The Birmingham age-herald. [volume] (Birmingham, Ala.) 1902-1950, 1914-12-14
Management Not Acquitted


away Is mistaken.
Management Not Acquitted
Whatever may have been the re-
sponsibility of the worlmen for the
strike and its incidents, the local man
agement cannot be wholly acquitted :
and upon the elementary principle of
agency, as sound in morals as in law,
ultimate responsibility muss rest upon
the owners
OF the Colorado strike the secretary
says:
THE coal strike in Colorado which
has necessitated the use of federal
troops. is another conspicuous instance
of industrial warfare in which, how
ever heavily the responsibility may
rest upon the strikers, 1t must attach
also to the local management of the
property involved and therefore to the
responsible owners. In its early stages
this strike could. as stated in the first
annual report. have been settled upon
fair terms had the proposals of the
department of labor for arbitration by
an unbiased board chosen by mutual
agreement been promptly accepted
Discusses Distribution
Mr.. Wilson then discusses the dis
tribution of wage earners, saying:
''rhe welfare of the wage earners
by mediation of labor disputes alone.
Affirmative measures for modifying If
not wholly obviating the Industrial
Embellishments that generate these
disputes must be undertaken as we'll.
For this purpose legislation is neces-
sary. Pending such legislation, how
ever, the department is utilizing it's
present powers as fully as eircumstan-
ces permit by availing itself of the SER
vices of the division of information in
the bureau of immigration. This divi-
sion of that bureau has been specifi-
cally empowered by Congress to pro-
mote a beneficial distribution of inn
migrants. BY its subsequent subordin-
alton to the department of labor
charged as this department is with
promoting the welfare of the wage
earners of the United States, that func-
ton may be regarded as having been
so far inferentially enlarged as to In
clude citizens within the scope of its
intended benefits. The department has
therefore through the division of in
formation entered upon plans of work
for improving the opportunities of the
wage earners of the United States,
whether citizens or aliens, for profit
able employment.
Excess of Labor Supply
Excess in the supply of labor over
demand. for it Is a. cause of labor dis
putes which ranks high in Importance.
il indeed it does not rank as the
cause. In colloquial terms the 'jobless
man puts all wageworkers at a dis
advantage in bargaining with en-
ployers The 'manless Job" is a cor
responding colloauialism. If there were
a profitable manless job for every
jobless man the complete remedy for
industrial disputes would be to bring
the two together; but whether so COM
plete correspondence exists or not
no one at all familiar with the prob
lem of seasonal employment and OF
accidental displacements of wage earn
ers can doubt that it exists In some
degree There were 'manless jobs for
'jobless' victims of the Salem fire. and
this department helped to bring the
two together; there are 'Inanless jobs
of the seasonal kind on our farms and
elsewhere to which this department has
been able in some instances to bring
'jobless men. Insofar as departmental
work of this kind can be improved and
expanded the evils of labor disputes
will be minimzed; and with reference
to such work the cooperation of Con-
gress is urgently solicited. What Is
needed is timely and widespread infor-
nation concerning labor conditions In
every part of the country
by systematically bringing some
'1oDleSS men ana some mdniesh
Jobs together on national scale
the necessary first steps will have been
taken toward complete removal OF
what Is perhaps the most potent cause
of labor .disputes-involunta unem-
ployment Even in the taking of those
first steps the modifying effect will be
progressively realized from the be-
ginning.
"Of course. the labor problem cannot
be solved by amelioratiye plans such
as are here proposed unless the causes
of involuntary unemployment are UNI
l,believably superficial and vulnerable;
but with seasonal variations of en-
ployment nationally adjusted, with ac-
cidental disturbances to employment
nationally provided for, with individu-
al delinquencies in respect of employ
ment better understood by national
public opinion and with such~amelira-
lions OF Industrial distress as this de-
partment is now preparing to offer, a
right beginning will have been made
This work win at least clear the way
for dealing effectively with the deeper
rooted and more stubborn and general
causes of Involuntary unemployment
which thoughtful observers of modern
industrial conditions seem to recog-
lnize in one form or another"
Secretary Wilson, renews his last
years recommendation that Congress
prohibit Interstate transportation OF
armed private police or guards fol
either sirle in industrial disputes Sug-
gestions for general legislation, he
says, will be made on occasion. The
report reviews at some length the
years work in the various bureaus In
the department of labor.