a year for the purpose of financing the new bureau. Narrow indeed would be the view that in taking so considerable a part in this important sphere, the Brewery Workmen are doing no more than they should do. While such criticism would be true enough, it is equally true that the intelligence and thoroughness wherewith they have gone about this work of propaganda deserve our full and hearty recognition. THE QUESTION OF UNION-MADE MACHINERY Since last reporting to you there has been no appreciable change in the status of this vexatious question. The machinery-making firms (with few exceptions) and the metal trades unions are as far from composing their differences as ever. The pity of it is that, while ever ready to help the two parties to come to a reasonable understanding, the brewer-who has had no hand in the origination of their quarrel-is made to suffer, ground, as it were, between the upper and the nether millstone. Baffled as we have been time and again in our efforts to have removed, through one means or another, a condition that is so unfair to the brewer, we have not entirely despaired of its elimination, and hope at some time during the coming twelve months to be in a position to report the successful accomplishment of this task. Pending which we again remind you of the advice given in our report to the past several conventions, which was to the effect that when contracting for machinery, our members should in every case provide for its installation by the respective manufacturers, and that the contract should be so formulated as to stipulate that a substantial portion of the purchase-price shall be paid only after installation has been fully completed. NATIONAL JOINT CONFERENCE BOARD In reporting to you last year, your Committee informed you that, in the person of its chairman, it had proposed to the International Union of United Brewery Workmen the creation of a joint conference board representative of that organization and the United States Brewers' Association. The object being to provide a means whereby both organizations could, through their chosen rep resentatives, get together from time to time and discuss questions of common interest to employers and employees. We explained to you that our proposal had been brought to the attention of the Brewery Workmen's convention, and was by that body referred to their international executive board. While we have yet to learn of the nature of the ultimate disposition of our proposal, we are pleased to find that it has engaged the attention of two other trade unions with which we make contracts, namely, the International Union of Steam and Operating Engineers and the International Brotherhood of Stationary Firemen. The former at its 1914 convention, stated it would be glad to have representation on such joint board, provided our proposal should appeal to the Brewery Workmen; the Firemen, in the person of their international president, Mr. Timothy Healy, have given the proposal their unqualified endorsement. The proposed board is in the lap of the Brewery Workmen. With them rests the decision whether our industry shall take this step forward to the mutual advantage of all concerned. WORKMEN'S COMPENSATION LEGISLATION Having been among the first of employers to recognize the need for providing compensation to workmen injured in the course of their employment, and, in the case of accidents terminating in death, to help the bereaved widows and orphans to provide against want, the employing brewers of the country have cause for gratification as they view the rapid growth of workmen's compensation legislation. The states which have enacted legislation of this kind are: Arizona, California, Colorado, Connecticut, Iowa, Illinois, Indiana, Kansas, Louisiana, Maryland, Maine, Massachusetts, Michigan, Minnesota, Montana, Nebraska, Nevada, New Hampshire, New Jersey, New York, Oklahoma, Ohio, Oregon, Pennsylvania, Rhode Island, Texas, Vermont, West Virginia, Wisconsin, Wyoming, and Washington. Alaska and Hawaii territories also have compensation laws. This enumeration includes practically all of the manufacturing and mining areas of the country; the other states, being almost wholly agricultural on their productive side, appear to have less need for such legislation, unless one takes the view that such laws should apply to farm laborers no less than to industrial workers; but this view appears to be held by comparatively few persons. The significance of the growth of this particular species of social legislation cannot fail to engage the thoughtful attention of all students of the many and difficult problems arising out of our modern life, especially upon its industrial side. Its significance is best appreciated by recalling the violent opposition encountered by early attempts at its realization. Employers fought it; not so much because of lack of social vision as because of ages-old habits due to environment and the sanction of laws bequeathed from that earlier time when, with power machinery yet unknown, workmen in the pursuit of a livelihood incurred less risk to life and limb. All this has changed; employers, from opposing, have come to encourage this legislation-many of them are among its most ardent advocates. That in so short a time—and workmen's compensation laws, it is to be remembered, were unknown in this country six or seven years ago employers should have come so completely to change their point of view, is a phenomenon to be noted as marking the beginning of a radical change of attitude toward industrial legislation in general, not only upon the part of employers but also upon the part of other conservative elements of the citizen body. Here is being conveyed to us the message, that not remote is that day, envisioned by the seers and prophets of old, when men in their relations as such will exalt the human values, and come more fully to appreciate that the welfare of one is the welfare of all. As employers, ours is the pleasure to recall that, in having proposed to our employees a liberal and comprehensive plan of accident-compensation and old-age pensions, some five years ago, we were among the first, as said before, to recognize the imperative necessity of assisting wage-earners to tide over a period of injury and, in case of death, to help provide for the keep of the bereaved and dependent. (The plan was to have been jointly administered, it will be remembered, by our Association and the Brewery Workmen's Union, with the latter bearing one-fourth of the cost, and the employers three-fourths.) The plan, as you know, failed of ratification by its intended beneficiaries, who feared singularly enough that its acceptance would |