The Bridgeport evening farmer., 1912-04-24
OUR HAPHAzARD WAYS
 OF SETTLING STRIKES Plea to Standardize Industrial Peace Overtures- Absolute Lack of Uniformity Prevails Must
 Industrial Bystanders Suffer

I services of the state to help bring | about peace. Both the company and | the workers declined the offer. Two
 months after the Board had first of fered it's services, it again made ad- | vances which were accepted. A
 and the strikers went back to their
 old places. In this case and also the 1 Westmoreland Strike, the workers were unorganized before the first 1 trouble began.
 l Two years ago a strike began in | the mills of the International Paper Company. The employees were or ganized and the employers refused to | meet them except as individuals. At the request of citizens of Cerinth, N. 1 Y., the Commissioner of Labor of l New York, ordered the chief of the bureau of arbitration to make an in- vestigation of the strike. Soon after this the company requested the em- ployes to send a man from each mill l to New York for a. conference with the management, and an agreement ! wes reached and signed.
 l One year ago. about 5000 men, un- torganized furniture workers. in the factories of Grand Rapids went on
 strike. A self constituted commit 1 tee of citizens made an inquiry, hop 1 ing to bring about a settlement. This consisted of a first statement from , each side, the unions and employers organization. and a reply from each. ton no further and disbanded with a few recommendations, which were not acted upon. After four months the strikers gave up the struggle in de- feat
 In February 1910 in Bethlehem, Pa,
 the discharge of an employe who had | avoided Sunday work. led to g. strike. Merchants who were losing trade att tempted to get the men to go back on
 any terms. They did not try to get I to the bottom of the dispute and set | tie it upon some solid and just basis.
 Lack of funds forced the workers to ] resume work with none Of the issues satisfactorily settled.
 | The cloak-makers in several hun dred shops in New York City in the
 summer of 1910 left their work for | two months. The New York State
 Bureau of Arbitration twice failed to effect a settlement A Boston cus-
 about conferences out of which grew
 an agreement which provided for a fixed scale of minimum wages. the es-
 tablishment of an arbitration board and of a joint board of sanitary con- | trol
 | in the last decade would emphasize
 what is seen in the six strikes cited
 namely the absolute haphazard work
 ing of public agencies for dealing with
 industrial problems. There Is nc uniformity either of agencies or Of
 methods Some state boards may only
 make investigation Some may pub fish their findings; some may not
 Some may initiate their investigations
 and others must wait to be called in
 to the crisis. Some have no funds l and have practically no continuous existence. Most may recommend
 settlement measures but none have
 power to enforce them and many states have no such boards at all
 Private agencies, moreover, have es-
 tablished no uniform or workable pro
 cedure either.
 Those who see any seriousness at
 all in these industrial disturbancea ] will be quick to see the need of deal 1 ing with them in some large scale
 systematic way instead of letting
 the present chaos of public agencies
 continue
 The day of make-shifts has passed
 and an intelligent interest in the fu- ture of the country demands an inn
 partial scrutiny of causes and ten- 1 dencies.