Printers' League Convention. During the week of September 20-25, the Printers' League of America held its first convention in New York city and adopted a constitution for the national body. The organization will now give special attention to the formation of local branches, and expects within the year to materially augment its membership, so that when the second annual convention is held, in Chicago, there will be representatives from a large number of local societies. Relationship with the trade unions in the printing industry occupied considerable of the time of the first convention of the Printers' League. These relations are outlined in the laws, and the provisions relative thereto are broad and liberal and designed to fit the situation as it is, not as some particular set of employers would like to have it. The unions under the method as outlined will always have opportunity to be heard, and there is a provision for trade courts for the settlement of difficulties. All in all, the plan, so far as it touches on questions of vital interest to employes, is comprehensive in character and thoughtful in construction. It aims at industrial peace with the strongest kind of guarantee for the conservation of the rights of employer and employe. With such a rock on which to build, there can be no question as to the success of the Printers' League, and the success of this organization means the placing of the commercial end of the industry on a better basis. Certainly there is room for this development. Commercial offices and the commercial business are demoralized, and are the legitimate prey of the printing office patron. The Printers' League of America aims at a legitimate profit basis, and to this end seeks the co-operation of not only the employer (the man with his money invested), but of the employe (the man with his all invested). President Lynch attended the sessions of the convention, as did also President Berry, of the pressmen; President Glockling, of the bookbinders, and President Freel, of the stereotypers. One significant feature of the new society and its intentions was typified in the granting of the floor to the union's representatives at any time they believed

the question before the house contained anything of application or interest to the wage earners.

Praise From the Enemy.

That palladium of the liberties of the people-American Industries-contains in its September number an article by Charles F. Waltz, secretary of the Employers' Association of Cincinnati, Ohio, which embodies a vicious attack on our label propaganda and our obligation.

"Behind the demand for the use of the union label is the terror of the boycott," declares the writer. Organized labor's support of the union label, organized labor's political strength, organized labor's ability to redeem its pledges, are "all bluff," if we accept the viewpoint of our latest assailant. As in some other wild and inaccurate statements, there is a grain of truth in the Waltz assault. For instance: "The Typographical Union is an illustration of a typical, persistent labor organization attempting to force its personality (if a labor union has such a thing) upon the public. In all places of public amusement where advertisements are possible, one sees the flaming advertisements of the typographical union label; on all printed matter pertaining to places of general amusement, the typographical union label is conspicuous." Quite a compliment for our label commit

tees.

If the article relieves the feelings of Mr. Waltz and his ilk, we have no complaint to make. We are satisfied that they shall tickle each other with false statements, vicious assaults and obvious malignment. It should make us the more determined to sell our goods; the more aggressive in our label campaign, and the more assured that we are getting the desired effect. When a paid agent of the anti-union combination shouts so loud, we may rest assured that some enemy has been hurt, and we should press on until all our opponents are put to rout.

The label committees should feel encouraged when Sir Rupert speaks! Renewed effort means additional work for union printing offices, and additional work for union printing offices means additional em

ployment for union printers. The label sticker works continuously. It has only to be used to bring returns. One label sticker placed a twenty-five-thousand-dollar job in a union office. You can never tell who you will hit when you put a label sticker on a non-labeled job; but you can depend on it that you are adding to the general volume of the demand for the label, the support of the union office and employment for union printers.

Label Committees.

The

Under the heading, "Label Committees," in the back part of this issue of THE JOURNAL, will be found a list of the names and addresses of chairmen or secretaries of label committees of subordinate unions. committee on label of the St. Joseph convention recommended that such list be published, and while it will entail considerable additional expense to the organization, no doubt the benefit derived will be well worth the cost. The list will be found of great assistance to those local unions which are active in furthering the interests of the label. It would be well for those unions which now have no label committees to at once appoint such committees, and once appointed they should become alert and assist the International Union in the work that is now being carried on at headquarters. The list of officers of label committees will be published in the official magazine as often as space permits. Local unions are requested to send any changes to the International president with the least possible delay, as it is desired to keep the list corrected up to date.

About Two Years Late.

There is no disputing the fact that great injustice is being done the printers throughout the country, both large and small, in the government engaging in the business of printing stamped envelops. The claim can not be sustained that the mass of the people will reap the benefit of the lower-priced stamped envelops, as they are printed only in multiples of 500 and upwards, and are purchased by those who are well able to pay for such commodity-such as banks,

trust companies, large corporations, etc. The post office department seems persistent in advertising this feature, which only benefits a class that can well stand the expense, and places a burden upon the taxpayers who are not in a position to avail themselves of the generosity of our benevolent Uncle Sam. The International Typographical Union took a stand in opposition to this procedure as soon as it was initiated. Now, a couple of years late, our amiable friends in the ranks of the typothetæ and manufacturers' association have awakened to the fact that the government is encroaching on their preserves, and have organized a "national committee" to act in the matter. This committee announces that it has been decided to "engage the services of a recording secretary and a competent office force, and open offices in Washington and start out on a campaign of education and publicity."

We wish these trade union antagonists all the success possible in their contest, notwithstanding it was the International Typographical Union which was among the first organizations to make a protest against this appropriation of a branch of industry that rightfully belongs to the private employer.

Efficiency of the Workers.

During the sessions of the first convention of the Printers' League of America, the efficiency of workmen came up on the last day and caused something of a flurry, and was made the occasion for some pertinent discussion. Indeed, for a time the subject threatened to outshine in its importance all other topics which had received attention. Owing to the fact that it did not come forth until the last hours of the convention, it was not deemed wise to go into it to the length it deserved. One employer charged the unions with admitting incompetent journeymen, and the union representatives promptly retaliated by charging the employers with the responsibility for incompetent workmen. The atmosphere was not cleared very much, but the way was opened for further discussion which can not but result in benefit to employer and employe. It is now proposed, at the

next convention of the Printers' League, to give one day to the discussion of the best methods for turning out skilled printers, pressmen, bookbinders, stereotypers, etc., and also to the problem of increasing the efficiency of the journeymen who at present do the work. The representatives of the trade unions took part in the discussion at the first convention of the Printers' League, and look forward with eagerness to the continuance of the great debate which has been promised for the second convention. We know that if light is turned on the We proposition much good will follow. are opposed to specialization in our trade, and we have consistently so fought whenever possible. Good printers command good wages, and it is our aim to improve the efficiency and ability of the printers who make up our membership and that of Το the apprentices, who will succeed us. this end, we are maintaining a technical school at Chicago, which at the present time has more than eleven hundred students. To this end, we propose to devote To this our energies and our abilities. end, we invite the co-operation and assistance of the master printers of the country.

it is quite compatible with his profession. as a league member to contest any union regulation which he deems unjust or wasteful. In short, his attitude is: "Come, let us reason together and see how we can make money for each other." This is the modern business idea-the outgrowth of commercial necessity and a little ethical enlightenment.

The league is not content with standing for decency in dealing with labor. It aims to inculcate in the craft such principles as will rid commercial printing of many of the evils that afflict it. Indeed, the league's aspirations would put the industry in the front ranks, both as to trade ethics and pecuniary returns. Mr. Francis and his confreres recognize that, under existing conditions, it is almost impossible for employers to establish this state of affairs, so they propose to not only recognize unions, but to develop a system of dealing with them, the machinery of which will make it incumbent on the labor organizations to assist in rejuvenating the trade or putting it on a modern business basis.

At the New York meeting, trade unionPresiists were very much in evidence. dents Lynch, Berry, Glockling and Freel spoke on behalf of the international organizations, and President Tole, together with other officials of New York locals, also

took part in the program. As individuals and as officers, these gentlemen pledged themselves to assist in the league program, declaring with truth that it was in consonance with the higher principles of trade unionism. They preached the doctrine that representatives of employes should know employers and their business better, declaring that they and their organizations had no greater desire in the commercial printing field than to aid in all manner of betterment. In the nature of things, wage earners could do more in this respect by co-operating with-perhaps following the it was leadership of-employers, but claimed and conceded that, until the appearance of the league, the employes were told in the bruskest possible manner that the general trade condition was none of their business-all they had to do was to produce the goods for such wages and in

such environment as it pleased employers to vouchsafe them.

The trade is evidently on the threshold of a new era, and employers may be sure the unions are not only willing, but anxious, to do all they can toward hastening the golden age. That they can do much is evidenced by the fact that up to date the labor organizations have been the one great constructive feature of the trade.

Printers' Cost Congress.

The most numerously attended gathering of employing printers of the year was the International Cost Congress at Chicago. There were 200 gentlemen from outside the Windy City and about one hundred Chicagoans in attendance. The congress did not succeed in securing much newspaper comment, but from what we have read and heard of the meeting, it was very generally conceded that book and job printers all have been, and a great number of them still are, in the language of an employer of Minneapolis, "a pack of fools." It appears from confessions made that more than 90 per cent of them are conducting their offices in violation of the most elemental business principles. All these years journeymen have been told that there was "no money in the composing room," consequently they would have to be content with low wages.

Now, we are beginning to learn that the reason there was no money in the composing room was because employers did not know how to get it-not that compositors could not do the work, or the customer was unable to pay the price. This is as refreshing as it is enlightening.

In our mind's eye we can see and hear the gentlemen denouncing the foolhardiness of the absentees, who at such meetings are always called habitual price cutters. Yet the wise ones who are doing this talking do not dare to handle the most vital problem in production-labor. One of the cost experts recently issued a statement in which he showed that the labor cost per hour in composing rooms in New York is $1.02, while in Boston and Philadelphia it is in the neighborhood of 90 cents. We also

notice, according to the program and proceedings, that Bostonians and Philadelphians were prominent in the congress. We wonder what New York employers think about the clamor of these people that they raise their rates, while competitors of the Hub and the City of Brotherly Love have such an advantage over them. A difference of 10 per cent on large jobs is quite an item, enough to induce many customers to patronize Philadelphia or Boston in preference to the metropolis.

How is a cost system going to regulate this unfair competition? The difference is very largely in labor, and yet the cost congress would not discuss the labor issue. We are aware that there is what they call an intercity arrangement between some employers of New York, Boston and Philadelphia, but we rise to ask, "Is this in keeping with the law? Is it not really a conspiracy in restraint of trade, as that elastic term is used and applied to labor organizations?"

It is our opinion, as well as the opinion of some of the gentlemen interested, that the combination is a conspiracy in the eyes of the law. In the jargon of the street, are not the New Yorkers who fall for this game, rank suckers? It seems to us that if employers are going to eliminate unfair competition, pressure should be brought to bear on those who are skinning labor-and composing room labor is being "skinned" in Boston and Philadelphia-to treat it fairly. When it is done one element of unfairness will be removed. It is evidently the purpose of some to bolster it up and make the disparity still greater. The greatest mistake possible.

A returned delegate is reported as having said joyously that the convention was all business; there was no sentiment in it. If so, there is its fatal weakness. Twothirds of the employing printer's product is labor. That is a human element, and how people are going to discuss trade conditions without reference to the major element, and how they can refer to it without injecting humanism, is beyond our comprehension. Even the powerful steel trust, with its carefully selected Hunkies and Poles, has found it impossible to do so. In

our opinion, it is folly for employing printers to attempt such a feat. They are in the competitive field and employ intelligent labor. Cold-blooded arguments given with a fish-eye stare may carry convictions, but they will not cement organizations,

We are in nowise opposed to the cost movement, because employes are great sufferers from the unbusiness-like methods pursued in the trade, but we are unable to see that any lasting benefit will come from the late congress. There were 200 delegates, but how many thousands have our typothetæ friends addressed, pleaded with and adjured on the same subject during the last year, and with what result? It has been said one system was installed. Chicago has been the scene of the most active propagation of the cost idea, and yet when the scale was up for consideration a few months ago employers complained that at no time were competitive prices so low as they had been during the past summer. And this came from employers friendly to the union, men whose reputation for honesty is away above the average.

The printer who sells work for what it costs him may be foolish, but he is not more so than those now in the limelight, who are endeavoring to ignore the labor issue and elevate the craft without the assistance of trade unionists.

Perhaps some of them fondly hope to make out of this a stepping stone to the subjugation or extermination of the unions, for of such is the occasional unwisdom of wiseacres, who scoff at economic law.

SEVERAL prominent educators of the country delivered addresses on industrial education at the sessions of the executive council of the American Federation of Labor, held in Washington, D. C., the latter part of October. According to a member of the International Typographical Union who was present, the educational experts went out of their way to not only compliment the technical education feature of our organization, but declared that its results were the most convincing and satisfactory of any within their knowledge; that we have comprehended the philosophy, purposes and methods of industrial education

in a really exceptional manner. This is, indeed, high praise, when it is considered that the gentlemen uttering these sentiments are among the foremost in the advanced educational movement of the nation.

The Ohio Conference.

The Ohio State Conference of Typographical Unions held its seventh semiannual session at Dayton, October 10, with more than fifty delegates in attendance. There were two sessions, morning and afternoon, and it was agreed by all present that the conference was a complete success. Realizing that many of the delegates would arrive on Saturday evening preceding the conference, Typographical Union No. 57 arranged a smoker, which was largely attended by local printers. At the session on the following morning optimistic reports were made by delegates from every part of the state, and it was shown that the craft was working unitedly and with great enthusiasm for the betterment of labor conditions. Results from the active label campaigns being conducted by the various local unions were reported to be highly satisfactory.

The delegates were the guests of No. 57 at an elaborate dinner, and then came the afternoon session. The principal event was the address of Organizer Max S. Hayes, of Cleveland, who asserted that the demand for high-grade printers was of the best in all the local jurisdictions throughout the state, and that many concerns that had been non-union for years are being brought Iwithin the union fold. He declared that the better workmanship of the union printers is winning the antagonistic employer to the side of unionism. That better working conditions are becoming the rule in Ohio is evident from the fact that five new locals have been organized there within the past six months. The campaign for the prevention of tuberculosis was discussed, and figures were given to show that this contest has actually reduced the death rate to a considerable degree.

The following officers were elected for the ensuing year: President, William Hewitt, Springfield No. 117; vice-president,