LABOR: In Los Angeles

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U. S. trade unionism, comprising more than 3,000,000 citizens sent its delegates to Los Angeles, Calif., for the 47th annual convention of the American Federation of Labor. First the delegates held departmental meetings—bricklayers to discuss bricklaying, machinists to talk machinery, etc. Then the Executive Council published its annual report, making the following points:

'Ware Labor Banks. Let the banking difficulties of the Brotherhood of Locomotive Engineers (TIME, July 4, Aug. 1) be a warning to Labor not to rush into banking schemes and investment companies until the whole subject of Labor banking for itself has been further explored and studied.

Statistics v. Strikes. The A. F. of L. has definitely adopted a new way of arguing for higher wages. It will "rely on facts rather than force." The strike will be held in abeyance as a weapon of last resort. Labor will compile, interpret and argue with figures first.

Five-Day Week. From 1776 to 1835, the U. S. workday was 12 to 14 hours. Between 1840 and 1870, it was ten hours. By 1918, it had been lowered to eight hours. The next objective of the A. F. of L. is to reduce the U. S. working week to five days.

Communism. In the Passaic (N. J.) textile workers' strike last winter, in the woman's garment industry, and in the Manhattan fur workers' strike, Communist machinations were exposed and defeated by A. F. of L. members.

Motor Workers. As decided last year in Detroit, the A. F. of L.'s next big task is to unionize the automobile industry. This work is well afoot.

Politics. Let Labor's political action in 1924, when it endorsed La Follette because neither Democrats nor Republicans sought to please Labor, be a warning to the two big parties next year.

What the late Samuel Gompers would have thought of the Executive Council's decision to "rely on facts rather than force" was something that gave oldtime militants in the A. F. of L. much food for reflection. Nor was this food seasoned by anything peppery in the keynote remarks of the leader upon whom the Gompers mantle fell three years ago. He, President William Green, euphemizes strikes as "our economic powers." He is a student of such economic abstractions as "collective bargaining," such legalistic abstractions as "jurisdictional disputes." He does not place the unions above the law. He argues almost academically for the continuance of prosperity through the distribution of wealth to workers by high wages.

The Keynote struck by President Green was Gompersian enough— Labor will continue to fight "government by injunction."

Other Speakers, however, were more closely listened to than the keynoter, including: