of the International Labor Office, who will transmit them to the Secretary-General of the League.

ARTICLE 426 (40)

Pending the creation of a Permanent Court of International Justice disputes which in accordance with this Part of the present Treaty would be submitted to it for decision will be referred to a tribunal of three persons appointed by the Council of the League of Nations.

ANNEX

FIRST MEETING OF ANNUAL LABOR CONFERENCE, 1919

The place of meeting will be Washington.

The Government of the United States of America is requested to convene the Conference.

The International Organizing Committee will consist of seven Members, appointed by the United States of America, Great Britain, France, Italy, Japan, Belgium and Switzerland. The Committee may, if it thinks necessary, invite other Members to appoint representatives.

Agenda:

(1) Application of principle of the 8-hours day or of the 48-hours week (2) Question of preventing or providing against unemployment. (3) Women's employment:

(a) Before and after child-birth, including the question of maternity benefit:

(b) During the night;

(c) In unhealthy processes.

(4) Employment of children:

(a) Minimum age of employment;

(b) During the night;

(c) In unhealthy processes.

(5) Extension and application of the International Conventions adopted at Bern in 1906 on the prohibition of night work for women employed in industry and the prohibition of the use of white phosphorus in the manufacture of matches.

SECTION II

GENERAL PRINCIPLES

ARTICLE 427

The High Contracting Parties, recognizing that the well-being, physical, moral and intellectual, of industrial wage-earners is of supreme

international importance, have framed, in order to further this great end, the permanent machinery provided for in Section I and associated with that of the League of Nations.

They recognize that differences of climate, habits and customs, of economic opportunity and industrial tradition, make strict uniformity in the conditions of labor difficult of immediate attainment. But, holding as they do, that labor should not be regarded merely as an article of commerce, they think that there are methods and principles for regulating labor conditions which all industrial communities should endeavor to apply, so far as their special circumstances will permit.

Among these methods and principles, the following seem to the High Contracting Parties to be of special and urgent importance:

First.-The guiding principle above enunciated that labor should not be regarded merely as a commodity or article of commerce.

Second. The right of association for all lawful purposes by the employed as well as by the employers.

Third. The payment to the employed of a wage adequate to maintain a reasonable standard of life as this is understood in their time and country.

Fourth.-The adoption of an eight hours' day or a forty-eight hours' week as the standard to be aimed at where it has not already been attained.

Fifth.-The adoption of a weekly rest of at least twenty-four hours, which should include Sunday wherever practicable.

Sixth.-The abolition of child labor and the imposition of such limitations on the labor of young persons as shall permit the continuation of their education and assure their proper physical development.

Seventh. The principle that men and women should receive equal remuneration for work of equal value.

Eighth. The standard set by law in each country with respect to the conditions of labor should have due regard to the equitable economic treatment of all workers lawfully resident therein.

Ninth.-Each State should make provision for a system of inspection in which women should take part, in order to insure the enforcement of the laws and regulations for the protection of the employed.

Without claiming that these methods and principles are either complete or final, the High Contracting Parties are of opinion that they are well fitted to guide the policy of the League of Nations; and that, if adopted by the industrial communities who are members of the League, and safeguarded in practice by an adequate system of such inspection, they will confer lasting benefits upon the wage-earners of the world.

VII. GERMANY'S EFFORT To Change THE PROVISIONS

The German Delegation received the Peace Treaty at Versailles on May 7. It had been provided in the preliminaries that no oral negotiations should take place with the Germans. It was, however, possible for them to express their opinions and to seek modifications by exchanges of notes in the text of the draft treaty presented to them. Such exchanges took place at some length. Those relating to the labor section of the Treaty are as follows:

1. The President of the German Peace Delegation to the President of the Peace Conference.

[Translation]

German Peace Delegation

Versailles, May 10, 1919.

To His Excellency, the President of the Peace Conference.

Sir:

With reference to Articles 55 and 56 of the proposals for the establishment of a League of Nations submitted by us,1 we beg herewith to transmit the draft of an International Agreement on Labor Law, prepared by the German Government.2

The German Government is of one mind with the Allied and Associated Governments in holding that the greatest attention must be given to labor questions. Domestic peace and the advancement of mankind depend vitally on the adjustment of this question. The demands for social justice repeatedly raised in this respect by the working classes of all nations are only partly realized in principle in Section XIII of the draft of Peace Conditions of the Allied and Associated Governments on the Organization of Labor. These sublime demands have for the most part been realized in Germany with the assistance of the working classes, as is 1 The articles referred to are as follows:

“55. One of the chief tasks of the League shall be to assure to the working classes of all member states an existence worthy of human beings and pleasure in their work. For this purpose a special agreement, appended as a supplement, shall regulate for the workers the questions of freedom of movement, right of coalition, equality as between natives and foreigners in respect of conditions of work, labor arbitration, state insurance, protection of labor, conditions of home labor, supervision of labor, and the international realization and development of these standards.

"56. For the supervision and extension of the labor code there shall be instituted a Universal Labor Department in the Chancellery of the League.”

2 Not printed.

generally acknowledged, in an exemplary manner. In order to carry them into execution everywhere in the interest of mankind the acceptance of the program of the German Delegation is at least necessary.

We deem it requisite that all states should join the agreement, even though not belonging to the League of Nations.

In order to guarantee to the working classes, for whom the proposed improvements are intended, co-operation in the framing of these provisions, the German Delegation is of the opinion that representatives of the national trade union organizations of all contracting Powers should be summoned to a conference at Versailles to discuss and take decisions on international labor law, before the peace negotiations are terminated.

The proceedings of this conference should, in the opinion of the German Delegation, be based on the resolutions of the International Trade Unions Conference in Bern (February 5 to 9, 1919) and the program for International Labor Legislation, addressed to the Peace Conference in Paris, which emanated from the decisions of the International Trade Unions Conference in Leeds in 1916. At the request of the Trade Unions of Germany we beg to inclose a copy of these resolutions, which have been adopted by representatives of the Trade Union organizations of Bohemia, Bulgaria, Denmark, Germany, France, Greece, Holland, Italy, Canada, Norway, Austria, Sweden, Switzerland, Spain and Hungary.

Accept, Sir, the assurance of my highest esteem.

(Signed) BROCKDORFF-RANTZAU.

INCLOSURES

a. Labor Charter adopted by the International Trade Unions Conference, Bern, February 5-9, 1919.

Under the wage system, the capitalist class endeavor to increase their profits by exploiting the workers as much as possible. Such methods if they are unchecked undermine the physical, moral and intellectual powers of the workers and their children. They prevent the development and even endanger the existence of society. The capitalist attempt to degrade the workers can only be entirely removed by the abolition of the capitalist system. But the evil can be strongly mitigated both by the resistance of the organized workers and by the intervention of the state. By this means, the health of the workers may be protected and their family life maintained, and they can secure the opportunity of attaining the education needed to enable them to fulfill their duties as citizens in the modern democracy.

The limits which capitalism has reached are very different in the various countries. One of the dangers here involved is that the industry and labor of the more progressive countries are injured by a system of sweated labor in the more backward countries. The need to establish an international standard of labor legislation has been rendered doubly

urgent by the terrible upheaval and fearful devastation of the life-forces of the people brought about by the war. The foundation of a League of Nations, however, will make it possible to satisfy this need.

The Bern Conference having taken into consideration the resolution adopted by the International Trade Union Conferences of Leeds and Bern, and without prejudice to any more far-reaching resolutions which may be adopted by trade unions, demands that the following minimum requirements, which are already carried out in part in some countries, shall be converted into a code of international law by the League of Nations on the conclusion of peace:

1. Primary education should be compulsory in all countries and a system of technical education established. Higher education should be established in all countries and should be free and accessible to all. Capacity and aspirations should not be thwarted by the material conditions in which a young person lives. Children under 15 years of age shall not be employed in industrial occupations.

2. Young persons between 15 and 18 years of age shall not be employed more than six hours a day with a break of one and one-half hours after a maximum of four hours' work. At least two hours of instruction in technical and continuation classes shall be given to the young persons of both sexes, daily, between the hours of 8 a. m. and 6 p. m. The young persons must be allowed time off to attend the classes. The employment of young persons shall be prohibited (a) between the hours of 8 p. m. and 6 a. m., (b) on Sundays and holidays, (c) in especially unhealthy trades, (d) in mines below ground.

3. The hours of work of women workers shall not exceed four on Saturdays. They shall not be employed after midday on Saturdays. Where exceptions are necessary in certain occupations, the women workers concerned shall be allowed an equivalent half-holiday on another day of the week. Women shall not be employed at night. The employer shall not give women work to do at home after their regular day work. Women shall not be employed in especially dangerous trades which it is impossible to make healthy, nor in mines, either above or below ground. Women shall not be allowed to work for ten weeks altogether before and after child-birth, six weeks of which shall be taken after the confinement. In every country a system of maternity insurance shall be introduced, providing compensation at least equal to the sickness insurance benefit payable in the country concerned. Women shall receive the same pay as men for the same job.

4. Hours of work shall not exceed eight a day or 48 a week. Night work between the hours of 8 p. m. and 6 a. m. shall be prohibited by law except in so far as may be unavoidable for technical reasons or from the nature of the occupation. Where night work is allowed it shall be paid at a higher rate than day work. The Saturday half-holiday shall be introduced in all countries.

5. Workers shall be allowed a continuous weekly rest of at least 46 hours taken from Saturday to Monday morning. Where the work is