much arduous work in conjunction with a committee of the Brewery Workers' organization, a plan was evolved which was considered by the Joint Conference to be well adapted to the conditions existing in our industry. Our Plan attracted attention throughout the land and met with favorable comment from those who had made a study of such subjects. We regret the necessity of report

ing to you that the beneficiaries of the Plan, by a referendum vote, refused to ratify it and that our efforts have therefore, for the present at least, gone for naught.

The causes for this refusal, so far as we could ascertain them from the published expressions of members of the workmen's organization were, firstly, distrust of the motives of the employers, and, secondly, apprehension that successful operation of the Plan would tend to weaken the militant spirit among the workmen, a spirit which many of them deem essential to the achievement of better conditions of employment. The International Union of Brewery Workmen has long ago officially declared its acceptance of the doctrines and teachings of Socialism, and to this we must ascribe its rejection of the Compensation Plan. While this is not the place for discussion of the principles involved, we can but draw the inevitable conclusion that our employees, as a body, refuse to admit an identity or community of interest with the employers and that they are determined to strive for the accomplishment of their aims without regard to justice to the employers.

Such a determination on the part of the employees might well provoke a corresponding attitude of antagonism on the part of the employers, but your committee would strongly deprecate such an outcome. We hope that the numerous employing brewers who had declared their adherence to the plan and the still greater number who awaited only the favorable vote of the employees to announce their participation, and all other members of our Association will continue to maintain their relations with their employees in a spirit of friendliness and good-will and with every consideration for their welfare.

So far as our Association is concerned, your Committee believes that its obligations to the workmen and to society have found ample consideration and that further advances in that direction would be out of place at this time. Let us retain a receptive disposition for any proposition that may emanate from the workmen.

The field work of the committee has been ably looked after

by Mr. Edward A. Moffett, who has visited many cities and assisted many members throughout the country in connection with the framing and consummation of contracts and the adjustment of labor disputes. The cities covered by our field representative include Terre Haute and Evansville, Indiana; Columbus, Ohio; Hartford, Connecticut; Davenport and Dubuque, Iowa; Rock Island, Illinois; Providence, R. I.; Newark, N. J.; Syracuse and Hudson, N. Y.; Atlanta and Macon, Ga.; St. Paul, Minn.; St. Louis and Kansas City, Mo.; and Chattanooga, Tenn.

The work of Mr. Moffett has been a substantial help to the Committee and of great value to our members. There is cause for surprise that we are not called upon more frequently to provide his services.

We have made repeated efforts to obtain data for an exhaustive and official analysis of existing contracts with our employees, but have been balked by reason of the indifference of our members, many of whom have failed to comply with our request to send in copies of their labor contracts for the use of the Committee.

The membership at large has shown itself curiously indifferent to the importance of the Labor question in our industry, and appears to be studiously blind to the ever increasing difficulties arising in connection with the making of contracts and the disposition of labor controversies.

The workmen are constantly, persistently and vigorously striving for higher wages, shorter hours and better working conditions. So far as their demands are just and warranted they should be cheerfully granted, but when they are not justified by existing conditions the employer must display the same resolute firmness in opposing unjust demands.

The strength of the unions in making and maintaining their claims lies in their fidelity to their organization. The identity of the individual is merged in his local union and the local unions submit to the control of the national organization. In this way every controversy, so far as the workmen are concerned, has behind it the influence, the resources, the experience and the wisdom of the central organization. So long as these elements of power are brought into play tempered by respect for justice, we have no fault to find. Every member of your Committee is a firm believer in Collective Bargaining as a fundamental requisite to securing permanent results, just to all concerned. But Collective Bargain

ing degenerates into Collective Coercion when the outcome is simply the success of the stronger side. Collective Bargaining is laudable only when both sides contend on a level as to ability, influence and resourcefulness, and when both sides are actuated by motives of considerateness and justice. For the present the employers lack that readiness to co-operate and to disregard individual benefit in view of the common good which is absolutely essential to ensure satisfactory results in labor controversies. In the distant past the financial returns of the business may possibly have been such as to make the employers indifferent to constant increases in wages and to the insistence by the unions upon restrictive clauses in contracts which no other industry in the land would tolerate. But that aspect of the industry is gone: even in the best of times profits do not rise above a normal return upon investment, and the time seems to have arrived when wages have reached a maximum. Government statistics show that brewery employees are among the highest paid of all workmen. The time seems to be at hand when the employer must resolutely dispute the right of the employee to interfere in the administrative methods and discipline of his business.

We cannot expect the employee, ever intent upon the improvement of his lot, to be the guardian of our rights. We must be our own protector, and that can be only if we act together with cheerful unanimity, oblivious of individual benefit but always watchful and active for the common good.

Your

This is not said in a spirit of hostility to the unions. Committee, claiming to voice your undivided sentiment, proclaims its friendliness to the workmen; its determination to respect their every claim to adequate wages and fair working conditions, and its acknowledgment of their unions as the natural means for securing justice for them. But from occurrences that have taken place in the recent past it would seem that the spirit of "might makes right" is entering the field, and if this is so, it is our obvious duty to make every effort to restore and maintain that balance of efficiency which is essential to just achievement.

With the exception of a few cases alluded to above, labor matters in our industry have progressed satisfactorily and the relations between your Committee and the union leaders of all crafts have been most friendly.

We have consistently declined to take sides in controversies between organized labor and manufacturers with whom we deal, and have succeeded in securing respect for our attitude by the unions.

Our good offices have been invoked on several occasions by the unions of various crafts and have been cheerfully exerted in the direction of industrial peace.

Legislation is pending in many States to secure compensation for workmen injured in industrial accidents. In view of the failure of our own compensation plan, we urge upon our members cordial support of all such measures when based upon sound principles. The files of this Committee contain much literature of great value on this subject, which is at the disposal of the members.

Of greater value than compensation for injuries sustained in industrial accidents is the prevention of avoidable accidents.

It may be safely assumed that one-third of all accidents occurring in manufacturing plants are avoidable, which means that annually thousands of lives and limbs are unnecessarily sacrificed. This Committee is ready to furnish the members suggestions, based upon expert experience, for the safeguarding of machinery and working places. It is surprising how small an outlay of money will suffice to remedy the conditions which contribute most largely to the occurrence of factory accidents.

The members are strongly urged to support actively all proposed legislation in their respective States looking to improvement in factory inspection and the use of safety devices on dangerous machines and tools.

The Committee, knowing the innate readiness of the members to do their whole duty to their employees and to the public, feel that they will cheerfully comply with our request to take this subject of safeguarding machinery into prompt consideration and that the breweries of the country will be models not only of efficiency, cleanliness and sanitation but will also be exemplars of conscientious and painstaking effort to conserve the life, health and comfort of employees.

Respectfully submitted,

LOUIS B. SCHRAM, Chairman.
GEORGE F. GUND.

CHARLES PFAFF.

WILLIAM H. REHM.

LOUIS HEMRICH.

C. W. FEIGENSPAN.

C. NORMAN JONES.

HUGH F. FOX, Secretary.

THE PRESIDENT:-Gentlemen, you have heard the report of the Labor Committee. What is your pleasure?

The report was adopted.

THE PRESIDENT:-Next in order is the Report of the Crop Committee, Mr. Faust, Chairman.

MR. WARNER:-Before you receive that report, Mr. President, I beg leave, on behalf of the brewers of Massachusetts, to invite you to an excursion trip down the Bay. The boat will leave immediately after the executive session here today. Automobiles will be at the door to transport the members of the Convention to the boat. Those delegates who are accompanied by ladies will do the brewers of Massachusetts a favor by registering the ladies of their party and receiving tickets for them, for the purpose of taking a delightful trip around the city in automobiles which will leave this hotel to-morrow morning at nine o'clock, sharp.

THE PRESIDENT:-Mr. Faust, are you now ready to submit your report?

ADDRESS BY MR. FAUST.

MR. FAUST:-The Crop Improvement Committee, Mr. President and gentlemen, has been in existence about one year. We have affiliated ourselves with the Crop Improvement Committee organized by thirty or more Boards of Trade throughout the country. Much has been accomplished in this matter, and to more clearly illustrate what has been done, I would ask the members to go to the Institute of Technology, across the street, where we have an exhibit presided over by Mr. Bert Ball, Secretary of the National Crop Improvement Committee.

We have had the assistance of the United States Agricultural Department and various agricultural colleges, also of merchants and bankers and the railroads, which have given us private demonstration cars, and last, but not least, the press, which has given us much publicity in the work of our committee.

This general crop committee, this national association, is working on all crops. Aside from this work, we are especially working on the improvement and betterment of the crops of barley and hops. This year's Government reports show over two hundred million bushels of barley, forty million more than we had last year; in fact, one hundred million bushels more than we really need, as one hundred million bushels cover the malting requirements.