The Butler County press. [volume] (Hamilton, Ohio) 1900-1946, 1914-02-20
DEPLORES PRIVATE WARFARE.

Recommends Regulation by Congress.
Suggests Collective Bargaining as
Remedy For Industrial Disputes-Fa-
vors Mediation.
Protest against the use of firearms
and the employment of armed guards
and private detectives in labor disputes
and strikes was made by Secretary w.
B. Wilson of the department of labor
in his first annual report to President
Wilson. He recommends that congress
enact legislation within its constitu-
tional limitations TO regulate this busi-
ness in the interests of public peace
and order
"The use of firearms" says Secre-
tary Wilson. lin species of private
warfare in connection with labor
strikes calls for serious consideration
Groups of men on both sides, without
military or police authority for it, have
used firearms with fatal effect in the
coal strike in southern Colorado. These
arms and the ammunition have doubt
less been procured through interstate
commerce. and many of the armed
men are said to have been imported
into Colorado from other states
through a business concern engaged
commercially across state lines in sup
plying corporations with an armed and
trained private soldiery or police in
numbers running into hundreds and
even thousands.
I'm connection with the Pere Mar
quette strike in Michigan, armed
guards furnished by agencies in other
states supplying men to take the place
of local strikers accompanied those
men to Grand Rapids. They were there
turned back by the United States mar
shall under instructions from the dis
trict judge. In the Calumet copper
mining region armed guards under con
tract with the employers were for
warded to the locality by agencies in
other states
On the relations of capital and labor
Secretary Wilson takes advanced
ground. THE relation of employer
and wage Garner" he says, lis no
longer personal or individual" because
both employers and operatives act in
groups.
1T Is obvious" the report says, that
this method of employment. generally
necessary for success in modern in
dustry. may give to employers great
contractual advantages over wage
earners. Unless wage earners also act
nlu hai fe,
they are often at a practical diSad
vantage. Employers who act colec-
lively in hiring wage earners are often
averse to dealing with agents of wage
earners who collectively offer their
services They desire to contract with
wage earners individually. 1t is upon
this point that labor disputes frequent
ly spring UP and become acute In
most instances in which employers ac-
cord workmen practically recognition
of the right of collective bargaining
which they themselves exercise, fair
relations are maintained
"In any circumstances differences
must be expected TO arise. In such
cases the department of labor might
possibly find a common ground for
agreement which the disputants, in
their eagerness for advantage or in
the heat of their controversy, had over
looked"
In that connection 1t is suggested
that congress clearly define the func
tions of the department of labor in the
mediation of labor disputes and vote an
appropriation adequate TO meet the re-
Quirements of mediation work In that
way, it is suggested, "the welfare of
wage earners could be fostered, while
the prosperity of employers and the
peace and good order Of society at
large were conserved. Amicable set
dement's between the parties them
selves, without mediation, are mani
festly first in the order of preference
Mediation comes next. arbitration
third. But any of the three is prefer
able to strikes or lockouts."
The success already achieved by the
department of labor in the adjustment
Of labor controversies demonstrates, In
the Judgment of Secretary Wilson, that
such disputes nearly always may be
adjusted to the profit of all interests,
and he believes that the department
properly equipped. should be able to
make mediation progressively popular
with both the employing and the wage
earning interests of the country