militia efficient, or to increase the army. He has been a consistent opponent of preparedness, and he has written of the horrors of militarism time and again, and denounced every system which tended to give anything resembling preparedness to the country. He has opposed training, and in the issue of February, 1914, of the American Federationist, he pointed out that the military camps established by the War Department merely served militarism, and that these camps are infested with allurements and attractions for that purpose, and to cover over the dangers and horrors of military preparedness. He exclaims:

"Why should this training be made a means to serve an end that leads to evil and waste? Why cannot the money, the ability, the life opportunity that is to be devoted to training for military service be devoted to training for something useful, purposeful, constructive and practical in every-day life?

"Organized labor protests, and will make its protest felt against a military policy. Let the voice of labor insist that we remain a peaceful, law-abiding country, relying on civil institutions for protection and justice. Workers have special cause to oppose all attempts to foist militarism upon a free country, or to encourage military tendency."

This attack was directed towards the camps which were giving a semblance of military training to a few thousand men. Has Gompers changed his opinion with regard to preparedness? Is he still opposed to the training of men to meet the necessities of war, or what change has come over him so that he is able to take part in the Governmental work which first of all requires preparedness, and second, requires the gathering together of a large army of men, trained to defend the country? Gompers cannot have changed his opinion overnight, and in a time of war it seems curious that a pacifist, a man opposed to efficiency and productivity, and opposed to the courts of the country, should be selected for the high honor of being one of the Council charged with plans to defend the nation.

Represents Only 72 Per Cent of Labor

The Gompers' record is clear and well established, and there is nothing in it which in any way offers the suggestion that he is the type of man fitted for the position which he holds in a crisis like the present. It may be said that he represents labor, but that is a fallacy, since the most he represents is a part of organized labor, and organized labor as a whole in this country is only about 72 per cent of the working people of the United States. Therefore he does not represent labor in the sense of representing all labor, nor does he represent any element in the present situation which would make him fit for his job.

If this country is to succeed in the present war it must equip a great army for defensive purposes, if necessary. Mr. Gompers has been opposed to this. This country must increase the efficiency of all its factories, mills and mines, and it must use approved efficiency methods. Mr. Gompers is opposed to this, or has been. This country must increase productivity in every mill, mine, factory and farm, and the workers must give their fullest effort in each day's work. But this is contrary to union rules approved by Mr. Gompers. The factories of the country must have the eight-hour day eliminated, so that there may be sufficient production to meet the requirements of the Government. Mr. Gompers is opposed to the suspension of the eight-hour day, except in the case of the Government plants. Although we are at war, the basis of the country's confidence in its institutions is the belief that all men will receive a square deal from the court of last resort, the Supreme Court of the United States. But Mr. Gompers has attacked and vilified the Supreme Court of the United States. These are obvious facts. Let us ask ourselves the question whether Great Britain, in its present crisis, would permit a man to be on guard who was known to be antagonistic to the institutions of the country, and opposed to the employment of methods necessary to win the war? England made mistakes of this kind in the beginning of the war, paid for them in blood and treasure, and is now prepared to prevent their repetition. We have placed Samuel Gompers in charge, at least to some extent, and we expect from him a complete reversal of all his views, the elimination of all

his plans, and a complete subordination of all his ideas to the general proposition of patriotism and defense. It is inconceivable folly to assume any such radical change in the nature of Mr. Gompers, or to believe that his purpose in his present place is to subordinate the unions to the good of the country. Gompers is acting in his present position with the adroit purpose of giving lip-service to the United States, and through his own maneuvers, and those of his friends, to fortify the position of the unions, no matter if it is at the expense of the Government. Organized labor under the Gompers' regime has never given anything without a ten-fold return, and it has never been grateful for anything which has been done for it. Therefore, it is not only a broken reed the Government is relying on in this crisis, but on something that possesses elements of actual danger to the whole country. Contributed.

BUSINESS AGENT PLEADS GUILTY

TO MANSLAUGHTER

Organized labor has been betrayed again. This time it is the Detroit Federation of Labor that suffers the humiliation, and at the hands of a union official at that. After charging the police and the prosecutor's office with preferring "trumped up charges" against Nelson Trombley, business agent of a carpenter's union; and after labor's counsel had declared that there was not “one scintilla of evidence" upon which to hold Trombley on the charge of killing Joseph Bader, the Detroit Federation is now repudiated by Trombley himself, who plead guilty to a charge of manslaughter in Judge Jeffries' court Wednesday.

Trombley chased Bader down the alley and crushed his skull because he was exercising his rights as a citizen and a free-born American by supporting a wife and two children without paying dues to a union.

The form of "peaceful persuasion" employed by Trombley is typical of the method of operation of the closed shop votaries in Detroit. They have been using lead pipe, billies, rocks and other equally persuasive arguments upon the skulls of Detroit workmen for many months.-Detroit Saturday Night.

HARMONY BETWEEN EMPLOYEE AND EMPLOYER IS ESSENTIAL

Ninety-Five Per Cent of Employers Rejoice in Paying Good Wages to Their Help as Much as the Help Do in Receiving Them

By Ellis L. Howland

"Try to realize that your business is really as much the community's business as your own; that as your business prospers so does the community dependent upon it for a living. Do you realize that every dollar earned can be traced into five distinct money-drawers of a community before it gets back to the bank from which it was first drawn to fatten a payroll, and therefore it has a tremendous responsibility toward the common prosperity and economics? Cultivate publicity and the community spirit.

"Tell the newspapers about it and let the editor know that. you and he are partners for the city's welfare. Editors are human and honest. The public has brains and it digests what it reads with far greater discrimination than some of us are prone to realize. You can fool all the people some of the time but not when they have the truth from dependable sources. And the public has no more desire to send puppets or crooks to make laws than you have. If it was understood, it would be far less disposed to annoy industry. It is all very well to complacently trust the good judgment of a legislator, assuming that he had any, but if the other fellow persists in getting his side of the case in and backs it up at the polls, there's something for you to do.

"Of all the manufactured products of the country in the year 1914 a matter of $24,250,000,000-almost $10,000,000,000, to be exact 40.7 per cent, came from the processes of labor and brain added to the mere cost of raw materials. To produce it, capital was invested to the value of almost $23,000,000,000, and labor cost in its services to the money value of nearly $500,000,000; a rather fair indication of the mutuality of concern for the prosperity and growth of industry.

"If I were to single out the employer from the employe— though I prefer to charge both alike with the responsibility of the moment I would remind the employer that his best asset is happy, contented help, respectful and loyal to him and to common task. I would seek to impress him with the practical business value of co-operative fellowship.

"Dissatisfied, discontented help is inefficient help. An economy which wounds the spirit of the worker is false economy. I might cite numerous instances to prove that so-called 'welfare work' actually pays- in dollars and cents-not to mention the satisfaction that every employer feels in having good help as his allies. Every man who realizes the value of a good labor market can help make it a better labor market.

"The hardest field for the agitator to organize is the one where employer and employe are on terms of friendship. Don't make the mistake of being 'charitable' (which in the industrial relation is a slap in the face to the dignity of the employe) but be just and practical and kind.

"It can be demonstrated that it pays—in the annual report in the efficiency of the plant and, above all, in the tone of the community. And let me say right here, that I believe 95 per cent of the employers of this country rejoice in paying high wages to their help as much as the help do in receiving it. Cultivate a sense of interest in your helpers and it will go far to inspire a similar feeling in them.

"I would remind the employe that he is blind himself woefully when he sees in his employer and boss nothing but hard-headed authority and inhuman driving power. If a worker feels no partisan pride in his shop, or the fine showing of his organization, it is because he has never been made to feel it, or to realize the spirit of team work.

"It ought to be every man's pride to work for a winning house, a progressive factory, a growing industry. He ought to feel his own duty to make it such. If he succeeds, he ought to be entitled to a fair share of the glory and financial rewards. It is a happy circumstance that prevailing high wages throughout our industrial establishments has been one of the indications of the tremendous period of prosperity which has been