The Bridgeport evening farmer., 1912-03-07
CONGRESS- CONSIDERING
 INDUSTRIAL INVESTIGATION
Bill For Federal Commission Intro
 duced.

New York. March 7.-After the meet ing Saturday of the Committee on In- dustrial Relations, the first held since houses of Congress of the bill for the creation of a Commission on Indus trial Relations, Edward T. Devine. ed- itor of The Survey. as the committees chairman announced that the con- structive action to be looked for from the labors of such commission would doubtless much of it lie within the field of state legislation, much within the domain of entirely voluntary ar rangement
 'sThe members of this committee said pr. Devine, find in the news of each day further evidence of the need for seeking to discover and to point out the underlying causes of dissatis- faction in the industrial situation in stead of assuming that wherever the general welfare is threatened by de- struct tive warware, we can right con- ditions and protect the public's inter- ests by improvised catch h-as-catch-can methods. Before the Lawrence, Mass. strike which has engaged the atten- tiOn of a nation for nearly two mon hs and the echoes of the McNamara trials are over comes the news that a n1il Hon coal miners in Great Britain are out on strike.
 Since the great basic industries of the country and the organizations of capital and labor are nation wide, on- ly an inquiry on national scale as provided in the bills introduced by Representative Hughes of New Jersey in the House of which Representative Henry of Texas is chairman and by Senator Borah of Idaho in the Senate, would embrace their er-relatiops. For this reason We hope that the rules committee of the House and the Com mittee on Education and Labor of the Senate to which the bills have been referred will report promptly in favor of this inquiry into the general con- ditions of labor, especially in the prin cipal industries of the United States, and especially in those which are car ried on in corporate forms; into exist ing relations between employers and employees; into the effect of industrial conditions on public welfare and into the rights and powers of the com munity to deal herewith
 s.The magnitude and delicacy of the task are so great that the work de- mands a commission that can suc- of industrial America from top to bot tom and from end to end. The bills specifically authorize the Depart ment of Commerce and Labor to CO., operate with said commission in any manner and to whatever extent che secretary or ana 1kdOOf may approve But the commission should strike out into fields in which we have little or no information and 1t would seem wise to create for such a pion- ger work a new commission rather than to lodge its proposed duties with a department already busy with rou- tine work.
 '"The scope of the proposed federal commission may perhaps be better un- derstood by comparing 1t with four other commissions which are generally conceded to have contributed to the general welfare. The Anthracite Coal Commission of 1905 is precedent of national scrutiny of the cleavage be- tween employer and employe in one great industry. The Commission On Industrial Relations would not have authority as did the Coal Board to compel acceptance of it's findings hut in another way it would have breeder powers since it's Investigations would not be limited to one trade group It's work, too, would be prosecuted wholly independent of the merits Of any par ticular controversy
 .'The Federal Employers Liability Commission which has reported at this session of Congress, and the work of twenty two state commissions that have been sitting the laws and the facts so that we can make every in- dustry pay for it's human wear and tear, are examples of the scrutiny of one phase of the unwritten work con-