Evening times-Republican. [volume] (Marshalltown, Iowa) 1890-1923, 1914-02-05
SECRETARY
PROTESTS GUARDS
USE OF HIRED GuNMEN AND PR'-
vATE DETECTIVES IN STRIKES
DEPLCEED.
ASKS CONGRESS TO REGULATE
IN INTEREST OF ORDER
Secretary Wilson N Annual Rspors
Discusses Arbitration as Effective
Means of Settling Labor Disputes
Shows immigration Of iIIiterates In
creased During Year.

Washington, FEB. 4.-Protesl as"''
the use of firearms and the employment
OF armed guards and private detectives
in labor disputes and strikes vas
by Secretary w. b. Wilson. OF the de.
rartn1ent of labor, in his first annua.
report submitted to President wilson.
He recommends that congress enac
legislation within its constitutional
limitations to regulate this business III
the interest of public peace and order.
'The use of firearms" said Secretar!
Wilson, 'in a species of private war
fare in connection with b strikes
calls for serious consideration. Groups
of men on both sides, without military
or police authority for it, have useu
firearms with fatal effect in the coai
strike in southern Colorado. These
arms and the ammunition have doubt
less been procured thru interstate COM
MERGE; and many Of the armed men are
said to have been imported into Colo
RADIO from other statese thru q business
concern engaged commercially across
state lines in supplying corporations
with an armed and trained private SOL
diery or police in numbers runnin into
hundreds and ever thousands. In con-
nection with the Pere Marquette strike
i n-Michigan, armed guards. furnished
by agencies in other states supplying
men to lake the place of local strikers,
accompanied those men to Grand Rap
Ids. They were there turned back oy
the United States marshal under IN
structions from the district Judge. IN
the Calumet copper-mining region,
armed guards under contract with the
employers were forwarded to the 10.
cal!ty by agencies in other states
Capital and Labor.
On relations of capital and labor.
Secretary Wilson takes dvance
ground. The relation of employer n
w~age-earner." says he. "is no longer
personal or individual" because both
employers and operatives act in groups
1T is obvious the report says,
that this method Of employ ment. gem
orally necessary for success in modern
industry, may give to employers great
cortractual advantages over wage
earners. Unless wage earners also act
collectively thru their own agents. they
are often at a practical disadvantage.
Employers who act collectively in hir-
ing wage earners are often averse to
dealing with agents of wage
Sto collectively offer their services.
They desire to contract with wage
earners individually. 1t is upon his
point that labor disputes frequently
spring up and become acute. In most
instances in which employers accord
workmen practical recognition OF the
right Of collective bargaining which
they themselves exercise, fair relations
are maintained.
I'm 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
locked"
In that connection. 1t is suggested
that congress clearly define the func-
tions of the department in the media
ton of labor disputes and vote an APP
p~ropriation adequate to meet the re-
quirements Of mediation work. In that
way. it was suggested, the welfare OF
w~age-earners could be fostered while
the prosperity of employers and the
peace and good order Of society at large
were conserved. Amicable settlements
between the parties themselves, with.
out mediation, are manifestly first in
the order Of preference. Mediation
comes next. Arbitration third. But my
OF the three il preferable to strikes or
lockouts."
Adjustment Practical.
The success already achieved by the
department of labor, In the adjustment
IF 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"
The report contains a review OF the
labor controversies in which the good
offices of the Gepartmnt Of labor were
exercised during the ten months of its