THIRD PRINTING READY OF GOMPERS* CREDO
NEW YORK.—“Samuel Gompers’ Credo,” a pamphlet
•containing significant excerpts from his speeches and writ
ings, published recently by the AFL Gompers Centennial
Committee, has gone into its third printing because of the
huge and mounting demand for copies.
Scores of international onions,
state federations and central la
bor bodies have sent in individual
requests for 25 to 3,000 cop.es.
Many of these note that they
-wish to distribute the “Credo
not only to officers and *cti*e
meipbers but to newspapers, ra
dio stations, schools and civic
leaders in their localities.
- AFL Vice President Matthew
Woll. chairman of the Gompers
Centennial Committee, said- that
the response to the pamphlet was
a “heartening indication of the
widespread interest in the con
structive philosophy of the AFL
and its founder."
“The pamphlet U one or xne
most outstanding pieces of liter
ature that the America^ trade
union movement has produced,
Charles J. MacGowan, president
of the AFL International Broth
erhood of Boilermakers, Iron
Ship Builders and Helpers, wrote
to Mr. Woll.
Ordering 3,000 copies. Mr. Mac
Gowan expressed the conviction
that “this pamphlet goes a long
toward fillmg the crying
need for a booklet or pamphlet
which would intrattoQ *•. •“ '***
fleers, local and international, the
basic philosophy underlying the
policies of the American nM
tion of Labor.
Volney Andrews, secretary -
treasurer of the West Virginia
State Federation of Labor, in
ordering 2.000 copies to which
the federation will add 4 pages
of information on its own or
ganization. revealed that it will
be sent to news and radio writers,
public officials and educators
throughout the state.
The International Ladies Gar
ment Workers Union, headed by
- David Dubinsky, distributed 1,500
copies of the pamphlet to its
convention delegates at a special
“Gompers Day” in Atantic City.
The 48-page “Credo” contains
quotations on the philosophy and
purposes of the AFL organiza
tion policies, education, govern
ment and law, civil liberties,
politics, Americanism, war and
peace, and totalitarianism.
Copies are available at the
Gompers Centennial Committee.
55 West 42nd St., New York 18,
New York. *
1 . j*" _
K. • -
AFL Auto Union
Winner $150 Fund
i
Decatur, HI.—Monthly pensions
running to $150 have been won
by Local 837 of the AFL United
Automobile Workers of America.
The new agreement was signed
with the A. E. Staley Co. of De
catur, 111., and will cover ap
proximately 3,000 employes. The
pension program provides for a
minimum monthly payment of
$100 for employes retiring at 65
years with 30 years experience.
Based on prevailing earnings,
however, officials of both, the lo
cal union and the company esti
mate that more than 80 per cent
of the employes will receive more
than the minimum. The plan,
including primary social securi
ty benefits, is financed entirely
by the company and is guaran
teed in the current contract.
It was estimated that the Sta
ley plan calls for a pension $16
higher than that of the Bndd
Company in Detroit, heretofore
thought to be the ascot liberal
!■ industry. ^
$260 Pension Top
Won By AFL Loot
By DAN SMYTB
Chicago Correspondent of AFL
Chicaff of
12 to cento an boor will be paid
to nearly 6,000 AFL electricians
in Chicago beginning August 7.
The new rate will be $2.65 an
hour.
The increase was voted by a
joint arbitration board which has
processed all disputes for wore
than 30 years between the Pee*
trical Contractor Association of
Chicago and Local' 134 of the
AFL International Brotherhood
of Electrical Workers.
* J. Walter Collins, secretary
treasurer of the arbitration
board, said 1 per cent of payroll
will be deducted by the ' em
ployer from wages to support
the Employes Benefit Fund, one
of the oldest welfare programs
in existence in organised labor.
Another 1 per cent of payroll
is paid into the fund directly by
the electricians when they pay
their quarterly dues. The fu^d
suppdrtb a pedbtSrwMr^ IIjfli
death benefit, hospitalization and
surgical plans, disability insur
ance, unemployment assistance
and other provisions.
Under the pension plan, elec
tricians who retire at 65 can
draw pensions up to $200 a
month, including fede^l social
security. There are now almost
100 pensioners on the rolls of
Local 134.
The wage increase agreement
was perfected only a few days!
before the gplden jubilee cele
bration of Local 134 in the Chi
cago Coliseum, May 27. marking
50 .years of steady growth since
it was chartered June 22, 1900,
by the National Brotherhood of
Electrical Workers (as the IBEW
was then known.)
KEEPS RENT CONTROL
Washington—The U. S. Senate1
voted 36 to 28 to retain rent
controls until December 81, 1950.
The. House immediately took up
the measure.
The bill, to replace the one
which expires on June 30, will
permit local governments to con-1
tinue rent controls beyond next
December 31 until June 30, 1951,
if local government bodies take
such affirmative action.
The Senate immediately called
up the bill to expand Social Se
curity.
<
r/err
fHA/tAAtO
(UAM)
MtPO-CMM
—>.
Heads Railway Execs
Washington — George K
Leighty, president AFL Oaiar af
Ezacatiraa Aisaciatiaa represent*
lag St standard railroad brother
boaio n*H 24M.IH workers to
asecssd lata Harry W. Fraser,
president (Mar at Hallway Caa
d actors.
Musicians Re*Elect
Petrillo President
Houston, Tex.—The AFL Amer
ican Federation of Musicians re
elected James C. Petrillo presi
dent at the annual convention.
He was chosen for his 11th
-a •
consecutive term.
Other officers of the federation
also re-elected are Charles I.
Bagley, Los Angeles, vice presi
dent; Cleo Cluesmann, Newark,
N. J.. secretary, and Harry J.
Steeper, Jersey City, treasurer.
Three incumbents were among
the four members named to the
international Executive commit
tee from the United States. They
are John W. Parka. Dallas. Tex.;
Herman D. Kenin, Portland, Ore.,
and George V. Clancy, Detroit.
The fourth member is Stanley!
Ballard, Minneapolis.
Ring Up $1,000,000 Sale!
timml
1LGWU Film Hits Broadway;
Is Acclaimed Socko Success
By ARNOLD BEICHMAN
New York Correspondent for
AFL Newe Service
New York.—Labor, specifically
the American Federation of La
bor, has arrived on Broadway
with the world premier of the
International Ladies Garment
Workers biographic film on June
15..
The movie, “With These
Hands,” was made by the ILG
WU. It received the formal
blessing of President William
Green, who appears in it with
I LG President David Dubinsky.
“This is a film,” says Presi
dent Green on the screen, “not
only for the ILGWU. or the la
bor movement. Hiis id for
America, and for a free demo
cratic world.”
Produced as part of the IGL
WU gulden jubilee celebration by
Promotional Films, the movie
tells the story of the union .as
seen in the life of a cloakmaker
who is shown at the outset ap
plying for retirement under the
union pension fund. Playing the
part of the cloakmaker ia a
Broadway star who has appear
ed ia Hollywood films, Sam La
▼tM.
Shown as a series of flash
hacks are the struggles to organ
ise the union, the strikes, the
picketing, the beatings, all dl
mixed by t relucted scam of
the horrible 1P11 Triangle fire in
which 146 shirtwaist operators
were horned to death in a win
dowless, door-barred factory.
These is also the story of the
ILGWU back in I9Z3, Kow they
almost wrecked the union and
how it was saved.,
One of the amusing, yet point
ed, episodes in "With These
Hands” is when the cioakmaker
brings home his pay envelope
minus a one-dollar union assess
ment to be used for organisa
tional purposes. His wife com
plains about the assessment the
month before, and this month.
The cioakmaker breaks in with
"I have news, Next month!
there’ll be an assessment for the
textile workers’ drive.” His wife
asks:
“Wlfo are you working' for?
(Continued eu Page 9)
GENEVA, SWITZERLAND—AFL Secretary-Treasurer
George Meany formally dedicated the Samuel Gompers Me
morial Room at the headquarters of the International La
bor Office. The event was one of many held or planned for
far corners of the world in honor of the 100th anniversary
of the birth of the founder and first president of the AFT,.
Rutgers Holds 20th
Annual Labor Meet
- New Brunswick, N; J. — AFL
President William Green re
turned to the campus of Rutgers
University to deliver the keynote
address at the 20th anniversary
Labor Institute.
Mr. Green visited Rutgers 20
years ago, then as an anxious
observer of a brand new' venture
in bringing education and labor
together to discuss unemployment
from labor's viewpoint.
He told his 140 listeners—New
Jersey Federation of Labor un
ionists, educators and government
leaders—that they were making
history. The intervening years
since have proven the correctness
of this prophecy.
The education • minded labor
leader was not the only observer
at this first forma! meeting of
American college and union rep
resentatives in June, 1931. Rep
resentatives of universities as far
west as Michigan had come to
see if the project would woric.
The University of Michigan
people were so convinced of tha
values of pooling labor
tion that by the following Juno
a similar institute was underway
at Ann Arbor. Today, models of
the Rtugers Institute are found
in 75 colleges and universities in
40 states.
Labor was even more im
pressed with the outcome of that
meeting 20 years ago. Before
the 5-day session was concluded,
the delegates unanimously re
quested future conferences and
the State Federation of Labor at
its next annual meeting petition
ed Rutgers to make it an annual
affair.
In 1947, the New Jersey Leg
islature, recognising the contri
butions which the institute has
made to labor-management un
derstanding, created the. Rutgers
Institute of Management and La
bor Relations.
SPEAK AT TAMIMENT
New York. — AFL President
William Green, Vice President
Matthew Woll, and Joseph Keen
an. director Labor’s League for
Political Education, will head
the list of speakers at the an
nual conference of the Tamiment
Social and Economic Institute,
in Pennsylvania, June 22 - 25,
which will be devoted to “Gom
pers—and a Century of Labor."
Talk Organizing
Meanwhile, in the United
States, the formal pro grafts cel
ebrating the Gotnpers Centenary
increased in number an^ inter
est as international unions, state
federations, central labor coun
cils, educational institutions and
summer study centers gave a
day, week end or whole period
of study to honoring Mr. Gom
pers.
In response to Mr. Meany’s
speech of dedication, President
Paul Finet of the International
Confederation of. Free Trade
Inions pledged that “this room
will never be used for secret
talks to advance war or division *
in the world.”
The beautifully-appointed room
is the gift of the American Fed
eration of Labor to the ILO and
will be used by workers, em
ployers and government labor
experts of 61 countries for com
mittee meetings.
Mr. Meany said:
“I come here a* representative
of the millions of members of
the American Federation of La
bor in the Uniter States and
Canada to help dedicate **»»■ room
» Sbs-wiinsiy of th£J»*v"fern,
•el Gompers. the first president
•f the AFL.
::The fact that there la an In
ternational Labor Organisation is
due to men like Sam Gompers.
Mr. Gompers was chairman of
the committee of trade unionists
from 10 countries who met at'
Versailles in 1919 and drafted
the plan which led the peace con
ference to set up the ILO.
“For 31 years now the ILO has
been working, not only as a
gathering of diplomats, but with
delegates from the workers and
employers’ organisations, too.
Today it is one of the specialised
agencies of the United Nations.
“There are still millions of
Americans who do not know that
this great labor - management -
government conference exists to
fix minimum standards of em
ployment, safety and social wel
fare by means of international
agreements which become bind
ing on those member countries
which ratify them.
“They have heard vaguely about
the ILO but they do not realise
how important it is to the suc
cess of President Truman’s
‘point four’ program for extend
ing technical assistance to the
underdeveloped areas of the
world.
“The ILO has been providing
technical assistance for 81 years.
It is one of the world’s greet
repos{gories of knowledge con
cerning the problems of migra
tion, vocational guidance and the
technical training of workers. It
also is the leading institution for
the study of industrial safety
•nd hygiene, for the protection
of women and young workers in
industry, and for many other
things of which 8am Gompers,
if he were alive today, would
certainly be proud.
"I am very happy, also, that
the ILO is represented on this
occasion by my good friend, Paul
Finet, of Belgium, who is work
er’s vice president ef the ILO
conference new meeting in this
beautiful city ef Geneva. Mr.
finet has worked closely with
the AFL in his capacity of ftrst
fwillmt of Ike New Torres
tieaal Confsrdsreksn ef Plea .
“Prude Unions.11