The Salt Lake herald. [volume] (Salt Lake City [Utah]) 1870-1909, 1899-04-18
Tendency of Labor Organizations
Now Against Strikes.
INDUSTRIAL COMMISSION
CHARACTER OF
ITS WORK.
Many Witnesses Already Examined
and Report In Preparation For
Presentation to Congress In De-
cember-Important Features Will
Be Mining, Agriculture, Etc.
(special Correspondence.l

Washington, April 13.-The United
States industrial commission, so-called,
has now completed the first fourth of
it's two years of existence. 1t has
taken great deal of testimony cover
ing many of the matters embraced in
the wide scope given to the commission
in the congressional act by which it
was created. Among the witnesses so
examined have been Carroll d. Wright,
commissioner of labor; e. A. Moseley,
secretary of the interstate commerce
commission Herman Stump, eX-com-
missioner of immigration; DR.. w. I.
Harris, commissioner of education; i.
V. PoWderly, commissioner general of
immigration; John T. Wilson, grand
chief of the Brotherhood of Railway
Trackmen Of America; =. r. Johnson,
professor of transportation and COM
merce, University of Pennsylvania; NJ.
NJ Garland, late president of the Anal
gamated Association of Iron and Steel
Workers of the United States; Daniel
O'Leary, chief factory inspector of New
York; James Campbell, factory in
Spector of Pennsylvania and eX-preSi-
dent of the Glass Workers Union of
the United States; Fannie S. Ames,
factory inspector of Massachusetts: II.
Howard, eX-preSident of the SpinnerS
Union of Massachusetts; Colonel Brig
ham, assistant secretary of agriculture
and vice president of the National
Grange, Patrons of Husbandry; Aaron
Jones, president of the National
Grange; n. J. Batchelder, president of
the New Hampshire Grange, Patrons
of Husbandry; D. A. Hayes, president
of the National Bottle Blowers asso-
citation; Frank Sargent, chief of the
Brotherhood of Locomotive Firemen;
George E. Mcneil, author of number
of works on political economy, and
Theodore c. Search, president of the
Wool Manufacturers Association of the
United States.
The commission has not begun to
formulate its conclusions into recon-
mendations, but it is stated by leading
members of the commission that an
extended report will be made when
congress meets in December. The body
is authorized to report to congress from
time to time. A prominent member of
the commission tells The Herald. cor
respondent that the evidence thus far
taken by the commission has demon
strated that labor organizations are
relying on diplomacy, rather than on
expensive strikes, as the best means
for securing the consideration which |
they believe is due them. 1t has been !
the common story of labor leaders who |
have come before the commission to !
and more cautiously. Many of these !
witnesses show remarkable familiarity |
with every phase of the labor question /
as affecting the industry in which thep !
are chiefly interested, and they show |
that they are studying the situation in |
the labor market throughout the world
and are encouraging organization
among Workingmen everywhere, in Or
der to maintain prices of labor or to
secure better terms than in the past.
The leader of one organization testified
to having successfully cO-Operated with
labor unions in Europe in order to pre-
vent foreign Workmen from coming to
the United States to take lower wages
than are being paid to members of his
union.
One of the most important features
of the work of the commission will re-
late to mining, agriculture and trans
portation. The purpose of the inveSti-
cation upon these subjects, as inter-
preted by the commission, is. to ascer-
tain. the nature of the existing legiSla-
ton of the several states bearing upon
industrial conditions; the actual opera
ton of that legislation in its relation
to the workingman, to the manufac-
turer and business man, and to the
the character and effects of
similar legislation in foreign countries,
and how far it is applicable or desirable
in the United States, and what legisla-
ton. if any. along new lines, is practic-
able or desirable for the Improvement
Of industrial conditions, with a view of
how far it is possible to
frame uniform industrial laws, the
adoption of which can be recommended
to congress and to the legislatures of
the several states.