At Toronto

Teetering on a dilemma was British Prime Minister James Ramsay MacDonald last week. He had been persuaded to address the American Federation of Labor's convention at Toronto. Militant crusader for his Labor party, he faced the militantly non-partisan A. F. of L. Nimbly he kept his verbal balance. Said he: "In Great Britain I am a party man, unashamed of it, glorying in it, but here today . . . I represent the whole nation." Abstractly he mentioned his Labor party's "revolution of the ballot box," then hurried on to footing less precarious. Fearlessly he generalized about war, common enemy of all laborers in or out of politics. "Labor," he said, "bears the burdens, the pains, the sacrifices of war. I come . . . as a missionary of peace." U. S. Railroad Unions, with 400,000 members, have long been eyed wistfully by the A. F. of L. At the convention a representative of one of the rail unions said: "I don't know why our brotherhood should not be in this, the largest labor organization in the world."* Elated, President Green enthused, "No more significant event has ever happened in the history of the A. F. of L. than this announcement." Injunction Power is the breaker of strikes, the bane of organized labor. For its restriction the A. F. of L. executive council concocted a bill last summer (TIME, Aug. 23). With but one dissenting vote the convention endorsed the bill, hoped wanly for congressional action on it. Organization of Southern Labor was undertaken by the federation with a fervent, choral "aye." A committee was enthusiastically delegated to gather $1,000,000 to feed, clothe, house Southern strikers, to hire Southern organizers. "We are willing to give until it hurts," said President Green, "but they [Southern strikers] must not think that immediately when a strike is called, a Northern bread-wagon is going to back up to feed them." President Green and the entire executive council were reelected. Boston was chosen for the 1930 convention. Auld Lang Syne was sung as the labormen ended their two-week convention.

*The A.F. of L. now has 2,933,545 members, a gain of 37,482 in the last year.