within one week after written request for arbitration has been made: completion must be had within two weeks thereafter.

The full import of this new development in the industry is best indicated by quoting from one of its provisions, as follows:

Employees shall not cease work, walk out, strike or engage in a shop strike during negotiations for a settlement of differences, while arrangements are being made for conciliation or arbitration, or upon the conclusion and finding of conciliation or arbitration.

Lived up to in the spirit in which it was conceived, as we are hopeful it will be, this comprehensive and yet simple plan wherewith to place beyond the arbitrament of force those petty differences which seem bound to arise from time to time in the relations of employer and employed, means that for at least three years to come neither strikes nor lockouts shall vex the industry in one of its most important centers.

Great credit is due to the St. Louis employers, and no less to their workmen, for having set the industry so fine an example.

CONFERENCES.

Events of more than ordinary importance during the period covered by this report were the two conferences held by members and non-members at St. Louis and New York City, in November and December of last year. As a result these recommendations were adopted:

1st. That the headquarters of the Labor Committee be located in the principal office of the United States Brewers' Association.

2nd. That the policy and methods employed by the committee in the past be continued.

3rd. That the U. S. B. A., in selecting employees to carry on its future work, have in mind the need of the committee for additional adjusters during certain portions of the year and that your committee be authorized to call for and secure additional help for that purpose when necessary, giving preference to employees of the U. S. B. A., whenever available.

4th. That the Labor Committee be empowered to increase its membership and that the by-laws be amended to authorize such increased membership.

5th. That the Labor Committee be authorized to institute a bulletin service on labor matters.

6th. That the funds necessary to carry out these recommendations be provided by the U. S. B. A.

LABOR CONTRACTS.

We conceive it to be of the utmost importance that this convention make some recommendation to our members as to the proper and consistent course for agents to follow when labor contracts are about to expire. In proceeding to discuss with frankness this phase of the relations of agent to the local brewer with whom he competes, we are conscious of no desire to reflect upon a class of men who fill so important a place in the conduct of the industry and who on the whole are worthy of our confidence and esteem. Much of what seems indifference on their part is undoubtedly due to lack of experience or, more likely, to the lack of a common understanding of what considerations should govern them in labor situations such as are here referred to.

Formerly our members considered that by observing the provisions of the Covenant they had done their full duty by such of them as had been subjected to strikes. Our experience of the past two or three years has revealed how inadequate the Covenant is as a means of affording proper safeguard to our members. To covenant that during strikes the trade of the members directly involved shall not be invaded, and to end there, is very often to close the door after the horse is gone.

Our members should have support from the very moment the matter of renewing contracts is broached. The capacity for strategic movement possessed by the average contract committee representing the local union is seldom appreciated until it is too late. Met by the refusal of the local brewers to accede to demands, radical, as sometimes happens, to the point of confiscation, your local union committee immediately sets out to obtain the signatures of one or more agents of outside firms, to the proposed contract, not scrupling to offer, as has happened, special inducements. These inducements take various forms. Sometimes the solicited person is told that in return for his acquiescence the demand for his goods

will receive a stimulus from a certain and grateful quarter. Also, if a strike against the brewer should occur, assurance is given that the terms agreed upon shall be written into his contract at its termination.

With the signature of but one agent the Union obtains a leverage that from the outset gives it the advantage. The local brewery proprietors have then to face the alternative either of stultifying themselves or meeting a strike. This is what took place the present year at Oshkosh, Wisconsin (and perhaps, for aught we know, at other places), where the local brewers chose, wisely, we think, to sign up rather than to engage in a strike with the agents of outside firms already party to the new agreement. Had these brewery proprietors elected to meet a strike, they would doubtless have found themselves in the same position in which were the brewers of Chattanooga during the summer of 1912. No sooner was this strike declared than, by one publicity device and another, it was spread broadcast that the local brewing company refused to grant to its employees the same fair terms granted them by this or that competitor. The result of the strike might have been anticipated from the first.

The interests of the local brewers and those of the agents of outside firms are not, in the stated circumstances, on a parity. When a contract is proposed the same includes, as a rule, demands that involve, so far as the brewer is concerned, every point of labor cost; whereas the demands made may affect the labor cost of the product brewed elsewhere, at only one point-delivery, or, at most, at two, where the agent bottles as well-and these latter are the exception. The brewery proprietor has more at stake and to him is due the greater consideration.

What we wish to urge is that this convention take affirmative action looking to greater cohesiveness in these matters. All members having agents should be requested to instruct them not to engage in contract negotiations, formally or otherwise, or in anyway to commit themselves in advance or independently of the local brewing firms. Nor should their firms overlook instructing them not to allow threats of strikes to stampede them. Should a crisis arise they should seek instructions from their principals, who, it is assumed, will not advise radical action without having first communicated with either the local brewers or with the national organization of the industry.

To agree that we shall not invade the trade of a member (or non-member, for that matter) in time of strike, and to permit such lack of co-operation as that here dwelt upon, is an anomaly that cannot be too quickly eliminated.

THE MACHINERY QUESTION.

From time to time, during the past two or three years, we have had occasion to advise our members concerning the question of Union-made brewery machinery. At the convention held at Chicago, in 1911, the United States Brewers' Association took formal recognition of this dispute between the manufacturers and the Unions. Your committee had been solicited to take an active part in the dispute but declined on the ground that it was not our affair, our reply taking the form of a resolution, later adopted by the convention, advising our members when making contracts for machinery to stipulate that its installation should be done by Union labor. The dispute at that time appeared to be one of jurisdiction as to who should do the work, the machinists or the millwrights. Whatever may have been the real facts at that time, it is clear now that the machinists and the other Unions forming the Metal Trades Department of the American Federation of Labor have agreed among themselves not to erect or assist in erecting the product of any machinery manufacturer who has been declared "unfair" by the Department or any of its constituent Unions; and it is practically certain that the Carpenters, Riggers and other Unions affiliated with the A. F. of L. will give a similar pledge.

At this moment, as far as our information goes, but one of these machinery firms is being made the subject of objective opposition. Not that it is the only maker of brewing machinery whose shops are not unionized—the fact is there are no Union shops making brewing machinery—but it happens to have been the first of these establishments selected for attack; the Unions having adopted, according to report, the plan of forcing into line one shop after another.

Hence, while we hear of but one of these firms being "unfair," it requires no particular discernment to recognize that there is a conflict that threatens either to deprive us quite effectively of the use of new machinery or to involve us in serious complications with the Metal Trades Association, with which the manufacturers of

brewery machinery are presumably affiliated, and which is an important branch of the National Manufacturers' Association.

There appears to be no way whereby we can hope to induce the manufacturers and the unions to end their strife. They seem determined to fight it out, regardless of the interests of the purchasers of the machines.

At this time we can make no recommendation other than to repeat the advice contained in our circular letter of April 4, 1913, ("Installation of Machinery"), which was to the effect that when contracting for machinery, our members should in every case contract for the erection of the machinery by the manufacturers thereof, and that the contract should be so written as to provide that a substantial part of the purchase price shall be paid only after installation has been fully completed.

NEEDS OF THE LABOR BUREAU

While the work of the Labor Bureau, directed by your committee, is giving more and more satisfaction, it is and has been for sometime under a considerable handicap, which is attributable directly to the indifference of those whom the bureau seeks to serve. This important department cannot develop the maximum of usefulness unless there be substituted for this indifference a lively desire to co-operate at every opportunity. The nature of the work it undertakes requires that its files be replete with data compiled from the contracts in existence. Time and again we have solicited our members to send us copies of such contracts, without which these data cannot be obtained; but we regret to say that no more than one-third of such contracts have been sent us. With all existing contracts on file we could at once prepare a tabulation and a digest of their terms and provisions for our members, who would thus have visualized for them conditions obtaining not only in the brewing centres but throughout the country as well. It is also our intention so to equip the Labor Bureau as to maintain a record of all disputes; the manner of their settlement, and to comment, when advisable, upon such as seem to have involved some vital principle or other important consideration. With such a mass of information on hand, carefully and systematically filed, the Bureau would be in a position to render invaluable assistance in advising members who were in difficulties over labor matters. The decisions and rulings in arbitration cases would themselves furnish citations and pre