workers by attempting to reintroduce piece work and the 48-hour week in the place of time work and the 44-hour week. Some 60,000 workers were involved. The union finally secured an injunction against the employers forbidding them to break their contract, which was to run until June, 1922. The use of the injunction by labor against capital received much publicity and was by no means universally approved by labor leaders, who for many years had sought the elimination of that weapon from industrial warfare. Morris Hillquit, chief counsel for the union in this suit, made the following statement relative to this matter: "One of the principal merits of the precedent established in the present suit is that it will tend to make injunctions less popular with employers. I hope it will lead to a radical limitation and eventually the complete abolition of judicial interference in labor disputes by means of injunctions."-The Amalgamated Clothing Workers of America through its president, Sidney Hillman, made a three-year agreement, effective May 1, with the Association of Chicago Clothing Manufacturers. The Amalgamated has about 50,000 members in Chicago. The agreement provided for a cut in wages averaging slightly less than ten per cent but the machinery of job control, arbitration and negotiation was retained intact.

A wage reduction of twenty per cent and a proposed increase of working time from 48 hours to 54 hours by the New England mill owners led to widespread strikes among the textile workers in Massachusetts, New Hampshire and Rhode Island early in 1922. State troops were sent into several districts in Rhode Island to preserve order and several strikers were killed in Pawtucket in clashes with police authorities. The contest involved some 100,000 workers, many of whom have been on strike for several months. The mill-owners claimed that the reason for the wage reduction and the lengthening of the working day was their inability to compete with southern mills. In Manchester, New Hampshire, where the largest textile mill in the United States, Amoskeag, is located, the United Textile Workers recently published in several local newspapers the findings of experts relative to the financial operations of this plant. These showed exceedingly large profits for the company. Another seat of serious trouble is Lawrence, Massachusetts. At the close of the period under review the struggle was still going on throughout the New England mill districts.-The strike of the cotton mill operatives in North Carolina, which began in February, 1921, ended in August with the complete victory of the owners. Wage reductions ranging from thirty-eight to fifty per cent were made.

Probably the most serious labor disturbances of the year occurred in the coal industry. The struggle in the West Virginia mines has been going on continually for more than two years. At times it has broken out in open warfare. In August an armed band of several

thousand miners attempted to march into Mingo county and forcibly unionize the field. State forces were hastily mobilized to oppose them. The governor called upon the federal government for help and President Harding on August 30 ordered the insurrectionists to disperse by noon September 1. The proclamation was disregarded and a small force of soldiers under Brigadier General Bandholtz was sent into the troubled area. There was but little fighting and large numbers of the miners surrendered their arms while the rest dispersed to their homes. The fundamental cause of the trouble was that the mine operators refused to employ union miners while the United Mine Workers were determined to unionize the fields. The miners claimed that the operators employed large numbers of private detectives to browbeat the workers. The Senate Committee on Education and Labor made a report on the West Virginia coal fields after hearings and personal investigations. It stated that there had been violations of law on both sides of the controversy, that the United Mine Workers committed acts of violence which were absolutely unjustifiable and that the operators had been guilty of practices that could not be defended. The committee characterized the operators' practice of paying the wages of deputy sheriffs as a vicious and unAmerican policy. One incident of the struggle in West Virginia was the issuance by Judge A. B. Anderson of the federal district court at Indianapolis of an injunction against the United Mine Workers, ordering them to cease their attempts to unionize, even by peaceful means, the Williamson coal field in West Virginia. He also enjoined the check off system, but this injunction was later overruled by the court of appeals. In April the West Virginia contest was merged with the general coal strike.

The great strike of the coal miners began on April 1, the wage scale between the miners and the owners having expired on March 31 and the owners having refused to meet representatives of the unions for the establishment of a further agreement. The miners demanded the maintenance of the wage scale made in 1920, while the operators desired reductions ranging from seventeen to forty per cent. The operators also demanded the abolition of the "check off" system by which unions require employers to collect union dues for them by deducting the amount of a miner's dues from his wages. The men, moreover, wished to have the new agreement continue to cover the entire central competitive region, including Pennsylvania, Indiana, Illinois and Ohio, while the owners insisted upon separate agreements. A survey of the nation-wide coal strike, published May 28 by the Federal Council of the Churches of Christ in America, brought out the fact that about 515,000 miners, including 117,000 non-union men, had quit work. It was estimated that 121,000 non-union men, producing about 4,000,000 tons weekly, were at work. The coal re

serves which on April 1 amounted to 63,000,000 tons had been reduced to 40,000,000 tons at the end of May. The report declared that the principal cause of frequent idleness in the coal fields was over-development. During the last weeks in June the strike in southern Illinois developed into serious warfare. At Herrin several strikers and a score of strike-breakers were killed when the union strikers attempted to close down a mine recently opened with imported nonunion men. An attempt to settle the strike was made during the last days of June when President Harding ordered a conference of the operators and the miners' representatives.

There has been considerable labor difficulty in the railroad industry, caused chiefly by sweeping wage reductions. The most serious crisis came in October. On July 1 the Railway Labor Board had ordered a wage reduction amounting to 121⁄2 per cent, and on October 14 the railway executives decided to ask the Board for a further reduction of 10 per cent, this saving to be passed on to the shippers by a rate reduction. This would have meant the taking from employees about $300,000,000 per annum and the saving of as much to the shippers. On the following day the railway unions answered with a strike order calling out on October 30 some 500,000 men in first instance and intimating that it would be extended to include 2,000,000 men by November 2. President Harding at once took action to prevent a general railroad strike. The Labor group of the Labor Board presented to the President a proposal that the unions accept the 121⁄2 per cent reduction ordered in July but that freight reductions be made at once equivalent to the saving in wages. On October 27 the heads of the railway labor unions cancelled their strike order after a conference with the Labor Board. The July wage reductions were accepted but the Board promised that it would not consider further reductions until it had completed its work relative to rules and working conditions. The unions claimed a victory in preventing the threatened further wage reduction of ten per cent.-On December 1 the Railway Labor Board handed down a decision promulgating 148 new working rules to govern the employment of the six federated railroad shop crafts and taking the place of the national agreement entered into by the United States Railroad Administration and the railroad employees. The decision definitely recognized the open-shop principle.-On May 28 the Railway Labor Board issued an order for wage reductions, effective July 1, which it was estimated would cut $48,000,000 from the annual railroad payrolls. The decision affected approximately 400,000 maintenance-of-way men and ordered a reduction of about thirteen per cent. On June 6 the Board ordered a new cut of seven cents an hour for shop mechanics and other railroad workers. After this wage cut was announced, the heads of eleven railroad unions decided to meet in conference at Cincinnati to order strike votes.

On June 27 it was announced that a strike would begin on July 1 unless these wage reductions were cancelled. During the last days of the month the President took steps to have the decisions of the Labor Board carried out and to have the strike settled.

Early in September Secretary of the Navy Denby approved the report of the Departmental Wage Board of Review of the Navy Department recommending wage cuts of about eighteen per cent for some 60,000 civilian workers in the navy yards. One thousand dollars was fixed as the minimum wage of a laborer with a family. According to the report the recommended wages were forty-five per cent above those prevailing in 1913 while the cost of living was eighty per cent higher.-Early in 1921 new agreements were signed by the United States Shipping Board, deep-water steamship lines, and contracting stevedores of the port of Boston and the International Longshoremen's Association. The new contracts provided for the preferential shop, the eight-hour basic day, and the settlement of controversies by a committee composed of both parties. The contracts were to remain in effect until October 1, 1922. Similar agreements were made in October covering Hampton Roads and vicinity and the port of New York. - The New York Photo Engravers' Union No. I and the Photo Engravers' Board of Trade of New York renewed their collective agreement for 1922. The contract provided for the closed union shop, 44-hour week for day work, and 40-hour week for night work.-In August substantial reductions in wages were made by the paper mills of the United States and Canada, and also by the United States Steel Corporation.

The American Federation of Labor held its forty-second annual convention in Cincinnati during the latter part of June. Samuel Gompers was elected President for the forty-first time. One of the bitterest controversies of the session was fought over a resolution favoring the recognition of the Soviet Government by the United States, but the resolution was decisively defeated by Gompers and his followers. Among the resolutions adopted by the convention were the following: repeal of the Sherman anti-trust law and the adoption of amendments to the constitution providing for the prohibition of child labor; prohibition of the enactment of any law or judicial determination denying the workers the right to organize, to deal collectively with employers, and to strike or boycott; authority for Congress to veto decisions of the United States Supreme Court by re-passing by a two-thirds majority any law declared unconstitutional; and the adoption of a method to make easier the amendment of the federal Constitution.

TERRITORIES AND DEPENDENCIES. -In his first annual report, made public December 6, Governor S. C. Bond of Alaska declared that the government must adopt a policy which will attract

capital and settlers to the territory. Liberal mining and land laws, framed to meet the needs of Alaska, and better postal and transportation facilities were among his more specific recommendations. The Harding administration is in sympathy with these proposals. — The report of the "Special Mission of Investigation to the Philippine Islands" (cf. last RECORD, p. 55) was submitted on October 8. After rendering an exhaustive account of conditions in the islands, the Mission went on record as opposed to granting the Filipinos independence at the present time. To do so, the Commissioners believed, would be a betrayal of the Philippine people, a misfortune to the American people, a distinct step backward in the path of progress, and a discreditable neglect of our national duty". Among other things, the report further recommended that the Governor-General be given authority commensurate with the responsibilities of his position. To this end it called upon Congress to repeal the Jones Bill, passed by the 67th Congress, which limits the authority of the Filipino Chief Executive. Two days prior to submission of the report, General Leonard Wood, chairman of the investigating Mission, retired from the army and became Governor-General of the islands. Under his administration a number of important financial changes have been undertaken. Early in August M. Araullo was selected as Chief Justice for the Philippines. In March H. A. Baldwin was elected delegate to Congress from Hawaii. The administration of Porto Rico by Governor E. M. Reily has met with decided opposition during the year. Representatives of the Unionist party of the islands charged him with maladministration in office and with making illegal removals and appointments. In March Felix C. Davila, resident commissioner from Porto Rico, demanded the Governor's removal on the ground of official misconduct and unfitness to hold office. Reily asserted that the charges were untrue and were brought against him for political reasons.-In July Secretary of War Weeks abolished the office of United States Marshal and Assistant United States Marshal in the Panama Canal Zone. During the same month residents of the Virgin Islands protested against payment of an income tax levied by Congress without consulting the Colonial Council.

III. MEXICO AND THE CARIBBEAN STATES

MEXICO. The outstanding feature in Mexican political life during the year under review has been the unrelenting effort on the part of the Obregon government to secure recognition, especially by the United States. Prior to last July several powers had already recognized the new government (cf. last RECORD, p. 56), and on the twentyfirst of that month Spain and Japan extended formal recognition. The United States demanded, as the price of recognition, that Mexico first sign a treaty (cf. last RECORD, p. 57) agreeing to modify her con