AMERICAN LABOR UNIONS; ORGANIZATION, AIMS, AND POWER.

compiledby Herbert L. Marx, Jr. '43. The H. W. Wilson Company, 1950. 240 pages. $1.75.

This compact and readable handbook is a fair and unbiased presentation of background information and debate material on organized labor in American life today. Ably compiled by Herbert L. Marx, Jr., Associate Editor of Scholastic Magazines, it contains more than forty stimulating articles from recent books, pamphlets and periodicals discussing current labor topics. Like other volumes of the Reference Shelf series in which it appears, American Labor Unions is a timely forum on some of the most controversial issues of our day.

Mr. Marx has written succinct introductions giving background -and perspective for each of the main sections of the book: An Overview of Unions; Labor Legislation (he is the author of one of the articles in this section); Inside the Unions; What Labor Wants; "Big Unionism" on the Defensive; The Division in Labor's Ranks; and The Union's Role in Society. In presenting pro and con arguments on such lively topics as the Taft-Hartley Act, health and welfare programs, non-contributory pensions, the guaranteed annual wage and communist penetration of labor unions, he has drawn on such varied sources of opinion as the American Federation of Labor and the National Association of Manufacturers, the CIO News and the Commercial and Financial Chronicle, the Nation and Business Week.

A twelve page bibliography provides a selected list of current and easily obtainable books, pamphlets and periodical articles on American labor unions and suggests some excellent additional sources of information.