The Spokane press. [volume] (Spokane, Wash.) 1902-1939, 1908-12-14
DAY OF TRADE
AGREEMENT
At HAND

Taft and wife, expected as guests
of honor, and Gompers, John
Mitchell, Carnegie, President Eliot
of Harvard, Archbishop Ireland
and famous capitalists and leaders
of various lines on the program,
the. National Civic Federation to-
day opened its annual meeting at
the Aster hotel. -
The general theme for two days
will be the promotion of friendly
relations between employers and
employees.
Taft will make the principal ad-
dress tomorrow night when he will
deliver his report as chairman of
the declarations of public employees
welfare committee.
John Mitchell, leader of the
mine workers and one of the noted
leaders of the country. was a prin-
cipal speaker at today's session.
He said:
1T is waste of time to de-
plore the passing of the individual
relationship between employer and
workman which existed under the
old order of production. The or
ganization of labor and the COM
bination of capital Is the natural
and logical sequence of cruel.
wasteful and ruinous competition.
Whether for veal or for woe. the
old system has gone forever, and
the new alignments, with all their
latent. possibilities of good and
evil, are here to stay.
THE National Civic Federation,
in keeping with the spirit of the
times, has declared: That at all
times representatives of employers
and workers, organized or unor-
ganiZed, should confer for the ad-
justment of differences or disputes
before an actual strike is reached
and thus avoid or minimize the
number of strikes or lockouts;
that mutual agreements as to the
be performed should be encour-
aged and that, when wage agree
ments are made, the terms thereof
should be adhered to faithfully,
both in letter and in spirit. by both
parties
From the foregoing it will be
seen that the National Civic fed
Grafton, when organized, declared
in favor of the trade agreement
as a means of maintaining peace
between workmen and employers,
and it is the promotion of this cen
trail idea that the trade agreement
department is devoted.
The trade agreement is not a
speculative, theoretical idea; it
has been in operation in some In
dustries many years: indeed, it is
the accepted and permanent meth
cd by which wages and conditions
of employment are determined in
many of the most important indus
tries of our country, and its prac-
.tieability7 is no longer questioned
by workmen or employees who have
observed and experienced it's hui
name Influences and beneficial re-
suits.
The trade agreement is the I'M
mistakable recognition of the indie
pendence of labor and capital; it is
the concrete expression of cooper
ative effort between these two
dominant factors in our industrial
life. 1t will not, of course, pre-
vent all strikes or obviate all lock
outs, but in the past it has reduced
and in the future it will reduce to
a great extent the number of in
dustrial disputes and minimize
their intensity"
Seth Low in his address said
The most important activity of
the federation during the year I'M
der review was an effort to obtain
at the last session of congress an
amendment of the sweeping pro.
visions of the Sherman antitrust
law.
Everyone who realizes what an
instrument of oppression and de-
struction this law can be, in the
light of recent judicial decision,
ought to be willing to concede
something TO secure its early modi-
fication. One thing goes without
saying, whatever notifications of
the law is made to apply to COM
binations of capital. must apply
equally to combinations of labor
and whatever amnesty as to the
. past is given to the capital must
be given equally to labor The
executive committee of the feder-
alton has placed the matter once
more in the hands of its president
TO carry forward, if possible, the
work already begun"