Now, if that standard of honor is necessary in the ordinary affairs of life, if that standard of honor is essential as between employer and employee, I put it to you how much more important, how much more vital is it that at least that standard of honor should be observed between the nations of the world. [Applause.] Therefore when we as a Nation have committed ourselves by treaty obligations to the protection of gallant little Belgium we as a labor movement were brought face to face with this fact, that here is a discharging of the obligation that she is committed to, here is a nation prepared to fulfill all the promises she has made, and what can we as a tradeunion movement, believing in that principle, do other than to say to the Nation, "We will not only agree with you, but we will support you in your action." [Applause.] Because, friends, I put that clearly as against the assumption of those that one is to adopt the attitude of your country, right or wrong. Kings and nobles may make a mistake in political policy. Kings and nations may make mistakes in their forms of government, but neither kings nor governments have the right to involve a nation in a war unless it is a war that is to the advantage and the well being of the people as a whole. [Applause.]

In the South African War I had my own house wrecked. I was mobbed and hounded from pillar to post because I felt a mistake had been made by our people, and feeling that a mistake had been made I had the courage of my convictions to say so and do all I could to prevent it. Therefore I regard that as rather showing that we did not approach this question in any jingo spirit, but we rather approached it from the standpoint of endeavoring to ascertain whether our country, in taking this step, was justified; and if justified, what was our position? Therefore the labor movement as a whole, having decided to stand by the Government, we were immediately brought up against the proposition of whether our support meant merely lip service or really a genuine sacrifice. The mere making of speeches is a detail; the mere support of a government by a public declaration is valueless to that government unless it carries with it some practical sacrifice and a recommendation that you are prepared to do something to back your opinion. Therefore the British trade-union movement having first decided to support the war immediately applied itself to the ways and means by which it could best do it, and the first thing it did was to declare there should exist during the period of the war an industrial truce. That is to say, that with the war raging as it was, it would be madness and folly to have side by side with that war an industrial war in our own country, and we entered into an agreement with the employers whereby they, on the one hand, agreed that they would not interfere with or reduce the conditions prevalent at the time, in return for which we, on the other hand, agreed that we would not attempt to set up any new standard of conditions, and that truce was practically agreed to by the whole of the organized workers of Great Britain.

But we very soon found out-what, after all, is not peculiar to our country, but what is peculiar to all countries-that there were people who were prepared to take advantage of abnormal circumstances created by the war. Our navy-and here let me say that the United States itself owes a debt of gratitude to the gallantry of the British Navy-has succeeded by courage and work, hard and arduous, of

keeping the sea, but we found that there were people prepared to take advantage of the navy's great work. We found our food prices soaring very, very high, indeed. We found within the first few months of the war an increase of something like 30 per cent in the cost of living. At this moment the Government returns show that the increase is 94 per cent above that of prewar.

Now, we, as a labor people, would not have complained if this sacrifice was justified by the circumstances created by the war, because, friends, do not make the mistake of assuming that you can enter into this war simply as a picnic. God knows you will have to make many, many sacrifices if you are going to do useful service. Therefore, we could not expect things to go on as normal, but we did resent and we did complain, and we have felt that, side by side with this increased cost of living, there could be no justification for balance sheets of firms engaged on war work alone showing an increase of 200 per cent and 300 per cent above prewar. We could not reconcile the fact that the soldier's wife, with our low separation allowance, was struggling along and paying 2 cents and 3 cents more for a few pounds of bread, with firms like Spillers & Bakers declaring a dividend of over 200 per cent more than they did the year before. We felt that the war was so important that if sacrifices were to be made, there must be sacrifices on the part of all and not on the part of a few. [Applause.]

The result was that we immediately used our machinery and our power and our influence to draw public attention and the Government's attention for the control of these things. We asked the Government to see that whilst men were called upon to give their life, it was not too much to expect other people to give up some of the luxuries that they were enjoying. Therefore, I am giving this illustration to show that consistent with our desire to make sacrifices ourself we naturally and jealously safeguarded the interest of our own people as well as the community by insisting that the sacrifice should not be a one-sided one, but should be made by all classes of the people.

The next difficulty with which we were faced was this: In the first 18 months of the war over 4,000,000 of our men volunteered for the front-not conscripted, nor compelled-but they left the workshop, the factory, the mine, the desk, business, and leisure, and at the call of duty responded. The spirit of those men was a magnificent spirit. The spirit of those men showed the highest possible form of patriotism; but with 4,000,000 men taken out of industry it was clearly evident that some change had to be made, with the result that the Government called into conference the trade-union leaders and executives of every trade and industry, and they said to them, “We are now faced with this problem, that women must go into industries in which previously they have been excluded. Women must go and bear some portion of this burden, and we want you, as a labor and trade-union movement, not only to agree to these changes but to render all the assistence you can to the women when they come in." We said that so far as we are concerned we first wished to be satisfied that there were no men out of work, because, clearly, friends, it would be absurd to agree to bring women into occupations in which they were not previously engaged and at the same time have men out of work, and by that means have efficiency wasted. We were

satisfied that it was essential to bring women into industry, but in agreeing to that we first made a condition that wherever a woman was engaged in taking the place of a man, by a written agreement it was laid down that her presence would not prejudice or interfere with the right of a man to take his place when he came back from the fighting line. We felt that was an essential condition and one fair to our men who had so gallantly volunteered.

Secondly, we felt it was a duty to those who had volunteered that they should not find, when they came back, that women's labor had reduced the standard of their work, and it was agreed that wherever women were employed doing the same work as men they should be paid the same rate regardless of any sex, with the result that there is at this moment something like one million and a quarter women who were never previously engaged in industrial occupations performing all kinds of manual work, and doing it as well, and at the same time the positions of the men are safeguarded, the conditions of the women are fair and equitable, and they have the greatest consolation of knowing that they are making a magnificent contribution to the great war that is now taking place.

But, sir, other difficulties arose. For instance, it was very soon discovered that our men were not having a good chance; they were not having a fair chance. We Britishers never complain about being beaten in a fair fight. I do not think you Americans would complain about being beaten in a fair fight; but you, with us, I believe, would complain if you were beaten and never had a fair chance. We found that our men were facing guns and high explosives at the front, with all the hell and the hammering that they were getting and never had a chance to get back. For months and months our young gallant men were like rats in a trap. They could not reply by guns or munitions, thousands of them being mowed down daily by all manner of hellish devices being used against them, and they had no chance. I might say I was always against reprisals, because I do not think you can compete with Germany for barbarism. Therefore any form of reprisal would simply make it worse. But I happened to be at the battle of Hill 60, where the first gas was used, and I saw after a two days' battle not hundreds, but thousands, of our men-some I knew-brought out and laid on the ground with oxygen being pumped into them. The effect of the gas was that it formed a sort of lava around the lungs and strangled them. Men I spoke to who knew they were going to die within a few hours, hundreds of them who knew that there was no possible opportunity, some of my own fellow countrymen, some of my own fellow railroad men, I spoke to. Not from one man did I hear a solitary complaint that he was going to die, but I had many complaints that they had not had a fair deal. I immediately came back to our country, and I said to the prime minister, "These men must not be allowed to fight with one hand behind their backs; they must have a fair deal, or you will break the morale of the best-spirited men in the world." [Applause.]

Those incidents, friends, were all new, and the result was, when we found that there was such a shortage of munitions, the Government immediately directed its attention to the providing of munitions. Some one asked us during some of our conferences here, what was the real incentive that caused our men to make so many sacrifices.

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The answer is a simple one, because they had their brothers, their sons, and their relatives being mutilated daily. They were getting letters from the front, they read of these things, and it brought it right home to them that they ought to do everything they could to help them. The Government therefore said, "Our difficulty with regard to munitions is this, that if every skilled man in the country was to work 24 hours per day there would still be a shortage," because not only at this period was the shortage for ourselves, but I do not think I am giving you any secret-I believe it will not be for the press, and I will tell you confidentially-that for the first 12 months with the Russian Army there were two men in the reserve, and as the first Russian soldier was mowed down the other rushed up to pick up the rifle or he could not be a belligerent. That was the condition of the Russian Army, with over 2,000,000 reserves, in the first nine months.

Therefore not only was our difficulty in supplying munitions to our own people, but supplying them to the other allies as well. The Government said, as I have stated, if every skilled man was turned onto this job there would still be a shortage. The result was that they called labor into conferences, as they did on every stage of all proceedings. The Government, from the commencement, in every stage called into their conferences organized labor, and they said to them, "We want you to agree to have unskilled men and women being taught and trained for this work." Our trades-unions agreed, but they made this condition, that every privilege that they gave up was to be treated as a war privilege; and by a Government guaranty all these privileges-all these rules-that were relaxed. were to be restored immediately the war was over, with the result that again there was brought into the manufacture of munitions hundreds of thousands of men and women previously unskilled, and who were trained in various ways and gave assistance in the manufacture of what was hitherto skilled industry.

But that was not all. We found that there was a shortage of labor in one spot and a surplus in another, as you can quite understand. There may be, for instance, a surplus of labor in New York and in exactly the same trade there may be a shortage in Washington. Therefore the point that we were facing was this: If Washington wants a given class of labor, and there is no labor of that kind in Washington and there is plenty of that kind of labor in New York, how shall we get over the difficulty by transferring and being able to use that labor at New York in Washington? There was set up what was called an enrollment for munition volunteers; that is to say, that men and women-men especially-were asked to enroll as munition volunteers, and they having enrolled agreed to allow the Government to send them to any place or factory wherever their labor was required; and they, on the other hand, had agreed to accept the position, wherever it was. But you can quite conceive of this difficulty: Supposing the wages in New York were higher than the wages in Washington. It would be hardly fair to ask the workers to come from New York and work in Washington at their own trade at a less rate than they could get in New York. Therefore by agreement it was arranged that whichever place was the highest the man going to a particular district would carry with him the highest rate; that is to say, if the rate at New York was higher

than the rate at Washington, he would make the New York rate in Washington. If, on the other hand, Washington was the highest and the man came from New York, he would receive the Washington rate if it happened to be higher than the other.

But in addition there was naturally a domestic difficulty which would arise, namely, that the man would be leaving his family in New York. The Government undertook to pay a subsistence allowance of 17 shillings and 6 pence per week to every man who had dependents, so that the wages that he earned in the new place, as it were, would practically go to the maintenance of his family, and the subsistence allowance practically kept him in the particular town where he was. By that means many thousands of volunteers were enrolled, and that difficulty was gotten over.

In addition, of course, the railroads were empowered to issue free passes to them so that either once a fortnight or once a month, as the case might be, they were given free traveling allowance to their homes. Incidentally I may say that the railroads are under State control. That was brought about for this reason, that there are 51 railroad companies in Great Britain. When war broke out, I may privately say, we were committed to France for the conveyance of an expeditionary force of 160,000. The result was that when war broke out the 160,000 men, with all equipment of war, had to be immediately transferred to the other side of the channel. Now, clearly, if the railroad companies issue a ticket to every soldier, and transportation for every horse, every gun, and so on, there would be as many men and women engaged in the checking of what they were carrying as there would be in the carrying of them. In addition to that, between the 51 companies-they were probably coming from Scotland to Southampton-they would run over five different railroads and therefore a regular clearing house would be engaged ou those five railways in ascertaining what was the exact proportion due to each particular company, with the result that there would be not only confusion and delay, but an obvious waste of labor, which was vital at that stage. Therefore, the Government immediately took over the railroads and the basis upon which they took them over was this: They said to them, "We will not quibble about what you are going to carry or what you will not, but whatever your profits were in 1914 we will guarantee you those same profits during the period of the war." The result was that some of the companies, to my own personal knowledge, had to pay back to the treasury-not receive from them-many hundreds of thousands of pounds, because they had carried more traffic than they did in 1914; therefore, by the Government deal the Government had benefited thereby.

Now, that is the system under which the railroads are run under the general managers with the president of the board of trade as the chairman of the executive committee. That again, you will see, enables these free passes to be given with practically no expense to the Government because it makes no difference so far as their revenue is concerned.

But the most important point, so far as the workers are concerned, was the giving up of what was called the power to strike. Two things were discovered: First, that employers were offering men more money to come to them on certain jobs than they were getting on Government work; that is to say, an employer wanting a boiler