of its leadership in the international labour movement of the continent, were followed with greatest interest by the majority of Canadian trade unionists. The 46th Annual Convention of the Federation was held at Detroit, Oct. 4-10, 1926, 91 international organizations being represented, Receipts for the year were reported at $731,525.29, and the expenses at $519,113.33. At the close of the fiscal year there were 107 national and international organizations in affiliation, 49 state federations and various local bodies. The proceedings of the Convention ranged over a very wide field which it would be impossible to summarize within the limits of this article. Over fifty resolutions were passed. Significantly, the Federation still opposed recognition of the Russian Soviet Government. William Green was re-elected as President of the Federation, and Frank Morrison as Secretary. Los Angeles, California, was chosen as the Convention City for 1927.

The more important conventions of the Canadian national labour bodies were as follows:

Federation of Catholic Workers of Canada. The 5th Annual Congress of this body was held in Sherbrooke, Quebec, Sept. 18-21, 1926. Eighty-eight delegates representing 86 syndicates were recognized by the Credentials Committee. Resolutions were passed favouring the establishment of a strike fund, favouring Old Age Pensions, favouring the establishment of evening classes for working men, requesting a superior council of labour for Quebec, favouring specific amendments of the Workmen's Compensation Act, and on many other subjects of interest to labour. The Report of the General Secretary showed that 660 new members had been added during the year, the total membership reaching 26,110. Receipts during the year were $9,729.32 and expenses, $8,379.87. P. Beaulé, Quebec, was elected President, and F. Laroche, Quebec, General-Secretary. The next Annual Convention was to be held at Lachine, Quebec. Previous to this Meeting the Federation of Catholic Printing Trades held its first Annual Conference also at Sherbrooke.

Other Canadian Organizations. The eighteenth Biennial Convention of the National Association of Marine Engineers of Canada met at Montreal on Feb. 15, 1926, Grand President E. Hamelin in the chair. Fifteen delegates were present, representing a membership of 1,068, a gain of 172 since the last convention held in Ottawa in 1924.

A significant incident early in the year was the issuance of a charter by the Canadian Brotherhood of Railway Employees to seceders from the International Board of Boiler Makers, Iron Shipbuilders and Helpers. The Canadian Brotherhood thus came definitely into the field to accept into membership all classes of railroad shopmen in Canada. This foreshadowed the important step taken in March, 1927, when an all-Canadian Congress of Nattional and Independent Unions was formed at Montreal. This

latest movement had its origin in the West, following a split in the ranks of the Alberta miners. The leading participants in the meeting were the Canadian Federation of Labour and the Canadian Brotherhood of Railroad Employees, the Convention including over 100 delegates from all parts of Canada. The organization was completed, with Ottawa as headquarters.

Other meetings of the year of interest from a labour standpoint may be mentioned as follows:

The 24th Annual Convention of the Labour Educational Association of Ontario was held in the Labour Temple, London, Ontario, on May 24. Chief features of the Convention were discussions on prison-made goods and the eight-hour day. James Sullivan, Hamilton, was elected President.

The Annual Meeting of the Canadian Council on Child Welfare was held at Ottawa, Oct. 29, 1926. The section on Child Labour presented an important report on minimum age for employment, night employment, etc. Mrs. C. H. Thorburn, Ottawa, was elected President and Miss Charlotte Whitton, Ottawa, Executive Secretary.

At the Annual General Meeting of the Canadian Manufacturers' Association (which is the leading organization of employers in Canada) at Toronto, June 8-10, 1926, the President, after referring to the improved industrial conditions of the year, spoke in part as follows on the subject of relations with employees: "The relations of employers and employees in Canada on the whole are excellent. They have been constantly improving for some years. Much has been accomplished by co-operation. Wage earners are being told the true conditions in their industries and are realizing more and more that the interests of employees and employers are the same.

As manufacturers, we should do everything possible to increase the confidence of our wage-earning associates, and to secure a larger measure of their interest in our enterprises." The report of the Industrial Relations Committee, of the Association outlined the report of the employers' representative at the Seventh Session of the International Labour Conference at Geneva. With regard to the draft guaranteeing adequate compensation for injured workmen, the report stated: "So far as Canada is concerned the minimum set by the Convention is considerably below that which prevails in the various provinces, so that the Convention represents a levelling up of conditions in countries less advanced than our own."

The Committee expressed the opinion that it was impossible for the employers of Canada to modify in any way the attitude they had always adopted of opposition to compulsory eight-hourday legislation, if for no other reason than that the United States showed no sign of adopting such a principle. It went on: "At the past Session of the Alberta Legislature an eight-hour day clause was inserted in a new consolidated Factories Act. Our Alberta members having decided to oppose this to the utmost, your Committee sent its secretary to Alberta to give all possible assistance. A strong

delegation waited on the Government, the heads of the United Farmers of Alberta and members of the Legislature were thoroughly canvassed, a radio address was given, the co-operation of other business organizations was enlisted; and as a result the eighthour-day clause was struck out of the Bill and instead, a commission was set up to study the whole question of eight-hour-day legislation as it would effect Alberta." After a review of the legislative changes during the year in connection with Workmen's Compensation, the Committee made the following statement of the employers' views on accident prevention: "With five compulsory state insurance systems of Workmen's Compensation in force in Canada it becomes increasingly clear that too much attention cannot be paid to the prevention of accidents." On the Industrial Disputes Investigation Act the Committee reviewed the recent action taken by the Dominion and by various Provinces with regard to the Act, adding: "Alberta, instead of following the example of the other five Provinces, introduced a new Act modelled on the Lemieux Act, but differing in this one important respect, viz., that the definition of 'employer' was widened to include everyone who employs ten or more people. Your Committee took the view that, while the principle of compulsory arbitration may be necessary and sound in the case of vital public services, the application of this principle to general industry is unnecessary in the interests of the public, and, therefore, constitutes an unwarranted interference with an employer's management of his own business." In a review of the Minimum Wage regulation of the year the Committee referred to the appointment of a Board in Quebec, noting favourably that the new Board proposed not to interfere in any industry unless and until some complaint was made. Reference was also made to the enactment of the Male Minimum Wage Act of British Columbia, the first act of its kind on this continent.

The Alberta Branch of the Canadian Manufacturers' Association waited on the Provincial Cabinet and the Workmen's Compensation Board in January, 1926, with a proposal that the whole Act be reviewed at the forthcoming Session of the Legislature. The manufacturers of Alberta, it was stated "are thoroughly in accord with the principle of compensation for injuries received by workmen in the course of their employment, and have every confidence in the Workmen's Compensation Board, but increases in compensation within the last six years have led to the belief that the Government is obliged to provide maintenance for disabled workmen instead of assistance, and therefore changes should be made."

Next

Interviews of Labour Bodies with Governments. to their annual conventions, perhaps the most important public activities of the labour bodies were their interviews in 1926 with Dominion and Provincial Governments which were becoming a more or less fixed custom and at which opportunity was offered to present the views of the various organizations in specific form to the authorities with whom legislative action rested.

The Trades and Labour Congress of Canada submitted their legislative programme to the Dominion Government on Dec. 15, 1926, when a full presentation was made by a large and representative committee, most of the members of the Dominion Government being present. The proposals submitted were divided into three sections: (1) summaries of subjects detailed in previous presentations, the Congress having in the previous April presented a memorandum which reviewed this programme exhaustively; (2) new briefs on union registration, Old Age Pensions, Senate Reform, picketing and injunctions, Election Act amendments and immigration; and (3) references to subjects for subsequent departmental discussion. The Prime Minister in reply promised that the proposed legislation would receive the careful consideration of the Members of the Government and that each Minister would make a careful study of the proposals affecting his particular department.

The International Railway Brotherhoods also held an important meeting with members of the Dominion Government on Apr. 7, 1926, when a detailed memorandum of proposed legislation was presented and discussed with members of the Government.

The Federation of Catholic Workers of Canada laid before the Dominion Government on Mar. 18, 1926, four recommendations based on resolutions of the Annual Convention in the previous October. The recommendations dealt with ship-building, the tariff, union labour, and the appointment of a technical adviser to the Canadian delegation at the International Labour Congress. Again on Feb. 25, 1927, the Federation presented the programme approved at the Sherbrooke meeting above mentioned, dealing more specifically with Old Age Pensions, union labels and peaceful picketing.

Various Provincial Legislatures were also memorialized by different labour bodies, including the provincial executives of the Trades and Labour Congress, the Federation of Catholic Workers, the Railway Brotherhood, and the United Mine Workers.

The Trades and Labour Council of London, Ontario, waited on the Honourable, the Minister of Labour, on May 8, 1926, to ask for certain amendments of the criminal code and for remedies for other grievances.

Revolutionary Labour Organizations. The Communist Party of Canada (first organized in 1922 as the "Workers' Party of Canada") in December, 1926, sent Mr. Tim Buck of Toronto as its representative to the Moscow Session of the Executive of the Communist International. Previously (Nov. 14, 1926) District No. 3 of the Party had held a conference in Toronto, at which delegates from eight cities were in attendance. The Trade Union Educational League, which in 1922 was selected as the official representative in Canada and the United States of the Red International of Labour Unions, pursued an active policy throughout the year. Against this wing of labour, however, the regular trade

unions took various steps. Both the A.F. of L. and the Trades and Labour Congress adopted anti-Communist resolutions. addition, during 1926 the United Brotherhood of Carpenters and Joiners issued an official warning to their members; the United Mine Workers of America also officially circularized their membership; a Communist member was expelled by the Labour Party, which adopted a resolution debarring membership to Communists in the organization. A resolution, however, was passed by the Canadian Labour Party at a session held in April, 1927, in which Communists were in the majority, urging workers to abstain from participation in the Diamond Jubilee of Confederation.

Strikes * and Lockouts During 1926

The year was a favourable one from the standpoint of interruptions to industry through labour disturbances. The time loss in working days through trade disputes was, in fact, less than in any year since 1915 and 1916, and previously in any year since 1905. The number of disputes was approximately the same as in the three preceding years, but the number of employees affected was smaller, and the strikes as a whole were not nearly so protracted. Especially noticeable was the improvement in the coal mining industry, in contrast with the conditions which prevailed from 1922 to 1925, when the disputes in this field were not only numerous but involved in several cases large numbers of miners for long periods of time.

The more costly disputes of 1926 occurred in the clothing and boot and shoe industries, in Quebec, Montreal and Toronto, for union wage scales and working conditions. Two-thirds of the entire time loss of the year resulted from these disturbances. Four disputes in the logging industry of northern Ontario for increases in wages also caused considerable loss. In coal mining, there were 20 disputes, but none of long duration, the chief one being in the neighbourhood of Edmonton for an increase in wages and recognition of the Union.

Altogether, according to the records of the Department of Labour, there were 77 trade disputes in existence during the year, involving 598 employers, 24,142 employees and a time loss of 296,811 working days, the last figure being only one-sixth of that for 1925. Nearly two-thirds of the time loss was in the Province of Quebec, and about one-third in the boot and shoe industry. Twenty-five disputes of the year ended in favour of the employees, 23 in favour of the employers, and 19 in a compromise, while in 10 the results were indefinite.

The Industrial Disputes Investigation Act, 1907, was invoked in several cases during the year, chiefly in the transportation industry. A Board appointed on May 18, 1926, in connection with a dispute between the Canadian National Railways (Montreal and Southern Counties Railway) and their conductors, trainmen,

*NOTE: See "Transportation" Section for Railway disputes.