against loss by fire, theft or other accident.

These Treasury Savings Certificates are particularly attractive to wageearners because:

1. They carry valuable tax exemption privileges.

2. They cannot.depreciate in value, not being subject to market fluctuations.

3. They are a liquid investment, redeemable for cash upon ten days' notice. 4. They yield a substantial incomeactually more than 44 per cent.

5. They are short term, maturing January 1, 1924.

6. They represent absolute safety as obligations of the United States Government.

Trade Unionists as individuals are urged to take an active interest in this Thrift Citizen Movement and to become investors in these government securities-obtainable on an easy payment basis-and urge the union with which you are affiliated to invest, if possible, in the $1,000 Treasury Savings Certificate, or as many of the $100 Certificates as the treasury of the union will permit. This will guarantee the best possible interest and protection to your union funds.

The Treasury Savings Certificates may be purchased at postoffices of the first and second class, at such banks as are qualified as Second Class Agents for the sale of the W. S. S. and at the Federal Reserve Bank, 120 Broadway, New York City. $1,000 Certificates may not be purchased at postoffices, but may be purchased through the other agencies mentioned.

Resolutions Passed at Mass Meeting

Held at La Crosse, Wis., November 13, 1919

The Brotherhood of Locomotive Engineers, the Brotherhood of Locomotive Firemen and Enginemen, the Brotherhood of Railroad Trainmen, the Order of Railroad Conductors, the Brotherhood of Railway Clerk and Freight Handlers, the Brotherhood of Railway Carmen of America, the International Association of Machinists, the Railway Sheet Metal Workers Alliance, Maintenance of Way Employees, the Brotherhood of American Boiler Makers, the Brotherhood of Blacksmiths and Help

ers, the Order of Railroad Telegraphers, the Barbers, Bartenders, Beer Bottlers, Button Workers, Brewery Workers, Carpenters, Cigar Makers, Retail Clerks, Electricians, Hod Carriers, Meat Cutters, Musicians, Painters, Plumbers and Steamfitters, Pressmen, Standard Electric Railway Employees, Stage Employees, Shoe Repairers, Contract Sheet Metal Workers, Tailors, Typographical Unions, Teamsters, Building Trades Council, Fire Fighters, Flour and Cereal Workers, Federal Labor Union No. 16415, Express Division of Railway Clerks, Plasterers, and with them hundreds of citizens of La Crosse, in mass meeting assembled, for the common good, do hereby resolve:

1. We condemn the bill now pending in the Congress of the United States and known as the Cummins bill as unAmerican, undemocratic, and as an attempt to introduce involuntary servitude of the railway men and to chain them to their job against their will. It strikes at the foundation of organized labor and against the right of collective bargaining. It is the opposite of industrial democracy. It is industrial slavery. It is an attempt to make of the railway man either a slave or a criminal and to place him at the mercy of the system. It is a step to end labor organizations in the United States. It is going backward, not forward. It is diabolical in its intention and, if enacted into law and enforced, will deprive labor of its rights guaranteed by the constitution of the United States.

2. We condemn the Warwick Plan, the Lenroot Plan, and all other railway plans which provide for Government guarantees to the owners, or of flicker ing and uncertain bonuses to beguile the workmen. We are against all plans that place capital on a pedestal and labor at its feet. We favor industrial democracy and not industrial autoc

racy.

3. We favor and approve the Plumb Plan for public ownership and democratic management of the railroads. It elevates service above dividends. It takes the control of the railroads away from Wall Street and places it in the hands of the public and the trained officials and employees of the railways. It is American. It is a step forward. It looks to the lowering of the cost of

production. It appeals to the spirit of co-operation and institutes democracy in industry. It will give us adequate and reasonable rates and provide efficiency and economy in the operation of the railroads.

4. We condemn the vicious drive now waged on the part of capital to crush labor organizations, and to force American labor back to the position of half a century ago. We condemn the propaganda of vilification now unjustly hurled at labor. We demand the truth and the light of day on all that is being done and planned to the end that justice may prevail and American opportunity and liberty be not made a mockery.

Munchausen Oil

The old phrase "a lick and a promise" usually means a piece of slighted work, but the fake promoter who gives a lick and a promise cleans up his job in grand style. Your bank roll gets the lick and you get the promise and usually THAT IS ALL YOU GET.

Every so often the wheels of finance bring around a period of wildcat stock speculation. There is nothing really new in the flood of insecure "securities" now flooding the country. It is the same old gold brick game although it may have a new shiny plating.

In the last days of the Civil War, the first big discovery of oil gushers took place in the Pennsylvania oil fields. The country went crazy over oil stocks and dishonest promoters reaped a rich harvest. Hoping to warn investors, a Pittsburgh paper printed what purported to be a prospectus of the "Munchausen Philosopher's Stone and Gull Creek Oil Company." As a satire on the lurid promises made by promoters, this company was represented to have capital stock of $4,000,000,000 with a working capital of $37.50. It guaranteed semi-daily dividends except Sunday. The company, the article alleged, owned four tracts, the "Munchausen" tract having one well down sixteen million feet which yielded cooking butter, Bass ale, turtle soup and bounty money. The "Ananias and Sapphira" tract was described as being small, containing only 65,000,000 acres, while the "China and Hades" tract was said to be "especially rich in tea."

It is almost impossible to imagine intelligent newspaper readers taking such a satire seriously.

Yet inquiries poured into the newspaper asking where the stock could be secured. The promises made by dishonest promoters of the present day are not quite so spectacular as those of the Munchausen Oil, but many of them have just as little foundation.

The United States Treasury promises but two things, the payment of profitable interest and the payment of principal at maturity, BUT IT FULFILLS THOSE PROMISES TO THE LETTER. Since the days of the Revolutionary war era, the Government has never defaulted on payment of its bonds. Money so invested is safe and available in time of need. War Savings Stamps and Treasury Savings Certificates are always worth more than you paid for them.

You'll never get turtle soup out of an oil well and the only thing you are liable to get from a promoter's promise is experience.-Savings Division, U. S. Treasury Department.

Earning and Saving

Most workers have only one way of earning money, but every worker has hundreds and thousands of ways of spending it. The familiar and well marked road of earning is easy enough to follow but it is difficult not to become confused and follow the wrong turning at the crossroads and four corners of spending. The recent oil excitement in Texas has opened some queer paths before the feet of unaccustomed spenders according to stories from Dallas and Burke Burnett.

No other town of similar size has sold as many silk shirts as Dallas since the oil excitement began, according to these stories.

"I want a diamond for ma, here," Isaid a new oil magnate to a jewelry salesman the other day.

"What sort of a diamond?" asked the salesman.

"I judge I want one about the size of a nickel," said Ma. "The lady on the next ranch to me got one that was mighty near that big and I wanta outhold her."

One of the new millionaires finds his

only amusement in riding around all alone in a shiny limousine with a bright light lit over his head. So long as there is anyone on the streets to see him, he is driven up and down. He never asks anyone to ride with him.

One woman who was almost swamped under a flood of the new easy money still continues to run a boarding house but she is worried sick because she is getting money in so fast she cannot loan it out any more.

Of one couple it is related that when their first royalties came in the old farmer went to his wife. "We're rich now, ma," said he. "I'll get you anything you want now, no matter what it costs." The old lady deliberated for a long time and finally decided:

"Well, pa, I think I'd like to have a new axe."

One farmer was taken to an asylum the other day. He had been driven crazy by worrying over his income tax. Hotel keepers all over Texas report that new rich guests often are unable to sleep at nights so worried are they over how they shall spend their money or for fear their new wealth will suddenly take wings.

These stories often seem far-fetched and absurd, but the illogical and wasteful spending of money which they instance, is being paralleled daily in almost every community in the country. Equally reckless spending is being carried on not only by persons who have newly acquired wealth but by wage earners and people of moderate means as well. Many who find amusement in the spending antics of the new and puzzled Texas millionaire are following the same devious paths of extravagant spending and ill-advised investment even if it be upon a different scale.

Yet security and enjoyment are open to both classes through wise spending, Governsaving and safe investment. ment securities offer security and profit for the funds of all, no matter how great or small. Thrift Stamps, War Savings Stamps, Treasury Savings Certificates and Liberty Bonds are adapted to the investment of any amount. They offer a safe broad highway for the dollars which certainly would become lost in the tangled paths of extravagance.-Savings Division, U. S. Treasury Department.

Safety of Savings of Those Engaged in Industry Is as Essential as

Prevention of Accidents

"Safety first" has come to be a watchword in the industrial plants of America. The managements of such institutions have recognized that care for the lives, limbs, health, and welfare of their employees is not only a profitable commercial policy but a public duty. Employees have recognized that it is to their own interest and to that of the industries in which they are engaged and of the public, to co-operate in such measures as make for safety.

Late last month two million railroad men united in a nation-wide drive for elimination of accidents to themselves and the public.

The safety of the earnings and savings of the men and women engaged in industry is no less essential than the preservation of their lives and bodies. Their dollars, in which are tied their future prosperity and that of their children, face pitfalls and death traps as productive of danger as an unguarded grade crossing or a hidden band saw.

The chief dangers to the financial safety of the industrial workers and their employers lie in extravagance and investment in unsound and fraudulent stocks. Many a wage-earner has had his financial future crippled by wild spending for nonessentials as surely as though he had lost his right arm in an industrial accident.

A man who suffers an accident for which he is not to blame may recover damages, but investors in wildcat stocks, bought on promises of dishonest promoters that they will yield sensational profits, stands no chance of recovering his loss when the inevitable blow-up occurs.

The dangers that lurk in speculative investment are cleverly concealed in many cases. The traps are baited with enticing allurements of wealth. They are covered oftimes by a disguise of legitimate business and hidden behind industrial projects of real and proven value. To investors without guidance, who are unaccustomed to such investments, it is difficult to judge the true from the false.

William B. Colver, of the Federal Trade Commission, recently said: "All

the blue sky stock operators are not confined by any means to the flotation of 'dusters' in mid-western oil fields. Just the other day, in New York, a substantial going business concern needing money raised it on these terms: It issued its securities, which were taken by the underwriters at 30; the underwriters passed them to a subunderwriters' syndicate at 53, a profit of 76 per cent; the subunderwriters passed them on to the brokers at 82, a profit of 54 per cent; the brokers handed them on to the men in the street at par, making a profit of 22 per cent.

"The investor did not know that out of his $100 only $30 reached the concern in which he thought he was investing. Transactions like that are not going to lower the cost of living."

As a business policy and as an industrial policy both employers and employees owe co-operation with the campaign of the Savings Division of the Treasury Department to give warning of the financial dangers which surround them both from extravagance and from wildcat stocks. A financial accident as well as a physical accident is a blow to the industrial concern just as it is a blow to the employee who is its victim. Such accidents can best be avoided by personal care, saving and investigation, and by investment in Government securities, Liberty bonds, War Savings Stamps, and Treasury Savings Certificates, which assure safety, protection, and profit.

Extend your "Safety first” campaign to the financial field by warnings, encouragement, care, and example.

No Justice for Poor

Elihu Root Endorses Statement That Courts Are Partial to the Rich

A greater surprise never came to the legal profession than the concurrence of Elihu Root, barrister and corporation attorney, with the statement of the Carnegie Foundation that the poorer classes cannot get justice in the courts. Mr. Root's endorsement of the statement came in a signed foreword to "Justice and the Poor," a recent pub lication of the Carnegie Foundation. In Part I, which deals with "the existing denial of justice to the poor," the following assertion is made: