Denver labor bulletin., 1918-01-19
BRITISH MISSION
COMING TOU. s.
Continued from Page One)
even of the peaceful industrial kind

Continued from Page one)
even Of the peaceful industrial kind,
in the allied countries.
A Confidential Message.
But the dispatches coming into
Washington this week from London,
Rome, Amsterdam, Paris, Petrograd,
Geneva, Stockholm-all tell the same
story. Revolution is not merely COM
ing; it has arrived. Germany is
country of hungry mob-demonstra-
tions, or rifle volleys in the city
streets, of grewsome stories of the
death-rate of children. Russia is
country of social revolution half ac-
complished and still gaining in mo-
mentum, from seizure of the bank de-
! posits to wholesale increase of the
free public schools and public owner
ship of all industrial plants. France
is country of industrial weariness
and unrest, and Italy a country of
smoldering fires of industrial revolt.
That is why the English labor
leaders, speaking for the British labor
party, the greatest single political
economic force which has arisen out
side of Russia during this war, are
bringing a confidential message to
America. They agree with the Amer
lean labor officials that an inter-allied
Will De anu
than one at which Germans would be
present. More can be won for labor
inside the allied battle lines than
astride the lines. If an inter-allied
conference is not held, or is not a
success, then no leaders can stop the
breaking out" of a general interna-
tional labor congress. Such con-
gress would be under Bolshevist in
fluence.
Of course the British delegates,
while in this country, will not speak
their minds to hostile public. They
will tell it behind closed doors to the
men whom they came to persuade.
Conference With McAdoo.
Heads of the federated crafts in the
railroad shops will have a conference
with Director General McAdoo this
coming week on the relations which
are to be maintained between the
management and the employees in the
shops under government control. No
other than a harmonious outcome of
the talk is anticipated
On Monday, January IA, these fed
Grated crafts are holding meeting in
Kansas City to vote formally upon
the so-called western standard of
wages and hours for railroad shop
work. The proposed standard is
eight hours and at least So a day. 1t
will first be applied to the western
roads, and then to the northeastern
and finally to the southeastern roads,
until every road in the country has
been forced to adopt the new stand
ard. Three hundred thousand me-
chanics and helpers are involved in
the demand.
One of the reasons why Mr.. McAdoo
ctn tIrhp
put up to him is that there is
scarcity of shopmen on some of the
most important roads. Rolling stock
has been permitted to fall into very
serious condition of disrepair, and at
the same time the force of shopmen
has been reduced by the continued
fight against union men in the shops.
Some experts accuse certain of these
roads with having deliberately run
down their property in order to induce
the interstate commerce commission
to grant the proposed increases in
freight rates Others accuse the
only. In either case, the government
must find more shop mechanics.
Favor Adjustment Board.
President Johnston of the Machin-
lists says that the federated shop crafts
will probably be able to negotiate
some such industrial adjustment board
for the railroad shops as they did
for the shipyards, and that the wage
standards and the limitations of hours
set by such board will remove all
danger from the great increase IN
the number of mechanics to be sup
piled thru the draft exemption boards
or thru voluntary enrolment.
Ten thousand men are wanted by
General Pershing in France for me-
chancal work in shops. Most of them
will get the generous pay of non
commissioned officers. Here again the
wage level goes up by government
action; it is nowhere going down.
Reactionary Senators.
Senator Wadsworth of New York
and Senator Weeks of Massachusetts
attacked Secretary of War Baker, tes-
tifying before their committee Satur-
day, because he had created board
to inspect and approve the shops IN
which soldiers uniforms are made.
The two reactionaries indicated that
the board had "forced employers to
receive union officials" and that the
personnel of the board was too radi-
cal. They saw no sense in trying to
have uniforms made only in sanitary
shops, when there were other shops
that would turn out the garments
faster. That seemed to imply their
endorsement of convict-made and
sweatshop- made uniforms on which a
big war profit would have been taken
by the contractor.
More Trouble in Arizona.
Arizona's copper mines are again
the scene of trouble, as the recent
settlement negotiated by Secretary of
[ ahnr Nilson and his commission has