The Connecticut labor news., 1923-09-15

I feel very deep interest in the question before the convention at the present time. Lest I might forget 1t, I can not allow this moment to pass without taking cognizance of the state ment made by Delegate Rhinlet well enough alone. If that was the policy of the labor movement i1 general we would be where the working people of the United States were fifty years ago. The fact of the matter IS we can not let well enough alone, it won't let us alone.
 It IS true that for quite number of years I haven't worked at the trade of cigar making, but I did work at the life, and during all that time I was a hand workman, and for the last 20 years of working at the trade l work ed at the Spanish system of cigar mak- ing My Personal pride in the trade is really very great.
 l remember working in one of the large shops in New York City, and when we were fairly we'll organized as trade unionism was then understood the question of molds was before the union. In the old Turner Hall in Or chard Street, New York, the members divided as to those who would favor strike against the molds and those who would favor molds And I re- member going with crowd of the boys who voted to strike against the intro duction of the molds if an attempt was made to introduce them. And I re- member the time when, as result of that vote, Conrad Kuhn, president of that organization, came to our shop and said, as he did to other shops: "This ch fri11 -Jo son of us remained in the shop min ulte after. We struck, and 1t was hard struggle we lost and the molds were introduced.
 l am free to say that from that time there came some light to my mind, and 1 realized then for the first time that 1t was absolutely futile for workmen to protest against or go on strike against the introduction of a new machine, a new device or a new tool.
 In the old time when the cotton spinning jenny was introduced and the machine put into the textile plants the men in the industry, outraged at seeing their trade taken away from them, a trade they had to serve several years to acquire, destroyed the machine. Was the machine destroyed? Yes, but was the idea destroyed? No. The blue
 
 chine, and i'll any event the scheme and the plan was in the mind of someone who had burned the midnight oil. The machines in the textile industry became universal III every modern country.
 The conditions of the textile work CTS are not what they ought to be by any means, but were the conditions of old when the men worked by hand, bet ter than those that now prevail? By no means. The hours of labor were from sun up to sun down, and as soon as artificial light was discovered the men and women and children worked from early morning until late at night, until organization took the place among them and reduced their hours of labor from sixteen to twelve to ten, to nine, and in many instances to eight, and their whole condition has improved
 The change in the constitution to which several of the delegates have re- ferred antedates the Cleveland conven- tion by many years. 1 was delegate to the first Cleveland convention and there I had 42 votes, more than all the other delegates to that convention com bined. 1 never used that power of vot- ing in that convention, not on one ques- tion 1t seemed to me that if I could not influence the delegates to accept what l believed, and still am convinced of, l would not overwhelm them by the power of the vote I had a right to cast. It was after a three days struggle in that convention a resolu- tion was adopted that the local union would have a right to recognize and organize the bunch breakers and roll c- I was a hand worker and work ing at my trade.
 Let me disclose what might other wise be a confidential matter You know that all fines imposed by local unions upon members must be approv- ed by the Executive Board. I tell you now right frankly that whenever there was an application for the imposition
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