

So far, however, our prediction in June CONDUCTOR is coming true-it is really a socialistic gathering under an industrial guise. These malcontents who've gathered there are many of them the ones who in times past and at all times since, have taken every opportun ity and done everything possible for them to do to socialize the American Federation of Labor and the railroad brotherhoods. In the former we know they are in an insignificantly small minority, as shown in their convention proceedings, and in the latter a few scattering socialists are to be found, still in our conventions they never make a peep.

But gatherings of this kind, however much we may doubt the avowed purpose for which they are called, have a deep and serious significance. That is to say, if we leave out of account the Debses, Moyers, Haywoods, Boudins, De Leons, and men of that stripe, whose connection with it is at least questionable, we can but admit that many are there because they see a cause for it, because they see a danger to the country which they would fortify it against. Because they see the lamentable rottenness in gigantic financial institutions like the Equitable Life Assurance Co., whose very existence and strength was nurtured in the divine institution of home; they see great and splendid municipalities, like Philadelphia, “corrupt and contented"; they see great corporations and trusts controling the necessaries of life, inordinately rich already, grasping and pinching the consumer to the point of a life and death struggle for existence, that they may add a few more millions to their vast holdings, giving point and vitality to the saying, that the "rich are growing richer and the poor poorer"; piling up riches in defiance of moral law, and ofttimes in defiance of or in spite of the law of the

land. Yea, and they see local, state and national corruption being constantly exposed which shows such a lack of patriotism and homely honor that love of country seems to have been absorbed by the greed for gold; and seeing all this they cast their eyes toward the glittering generalities, promises impossible of consummation, conditions the very nature of which would negate progress, a national life which at best, would be lack

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ing in energy, initiative and push. sons enough exist for industrial gatherings, we must admit, and so let us hope that when the froth and fumes have vanished and the calm judgment of those who are sincere although overwrought has had time to assert itself, and the vices at which it aims have given larger consideration, that an appreciable amount of good will accrue to the laboring masses.

WAGE EARNERS AND ORGANIZATION.

It is somewhat curious to note how some great editors of great daily papers having taken a stand against some innovation or reform, continue to show and voice their opposition long after the merits of the reform have been proven beyond peradventure.

The New York Sun has never yearned to hug organized labor to its bosom, but it seems not to be at all opposed to showing the good results of it in a negative way, which of course is something, and we may hope for better things from it in future.

Referring to differences in wages between the two periods represented in the latest census reports, the Sun said:

"The statistics of the census of 1900 showing the average annual income of American wage earners as $438 are accurate but entirely misleading when used in illustration of the meagre earnings of the laboring classes,' or for the purpose of showing the impossibility of social decency on such an income. There is an endless number of modifying conditions, and the fact stands that, taken as a mass, our wage earners, compared with those of other lands, are far from being objects of pity. They have, moreover, in their possibility of organization, a lever by which, if it be rightly and wisely used, they may raise the general standard of their economic wellbeing. This, due in part to their organized effort, has already been done. The average wage shown by the census

of 1880 is $347, as compared with $438 in 1900.

No such tabulation of averages is possible with those millions whose means of livelihood brings them into a group which is sometimes classed as salary earners, in distinction from the wage earners of mills, factories, shops, construction work and similar enterprises. They constitutute, in general, a clerical force, and for the purpose of this consideration there may be grouped with them some hundreds of thousands of small shopkeepers and professional men, clergymen, lawyers and others, whose income, whether fixed or variable, is the equivalent of often no more than a meagre salary. A large percentage of this group is doubtless represented by the store clerks, both male and female, in our large cities. Yet the number of small proprietors, of clergymen and even of lawyers, whose annual income is less than that of the average street cleaner ($684 per year), or the average horseshoer ($938 per year), and no higher than that of the average laundry worker ($496 per year) is very considerable. This entire group appears

to be forgotten, both by society in general and by that labor unionism which insists so strongly that its primary object is the improvement of the social and moral condition of toiling humanity. The girl at the ribbon counter of a department store, the poorly paid bookkeeper at his desk, the country clergyman with his meagre salary and a family to educate,

and the small proprietor struggling for a bare living out of the profits of his limited sales, are all as much a part of that 'toiling humanity' as the New York bricklayer, who demands that after the first of next month his wages shall be 70 cents an hour, and who is to get it because he can and will strike and paralize industry if it is refused him.

In the increased cost of his own living the wage earner pays a part of the increase which he secures by his demands under threat of a strike, by a strike, or through the sense of fairness on the part of an employer who voluntarily increases wages because he can afford to do so. The capitalist' and the 'greedy employer' pay their part. There is little doubt that those who suffer most, those upon whom the burden falls most heavily, those perhaps who pay the greater part of that increase, are those having a practically fixed income of $5 to $8 per week.

We offer no argument whatever against unionism's purpose to obtain for its members the highest possible wage. But neither unionism nor society at large should forget that while a fraction of labor's greater gains may come from the pockets of its employers, a very large share of them comes directly from those who, though unable to speak forcefully for themselves through organization, are quite as much to be regarded as 'toilers' as are the members of powerful labor unions. It is the poorly paid clerk and the struggling salesgirl who pay for an appreciable share of the laboring man's holiday."

To which the Editor of the Railroad

Trainmen's Journal very truly and pointedly remarks:

This is one of the greatest exhibitions of stating a truth and then begging for the betterment of those who will not accept it that has been offered by any one, including the Sun.

Labor organization stands as an open example of what can be done by united action. It is true that there are isolated employments wherein organization appears impossible. The same thing was once said of the railroad telegraphers, yet they built up a powerful organization by keeping at it.

Every occupation mentioned by the Sun as suffering, because the organized trades have raised their wages, can be organized if the employes will agree to make the same sacrifices as the others had to make. The strongest, best managed organiziations we now have were stamped out time and again except in spirit, but they are now in position to take care of themselves.

It is neither excuse nor necessity that is responsible for the non-organization of the classes mentioned. The idea that certain employments cannot be organized is settled in the minds of the employes in the unorganized occupations, and until it is removed they will all remain just where they are, unless they go backward.

The Sun has never had many good words for labor organization, but in this instance it has said some things that ought to convincc every wage worker that it is labor organization or nothing for him.

COMMERCE AND TEMPERANCE.

Somewhere in the great thought-world there lies dormant thoughts which we believe will some day be vitalized into such activity that temperance will not be looked upon as a far-away utopian dream. The splendid and heroic men and women who have given practically their whole lives to the cause of temper

ance have, we believe, done much good, but it is a lamentable fact that the mighty destroyer stalks abroad in the land with great vigor and destructiveness. The mandate of the civil law proclaiming prohibition, is seemingly of questionable value. Prohibition seems not to prohibit. Where it has been tried

the verdict in every case seems to be that there is certainly as much intemperance and much more deceit, and the revenue derived from the licensing of saloons is lost to the community. We know that some there are who would call such "tainted" money, but we believe no morality or immorality can inhere in money, and it seems to us that the taint idea may safely be abandoned. But into the temperance question and fight there is now entering a mighty champion in the guise of Commerce, who, let us hope, will be a potent factor for good. The demands of this factor are urgent and far-reaching; it has use only for clear heads to guide willing hands; its mandates can be carried out by none others, so that the tipler, the occasional drinker, the habitual drinker, or the old soak, are gradually being put out of the race. In other words, the business interests of the country find it absolutely necessary to take into large account the personnel of its doers, and with correct and far-reaching logic it tells them that their habits and actions must conform to standards of morality and right living which experience has shown to be most consistent with progress. It may be argued by some that temperance thus gained comes as a sort of by-product and not as a positive virtue of business activity. In a measure this may be the case; nevertheless, we submit that if a man's life is saved by mistake he is just as much alive, or if a person is killed unintentionally, he is just as dead as though killed intentionally.

The Memphis (Tenn.) News-Scimitar recently spoke editorially along these lines as follows, but particularly of railway employes:

"Did you ever stop to think that temperance reform is a work taken up by the business world? Sound business tenets teach temperance, commercial success demands sobriety.

Some time ago the Chicago & Alton Railroad Company issued rules for its employes forbidding them to visit saloons, race tracks, dance halls, or other resorts where liquor is sold or gambling permitted.

This was no bigoted and narrow

minded idea of some self-important railroad official. On the contrary, the order was demanded on grounds of hard common sense. The responsibility of railroad companies are greater than those which rest on other corporations. They are essentially public servants who have the lives of a large number of people constantly in their hands. The slightest lapse of memory, the slightest inattention or indifference on the part of any one of a great number of their employes may at any moment cause the loss of hundreds of lives. It is necessary that these men should have steady and sober habits and that their minds should always be active and alert.

These R. R. Officials say that 'All the things which are prohibited either tend or might tend permanently or temporarily to impair a man's physical and mental power.'

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The railroad company is not trying to reform men. It is not heading a crusade against vice or immorality. It is engaged in the railroad business. If that business is injured or affected by the bad habits of an employe, either the employe must quit his bad habits or quit the employment of the company.

Sobriety is a commercial necessity and in all lines of business the rules against intemperance are broadening and becoming more strict, and thus the commercial spirit of the age is ministering to moral reform.

'A man,' says a contemporary, 'may pooh pooh sentiments about temperance and morality. He may say he will drink what he pleases and go where he pleases. He may say the company is interfering with his personal liberty. It matters not. Everywhere he goes the necessity for sobriety and steadiness of habits confronts him.

'The employe is free to do as he pleases so long as he pleases to be decent. Which is, after all, the true measure of personal liberty.

'Anyone, however obtuse, can grasp the significance of ethical principles when expressed in terms of dollars and cents.'

It cannot be said that there is anything wrong in the principle of employers passing rules against strong drink. If it interferes with personal liberty on the one hand, it may break up a personal habit on the other which places the habitue in a more abject servitude than can be forced upon the dependent employe by the most inexorable boss."

What the News-Scimitar says about the rules on the Alton have generally been adopted by all roads. Perhaps they do not say in so many words that men must not visit race tracks, dance halls, etc., but it is generally predicted that if a man spends much of his layover time in saloons, that the natural adjuncts to them will at no very distant day get some of his spare time and that

these can in no possible way fit him for responsible duties on the rail. There is no doubt that in a certain sense these rules do abridge individual liberty, but it is also well to remember that being saved from ones self is sometimes a most extraordinary kindness and that the more complex and tense our civilization grows the more subject to collective rights is individuality of action. If a man with inherited or acquired taste for liquor can be kept from indulging that taste by the promulgation of rules to which he must conform in order to retain a position in which he can take good care of his family, surely the lack of such liberty of action should be welcomed with reverential gladness. With the mighty forces of business arraigned against the drink evil, the temperance leaders should take on new courage, and the members of the railroad brotherhoods should aid the work in every possible way.

INTERSTATE COMMERCE HEARING AND RAILROAD REGULATION.

It will be remembered that the Senate, before adjournment in March, appointed a committee on interstate commerce to hear evidence on the question of further regulation of the railroads by the Federal Government. This committee has just finished a thirty-day sitting, has examined 123 witnesses, of whom about twenty were railroad officers, the five members of the Interstate Commerce Commission, and the remainder composed of men engaged in various kinds of business. This, it seems to us, was really the only thing to be done under the circumstances, yet it must be confessed it was much like hearing testimony in one's own behalf. Practically every witness declared emphatically against the giving of rebates or the granting of any favors under a purely personal disguise. This was really as well known before the hearing as after, but it is nevertheless a declaration in which there is a wholesome sign of progress, as it shows clearly that there exists a public

sentiment against it and against which no one cares to take an open stand. The dangerous aspects of special privileges are being understood by the people and they are letting it be known by their representatives in Congress. Special privileges under tariff laws, enacted in the past, were no doubt of ultimate good to the country, regardless of the fact that a few men piled up enormous fortunes in taking advantage of them, but when men or corporations take advantage of domestic laws, either by twisting them to their own advantage or by totally disregarding them, the procedure becomes a matter of internal policy and economy which more vitally affects all the people. Of course, just how to make this sentiment effective and bring about the enforcement of the present adequate law without fear or favor is a problem which confronts the whole people; and it is probable that the whole people, rather than their legislators will have to solve it. If there existed an

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