Waterbury evening Democrat., 1907-12-03
WATERBURY EvKNING DEMOCRAT TUESDAY DECEMBER 1907

TUESDAY
 ter or creating the machinery for com
 pulsory investigation of such industrial
 controversies as are of sufficient mag
 nitude and of sufficient concern to the
 people of the country as whole to
 warrant the federal government in
 taking action. y,.
 The need for some provision, for such
 investigation was forcibly Illustrated during the past summer. A strike of
 telegraph operators seriously interfeksd
 with telegraphic communication. caus.
 ing great damage to business interests and serious inconvenience to the gen eral public. Appeals were made to me
 from many parts of the country, from city councils, from boards of trade
 from chambers of commerce and from
 labor organizations, urging that steps
 be taken to terminate the strike. Ev-
 erything that could with any propriety
 be done by a representative of the goy- ernment was done without avail, and for weeks the public stood by and suf- fered without recourse of any kind. Had the mach Sery existed and had there been authority for compulsory investigation of the dispute the public would have been placed in possession of the merits of the controversy, and public opinion would probably have brought about prompt adjustment.
 Each successive step creating ma chinery for the adjustment of labor difficulties must be taken with caution, but we should endeavor to make prog ress in this direction.
 The provisions of the act of 1898 creating the chairman of the interstate commerce commission and the commis- sioner of labor a board of mediation in controversies between interstate rail- roads and their employees has for the first time been subjected to serious tests within the past year. and the wis dom of the experiment has been fully demonstrated. The creation of board for compulsory investigation in cases where mediation fails and arbitration is rejected is the next logical step in progressive programme.
 Capital and Labor.
 It is certain that for some time to come there will be constant increase absolutely and perhaps relatively of those among our citizens who dwell in cities or towns of some size and who work for wages This means that there will be an ever increasing need to consider the problems inseparable from a great industrial civilization. Where an immense and complex busi- ness, especially in those branches re- lating to manufacture and transporta ton, is transacted by large number of capitalists who employ very much larger number of wage earners the former tend more and more to combine into corporations and the lat ter into unions. The relations of the and wagewOrker to one an- other and of each to the general public are not always easy to adjust, and to put them and keep them on satisfac tory basis is one of the most important and one of the most delicate tasks be- fore our whole civilization. Much of the work for the accomplishment of this end must be done by the individ- uals concerned themselves, whether singly or in combination, and the one fact that Dust never be lost track of is that the character of the average man, whether he be man of means or a man who works with his hands, is the most important fac tor in solving the problem aright. But it is almost equally important to re- that without good laws it is also impossible to reach the proper so- lution. It Is idle to hold that without good laws evils such as child labor. as the Oyerworking of women, as the fall ure to protect employees from loss of life or limb can be effectively reached any more than the evils of rebates and stock watering can be reached without good laws. To fail to stop these prac- tices by legislation means to force hon est men into them, because otherwise the dishonest who surely will take od- vantage of them will have everything their own way. If the states will cor rect these evils, we'll and good. but the nation must stand ready to aid them.