old Evan Pugh and I found ourselves as laborers, we found that the mechanics felt that they were a bit above the haulers, and the hauler's wife had an edge on the wife of the miner, and the clerk's wife at the office had it over the wife of the miner, and so down the line; so that Pugh and myself found ourselves in the very cellar or basement of the whole social structure. It is true that on this one proposition, social levels always follow job levels. And even old Evan Pugh you could just see how he swelled up as we worked there, just like the doctor does when he comes into the sickroom, and everbody says, "Yes, doctor," and "No, doctor." He often would say to me, "Stawnd you not by there! Stawnd you quick by 'ere! For if it fall by 'ere, it 'ave to bounce by there!" And I would obey him with alacrity. Just as the fireman said to me one night when he was explaining the whole thing as we sat in a group, "Yusterday the oonder-manager do come to me and sye to me, 'Pugh, that been a good job!' And I do sye to 'im, 'In forty-three year I been in this pit; in forty-three year thot do be the first time thot any mon do sye to me, 'Pugh, thot been a good job."" And another man took it up and said, "Oh, aye. Oh, aye, thot been it; look you. Every man do know that for a kindly word a mon will work 'is guts out. But every mon do know thot no dog be'ave well for a mon with a w'ip. Awnd ev'ry mon o' feelin' and sensibility do know thot for 'im the w'ip o' the tongue and the lash o' the lip been worse nor any w'ip on any dog."

I have in mind one old fellow that knew that he was slipping, because every day the foreman would give him an easier job, and in the evening when I would meet him at the bar, he would say to me what a wonderful career he had had and tell me about this job, and how he had done things up on that job. I said, "Well, how much do you like to drink?" He drew himself up and said, "Oh, I just like to drink enough to get the feeling of my old position back, like, you know."

I say that there are thousands and thousands of men drinking today because they do not get the chance to keep their self-respect on the job. I see no hope of ever making the Volstead Act and the Eighteenth Amendment stick until we get back to the source of men's troubles and put working conditions and living conditions where they should be. I have in mind the story of the carpenter. He was working every day in the aeroplane factory, and every day while he was there, the management had made it possible for him to have the feeling that he was helping to make this aeroplane a completed thing, whether it ever saw the western front or not. Every man in a situation should be made to feel that way, and there are thousands and thousands of men in this country who have never seen the completed machines, although they have been making the parts of them for years. And that is a tragedy. This carpenter went down to Long Island, and there on the drill grounds for three weeks helped with whatever was to be done, but he got dissatisfied and came back. His friends guyed him and said, "Oh, you got fired, because you would not leave a fine job like that, with more money and less work, unless you got fired." And of course he would not if all that honor means is in the pay envelope. But this carpenter said, "No, I didn't get fired. What do you think them guys had the nerve to ask me to do? They wanted me to spend two weeks of my time, and my ability, and my tools that I have been collecting all my life, and take all them things, and pack together some rough boards into a room over in the park, and then they would get one of their big cannon, going fourteen miles a minute, and blow the whole damn thing to pieces. They don't want to try to make a monkey out of me."

We make a tremendous mistake when we say that these men are skilled workers, because I say every man clear down to the very bottom of our whole industrial structure is trying to justify himself as a man by what he does, and I have the exact wording of the secretary of the International Hoboes' Union on this point. Before I talked to the secretary of the International Hoboes' Union, it was always my understanding that a hobo and a tramp were the same thing; but he said, "You don't suppose I would be a tramp, do you? Do you realize this country of ours could not get along without us hoboes? Do you suppose Minnesota could afford to pay men to stick around all summer because it needs them in the winter for the lumber, or do you suppose that Oklahoma could afford to keep us around all winter because it needs us for the harvesting in the fall? We are migratory workers who go from place to place, and we don't believe in spending money recklessly on railroad fares." He said, "A tramp is a man who walks from job to job because he don't give a rap whether he ever gets there or not, and nobody else does. If you give him a job he will take it periodically and pass on." "But don't ever make the mistake of letting a tramp see that you do not know the difference between him and a bum, because," he said, "Good Lord, a tramp is miles above a bum, because a bum is a man who neither rides, nor walks nor works."

I wonder how many of you know or appreciate that even under normal conditions, one-fifth of the time of the average worker is spent in unemployment. The average man wants to hold a job because he takes more pride in that than he does in eating his daily bread.

Some of you may ask if I think that capital is to blame, and others of you may ask if I think that labor is to blame. What I can say is that we are all to blame, and it is about time we stopped the system of trying to pass the buck to the other fellow. I would like to say to social workers particularly, that there is a tremendous connection between men's minds and men's bodies, and that you cannot possibly move men forward to the place where you would like to see them so long as you overlook this fact and consider that it is none of your business what the men are doing there on their job. It is there men have to meet conditions, there is where men have to meet complications, and there is where men have to meet the exigencies of modern life, because the conditions of their living are very largely the result of conditions which they must meet on the job. No one can make better men except as they see the necessity of helping toward making better jobs. We must see that they are given a larger amount of respectability; and particularly is this true of the younger workers, and then for the older workers we must try to increase the amount of security there on the job. The laboring man must have a larger measure of opportunity and a larger measure of security. Those are the things he is after in industry.

Those seem to me to be very vital things, and things which ought to touch our hearts as social workers. I think we must have a better understanding in some way in our minds and show the worker that we have sympathy in our hearts; and I am afraid perhaps the only way we can get that larger understanding and wider sympathy is to realize that the world today is in danger. Last summer when old John and I were going down to work, our friends that should have been working were singing valiantly about the beauties of the red flag of revolution; and when men do that, there is danger. And when we got down under the earth with our lamps, when we got down to the bottom and were walking up and down a hole through the darkness, we would come

to a certain place where old John would motion to the roof and put his finger to his lips, meaning that the roof was in such dangerous condition that the sound of the human voice might bring the whole place down upon our ears. As they sang about the beauties of the red flag of revolution, little slivers of slate came down upon our own heads and shoulders, and I could not help but wonder whether Great Britian would be able to stand the tremendous strain to which it was being put-and, believe me, it is being put to an enormously greater strain now. I feel sure of this: If the roof of Great Britain ever cracks and gives under that strain, then the roof of America is in danger. It is a time of danger; and just because it is a time of danger, it seems to me tremendously important that we should realize that we do not get anywhere by saying to capital, "It is all your fault," or by saying to labor, "It is all your fault," or by capital or labor telling each other that it is the fault of the other. The public, of course says, "It is not our fault at all; it is just capital and labor." But I think every one of us is trying to duck the proposition of tackling the job of trying to give a larger measure of understanding and good will toward the other fellow.

You go down into the coal mining districts for a few days and see the men standing around idly; finally the great whistle gives one, two, three blasts; and before the echoes have died the men are saying, "Thank God, work tomorrow!" Because today in this country, even under normal and good conditions, men cannot possibly work full time. I could tell you of countless experiences of men in those regions, men who do not talk English perhaps, men who know what it means not to be able to hear that whistle blow. When they bear the whistle that tells them there will be no work tomorrow, knowing that they have their wives and families and their little children to take care of, they run their hands through their hair, and they say, "My God, what can I do? How can I live? No work, no work tomorrow!"

What these men want is regularity of employment, not unemployment or less employment. They say that if every man in the country should mine five days a week and six hours a day, they could produce not only as much coal as they produce now, but 35 per cent more. I have in mind a man who made an appeal from the very bottom of his heart, when he said, "For nine year I work in this country, all the time same place, all the time same job. Six months ago come no work, have no job. Every day go down plant, want job, and no job come. Wife sick; flu; doctor say she no can live; baby come; baby die; wife she going die; hospital she cost $40 a week; I got $1; no work here; make only $3 a week; I no can pay."

We ought to be ashamed of ourselves if we tried to get out of solving a problem of this sort. I remember one man on the London docks who said, "Wul, I'll sye this to yer. If 'arf of us wuz dogs 'twould be a better world than 'tis now, cuz dogs is true and men eyent." Their problems are our problems, and if we want to solve them and help the worker, we must go hand in hand with him, because his fight is ours, his God is our God, his danger is our danger, his roof is our roof.

In conclusion, the thought I desire to leave with you is this: that if we can, somehow or other, get a little more understanding, have a little clearer and cooler head, and a little warmer heart in our attitude toward the workman, then we will find in him a tremendous wealth of co-operation.

ORGANIZING IMMIGRANT AND UNSKILLED LABOR

Sidney Hillman, President, Amalgamated Clothing Workers of America,
New York City

When the subject-matter of “Organizing Immigrant Workers" was assigned to me for discussion nearly a year ago, I felt rather ambitious to appear before you here tonight. The wisdom of Congress has since solved that problem. There are no more immigrants to come. It is true that the 3 per cent proportion may be as effective in solving the problem of immigration as the 2.75 per cent was effective in other legislation, but at least we have solved the problem for a few days. Those among organized labor, who have been praying for this kind of legislation are definitely assured that now there will be a job for everyone who seeks a job; that now there will be no more immigration. There is a grave danger, in my judgment, when remedies like these are proposed to solve problems that are confronting us and will continue to confront us unless we go deeply into the causes, boldly examine them, and then courageously try to find a solution. The easiest method for solving a problem is by giving it a name, and then finding fault with it. Everything that we do not like is the fault of the foreigners; it is the work of paid agents of the Bolsheviki.

The trouble with the leaders of organized labor is just that. I said once that if one or two or three men can make hundreds of thousands of people leave their jobs, there is something wrong with those jobs. Whether it is Foster or Gompers or any other man, there are no individuals with sufficient power to create those upheavals, if conditions do not exist, responsible for them. While there may be a question as to what in particular is bothering labor, what is on the mind and in the heart of labor, I think that one thing is definitely established: that labor refuses to go on under the present established rules of the game, and whether we like it or not is not of the greatest importance. After all, the function of industry is production. Some people have to do the work of the world. If labor refuses to go on with its function, and industry stops, it is idle and foolish to try to solve the problem by calling this or the other group "foreigners," "Bolsheviki," or what not. I feel that in the great struggle going on, none of us can afford to stand idly by. Too much is at stake. At times one feels that the very foundation of civilization is at stake, and it is the duty of everyone to examine the different proposals, and then help formulate a healthy public opinion, so that the proper courses of action may be followed.

Just a short while ago we had a tremendous struggle in the steel mills, and for some reason or other, most of the newspapers formulated public opinion. The public was brought to the help of the man controlling the destinies of the men and women in the mills. The critic found the twelve-hour day, and its evils responsible for the helplessness and hopelessness of the workers of the mills; I feel that the public has just as great a responsibility for the continuation of the twelve-hour day in the mills as have those who are in charge of the policies of the United States Steel Corporation.

And so I shall try, not to make a plea for organization, but to bring to you briefly some facts, that may be helpful to you in coming to a decision. We all know that evils exist. I believe especially you who come in daily contact with the housing problem and the undernourishment and other kinds of things all know that those things are ill. The question then is, by what means can we escape? I believe the facts brought out in the industry with which I have had the privilege to be connected and whose

men and women, organized and working in the industry I have the privilege to represent, are of the utmost importance.

The clothing industry has been known as the sweat-shop industry. The statistics gathered by the Labor Bureau for the year 1914 show that ten thousand women in the clothing industry at that time, when at work every day in the week, from fifty-two hours upward, were making less than $5.00 a week. If you take into consideration the fact that the clothing industry, like many other industries, was highly seasonal, and that eight months a year in some markets was a fairly reasonable period of work, you have the picture before you. I do not believe that we have to go very far to draw our conclusions. Ten thousand women making on the average throughout the year a little over $3.00 a week! With all the legislation, with all the investigations, we always found that the conditions remained about the same. These were conditions right at the bottom of the ditch. They could not go much below, because they had struck bottom. And there you have the question of hours of work, of housing conditions, of health, and of good education and citizenship.

I heard that one of our Senators in an investigation in the city of Pittsburgh was very much outraged against the lack of appreciation in this country of its institutions, when the worker, after slaving for twelve hours a day, did not go and find somewhere a night school after twelve o'clock midnight. You also understand that this status of the worker is completely dependent on this set formation, and at times comes very near the status of slavery.

Today the clothing industry is go per cent organized. Our last records show a total membership for our organization of 177,000 men and women in the men's clothing industry. The hours of work have been shortened to the eight-hour day, and half a holiday on Saturday. We have the forty-four hour week throughout the country. The status has been raised to a level where it at least permits the worker to earn a living wage while at work. The rule of equal distribution of work, so the workers know when there is work that they will all participate in it equally as little as there is, is recognized throughout the industry. And what is to my mind most important is that the workers through their organization have received a recognition in industry which approaches the status of citizenship in industry. I don't care how good jobs may be. While it is well that the jobs should be as good as they can be possibly made, no matter how high the compensation, how short the hours, I am convinced that labor will never accept a condition in industry less than citizenship.

Labor is a large part of industry. Labor has responsibility in industry. Because of that it demands, and rightly so, that with this responsibility, there be also rights, undeniable rights that cannot be taken away by the will and whim of the employer, rights that must be guaranteed by the power of an organization, and not left to depend on the good will of the employer. We have established in our industry what we call governmental agencies, government in industry. We do not claim that we have invented something new. We simply are trying to bring into our industry those institutions that have worked so well in our political life, institutions that even employers, who still hope to hold labor in subjection profess to believe in. We simply say if those institutions are good in political life, by all means let us bring them into industrial life as well. And so we brought in that legislation through joint conferences between the employers and the workers, and we have established executive branches to bring the legislation into life. We have established a permanent forum of every-day arbitra