R. WORKER, are you a fool?

MR.

We are sure you are not-but the Employing Interests take you for one.

Just to prove it, they are now exposing you to dangers that sap your life almost without your knowing it. Talk about poison gas in warfare! We have poisons equally as deadly doing their work of devastation at this very hour in "peace-time."

This is not the harangue of an agitator. Medical authorities are the source of our information. One example: Dr. Francis V. Murphy, Industrial Health Inspector of the Massachusetts Department of Labor and Industries, exposes the "new hazards of industry,” in an article under that title in the August LABOR-REVIEW (U. S. Department of Labor).

Menace No. 1 to the worker is the increasing use of the spray gun. The painters, already killed off like flies by the use of lead in their occupation, have to contend with this instrument of death. For the

employers, it is hunky-dory. One operator with the gun can do the work of three to five hand-workers. For the men who use it, it is a "menace to health." "The splashing and splattering of liquid poisons make it difficult to protect the operator even with a well-fitting mask."

The union painters, with the expert co-operation of the Workers' Health Bureau, are leveling an attack on the use of the spray gun in every state possible. Union Labor everywhere should aid them in this Battle against Death.

Automobiles are paid for, too, in injury to their makers. Folks want smooth and durable and glossy coatings for their cars. Presto: they are given such, a poisonous combination which brings intense catarrhal infectoins of the throat and nose and eyes to the automobile "painter."

That is only the beginning. Skin inflammations arise from handling gasoline and cutting oils and in other processes. Headache and depression come from inhaling exhaust motor gases. Lead poisoning from sandpapering the primary white coat, and eye diseases from the bright light in welding are part of the inventory of diseases which the automobile has introduced.

Brass foundry workers are up against it from the

Little Cal in the White House. Just look where he got, through not thinking.

So, I guess we better just throw our thinking caps away. And look up kind of reverent-like and thankful and not-too-smart, and sing till our lungs bust:

poisons in copper dust; brass buffers and coppersmiths are in the same boat. Loss of hearing is progressively on the increase, among boilermakers, forgemen, blacksmiths and men operating sledge hammers and riveting machines in particular.

Benzol-widespread in use since the War-is carrying its message of destruction to rubber workers, painters, workers in motor fuels, photo-engravers and millinery workers.

All in all, 3,000,000 persons are ill in the United States at all times, according to a federal report quoted by Dr. Murphy. Through this means, the worker loses an average of nine days per year—and 42 per cent. of this loss is preventable!

ventilated and sanitary workshops, suitable caps, What will stop this? Personal cleanliness, wellgloves and clothing in handling poisonous chemicals; and also lockers, shower baths, washrooms, clean frequent medical examination and trained nurses and towels, pure drinking water, separate lunch rooms, first aid apparatus on the job. Do those conditions exist in most workshops? They do not. It is up to the workers to force the employers to secure them. Otherwise, it is years of sickness and "the Sweet Byeand Bye" ahead of time for you.

Too much praise cannot be given the Workers' Health Bureau for the pioneering fight it has made for these decencies in the workshop. Since its organization to help union labor, it has not let up in its scientific and aggressive battle for health.

Tetra Ethyl Lead is one of the foes which we have to contend with, the Bureau informs us. It has not been so long ago since several hundred workmen fell over at their task in the Standard Oil Company's plant at Bayonne, N. J. Screaming headlines filled the papers. "Loony Gas," as Tetra Ethyl gasoline was popularly called, was bowling men over as though they were engaged in battle. At least 11 workers have been killed and 113 more knocked out by this mixture in the last seventeen months.

"The time has come," it rightly says, "for Organized Labor to demand investigation and control of all poisons used in industry before, not after, workers pay the price with their lives."

"God save King James-and King Morgan and King Rockefeller." And let's teach the little kiddies that, and to be good men and women (lots of sobs here) and to grow up like Little Cal-talkless and brainless and liberty-less.

T

HE movement for Workers' Education in the United States is of comparatively recent origin. Like many other movements, it has had the sad fate of being misunderstood by many-over-estimated by some, under-estimated by others. Every group has offered its own interpretation of it. The onlooker has been bewildered in his effort to define its policies, aims, and objects.

Many individuals who confess that they possessed an enthusiasm for the movement at its inception a few years ago, express their growing discouragement about its future at present. In their pessimism they have become crusaders against it, and in their efforts to uncover its futility and "tear it down," they have used tens of thousands of words in defining what they discovered real workers' education to be. The average reader of these polemics loses himself in the underbrush of beautiful phrases, but a diligent reader will separate the phraseology from the "meaning" and the practical suggestions made. Then, if he is in doubt, he will make a study of the aims and objects of the founders of the Workers' Education movement who are still influential in it, and of their literature, and will discover that the new point of view of these crusaders lies in an objection to the presentation of the subject matter rather than to its substance.

The aims of the workers' education movement have always been clear. The pioneers of this movement

have always emphasized that it had a double meaning: a collective and an individual one. While it does offer the worker as an individual an opportunity to develop his personality and character and acquaint himself with the world he lives in, they feel that its particular aim lies in making him more effective in his group, thus strengthening the workers' organization. It aims, first, to interest him in the industry in which he is engaged, with its productive processes, its technique of craftsmanship, its specific economic problems and the various suggestions made for their solution, the relation of his industry to other kindred industries, and the place it occupies in our economic and social structure.

Beyond the Classroom

They further desired to interest the workers in their trade unions, in the aims, problems and policies of these unions; to make them conscious of their responsibilities as citizens of an industrial organization, and the place it offers them in our industrial society.

The founders of the Workers' Education movement, who were trade unionists themselves, were always conscious of the fact that the real workers' college is the trade union. It is there the worker learns of economic and social problems; it is there he learns how to solve them. These founders always emphasized in their literature that it is at the trade

union assembly, whether shop meeting, general meeting, or convention, that he gets his real schooling. They held, further, in their various writings on workers' education, that all the education given must be co-ordinated with the interests of the trade union; that workers' education cannot be called such if it is carried on abstractly.

Some individuals mistakenly confine workers' education to the classroom alone, and judge it by the number of students enrolled in the class. The influence of workers' education, however, goes far beyond the classroom. It is reflected in trade union publications, in the discussions at trade union meetings, at conventions and in the meetings of the executive councils. As a consequence of this movement, many books and pamphlets have been written on trade union problems, policies and tactics.

At the beginning, indeed, workers' education was confined largely to the classroom. It has, however, at present broadened its old scope and entered into many new activities. While the classroom has not declined in importance, new phases of the work have been entered upon. Through the influence of the workers' education movement, labor has become more self-conscious, begun to study its history and formulate its aims. The needs of the classroom have called for greater articulateness on all these subjects, so books and pamphlets have been written on them. The workers' education movement is being used more and more by trade unions to interest more of their membership, and to bring into understanding of their aims the wives and children of their members. Another new development has been in the direction of getting more individuals at the classes and conferences held-chiefly through summer sessions and chautauquas. The labor movement, recognizing the value of all these new developments has undertaken official support of the workers' education movement, by urging all unions affiliated with the American Federation of Labor to pay affiliation dues to the Workers' Education Bureau.

The Labor Movement in the first place, is becoming aware of the necessity for a greater self-consciousness. It is finding it daily of greater importance to stand apart from itself and survey its work, its aims, and its achievements. The Workers' Education movement has, in the past, and will, to an even greater extent in the future, contribute to that desire for self-appraisal which is of such great value to trade unions everywhere. The growing articulateness of the Labor Movement, which is merely the overt expression of this desire to understand itself and is revealed in the publications, books and magazines of the trade unions is largely indebted to the Workers' Education movement, since studies in the classroom created a necessity for such publications.

The Workers' Education movement is stimulating that new interest on the part of trade unionists in the aims, problems and policies of its trade unions, which were formerly studied chiefly by teachers and students of the labor movement. Through this influence, Labor is beginning to realize that it is far behind commerce and industry in capitalizing its experience. It is beginning to appreciate the fact that the pioneers who laid the foundations of our Labor Movement are gradually disappearing and new men and women taking their place. If these leaders are to be effective, the benefit of the experience accumulated by their predecessors must be placed at their disposal. They need histories of trade unions, memoirs of trade union leaders. Already a tendency is at work in that direction. The Workers' Education movement does and will, still more in the future, stimulate an interest in writing the histories of our trade unions-so rich in experience and achievement.

Need for Expression

That same growing need for articulateness is manifested in the field of trade union aims also. In the past, some of our trade unionists were satisfied to reject certain suggestions on the ground that they were against the trade union principles, policies or tactics of the American Federation of Labor. Many of them, however, were not in a position to state the basis for these policies, tactics and principles, because no material to formulate their position was at hand. Now, through the influence of the Workers' Education movement, the Labor Movement is beginning to realize the necessity for the formulation of such theories so that in the future its contentions may be based not on assumptions, but on basic principles.

Not all union leaders are aware of the work being done by the Workers' Education Bureau towards expressing the aims of the Labor Movement more clearly, but all feel the need for such expression. Only the other day, a prominent trade union leader complained before an audience that the history of the American Labor Movement has not as yet been written. I called his attention to the fact that the Workers' Education Bureau, at its last convention, went on record urging that such a history be written.

Another new development of the work of the Workers' Education movement lies in the direction of arousing the interest of more workers in their organization. Many in the Labor Movement realize that by so broadening the scope of the movement, more and more workers can be interested in their organization. The trade union is up against the same problem that confronts every social institution; its large membership will not engage actively in the affairs of the union. For the union has become a complicated social institution; its functions are more

specialized and its existence more secure. Thus its activities are gradually being confined to smaller groups, and a gap appears between the daily affairs of the union and its membership.

Broadening the Union

To solve this problem, the union will have to follow the example of other communities. And consciously or unconsciously, the development of our tradeunions is in that direction. Everywhere we see our unions launching various activities designed to meet the needs of its passive as well as its active "population." They are gradually including in their activities the needs, not only of the members, but also of their families. And through these activities the members are constantly in touch with their organization. Obviously, our unions have begun to appreciate the importance of giving some of their attention to the large inactive membership; for the union is a democratic institution.

Unfortunately, most of these members do not take advantage of the democratic machinery established in the union. They are silent on the most important problems of the organization. Yet if this multitude be left uninformed, it could, if it wished, destroy all the constructive plans of the organization.

Hence, the trade-unions' backing of the Workers' • Education Movement. For they recognize in it the best instrument through which to reach the active as well as the passive membership; the alert and energetic as well as the inert and passive members. And to do this, workers' education will not in the future be confined so closely to the classroom, but will include all the intellectual, economic and recreational needs of the whole membership.

An encouraging practical development which reveals the expanding scope of the movement for workers' education is the growth of summer schools. Until recently, only two types of educational activity were developed. They were Labor Colleges and study classes conducted either by international and national trade unions, or state and city federations of labor, and, second, the Brookwood resident college. The first aimed to reach the masses of workers and give them the instruction that would increase their understanding of the problems, policies, aims and principles of the Labor Movement in particular and the problems of society in general, with the view that this would help them to comprehend the social force of the Labor Movement, its possibilities and its relation to society as a whole. The second, Brookwood Labor College, aims to attract a smaller number of serious-minded and capable young men and women with character who are determined to serve the Labor Movement in many capacities. These were to get more intensive study. Most significant is the atmosphere that prevails in

workers' classes. It makes an appeal to the worker for collective effort. It gives him more confidence in his own abilities and in the possibilities of his trade union. It confirms the opinion of many that the atmosphere and environment that prevails in workers' classes is just as important as the studies they pursue.

The summer schools where men and women, young and middle aged, assemble for a few weeks in country surroundings and combine education with their vacation, is the latest development in the field. Some of the students spend a week, some two weeks and even longer. Labor problems are discussed under the direction of specialists.

Summer Schooling

Since many of the workers cannot afford a two or even one week summer session, special one-day conferences are also held—as at Brookwood. There one conference discussed Workers' Education, with more than one hundred leaders and members of the rank and file present; another considered unemployment and group insurance.

Labor Chatauquas held particularly in District No. 2 of the United Mine Workers, and attended by workers and their families serve a somewhat similar purpose. Here workers hear speakers discuss their personal and trade problems.

The longer summer schools offer courses of general type to interest all the workers, and also subjects of special interest to particular labor groups.

One of these sessions on specific problems--the first Railroad Labor Institute that met in Brookwood from August 2nd to 9th-was of historic significance. The first session was opened with a thoughtful and inspiring address by Mr. Bert Jewell, President of the Railroad Department of the American Federation of Labor, who emphasized the fact that organized labor is determined to meet the needs of its members, whether they be economic, social, recreational, or educational. It was a momentous occasion. It has been customary for railroad executives to hold such institutes for the discussion of railroad problems, but this is the first time in history that organized railroad workers assembled in their own institute to discuss the vexing problems of the railroad as affecting the public, management, and trade unions. In their discussions they were guided by expert technicians.

The Workers' Education Bureau, at its recent Philadelphia convention, said:

"The importance of the development of summer courses cannot be over-estimated, especially to those who are confined by the routine character of their union work, so that there is danger to some of them of losing touch with progress, with new ideas, for lack of exchange of opinions with their fellowworkers. These conferences and summer courses