The Indianapolis journal., 1899-01-30
THE LABOR COMMISSION
WIDE RANGE OF WORK MAPPED OUT
By THE BOARD OF INQUIRY.
Industrial Problems Affecting EN-
pIOyers, Employees and Public In
terests to Be Investigated.


WASHINGTON, Jan. 2S.-Three of its four
projected syllabi, topical plans of inquiry,
already formulated and given to the public,
foreshadow the Wilderness of the range, as
welt as the far-reaching Importance of the
investigations on which the United States
Industrial Commission is now prepared to
enter. The topical plan of inquiry, it may
be explained. is the printed form mapping
out the endless ramiicato tons of the com
missions inquiries. II suggests, topically,
the countless points at which the commits
sion is to thrust its probe into industrial
economic conditions and philosophy.
Those prepared by the commission ind-
Gates a purpose TO sweep with scrutinous
thoroughness into every little corner of
the labor world-to learn where there are
conditions to be confronted, facts to be
revealed, discontents to be eased or evils
to be abated Invested by the act of Con-
gress creating it with ample authority to
force the attendance of witnesses and the
revelation of facts and to devise methods
for the improvement of industrial condi
tions tlsat are not as good as they should
be, the commission is destined by its
work to arouse the keenest interest in
every corner Of the land.
The commission comes into being by an
act of Congress approved June IS, 1898,
and that, in the title, authorizes it Ito
coate information and to consider and
recommend legislation to meet the prob
lens presented by labor, agriculture and
capital" The act had been put through
the Fifty-fourth Congress largely through
the efforts Of Thomas w. Phillips, then
sitting from one of the Pennsylvania dis
tricts in the House of Representatives. 1t
failed. however, at that time to win the
approval of the President. 1t was taken
uR in the last Congress. modelled in a
new frame by Congressman John j. Gard
ner, Of New Jersey, and went to the statute
books with President McKinley's approval.
FOR GUIDANCE OF STATESMEN.
The commission grew out of a demand,
too, for definite and authoritative data for
the guidance of the statesmen of the Ma ion
I'm dealing with economic questions. In the
fields of agriculture, in the shops, in the
mines, in the counting houses of the Ma
tion. there are scores of frictions that can
be eased, if not removed, by an understand
ing of their causes and the application of a
remedy that is scientifically correct. Those
who best know how correlated and how in
terdependent capital and labor are, Ieel
that there must be somewhere hitherto
undiscovered economic principle that will
exactly adjust them TO each other and
make their relation as cordial as their in
terests are one.
In his report urging the creation of the
commission. upon Congress, Mr. Gardner
estimated that in the six years between 1880
and 1886 the single item of strikes has cost
$9S,566 95s to employers, employees ,tand their
organizations directly.
The enormous incidental losses are not
estimated" he adds. They are OF great
magnitude The loss caused by strikes in
the year 1894 has been estimated by one
writer at $50 COO and by another at $780,
These Sf9ppprinp a
son i'm themselves They tell how important
it is for the peace and prosperity of the
Nation that, if there is common ground
upon which master and servant can safely
stand in their economic dealings with each
other. no time be lost in finding it.
Ii must not be forgotten i'm the consider
alton of this overshadOwing topic that the
relation of the wage-earner to the employer
has changed essentially during the last two
or three decades. Time was when the
wages of the workers were regulated by the
ordinary law of supply and demand. 1t was
even thought that no form of legislation
could modify the operation of that law i'm
that direction, But the country has seen
economic conditions yield to legislation de-
signed for the betterment of the condition
of the industrial classes: and. while the
law of supply and demand is still primal
FACTOR IN regulating pay the other law that
gives the worker a share in the value CT
the thing he produces is coming to be recog-
nized as of almost equal force.
WIDE RANGE OF WORK
The work of the commission will not be
confined to figures alone, essential as they
are to economic relations 1t will, besides
investigate conditions and suggest remedies
for their Improvement where they are found
to be out of gear with the progress of phil
Osophy and spirit of the age. And in this di-
rection the ramifcations of it's work seem to
be endless. There, for instance, are the fric-
tions between skilled and unskilled labor
and the restricted surroundings in which
trade untonisms should probably be set
Was former Commissioner stump right
OH the one topic when he urged before
the Industrial Commission the other day
that the rough work of the land needs
all the untutored foreigners who can be
tempted TO our ports of entry2 Or was
Schulteiss contention that there are so
many of them here already to crowd
even the intelligent citizens of the coun-
uy into the poorhousesY There is
difference of view that goes not only to
the question of the educational require
ments that should be eXacted of immi-
grants, but TO the very foundations of
safe labor legislation. And when it comes
to the other topic. of the relations of the
employer to the employed. should the trade
unions be brought TO proper sense of their
responsibility as factors in the labor world
BY being forced TO incorporate? Shouldn't
they be held 10 corporate responsibility
whether they desire il or not, for their part
IN projecting and fostering strikes and doing
the other things which fall within their line?
That IS only an Illustrative question. 1t
does not begin TO cover all the directions in
which trade unionism Is likely 70 be in
vestigated by the commission What on
the other side of the enactments absolv-
ing the employer from liability for the in
expertness and carelessness of his own
servants when q felow-servant is the vic
tim, that all but prohibit the recovery of
damages for accident among such workers?
PRINCIPLE OF ARBITRATION.
And then, how can the principle of arbi-
tration be effectively applied to the settle
ment of Industrial differences2 Is compul-
scry arbitration possible as some say isn't.
and advisable, even il 1t is possible? How