The Bridgeport evening farmer., 1912-01-02
The McNamara Case
Striking Views Presented by Various Prominent


New York. Jan. Economists, for .mer executives of corporations whose pay rolls are well night the biggest in America churchmen, socialists, set clement workers, lawyers engineers, arbitrators, who have been called in to settle strikes affecting thousands of Workmen, have contributed to a remarkable symposium on the larger bearings of the McNamara case. which is brought out in full in The Survey.
 Special timeliness is given their views by the petition presented to President Taft on Friday by a. dele gation of representative men and women, headed by Rabbi Stephen S.. Wise and Edward T. Devine, of New York, and Miss Jane Addams of Hull House, Chicago. This petition asked for the appointment Of federal com mission on industrial relations, fash toned after the Anthracite Coal Com mission and with as great competence, funds and powers as the Interstate Commerce Commission.
 Professor Henry RF Seager, president of the American, Association for La bor Legislation, notes that public opinion is wagering in the balance as to whether the AdcNamaras had Econfederates outside their own orga- nization. He says that by, declaring their willingness to cooperate in try ing to bring about the conviction of the confederates of the McNamaras, if they have confederates,. as several or ganizations have already done, the
 
 the scales in their favor.
 TErning next to the obligation upon employers to discountenance what Professor Hoxie calls examples of predatory capital" there is statement from Louis D. Brandeis of Boston. ct was MT Brandeis, who, by his as- founding mass of evidence on the eff fleets of long hours and night work upon the health of women, forced the Supreme court of Illinois to reverse it's decision of fifteen years ago in
 L~1U7 1rarrT ce1fw fIlF Tf0 0rn the hours of women's labor were un> constftutional). Mr- Brandeis asks:
 Are not these huge trusts large con- tributing causes to these crimes-un- intelligent expressions of social un- Yest2 It is not irony to speak of the equality of opportunity in a country cursed with their bigness?
 Meyer London, attorney for the Ladies' Garment Workers Union of ( New York, and one of the leading so- cialist speakers of the East Side, puts 1t this way:
 What a good thing it would be, now that two labor leaders have confess ed. for capital to come forward and confess: and how horrifying- that con- fession would be, and how shocking would be the revelation of crimes of omission and commission, of the crushing of the weak and helpless, of the bribing of voter, legislator, and judge, of the substituting of vena1 press, of thousands upon thousands crippled, mutilated, and murdered II through avarice and greed! But cap- tai will not confess.
 A case in point is offered by Ed ward A. FiIene of Boston, a leading dry goods merchant. who as founder of the City club and an influential members of the Chamber of Com @Inerce, is recognized as of the progressive business men, of New Eng land:
 Whenever you meet balky, vicious horse you know that somewhere sonehow-he has been maltreated; and so with men
 =. In this connection want to tell you something that I was told at first hand by an employer I never repeated it because it is too horrible, and I sincerely hope there Is nothing else like it to relate. 4 man told me this thing, not realizing what he was telling and telling it laughingly. He said that he had gang of woodcur- ters cutting trees down in the forests in the North here and they began to get troublesome were dissatisfied and threatened to go out on strike an leave him with his contracts unfin