The Connecticut labor news., 1921-08-12
CARMEN CONVENE
 IN. CANADA, REPORT
 300 PER CENT. GAIN
Railway Workers Make Phenomenal Increase Since Last
 Convention.

The I4th general convention of the
 Brotherhood of Railway Carmen of America opened in Toronto, Canada,
 on Monday. Credentials were sent in from approximately 1,5oo delegates coming from as far south as the Pan anna Canal Zone, north to Alaska, and all way points. The Loyal Star, the women's auxiliary to the brother hood, held it's sixth convention at the same time and place, with about 25o delegates in attendance.
 The Carmen meet in general con vention every four years, the last be- ing held at Forth Worth, Texas, in IoI7 In these four years the mem
 bership has increased from 5o,ooo to
 POO ,OoO, or 300 per cent, record per
 haps never achieved by any other la
 Dor organization.
 Of paramount importance to the
 delegates and the entire membership
 is the order of the Railroad Labor
 Board reducing wages and the pend
 ing conferences for negotiating agree
 ments on rules and working con-
 ditions This will be considered and
 acted upon by the convention.
 Other matters will be the purchase
 or erection of home office building
 in Kansas City and the advisability
 of the brotherhood's establishing a
 cooperative national bank along the
 lines of the Engineers bank in Cleve-
 land. A large number of resolutions
 and proposed amendments to the
 laws of the Brotherhood have been
 prepared by individual members and
 lodges and printed in the Carmen's s
 Journal, will be formally considered
 Among those who addressed the
 convention on important subjects
 were Samuel Gompers, president,
 American Federation of Labor; B. M,
 Jewell president, Railway Employees
 Department, A. F. of L.; Warren $.
 Stone, grand chief, Brotherhood of
 Locomotive Engineers; William H.
 Johnson, president, International As
 sociation of Machinists; Edward Heating, manager and editor of La
 Dor, and Glenn E. Plumb, apostle of
 industrial democracy.
 The Brotherhood of Railway Car men was organized at Tope ka, Kan, in September, 1890, two brothers, the leaders in the movement, but the organization was shot to pieces dur ing the A. R. U. strike of 1894, com l ing out of the conflict with only few local lodges holding charters. The real development of the brotherhood i began at the Atlanta convention in 1000, when Martin F. Ryan, a young and aggressive leader, was chosen general president. From then on the brotherhood took a place among the militant labor organizations of the country.
 When Ryan was elected president I2 years ago the brotherhood had a total membership of 17,534, divided 1 among comparatively few scattered lodges. It was $I5o,ooo i'll debt and ] had only $I, 200 in it's treasury. To- l day the brotherhood has I,5o4 local l lodges, POO, ,ooo members, all debts paid, and $2,o68,o53. % in the treasury From non-resistent policy the
 brotherhood has become a fighting
 organization, fghti1\5 for the rights | of it's members. This new policy has decreased the daily hours of labor of it's members from 10, II, and I2 to l eight, and increased their pay enve- 1 lopes on an average 100 per cent. The Brotherhood Railway Carmen ot l America presents one of the best evi- 1 dences of the value of organization to wage workers.