CHAPTER XIII·

Reports and Documents

1. The Berne Conference.

2. Charter of Labor of the Berne Conference. 3. The Lucerne Conference.

4. Clauses for insertion in the treaty of peace.

Document No. 1

The following ample summary of both the Berne and the Lucerne conferences of the Second International are quoted from The American Labor Year Book for 1919-1920, pp. 308-311.

"THE BERNE CONFERENCE

"The International Socialist Conference held at Berne February 2-9, 1919, was called together at the initiative of the International Socialist Bureau. Hjalmar Branting, of Sweden, presided at the Conference. Among those who actively participated in the discussions were Kautsky, Haase, Eisner, Muller, Janson and Wells, Germany; Adler, Austria; MacDonald, Bunning, Ethel Snowden, J. H. Thomas, MacGuirk, Shirkie, and Henderson, Great Britain; Longuet, Renaudel, Milhaud, Cachin, Thomas, Mistral, Loriot, Verfeuil, France; Huysmans, Belgium; Troelstra, Holland; O'Brien, Ireland; Kunfi, Hungary; Justo and de Tomasso, Argentina; Locker, Palestine. In addition there were present delegates from Alsace-Lorraine, Czechoslovakia, Denmark, Sweden, Finland, Lettland, Georgia, Esthonia, Russia, Poland, Greece, Bulgaria, Armenia, Spain and Canada, making altogether twenty-five countries represented with ninety delegates in attendance.

"Norway, Switzerland, Italy, Roumania, Serbia, and the Communist groups of other countries refused to send delegates to the Conference. Delegates from the American Socialist Party could not come in time for the Conference, while those of Australia and Ukrania arrived too late to attend the meetings.

"The resolutions which were taken up at the Conference dealt with the following matters:

"(a) Responsibility for the War.-After an extended discussion on the subject, it was decided to leave the question for decision at the next international congress when there should be a larger representation and when more material would be available on this issue.

"(b) League of Nations.- Favoring that the League aims to prevent future wars; to abolish all standing armies and bring about disarmament; that it should create an international court of mediation and arbitration; that it should use economic weapons to enforce its decisions; that it should protect the small nationalities; that it should provide for free trade among nations and that it should secure the enforcement of the International Labor Charter adopted by this Conference.

"(c) Territorial Question.-Advocating self-determination of nationalities and against annexations and economic and political spheres of influence.

"(d) Democracy and Dictatorship.—A spirited discussion ensued on this momentous question brought about by experiences of the Russian revolution. The majority of the committee proposed a resolution in which it was claimed that democracy with various constitutional guarantees provides opportunities for Socialist work. Longuet and Adler, who were members of the committee, brought in a minority report in which they charged those favoring the resolution with working against unity in the International. They claimed that the forces who were responsible for the disruption in the International and who have supported their respective governments during the war, are anxious to attack the revolutionary Socialist elements in various countries, particularly in Russia, which attacks may be utilized against them by the bourgeoisie. The Conference adopted a resolution which also provided for the sending of a mission to Russia and placing the subject of Bolshevism on the agenda of the next international congress. The resolution, which expressed the sentiment of the majority of the conference, contained the following:

"As a result of recent events, the Conference desires to make the constructive character of the Socialist program absolutely clear to all. Socialization consists in the methodical development of different branches of economic activity under the control of democracy. The arbitrary taking over of a few undertakings by small groups of men is not Socialism, it is nothing less than capitalism with a large number of shareholders.

Since in the opinion of the Conference the effective development of Socialism is only possible under demo

cratic law, it follows that it is essential to eliminate from the outset all methods of socialization which would have no chance of gaining the adhesion of the majority of the people.

"Such dictatorship would be all the more dangerous if it rested upon the support of only one section of the proletariat. The inevitable consequence of such a regime could only be to paralyze the forces of the proletariat by fratricidal war. The result would be the dictatorship of reaction.

"(e) The Labor Charter.- Provisions of the Labor Charter are given in full in another part of this book.

(f) Resolution Dealing with the Return of Prisoners of War.

"(g) Resolution Dealing with the Continuation of the Work of the Conference.-A commission was elected consisting of two delegates from each party represented, with Henderson, Branting and Huysmans as an Executive Committee. This commission was instructed to put before the Paris Peace Conference the decisions of the Conference and to carry on the work of unification among the Socialist forces. "It was also empowered to convoke the next international congress, prepare an agenda, and take the necessary steps for an early reorganization of the International.

No. 2

"THE INTERNATIONAL CHARTER OF LABOR OF THE BERNE CONFERENCE (See also p. 128)

Under the wage system, the capitalists seek to increase their profit in exploiting the workers by methods which, unless the exploitation is limited by international action of the workers, would lead to the physical, moral and intellectual decay of the workers.

"The emancipation of labor can be entirely realized only by the abolition of the capitalist system itself. Meanwhile, the resistance of the organized workers can lessen the evil; thus the worker's health, his family life and the possibility of bettering education, can be protected in such fashion that he may fulfill his duties as a citizen in the modern democracy. The capitalist form of production produces a competition in the various countries which puts the backward countries in a state of inferiority to the more advanced.

"The need of a normal basis for international labor legislation has become doubly urgent as a result of the terrific upset and enormous ravages which the popular forces have suffered because of the war. We regard the present remedy of this situation to be the constitution of a league of nations applying an international labor legislation.

"The International Trade Union Conference met at Berne and asks the league of nations to institute and apply an international system fixing the conditions of labor.

"The present conference supports the decisions of the Trades Union Conference of Leeds (1917) and Berne (1918), and asks that their essential provisions, already applied in several countries, be applied internationally and be inscribed in the treaty of peace as an international charter of labor, as follows:

"(1) The conference considers primary instruction obligatory in all countries; pre-apprenticeship everywhere. Higher schooling should be free and accessible to all, special aptitudes and aspirations not being blocked by the material conditions of life in which the children may be placed.

"Children below fifteen shall not be employed in industry. "(2) Children from fifteen to eighteen shall not be employed more than six hours per day, with one and one-half hours rest after four hours of work. For two hours per day both sexes shall take technical continuation courses to be established for them between six in the morning and eight at night.

'The employment of children shall be prohibited (a) between eight at night and six in the morning; (b) Sundays and holidays; (c) in unhealthy industries; (d) in underground mines.

"(3) Women workers shall have a Saturday half-holiday and shall work only four hours that day; exceptions which are necessary in certain industries being compensated by a half-holiday some other day in the week.

"Women workers shall not work at night. Employers shall be forbidden to furnish home work after the regular hours of labor. Women shall not be employed in dangerous industries where it is impossible to create sufficiently healthy conditions, as, for instance, in mines where the handling of harmful matters is injurious to the health of weak constitutions.

"The employment of women for four weeks before and six weeks after maternity shall be forbidden.

"A system of maternity insurance shall be established in all countries and benefits paid in case of illness. Women's work shall be free and based on the principle of equal pay for equal work.

"(4) The hours of labor shall not exceed eight per day and forty-four per week. Night work, after eight at night and before six in the morning, shall be forbidden except where the technical nature of the work makes it inevitable.

"Where night work is necessary, the pay shall be higher. (5) The Saturday half-holiday shall be introduced in all countries. The weekly repose shall be of at least thirtysix hours. When the nature of the work requires Sunday work, the weekly repose shall be arranged during the week. In industries of continuous fire, the work shall be arranged so as to give the workers holidays on alternative Sundays.

"(6) To protect health, and as a guarantee against accidents, the hours of labor shall be reduced at least eight hours. in very dangerous industries. The use of harmful matters is forbidden wherever they can be replaced. A list of prohibited industrial poisons shall be made; the use of white phosphorus and white lead in decoration shall be forbidden. A system of automatic coupling shall be applied internationally on the railroads.

"All laws and regulations concerning industrial labor shall in principle be applied to home work; the same is true for social insurance.

66

(7) Work which may poison or injure health shall be excluded from homes.

"(8) Food industries, including the manufacture of boxes and sacks to contain food, shall be excluded from homes.

"(9) Infectious diseases must be reported in home industries and work forbidden in houses where these diseases are found. Medical inspection shall be established.

"Lists of workers employed in home industries shall be drawn up and they shall have salary-books. Committees of representatives of employers and workers shall be formed wherever home industries prevail, and they shall have legal power to fix wages. Such wage-scales shall be posted in the work-places.

"Workers shall have the right to organize in all countries. Laws and decrees submitting certain classes of workers to special conditions or depriving them of the right of organization shall be abrogated. Emigrant workers shall have the