Evening star., 1923-09-30
LABOR OF u. s. MEETING
CAPITAL ON OWN GROUND
Eventual Control of Industry Held Posi-.
BILE in Rapid Extension of
Banking System.

Company of New York, established
by the Brotherhood of Locomotive
Engineers, with a capital of $1,000
600. The last named bank has leased
! a building at 33d street and 9TH
avenue.
First for New England.
Within the last few days 1t has
been learned that the officials Of
the Brotherhood of Locomtive Engi-
| neers are planning to launch new
bank in Boston. Mass. Unless some
other labor bank is established in
New England at an earlier date,
| this will be sthe first labor bank
opened in that section of the country.
New England, with it's industrial
centers. however, is considered likely
ground for many of these banks
, eventually. Massachusetts,. for ex-
ample, has been fertile field for So
! called credit unions or cooperative
loan societies established by the
| workers. There are eighty-six Of
| these credit unions in the state, with
S7,937 members. and total resources
of $5,021,265
The two capitalist banks in which
substantial interests are held by
| unions are the Empire Trust Com
pany Of New York and the CONNER
cial National Bank of Washington,
D. C. The brotherhood of Locomotive
Engineers owns the interest in the
first, and the International Associa-
In, @f NEa I, tv,tr 81
Mr.. Boeckel points out that already
labor through it's financial organiza-
tions is obtaining control by invest
| ment in various industrial concerns.
Labor's vast resources-in money
are scattered throughout the COM
mercial and savings banks of the
country. are to be found in insurance
! companies investments in many in
dustries: in fact, 1t is pointed out,
many capitalistic institutions, labor's
opponents in the past, have been
financed largely through the money
paid to labor for It's labor.
May Mean End of Strikes.
Hitherto labor has been content to
leave to capital the realm of finance
and ownership of industries. 1t has
used restrictive measures and the
strike to obtain better wages and
working conditions for organized la
Dor. But under the new conditions,
IL the present movement grows, as it
now promises to do. the strike and
OF ~ ho oh
ed to very great extent
Under the changed conditions la
Dor will strive for the control of
credit, and.aff successful, will be in
position to obtain what 1t considers
just.
With one exception the labor banks
so far established are on the Coop
erative plan. The bylaws of the
banks provide for Limitation upon
the dividends that may be paid to
stockholders-from to 10 per cent
and for a division Of earnings in ex-
cess of these amounts with depos-
itors. The average rate Of dividends
paid by national banks of the couri-
try in 1922 was 1859 per cent.
A resolution will be presented to
the American Federation of Labor,
meeting in annual convention in
Portland. Ore, this week, indorsing
the movement for labor banks and
calling upon workers generally to
deposit their money in such banks.
The executive council of the fed
Grafton hitherto has been opposed to
this movement.
There has been a hesitancy on the
part of trade unionists of the old
school to enter into the banking
plans now advanced, fearing that If
unions own incorporated institutions
these may be subject of damage suits
In the event of strikes, etc. But the
Supreme Court of the United States,
in the case of the United Mine Work
ers versus the Coronado Coal Com
pany, laid down rule that labor
unions are sueable whether incorpo-
rated or not. So the force of this ar
gument is lost.