During the past two years, since the Boston convention of 1920, the Amalgamated has fought many serious and difficult battles. The industrial crisis, which, like a terrible epidemic, has spread all over the country, has aroused to fever pitch the keen desire of the organized employers to abolish the few privileges the workers have won after difficult struggle during normal, industrial times. The organized employers have gathered all their forces and begun the bitter fight against their workers. It was very easy for them to do so in the unorganized industries. The unorganized workers, being unable to put up any opposition, surrendered without even protesting against the most cruel demands 2of their employers. For example, the wages of the steel workers were constantly reduced until they reached the present level, which is an average of eighteen dollars per week, just as in the good old times.

For many months, a critical struggle has been going on in the building trades industry, a struggle which is the bitterest in the history of that industry, a struggle for life or death, a struggle for the principle of the closed shop, which the union had won after many years of hard fighting.

Half a million coal miners are in the midst of a bitter fight because the coal barons refuse even to negotiate with them about a new agreement.

It would have been no different in the needle trades industry, but thanks to the mighty power of the Amalgamated, the devotion, steadfastness, and militancy of its members, the unity of the organization was saved as well as the 3privileges and working conditions of its two hundred thousand members.

The chief gain of the Amalgamated has been that it saved its principles, the heart and soul of the organization, during this difficult period of industrial crisis. The Amalgamated had to agree to a reduction of wages--in New York fifteen per cent, in Chicago ten per cent--but the question of wages was never a question of principle with this progressive labor union. The Amalgamated has always regarded the question of wages as something that can be discussed, negotiated, raised, or lowered.

The Amalgamated went out on strike for a forty-four hour week and a raise in wages. After ten weeks of striking, the Amalgamated won its demand for a reduction of working hours, but lost the demand for a wage increase. The Amalgamated has always held that one can discuss wages, that one can trade with dollars and cents, but not with principles.

This report will be proudly given to today's convention, and will be, undoubtedly, accepted enthusiastically by the hundreds of delegates who represent about two hundred thousand members of one of the most progressive labor organizations in the world.

The Question of Soviet Russia

The question of Soviet Russia will undoubtedly be one of the most important questions facing today's convention of the Amalgamated, a question of interest not only to the members of the Amalgamated but also to the international labor movement. At the Boston convention of 1920, it was decided that a committee be sent to Russia to investigate the economic conditions there and to bring back a true report about what is going on in the land of the Soviets because so many shameful lies have been spread about it.

President [Sidney] Hillman left for Russia in July, 1921. He spent a few weeks 5there and had every opportunity to study the economic conditions there. He paid particular attention to the study of the conditions within the needle trades industry there. When he returned from the trip and made his report, the Amalgamated began at once to work intensively to help the suffering workers in Soviet Russia. The Amalgamated contributed generously to this relief work. Over two hundred thousand dollars was spent for this important work. The Amalgamated paid particular attention to the workers of the needle trades industry in Russia, and, upon the advice of Mr. Sidney Hillman, helped them with machinery and tools, which they, in Mr. Hillman's opinion, needed most. Such relief work is, without doubt, very desirable, and it was greeted as such by organized labor. The constructive work of the Amalgamated has done more for the tailors of Russia than all the "relief" which they received from all "relief organizations".

Mr. Hillman will give a full report to the convention on the economic conditions in Soviet Russia. A concrete plan will also be presented, dealing with 6constructive relief work for Russia.

The Amalgamated Trust and Savings Bank

The Boston convention of 1920 approved the plan of establishing Amalgamated banks. Conditions, however, were not favorable and this plan has not yet been realized. The delegates at this convention will hear the cheerful-for them--report that the first Amalgamated Bank is no longer a dream but a reality. The first bank will be opened in Chicago on July first, with a capital of two hundred thousand dollars and a reserve fund of one hundred thousand dollars. The bank will be located at 371 Jackson Boulevard. The bank will be under the management of W. Thompson, and the officers of the Amalgamated: Sidney Hillman, Sam Levin, Marimpietra, Frank Rosenblum, Sam Rissman, and Stephen Skala. The first sale of shares in the bank took place Friday evening at a meeting in the West Side Auditorium, attended by the members of the Chicago 7Joint Board and all shop chairmen. About fifty thousand dollars' worth of shares were sold, after Sidney Hillman, Joseph Schlossberg, Sam Levin, and W.Thompson spoke.One can be certain that all the shares will be sold within a few days, if we are to judge by the tremendous success of the initial sale. This bank, a financial institution of the workers, will, in all probability, be a big success; the Amalgamated alone will do five million dollars worth of business a year with this bank.

Mr. Jacob Patowski, assistant general secretary of the Amalgamated, reports that large deposits will be made at this bank by various labor unions. A beginning has been made by the Locomotive Engineers Union, which has decided to deposit one hundred thousand dollars in the Amalgamated Bank.

A report will be given at the convention about the Amalgamated Bank in Chicago. Plans will also be formulated regarding the establishment of similar banks in 8all important Amalgamated centers.

A United Needle Trades Industry

An important place on the agenda of the convention will be occupied by the problem of uniting the needle trades industry in the United States and of creating closer international connections in the industry. The general executive board had approved, at its session in Montreal, in June, 1921, [the question of] unity within the needle trades industry. Nothing practical has been done as yet about this resolution of the board. The convention will consider and analyze the reasons for this inactivity and will formulate plans for future improvement.

The position of the Amalgamated leaders regarding unity in the industry has not changed. The delegates at this convention will let their voices be heard 9on this highly important question.

In accordance with the decision of the Boston convention, the Amalgamated was represented at the International Clothing Workers Congress, held in Copenhagen, in August, 1920. Joseph Schlossberg, general secretary of the Amalgamated, who was the delegate to this important convention, had the great opportunity of studying the labor movement and the political conditions in Europe, and of bringing understanding and enlightenment to the convention, the delegates to which were not nearly as progressive and as class conscious as the Amalgamated representative. The presence of Mr. Schlossberg had, without doubt, a great influence upon the convention which adopted a more militant and more progressive attitude. In spite of that, a profound feeling of bitterness was felt at the convention toward the syndicalists, and the clothing workers of Russia were not even invited to the [international] conference.

This problem will be considered at today's session [of the Amalgamated 10convention], and it is expected that the delegates will not act hastily in this matter. It is understood that the progressive spirit of the Amalgamated delegates will not be satisfied with such a conservative international labor organization. The delegates, however, will have to bear in mind the knowledge that if they withdraw from that organization, it will become thoroughly conservative and reactionary. Without the enlightenment of the Amalgamated, darkness will reign there.

Many important organizational problems will be considered at this convention. Let us hope that the four hundred delegates will handle these problems intelligently and honestly; so that the two hundred thousand Amalgamated members who have entrusted to them the honor and the task of solving these problems, will be satisfied.