The labor journal. [volume] (Everett, Wash.) 1909-1976, 1914-01-23
THIRTEENTH ANNUAL CONVENTION
SHOWS LABOR WELL ORGANIZED
MARSH IN MASTE RFUL ADDRESS TREATS ON
WELFARE COMMISSION IMMIGRATION AND OTHER VI
tai LABOR SUBJECTS-AIMs DEATH BLOW AT EN-
PLOYMENT AGENCY SHARKS.
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ka there were $4,000 applicants. The
bulk of our foreign immigration arriv-
ing today is not going onto the land,
put into industry and is working under
brutal, lnhuman industrial conditions,
worse than those surrounding chattel
slavery. In all our industrial history
no more brutal labor conditions than
surround the workers in the copper
mines of Michigan have existed. Sew
enty-five per cent of the men engaged
in the copper mining industry in Mich
lgan are foreign born. Ignorant of
our customs, our language, our mode
OF life, our newly arrived foreign i'm
migrant submits to such industrial
brutality because he can see no way
out. He has not the means to reach
the land. When at last he turns on
the employer like a tiger at bay he
buys better conditions at a cost no
man should be compelled to pay Law
renee, Paterson, West Virginia, Michi-
gan, Colorado are bloody, terrible ex-
amples of the price he pays.
brothers Case, Bolton, Dowler.
Young and myself obtained interviews
with both Secretary Wilson and Com
missioner-General of immigration Cam
inetti when those gentlemen visited
Seattle. The vital importance of
strengthening the service upon the
Canadian border and the need for bet
ter quarters and more efficient opera
ton of the Seattle office was dwelt
upon by US Both officials gave us
courteous, attentive hearing, and as
sured us that the department of la
Dor would do its utmost to give the
| n
Henry M. White, former state sena-
tor from WhatcOm county, has been
appointed immigration commissioner
OF Seattle. | believe Mr.. White is
earnest and sincere in his desire to
make his department effective, and
that he knows we'll the menace to la
Dor of the northwest of an unrestrict-
ed policy of immigration. | bespeak
for him the cooperation of organized
! labor in this state to the end that i'm
migration laws shall be enforced to
the letter. 1t goes without saying that
the elements of our citizenship that
hopes to profit from abundance of
cheap labor will render him no assist
ance, but on the contrary, will place
obstacles in his path. 1t is for those
of us who realize the danger to indus
trial and social conditions in a flood
ed labor market to hold up the hands
of those entrusted with the care of
doing sentry duty upon our Canadian
border and in our ports of entry. Il Il
Elect Labor Men to Legislature.
knowing what special interests
have for years dominated legislation
in our state capital, it is matter of
wonder to me that we have been able
to secure the number of labor laws
that grace our statute books. | am
constrained to believe that our task
would be much easier could we learn
to elect men to the legislature who
have borne in their own person the
burdens of labor and have gained first
hand knowledge of the labor move
ment through association in the union
ranks. The most sincere friend of
labor cannot know labor's needs and
wants half so well as he who bears
the scars of industrial battle.
yielding to none in my apprecia-
ton of the need for the enactment of
legislation to protect the lives, morals
and health of the workers, | contend
it to be as much the duty of our State
Federation, as much it's mission, to
build up our movement on the indus
trial field, as it is to work for labor
legislation. For after all it is the ag-
gressive, strongly knit organizations
of labor that give to legislation once
secured its vitalizing force. All the
laws ever written will be valueless
without strong industrial organizations
to give them life and meaning. +
Joint Legislative League.
For several years the organized
farmers and the trade unionists have
had their representatives at Olympia,
working in their behalf for legislation.
But there was no coordination of eff
4 fort until the session of 1911. During
the early part of that session repre-
sentatives of both forces made the
discovery that the measures for which
both forces were contending were sub
| jects of mutual concern. An alliance
of forces was the inevitable result and
throughout the session then in pro-
Il gress, both worked in perfect accord.
Later in the year representatives of
four organizations were called into
conference at North Yakima.
Your entire executive board met with
representatives of the farmers organi-
cations and representatives of the Di-
rect Legislation league and went thor
oughly into the situation. 1t was the
prevailing sentiment that we ought to
try the new weapon placed in our
hands at the earliest opportunity. We
all knew that Direct Legislation had
finally passed, not because of any love
for that principle upon the part OF
the interests that dominated legisla
tive halls, but. because the voice of the
people would no longer be denied
Failure to use that weapon at the
earliest possible moment, would indi
cate an apathy on our part-as chile
will cry for new toy and then dis
card it-and furnish a preteXt to the
opposition to discredit the principle
for which we had so long been con
tending. We felt further that it wal
inadvisable to load ourselves with too
, heavy a legislative program upon thu
D first test of the new law.
Agreeing upon these premises, thu
question turned upon the matters t.
\ be initiated. 1t was agreed that tn
Cranpa EarmarS' uniOn and Fedora