LABORATORY

a building in investigations and experiments in istry, physics and other sciences carried on. ) LABOR BANKS. A significant nomic effect of the World War in States, was establishment by trades unions of a number of labor in various parts of the country. institutions are conducted on | tive principles, the capital stock held by the unions and their the latter being also the depositors addition to those of other unions the general working public. The dends declared are strictly limited, also the amount of stock held by individual, and the depositors receive share of the profits as well as interest their accounts. In April, 1923, these labor banks were in operation, and thirteen others were projected. development began in 1920 with foundation of the Brotherhood of motive Engineers of the Engineer’s operative National Bank at Cleveland, Ohio, with a capital stock of $1,000,000 and reserves of $15,547,402. The year saw the establishment of the of Vernon Savings Bank, with a reserve Of in- $2,689,182, at Washington, D. C., by Canada, the International A ociation of Mae relachinists. Railroad workers next entered 1921, with the five the banking _ field, five Brotherhood Trust and Savings Bank, In operating at San Bernard i no, Cal., on boards a capital stock of $200,000,$and reserves entirely of $770,000, while various labor groups which the same year opened the Co-operative it Bank and Trust Company at Tucson, disputes Arizona, with a capital stock of $70,000, Boards and reserves of $262,000. The A mail gale gis mated Clothiers of America followed in Arbitra1922 by forming the Amalgamated Kansas, Trust and Savings Bank of Chicago, 1920-21, with a capital stock of $200,000, and workers reserves of $1,291,441, and in 1922 organized established another institution in New the York City, namely, the Amalgamated Railroad Bank. Other labor banks thereafter such a came into being, among them a bank at Gov Cincinnati, Ohio, controlled by the the Brotherhood of Raiilroad and Steamship abide Clerks, and the Federation Trust of boards New York City, under the joint auspices the of the Central Trades and Labor Council proved and the New York State Federation of to the Labor, each with a capital of $1,000,000. ranks.of The resources of American labo1 unions long since reached a volume that than enabled their officials to become acc us: disc on to med to handling and investing large proven sums of money, and none of the leading followed organizations therefore are novices in the high finance. In determining to be the their own bankers the unions were animated by the conviction that the which workers themselves, not the regula banks, should profit by the earning chem power of their savings. The Amal: are gamated Clothier Workers in New York City, for example, have an_ earning eco capacity approximately $2,500,000 United weekly, @ large proportion of whict leading hitherto went as savings into othel banks banks, though no single account was These large. The war, with its unparalleled co-opera influence in stimulating higher wages being and the cost of living, led to the dis. members, covery that labor was not making the in best use of its growing opulence. Ar and indication of what might be termed botk divi labor’s buying and saving power in 1928 as is was furnished by the National industria one Conference Board, which reported ir a: April that average money wages were on then 105 per cent. above the pre-wai ten of level, and average real wages, that is money wages adjusted to changes in the The cost of living, were 30 per cent. above the the pre-war figure. The figures, represent Locoing weekly earnings, were based on ¢ Cosurvey of twenty-three manufacturing industries employing more than 600,006 workers,and were accepted as represent a: same tive of labor conditions the country over Mount The labor banks they developed unde \ conditions that made labor’s purchasing a about a third greater than it was n the period before the war, and as 1923 progre ed labor’s resources tended to increase by further expansion in wages in exce of the ratio at which the cost of living advanced. Labor neverthele held that the rise in the cost of living was disproportionate to its wage advances. It determined, by the formation of banks, to shares indirectly in the earnings and profits of industry arising from greater living costs, to offset out-of-pocket lo es due to high prices by utilizing its savings in some form of joint stock control, and Obtained this by becoming bankers and purveyors of credit with its surplus capital. It set out to invest its accumulated savings in bonds (the first mortgages on industry) through its own banks, which also made commercial loans with labor’s savings as part of _ their regular banking busine ., Labor decided to control its own credit and thus opened up a new era in its relations with capital, which in its turn had long encouraged workers in joint stock manufacturing concerns to invest their savings in the industry that employed them. The entrance of labor into banking and its continued expansion in that field held out the prospect of a fundamental change in the character of trade unions, The succe of their banks was deemed as likely to weaken if not eliminate the tendency to socialism and communism, always most manifest in the unions, since the fostering of revolutionary doctrines and the founding of succe ful banks cannot go hand in hand. Moreover, by capitalizing its stake in America, labor is closely following the footsteps of capital in traveling a road by which capital itself became strong.