The Butler County press. [volume] (Hamilton, Ohio) 1900-1946, 1918-05-03
Future Welfare OF Members And
Integrity Of Association Must
Be Protected, Declares Interna-
tional President II. D. Mahon.

ceed in this great contest, moves the
General Executive Board of your AS
soeiation to place squarely before our
membership the responsibilities that
we must share as loyal and devoted
citizens, and as workers in an indus
try that forms a link in the great
chain of war production.
We are not unmindful Of the fact
that the response of our members to
war service, and to the various activi-
ties that go with it, many of whom
have given the fullmeasure of devo-
ton, has been generous, but that we
may continue to be helpful in our
country's extremity, and give the best
that is in us for the consummation of
the great cause for which our people
are contending, we as street and cleo
trio railway workers cannot impress
ourselves too strongly with the neces-
/ sity of reason and tolerance govern
/ ing eur attitude in dealing with the
! problems that are arising from time
4 to time in our occupation, due to the
changing conditions that surround us
A more critical situation has never
confronted the people of our country.
4 War in its most serious aspect is with
US. Perhaps some of US do not rea-
lie its seriousness with that keen
feeling that mas been thrust upon the
families of those who have been count
ed as its toll Whether we do or not
the tragedy of its progress is grad
ually being burned into our fiber, and
/ the sooner our people become quick
ened to a realization of the great re-
sponsibility that devolves upon us,
the more rapid will be the successful
conclusion of the gigantic contest we
are engaged in.
No great good ever came to the
human family without sacrifice. The
struggle our people are involved in
demands sacrifice. All must bear
their share with that resolution and
fortitude out of which all human ad-
yancement has sprung.
Particularly is there a heavy re-
sponsibility upon the forces of indus
try-employer and employe alike
for upon the productive resources of
our country depends the success or
failure of our forces at the front. The
maximum of productivity in war sup
plies must be attained, and the in
dividuals or groups, be they captains
of industry or workers in the ranks,
who fail to be guided by reason and
tolerance in dealing with questions of
difference that may arise, and who
are so oblivious to their country S
crisis as to jeopardize its interests in
the promotion of their own, cannot
expect to maintain the confidence
and respect of people who are fight
ing to rid the world for all time of the
curse of autocratic domination.
We hold it is incumbent with all
factors in industry, both employers
and employees, to bear their share of
the burdens of war with the same
devotion and determination that is
shown by the men who are bearing
the battles brunt, and who stand
ready to give the full measure of sac
rifce in order that the principles we
hold more sacred than life itself may
ha narDatuntad
AS members of the Amalgamated
Association of Street and Electric
Railway Employees of America, and
workers in an occupation that millions
of our fellow workers depend upon for
transportation to and from the vari-
Gus industrial locations where war
necessaries are being produced, it be-
comes our duty to carefully guard our
actions, and to exhaust all the re-
sources of our Association to bring
about adjustment Of differences with