Denver labor bulletin., 1917-09-15
SIX MONTHS OF WAR HAS
WROUGHT CHANGE IN
PUBLIC OPINION.
Ideas Hitherto Tabooed Are COM
ing Into Popularity; Refusal
of Mining Corporations to
Treat With Unions
Creates Trouble.
BY LAURENCE TODD
Especial Representative The Denver Labor
Bulletin.)

Especial Representative The Denver Labor
BuIletin.)
WASHINGTON, Sept. 1O.-Govern-
ment control and operation of all in
dustries in which the private employ
ers fail to come to a harmonious un-
derstanding with organized labor is
one OF the outstanding proposals in
the program adopted at Minneapolis
by the American Alliance for Labor
and Democracy.
Another important demand is that
for direct representation of organized
labor in all Of the boards and commit
tees and effective subdivisions of au-
thority in the management of the in
dustries and Of the war and peace poll
cies of the nation.
While the Alliance is unofficial. so
far as the labor movement is con-
cerned, its program viii doubtless be
brought to the Buffalo convention of
the American Federation of Labor
for Endorsement there. Government
operation of the great industries, and
democratic representation of labor in
their management, are doctrines which
thus far have had only the minority
backing. 1t is possible-indeed. it is
robable-that this year they will be
adopted with scarcely a dissenting
vote So far has six months of war
brought the public opinion of Ameri-
can wage workers around.
May Control Copper Mines.
One of the immediate results of the
showing of American loyalty made by
Mr.. Gompers and his associates at
Minneapolis may be the strengthening
of the inclination of President Wilson
TO take hold of the copper mining
tangle and straighten it out. Both in
Arizona and in Montana the issue is
the companies against unionism. In
both cases the presence of a few o.
the l. W. W, due TO aggressions by
the companies. was made the pretext
for claim that the l. w. W. had
caused the strikes and were running
them. The sincerity of this charge
may be tested by the fact that in
Arizona all union men are being de-
ported by the loyalty leagues, while
in Montana the Anaconda Copper Min
ing company refuses 10 deal with any
union under any conditions, and to
abolish the '.rustling card" which
guarantees that the applicant for work
is non-union.
Miss Rankin, congresswoman from
Montana, is just back from a visit to
Butte. where 10000 of the striking
copper miners met her at the train,
and 10000 heard her speech of en-
couragement for their fight. She says
that the men will never be beaten
that if some of them get so hungry
that they are forced back into the
mines this winter, they will come out
next spring with a still greater deter
mination to get the union re-estab-
iShed. She says that the miners, to
man, indorse the proposal that the
government must own and operate the
metal mines in order to bring indus
trial peace.
Men are Getting Hungry.
Robert G. Rigg, secretary of the
Globe Miners Union, is visiting locals
of the United Mine Workers in Illi-
nois, this month, asking funds with
which to defend the forty-two mem-
bers of his union who are under arrest
for ''rioting" while legally and peace
fully picketing the Old Dominion mine
at Globe. Meanwhile, 10000 strikers
from the copper mines in Arizona are
getting hungry and need help.
President Wilson has delayed for
some weeks the naming of the commit
tee to visit Arizona and Montana and
report on these strikes. but it is under
stood that he will name the men by
the middle of this month. Their in
vestigation and report Will have much
to do with the determination of the
fate of the mines-their future oper-
alton by private owners or by Uncle
Sam.
Shipyards Men Confer.
J. A. Taylor of Seattle and Port
land. representing the Machinists;
Dan P. McKillip of Seattle, represent
ing the Boilermakers, and George
Sanfarcon of San Francisco, repre-
senting the Carpenters, arrived in
Washington today, September s, as
spokesmen of the crafts employed in
shipyards along the Pacific coast from
San Francisco to Seattle, in the at
tempt to adjust their wage scale and
prevent discrimination against union
membership. They went into confer
ence Saturday afternoon with the ma
tional adjustment board for the ship
yards, consisting of V. Everit Macy,
representing the government; Alfred
J. Berres, secretary of the metal
trades department of the A. F. of L.,
Continued on Page Four)