The ideals and the purposes of peace have been replaced by institutions and organizations to serve the purposes and furtherance of war. As the war has cut asunder many of the ties that bound nation to nation, so it has rendered impossible the fraternal relations existing between the national labor movements of the belligerent countries. Since the headquarters of the National Federation of Trade Unions is in Berlin, the capital of a country virtually surrounded by armed forces, it has been difficult for this international organization to continue its work or to keep in touch through correspondence with the trade union centers of other countries.

In November, of 1914, President Legien of the International Federation announced that under the conditions the regular work of the organization would be discontinued and the funds be used only for the purpose of maintaining the organization, and not for the purpose of propaganda. This was necessary in order to preserve the neutrality of the labor organizations. He also announced that the President of the Dutch Trade Union Center, Mr. J. Oudegeest, would be the intermediary through whom he would communicate with the various national trade union centers. It was also decided that the Congress of the international federation which the Zurich Congress decided should be held at San Francisco, 1915, would be indefinitely postponed. But the progress of the war intensified feeling and made communication increasingly difficult. The rigid censorship in many countries renders it practically impossible to secure adequate and comprehensive information in order to keep in touch with labor conditions in the various countries and to discuss any common interest.

In February a conference of some labor representaitves of France and England was held in London. Both the British Federation of Trade Unions and the Confederation du Travail of France disavowed any responsibility for the holding of this conference, or any of the views expressed therein. The French trade union movement had been invited to participate in that meeting, but not the British as an organization. The delegates from the French organization were instructed to confer during their stay in London with the British Federation in regard to plans for the future of the International Federation of Trade Unions.

As a result of long and serious conferences, W. A. Appleton and L. Jouhaux jointly wrote to President Gompers. In their letter they asserted that, while there was no personal animosity toward the people of Germany, yet all present in the conference agreed that the national and racial bitterness engendered by the war would nullify the usefulness of the international trade union movement if headquarters were continued within a belligerent country. They stated that it was obvious that many years must elapse before the British, Belgian and the French workers could proceed to Berlin with the same freedom and confidence that existed prior to the outbreak of war. They felt that some change was necessary in order to prevent the disintegration of the international trade union movement, and they suggested that the international office should be moved, at least for the time, to some country whose neutrality was guaranteed by treaty and physiography. America was considered ideal in all respects except that it was too widely separated by distance. Switzerland was the only other country that seemed to have all desirable characteristics, and Berne was designated as the most satisfactory location.

Inasmuch as Messrs. Appleton and Jouhaux appreciated fully the gravity of the situation and the desirability of avoiding dismemberment of the international trade union movement, they requested President Gompers to present this matter to Mr. Legien. They most earnestly and emphatically asserted that their request was not due to any personal feeling against President Legien, but because of their deep anxiety to maintain the solidarity of the international trade union movement. In accord with this request, President Gompers wrote to Mr. Legien and laid the matter fully before him.

The course which President Gompers pursued was endorsed by us in our

official capacity as the Executive Council of the A. F. of L. We proposed also that a plan be adopted which, in case of future wars, would automatically remove the headquarters of the international federation from a belligerent country to a neutral one.

As before referred to, the war has made regular correspondence extremely difficult. Mr. Legien wrote in connection with this matter, but his original letter was lost. His first impression was that the proposition was a matter that ought not to be decided by vote through correspondence, but only after a thorough and personal conference in which the whole question could be discussed. He felt that to change headquarters of the International Secretariat at that time, under the existing conditions, would be an expression of lack of confidence that would, in the future, have a harmful effect upon the whole movement. He expressed uncertainty as to whether or not the request of the French and British representatives was in the form of a regular motion that was to be submitted to the members of the international federation, or whether the affiliated organizations that did not participate in the London conference should have a separate conference.

However, in the interim, before his letter was received, the representatives of the British and French movements issued a circular to the affiliated organizations presenting this proposition for neutralization of the offices and officers of the International Federation of Trade Unions.

In the official journal of the British General Federation of Trade Unions, the correspondence which that office had between Messrs. Appleton, Jouhaux, Legien, Oudegeest and Gompers was published. Later, Mr. Oudegeest of Holland, upon request of Mr. Legien, issued a circular publishing a fuller version of the correspondence.

In the November, 1915, issue of the American Federationist, President Gompers published the entire correspondence between him as the representative of the A. F. of L., and the officers of the trade union movements in other countries; and between the officers of various countries. This correspondence is published under the title, “Labor's International Relations-As a Result of the European War. Labor's Book of All Colors." That correspondence should be considered in connection with our report.

Mr. Legien's proposal to hold a conference in Amsterdam did not meet with general approval. Mr. Appleton in writnig to Mr. Oudegeest upon the subject stated that Mr. Legien did not appreciate the bitterness that the war had engendered in Great Britain and France, and that it would be useless to ask the people to agree to a conference.

We have endeavored as best we could to maintain friendly relations with the labor movements of all countries and to avoid any action that would in the slightest degree interfere with our usefulness and our influence in promoting the best interest of the organized labor movement the world over. We have been able to hold ourselves in readiness to be helpful at such a time when an opportunity for constructive work shall be presented and in order that our influence may be unimpaired and may be powerful for the cause of human rights and democracy. We have been very careful to avoid anything that might be construed as unneutral or in any way hostile to the interests of any group of workers.

In December, 1914, Mr. Oudegeest of Holland wrote a circular letter to the various trade union national centers presenting the terrible conditions that existed in Belgium and the want and dire necessity that had befallen the Belgian people. They had no work and no way to maintain themselves. The peril of starvation was imminent. Mr. Oudegeest asked in behalf of these Belgian workers contributions from the trade union movement of the other nations. A personal representative of the Belgium people brought President Gompers information which substantiated the statements already received.

This appeal for help for the Belgian workers the E. C. of the A. F. of L. directed to be published in the American Federationist with the direction to send

all contributions to Mr. Oudegeest who was entrusted with their distribution.

As already stated the regular congress of the International Federation of Trade Unions was to have been held at San Francisco concurrent with this convention. That was to have been the first meeting this organization ever held outside of Europe. For that reason it was expected that this meeting would have a far-reaching influence and consequence in extending the spirit and relationship of fraternalism, and in strengthening and increasing the tie of unionism that binds together the working people of all countries. However, 1915 finds such conditions existing in the civilized world as have made impossible the holding of this labor congress from which so much was expected that would be of infinite value in promoting human welfare and in establishing agencies whereby the workers could secure for themselves ever increasing benefits and opportunities.

In discussing the subject of the next congress of the International Federation of Trade Unions, President Gompers has urged upon the officers of the labor movement of other countries that the spirit of the Zurich declaration should be observed and that when the official congress shall be held after the close of the war, it should be held in the United States, and at some time approximately near the time of the holding of the convention of the A. F. of L.

The following report of the Committee on International Relations was adopted unanimously:

We have read and carefully considered the report under the foregoing caption, together with the correspondence entitled "Labor's Book of All Colors," published in the November, 1915, issue of the American Federationist, and fully concur in every action taken by President Gompers and the action of the Executive Council as a whole. The report and correspondence present forcefully the human side of the world's trade union movement, and emphasize the necessity of a more comprehensive and more effective system which will safeguard and protect the movement regardless of any and all circumstances which may develop. The preservation of the national, international unions, the national trade union centers, and finally the International Federation of Trade Unions, is our highest concern. One way to do this is to formulate a method and organization whereby prompt action may be taken. Under this caption and at this time your committee prepared the following declaration :

Because the maintenance of the trade union movement of our country, or all civilized countries, and of the International Federation of Trade Unions is of paramount importance in so far as the economic condition of the workers is concerned, at all times and under all conditions, the stability of our movement here or elsewhere should not be subject to the disturbing influences and possible destruction by any cataclysm, be it a fire, flood, war, or pestilence. In times of great stress there is more and greater need of workable machinery and unhampered officers to safeguard and protect our movement and the rights and best interests of the members thereof. Under the present laws of the Trade Union Centers and the International Federation of Trade Unions, there is no law flexible enough to meet an emergency which might be caused by any of the foregoing catastrophes.

We recommend, first, that the next delegate to the Congress of the Federated Trade Unions be and is hereby instructed to offer a motion creating an honorary President who shall perform under circumstances stated hereinafter all of the functions and necessary duties of the President of the International Federation of Trade Unions, to wit:

If the President of the International Federation of Trade Unions is prevented from exercising and performing the normal functions of his office, by reason of a disastrous fire, flood, war, or pestilence, the functions and duties of the office shall temporarily revert to the honorary President, and as soon as the cause or causes which rendered it impossible for the President to perform the normal duties of the office no longer exist, the functions of the office

of President of the International Federation of Trade Unions shall automatically revert to the regularly elected President.

And, second, that the President of the American Federation of Labor be and is hereby instructed, if in the judgment of the Executive Council it may be deemed necessary, to take this matter up by correspondence and endeavor to have the principal involved in this resolution adopted.

We wish to call particular attention to the recommendation of the Executive Council and recommend that the convention specifically endorse that suggestion which is as follows:

"In discussing the subject of the next congress of the International Federation of Trade Unions, President Gompers has urged upon the officers of the labor movement of other countries that the spirit of the Zurich declaration should be observed and that when the official congress shall be held after the close of the war, it should be held in the United States, and at some time approximately near the time of the holding of the convention of the A. F. of L." From Executive Council report:

PAN-AMERICAN LABOR RELATIONS

Since the opening of the Panama Canal, there has been a growing realization that there ought to exist closer political, industrial and commercial relations between the peoples of the western hemisphere. The Panama Canal opened up new trade routes, new markets, and, therefore, new industrial and commercial opportunities, and with them the necessity for a closer political alliance. This has been augmented by the fact that the present European war has closed old trade routes and destroyed many of the markets to which the Pan-American Republics formerly carried the greater amount of their export merchandise.

During the past year the Congress of the United States authorized the Secretary of the Treasury to call a Pan-American Congress Conference for the purpose of considering better financial, industrial and commercial relations and the development of the natural resources of the countries of the western hemisphere. Accordingly the conference of representatives from the South American countries, Central America and Mexico, met with the representatives of the United States in Washington, May 24-29, 1915. These delegates represented all the great financial, industrial, and commercial interests of the Latin-American countries the steamship companies, the mines, the banks, railroads, telephones, and all the great corporations. This conference was to deal with matters and policies that were to be of a far-reaching consequence, not only in international relations between various countries, but in the internal development of the countries.

All these industrial enterprises depend upon human agencies which ought to be most carefully protected and conserved. Those who participated in this conference are to decide policies and to outline plans that will affect the lives of millions of people for years to come.

It is conceded that the chiefs of industry, finance and commerce, have their own interests foremost in mind-in fact, some who are recognized as world powers have recently stated that they know nothing of industrial relations with employes and that they considered labor conditions irrelevant to their concern. If as a nation we have a true conception of the value of human life, we ought to make human relations of chief concern in all our plans. We ought to improve our conception by providing representation. There is but one organization that stands for human welfare and human rights and nothing else. It is an organization that has concern not only for its membership, but for all those who do the work of the nation—a strong, militant organization that fights the battles of the weak and clears the path for progress that all the toilers may join the forward movement toward freedom and larger opportunity and welfare. This is the organization that ought to be represented in all of the councils of the nation-it expresses the burdens, the heartaches, the yearnings and the ideals of the masses of the nation.

Although these matters were of such tremendous significance, not only for the interests concerned, but ultimately an alliance of the peoples of these various nations, including our own, there was not a representative who stood either directly or indirectly for the cause of the toilers-for the cause of human rights, human liberty and ideals of democracy and greater freedom. Although it is recognized that material civilization, wealth, and all problems are to serve ultimately the needs of the people, yet the representatives of this Congress were of a type that would consider the development and the management of these interests purely from the standpoint of profits, with little or no regard for the human beings concerned, either as producers or consumers as men, women or children. The tremendous matters that were to be considered by this Congress were not generally understood, nor the far-reaching consequences of its decision, yet these representatives of financial interests, of commerce and of industry, apparently were representatives of their national governments and were authorized to make provisions for the future.

It requires no great imagination or discernment to understand that these able representatives of the interests would so plan and manipulate conditions and events, that the great corporate interests of the various countries would be in a position to control, not only the industries and commerce within their own countries, but international regulations for commerce and industry. In other words, this conference plainly would enable the corporate interests to entrench themselves in a powerful position that would require years of struggle to enable the people of the nations, the masses of the wage-earners, to secure for themselves protection and a right to opportunities in accord with their importance. This conference would determine the tone of international relations, the standards and ideals that would dictate policies and would thus establish a whole line of intangible powerful influence that would make doubly difficult the age-long struggle for freedom that the workers everywhere have waged.

It was because he felt that it was necessary for the wage-earners to be represented in the first meetings where policies were to be formulated and standards were to be set, that President Gompers entered a protest with Secretary of the Treasury McAdoo against the policy that excluded from representation in this conference representatives of human rights and of the masses of the people.

The inauguration of these Pan-American conferences makes it evident that the employing interests of all the countries feel an identity and that there is foreshadowed closer association, if not organization, of the employers of both the North and South American countries. If the employers of all these countries are to unite for the promotion of their common interests, it becomes all the more evident that the wage-earners of these countries must also unite for their common protection and betterment. With the Pan-American organization of employers it is clearly evident that organization on a national scale will not be adequate for the protection of the workers in international relations where it is probable that policies will be decided which will be the determining factors in all national policies. Therefore, we deem it wise to urge at this present time the inauguration of a special effort and policy to draw together more closely in fraternal relationship the workers of the North and South American continents. There have been made conditions that have hitherto hindered intercourse and close relationship, but now that the countries are to be bound closely together by industrial, commercial and financial ties, the workers must plan for the future. Of course conditions of life and standards of living, educational opportunities, language-all differ vitally as between the various American countries, but despite all of these differences, there is that time of common economic, political and social interest that will make for closer relationship and unity of action. From time to time, we have had correspondence with the organized labor movements of some of the countries of South America and Mexico, but this has been intermittent and without permanent association for mutual advancement.