such precipitate action by communicating with the Union's higher authorities directly or through your committee.

Wage increases have been general. The Brewery Workers' officials estimate these at ten per cent., and there have been several instances of reduction in hours.

The question of constantly mounting wages, and more or less accompanying reduction in hours, is rapidly assuming proportions that must challenge the serious attention not only of those who pay but also of those who receive them. An industry which pays higher wages than most others, if not all industries, and which, in addition, has to meet expenses always increasing, must of necessity sooner or later reach the limit of its ability. Already a reaction has set in, as is seen in the ever-widening use of labor-saving machinery, and the scarcely less pronounced tendency to cease making malt and to buy it from maltsers instead. This is the inevitable law, and its operation must more and more be accelerated until such time as it is more fully comprehended by those whose interests it more adversely affects.

The general conditions of the industry, none too good during the past twelve months, known to our employees no less than ourselves, should bring home to all concerned the importance of viewing aright this question of a continually ascending wage scale and its probable ultimate effect upon a business that is conspicuous for good wages and decent treatment of those for whom it provides a livelihood.

We, as employing brewers, would regret no less than our employees the coming of a condition that should compel a readjustment of wages on a basis less than liberal. For we believe it may be permitted us to say that liberal wages and fair treatment of our employees have long been a mark of the industry. Testimony to the truth of this could be supplied from many sources outside our ranks. Only a few weeks ago the leading central labor union of New England, representing thousands of wage earners of many diverse trades and occupations, said:

The employing brewers of this country, in sharp contrast to the attitude of many large employers . . . pay a higher rate of wages and provide more decent working conditions than any other industry in this country.

CONCILIATION AND ARBITRATION-THE ST. LOUIS IDEA

The joint board of conciliation and arbitration in the industry at St. Louis, which was described in our 1913 report in consid

erable detail, seems to have justified in substantial measure the expectations of its sponsors. That it has developed faults, and has not by any means wholly eliminated partisanship, may be due more to the fact that it is as yet in the experimental stage rather than to any inherent defect in the underlying principle. With the demonstrated success of such boards in other industries before us there appears to be no good reason why employer and employee in our own industry should not be able to develop and perfect such machinery for the prompt and equitable determination of petty disputes arising from time to time. Mr. C. Norman Jones, who is Chairman of the St. Louis Board, states that he considers the general effect of the Board to be beneficial. He further says:

It prevents the unions and the various foremen coming to an open breach resulting in a strike, and therefore in the preliminary negotiations between the Union and the brewery they often come to an understanding rather than bring it up to the Conciliation Board. On the other hand, many trivial questions which are not provided for in our agreement are brought before the Board by the unions in the hope of getting some concession which does not appear in the

contract.

I think the Board has had the effect of creating a better feeling between the two parties, as every question that is brought before it is thoroughly thrashed out, usually without any high feeling on either side. While the findings of the Board are not binding, they are usually accepted by the contracting parties and no further trouble

ensues.

While, as Mr. Jones has explained, the findings of the Board are not binding, it is true nevertheless that under the current contracts no strike may take place pending or following action of either the conciliation or the arbitration board.

This plan of disposing of casual disputes, though not yet fully tested in its application to our industry, has been adopted, on the lines of the St. Louis Board, also by the industry in Chicago. Here it is has worked as well as it appears to have done in the city of its origin. Mr. Austin J. Doyle has stated that so far it has worked very well.

Your committee quite cordially recommends that this idea be taken up in other brewing centres, but does so with the proviso that not too much should be expected from it until, in the given centre, it has rightly found itself, and has had time for mature development With the more general adoption of this idea, as exemplified in St.

Louis and in Chicago, substantial advantages must accrue to the industry as a whole.

A PROPOSAL TO FORM A NATIONAL JOINT CONFERENCE BOARD

Your committee, in the person of its chairman, having particularly in mind the potential value of these boards of conciliation and arbitration, recently proposed to the International Executive Board of the Brewery Workers the creation of a joint conference board representative of that organization and the United States Brewers' Association. The immediate object being to formalize more fully the relations of the one to the other to create an atmosphere which should inspire each more and more to view side by side those larger interests which, as organizations, however, diverse their immediate aspects, they must and do have.

The Brewery Workers' Board has replied that the proposal was considered by their recent convention and referred to the Board for further consideration. Your committee will be glad to confer quite fully with these gentlemen, and at present can only express the hope that in due time it may be in a position to report to you the forma· tion of such a board.

THE QUESTION OF UNION-MADE MACHINERY

The refusal of union men to install machinery made in "Unfair" shops continues to give trouble from time to time. As stated in previous reports of the Labor Committee this is a quarrel between the manufacturers and the unions, one in whose origin we have had no part. Nor are we in a position to induce the disputants to settle their differences. Any effort upon our part to act as an intermediary, much less to act in a partisan manner, would be to make a bad situation worse.

As so often happens the innocent are made to suffer for the derelictions of the guilty. The only thing your committee can do at this present time is to repeat the advice given in our report to the Fifty-third Convention, which was to the effect that when contracting for machinery, our members should in every case provide for its installation by the respective manufacturer and that the contract should be so written as to stipulate that a substantial portion of the purchase price should be paid only after installation has been fully completed.

We shall be glad, however, to furnish members about to con

tract for machinery with such recent information in this regard as may from time to time be at our command.

NEEDS OF THE LABOR BUREAU

In last year's report we dwelt at considerable length upon the necessity of a more general interest in the Bureau, bespeaking for it your hearty co-operation. We pointed out how general was the satis faction it had given to those members who had sought its assistance. While we are glad to acknowledge that our appeal has had a lively response upon the part of a considerable number of our members, it has been with the utmost difficulty that we have succeeded in obtaining data in respect to actual working conditions. In that report we asked that contracts be sent us to enable us to prepare a digest of their terms and provisions for the general membership, so that members about to negotiate for new labor contracts would thus have at hand and in convenient form data of immediate interest and utility.

To-day our files contain two-thirds, roughly, of the current labor contracts, the largest proportion they have ever held. As these contracts reached us from time to time we proceeded to compile the digest spoken of; but in almost every instance found that to make their contents completely available for such purpose, a letter asking for explanation of their many obscure points would need to be forwarded to their senders. (It will readily be acknowledged that many contracts are silent upon points of importance.) Such a letter was sent with an accompanying schedule of questions. These, with the resultant exchange of further letters, entailed such a mass of work upon the Bureau that our labor adjuster was compelled to drop it, and take up work in the field, the contract-making season having intervened. (The working force of the Labor Bureau consists of the adjuster and a stenographer.)

Since then the work has dragged, as drag it must under the circumstances, being conditioned primarily upon the time our adjuster is able to devote to it without neglecting his more pressing work in the field.

After the convention he will resume the work of compilation, giving it whatever time he can spare. We bespeak for his efforts your kind co-operation, supplying him freely with whatever information he may require from you in connection with your labor contracts. His services, now tested by four years of work in many

parts of the country, are always at your disposal; you will find them valuable in the proportion that you give him your co-operation whether he is at headquarters or at work in the field.

In that same report of 1913 we sketched the numerous and helpful activities of which a labor bureau such as ours is capable. We would commend to all those present who have yet to be informed in that direction a re-reading of the part of that report here referred to.

THE BREWERY WORKERS' CAMPAIGN AGAINST PROHIBITION

Your committee believes a word of recognition is due the Brewery Workers for the intelligent and promising part they are taking in the struggle against Prohibition, its many shams and hypocrisies. That their interests no less than their employers' should compel them to take such part should not detract from the credit due them for the intelligence with which they are co-operating in this work.

They have made powerful appeal to the labor unions, large and small, throughout the country, through the spoken and the written word, at a cost of thousands of dollars. At their national convention, held a month or two ago, favorable action was taken upon a recommendation of the national officials to give co-ordination and fuller effect to their campaigning. It was decided to levy an annual assessment of one dollar a year on each of their 50,000 members, with the object of creating and maintaining a Legislative Bureau for that purpose. A specific function of this bureau will consist in the collection of all necessary data and the keeping in touch with all antiliquor bills brought before the several state legislatures. This bureau and its related activities are to be under the very competent direction of International Secretary Proebstle.

NEW YORK BREWERS' MUTUAL INDEMNITY INSURANCE COMPANY

In concluding this Report we desire to call the attention of the convention to an enterprise entered into during the present year by the employing brewers of Greater New York. About a year ago the New York State Legislature enacted a Workmen's Compensation Law, covering the leading industries of that State. Exercising a right of election permitted under the law, these brewers proceeded to form a mutual plan of carrying their own risks, believing that not only would such a plan more promptly bring relief to the injured