sure us happiness and prosperity. The man who is influenced to use his ballot for evil, or will sell it for money or whisky, should be disfranchised along with the one who attempts even to do such a thing. It is a known fact that money and drink is used to influence voters on election day. Such work should not be allowed. Labor organizations have done much to procure a pure ballot. There is still much to be done to entirely free it from evil doers.

I don't care for the threats or intimidations of the Manufacturers' Association, or anyone else as far as that goes, in their opposing organized labor in securing labor legislation. I know they have the money and that they will use it in every way possible trying to defeat the aims and objects of labor organizations. It has been done before and will be done again. They will stoop to do the dirtiest kind of work; that is their record. I can remember when workingmen were voted at the polls like so many slaves. It has not been so very long ago when if you expressed your honest opinion politically, too freely, you were liable to be called up and silenced, and be told if you expected to hold your place you had better keep very quiet. If we are free agents and have a right to choose between parties, why should we be silenced when we express an honest opinion politically?

Let us parties Now is It is

It seems to me that this matter has gone far enough. Let us stop it, and at once. Let us be free and independent, and vote to our own interest. Let us not be slaves to any party that was ever organized by politicians. He who is against us, is not for us, that is sure. now vote for the man. It is not that make labor laws, but men. the right time to make the start. now about eighteen months until we again elect law-makers. I will make my declaration of principles. How many will follow, union and non-union men? I will publically announce that I will vote for no man for the State Legislature of my State, or the National House of Representatives, who will not pledge himself to vote and work for such labor laws as shall be demanded by organized labor, and further, that there shall be arrangements made whereby the unions shall be notified as to what was done, so the membership at large may be made cognizant of it.

The threat has been made that in the future labor legislation is to go down in defeat. Let us see if such will be the case. We have the votes and the Parry outfit have the money. If we use good

judgment these people will not be able to use any money. Let us get down to business at once. How many will respond to this article? The columns of the magazines are open to all who care to discuss this question.

To vote for the man who will do his duty to both capital and labor, will beat striking at any time. Parry fears voting far more than he does striking on the part of laboring man. When you strike, your wages stop and there is a likelihood of the strike being lost, but when you vote you do that without any fear of loss of position if you belong to organized labor. We have the Australian system of voting in nearly every State now. All you have to do is to watch for reprobates at the polls and see that there is no crooked work done. Warn all that if any one is found tampering with the ballot it will not be well for them. If money or drink is used to influence voters, let the severest penalty be applied to all guilty persons alike. To use questionable means to get votes is just as bad as to break open a ballot box and change the vote on a ballot. All we have to do is to stand together as one man and we will win. If you do not take an active part in this coming campaign and see that good honest men are elected to office (both State and National) don't howl any more about not getting what you claim is coming to you. What will you do? I have made up my mind what I am going to do, and if I am alone in this thing I can say ever afterwards that I did my duty as I thought best in the interest of myself and my fellowman. I have no fight to make against anyone as far as I am concerned. I like to see wealth and see the same placed where it can be reached by those who wish to toil for wages. I want all laborers to get well paid for what they do.

If Mr. Parry and his six-hundred are spoiling for a fight, I am one who is willing that he shall have a run for his money. I believe this man to be a blatant jackass, and that his followers are not legion, as he tries to make believe. Let us take the braggart down a peg or two. I am well acquainted with many wealthy men who treat their employes with fairness and never bother them as to what they may belong. Such men deserve to prosper; they are giants in this world of ours, and the world is much better off by them having lived. Men like Parry and his kind come and go, and the people remember them only for the bad smell they left behind. After years have come and

gone Parry and his men will be forgotten. Labor and capital will be found working hand in hand; there will be no great chasm between them. Eight hours will be a day's work and wages will be good. Children under fifteen years of age will be in school and will be debarred from the labor field. Their cheeks will glow with the brightness of the sun. Women who toil will get equal pay with men for the same work. The hell-hole saloon will have vanished, and there will be no tempt ing games of chance to get the hardearned dollars of men who toil.

The laws of the land will be in the interest of the masses and not the few, and happiness will be supreme in the land. CHAS. W. MAIER.

Labor as a Commodity.

The question of whether or not labor is a commodity is often argued pro and con, but on the whole it is safe to class it as a commodity surrounded by peculiar conditions. These peculiar conditions are the brain which directs the energy of the laborer and his physical welfare, and the bodily, mental and moral welfare of his family. With any other commodity there is nothing involved as to the welfare of the commodity itself. With man the entire reverse is true. Many millions of men have naught to sell but their labor, and the price for which they can sell it, and the conditions under which they can labor, means everything to them and theirs. Men who labor early found it to their advantage to band together to increase the price of labor, and in England some of the first steps in unionism were taken. That country had long held the laborer inferior, and for centuries there had been serfdom, with the metal collar about the neck of the serf as a mark of his slavery. Therefore, when men commenced to organize for their mutual benefit the law laid its hand on them heavily, with the approval of the best citizens, and for a time the labor movement was stayed in its progress, but only for a short time.

In this country there was much opposition, and business men banded themselves together in different cities to fight the "pernicious labor unions," but the effect of their efforts has long since died and passed into oblivion, just as the efforts of the men who today oppose labor unions will pass and in a short time be unnoticed and forgotten in the great forward advance of the labor movement.

After the Civil War everything was in a more or less chaotic state in labor matters in the United States, and gradually as industry resumed sway and conditions became settled it was evident to thinking workingmen who looked into the future, that they must work for the unity of the working people, and that laboring men must get together if they hoped to hold their own with the steadily increasing demands made on them. The agitation commenced, and while sometimes it may have seemed over radical, or the methods employed not of the best, yet the result has been one of great good in putting into the hands of millions of men better wages and giving them better conditions to labor under, and in starting many others on the same road to success. This has been accomplished despite the open hostility of the employer, often of the law, and often of a portion of labor itself and the apathy of others until the fact is recognized, even by its enemies, that organized labor is here to stay, that it is built upon too firm a foundation to be destroyed, and that the better method is to treat with it somewhere near on the bounds of fairness. This is as it should be. The man who labors is a man. He has a man's loves, hopes, aspirations and desires, limited to a certain degree by his circumstances, but they are equally his as they are attributes of the man who is his employer. The employer buys all the other commodities necessary to conduct his business and it still lies idle until he buys the commodity labor, and with it obtains the intelligence that directs the employment of his other business commodities so that his business yields a profit.

The intention and effort of organized labor has been to develop the intelligence of its members and make them as a whole more valuable to the employer, and also while developing the mental side to develop the moral side as well. From the adverse conditions under which trades unions have been built up they have been compelled to use every means to show that trades unions were a step in advance in the bettermen of men, and better and more moral workmen has been the outcome. Education has been of great benefit to the organization of laboring men. Men studied their conditions, saw wherein they could be bettered, and presented these facts so clearly that many times they gained what they asked for without trouble; but often the strike had to be resorted to to gain a point, and sometimes that, too, failed.

Where the employer has no organization to contend with, the fact that labor is a commodity is pretty well emphasized. His employes work very cheap. The welfare of the man or his family does not enter into the employer's consideration. "I can get this man for 90 cents or $1 per day; why should I pay him more?" is the self-satisfying thought. "He is worth $5 a day to me; I had ought to pay him $2, but if I can get $4 profit off his labor instead of $3, that is so much the better for me," thinks the employer, and as he reasons he acts, and the non-union man is helpless. What can he do alone?

The aim of trades unions has been to establish a wage for a reasonable day's labor that shall be sufficient to support a man and his family respectably. If a man can not earn enough to do this, and if he has children, the probability is that they will be forced into the struggle for bread before they are well started at school, and they are liable to grow up to manhood and womanhood stunted physically, mentally and morally. Under an equitable adjustment of the earnings of their natural protector with his employer these dwarfed attributes would never have become a part of their personality. Trades unions do not desire a radical overturning of things, nor the annihilation of the employing class. They recognize the fact that the employer has existed and must exist as long as labor. They desire three reasonable things: Hours of labor; rules governing their labor; and wages for their labor. They base their demands for these on justness and fairness, and the employer who meets them on this common ground will have no trouble in effecting a settlement of anything that may arise between him and his employes.

At the present time trades unions and employers are moving along a common line of better understanding. There is a mutual desire to settle difficulties that arise without a strike. Arbitration and conciliation are gaining ground. Arbitration by mutual consent of both parties concerned directly in a labor dispute is growing rapidly in general favor. No one wants the compulsory form of arbitration. One often wonders why, and the conclusion naturally comes that justice so often goes astray that everyone concerned is fearful that if compulsory arbitration became established as a part of our present legal system complaint would become chronic.

W. L. FRENCH.

Class War in California.

For the first time in the history of Southern California, which is filled with union-haters, organized labor will participate in the annual floral parade in Los Angeles, which will be given on May 8th, during the visit of President Roosevelt. H. G. Otis, editor of the notorious scab Los Angeles Times, has resorted to every means at his command to prevent this recognition of the unions, but the citizens in charge of the reception to the President refused to be browbeaten by Otis. He has been turned down completely, and as a last resort he is attempting to discredit the unions by publishing each day outrageous lies about the unions' "intentions" to do this and do that while the President is here. But the more Otis howls the more he calls attention to the fact that he has been ignored.

It is safe to say that there is not another newspaper in the United States that so persistently misrepresents organized labor. Otis is exceedingly underhanded in his opposition, his favorite method being to give prominence in his paper to every labor dispute, and in every instance to claim that the unions are in the wrong. The Times especially commended the recent speech of Parry, and has denounced John Mitchell as an anarchist. In its eyes Baer is a martyr.

If every reader of the Magazine would write letters to the following advertisers in the notorious scab Los Angeles Times, asking that they withdraw, and withhold further patronage until they do so, much good would be accomplished:

"Cuticura"-Potter Drug and Chemical Corporation, Boston, Mass.

"Force"-The Force Food Co., Buffalo, N. Y.

"H. O."-Hornby Oatmeal Co., Buffalo, N. Y.

"Postum"-Postum Cereal Co., Battle Creek, Mich.

"Peruna"-Peruna Medical Co., Columbus, Ohio.

Wilson Whisky-Wilson Distilling Co., 100 Broadway, New York, N. Y.

Lydia E. Pinkham Medicine Co., Lynn, Mass.

"Tutt's Liver Pills"-Tutt's Mfg. Co., New York, N. Y.

"Scott's' Emulsion"-Scott & Bowne, 409 Pearl St., New York, N. Y. Wright's Indian Vegetable Pill Co., New York, N. Y.

-Correspondent.

Board and Chairman of same, which will represent the system or division upon which they are employed. See Section 222 of the Constitution.

One Candidate.-Where but one candidate has been nominated for a particular office, the provisions of Section 149 shall govern, and which are as follows:

"Section 149. One Candidate. If there be but one candidate for an office, the Master shall declare him elected."

Annual Reports.-Do not forget the importance of Section 135 and see to it that your lodge will not be delinquent on July 20th for annual reports. On June 1, 1903, the blanks will be forwarded by the Grand Secretary and Treasurer and we urge the officers whose duties require them to give attention to these blanks to be prompt in filling out that part which relates to their office. A penalty is provided for all those who fail to comply with the law. See Section 136. We do not wish to enforce this penalty on any lodge, but if these reports are not in on July 20th we shall be required to do so. Quite a number of lodges have failed to attend to this duty heretofore. Let there be a change and every lodge send in its report promptly.

Official Ballot.-Accompanying this circular is a sample of the official ballot, a similar one to be used in all lodges. Please see that each member receives a ballot, as no vote is legal except it is received upon the official ballot, signed by the member casting said ballot, and bear ing the official signature of the Secretary of the lodge, with the seal of the lodge attached.

We would recommend that the Masters of all lodges instruct their Secretaries to read at all meetings of the lodge, prior to the election of officers, Section 144 of the constitution, so that the members will become thoroughly familiar with the requirements of the law.

Secretaries will affix their official signature and the seal of the lodge to all ballots before they are delivered to the members.

Lodges will understand that the enclosed sample ballot is merely sent as a guide in preparing the election ballots for distribution among the members, and that the Grand Lodge can not send more than one to each lodge. The ballots can be printed, typewritten or pen-written, as the lodge may decide. Do not send to the Grand Lodge for ballots for your members. We can not furnish them.

Delegate. At the last annual meeting

it was required that a Delegate and an Alternate Delegate to the Grand Lodge be elected. Remember that this year it is not required. Section 146 provides that the candidates for Delegate and Alternate Delegate to the Grand Lodge shall be nominated at the meeting held in the same year that the Biennial Convention meets. There being no convention in 1903, no candidates for this office shall be nominated this year.

Unpaid Bills.-Let every lodge be square with the Grand Lodge on June 30, 1903. If you receive a bill for supplies due before June 30, do not fail to have an order drawn upon the Treasurer and the amount remitted with the last returns for the quarter, so as to be credited before the close of the fiscal year. We wish to begin the new year with all lodges in good standing with the Grand Lodge and no outstanding bills. A statement was sent to all lodges on April 1st of their indebtedness.

Filing Applications for Beneficiary Certificates. In quite a number of cases applications for beneficiary certificates have been received by the Grand Secretary and Treasurer which do not indicate from whom they came or the amount of certificate desired. In filing applications the Secretaries will kindly see that the form on the inside and on the back of the application is properly filled out in all blank spaces, including date of initiation, so that when the application is received there will be no trouble in ascertaining from whom the application came and to whom the beneficiary certificate, after the application has been duly approved, shall be forwarded. If a dispensation is requested under the provision of Section 204, then let the request and medical certificate be mailed direct to the Grand Master. Applications for new members will be sent to the Grand Secretary and Treasurer.

Irregular Remittances.-Quite a number of lodges do not yet seem to understand the law governing remittances to the Grand Lodge, to which we called attention in our Official Circular No. 8. Section 155 of the Constitution requires that all moneys due the Grand Lodge must be remitted by the Treasurer. Almost daily we are in receipt of small remittances from Secretaries and other officers for supplies, grand dues, and for other purposes, which can not be receipted for, and which must either be returned, or held until we receive the regular monthly returns from the Treasurer. This