Evening star. [volume] (Washington, D.C.) 1854-1972, 1914-03-04
CITES PROBLEMS
Of MDUSTR|AL|SM
People of Country Should Co.
Operate, Not Antagonize,
Says F. P. Walsh.
QUESTION OF LIVING WAGE
TOBE DEEPLY PROBED
Federal Commission Will Take Up
Methods to Counteract Prevail
ing Conditions of Unrest.

Why so many strikes and riots and so
much talk of dynamiting? Why have
organizations that denounce patriotism
and religion gained such a hearing in
some Of the big industrial centers? Why
have so many thousand of workers a
distrust of the courts?
These are some questions asked by
Frank P. Walsh, chairman of the federal
commission of industrial relations, in an
interview today on the work his commits
sion is seeking to do.
1t is imperative says Mr. Walsh,
that we divest our minds Of prejudices
and preconceptions. but it is equally i'm
portant that the public do likewise. and
not embarrass the commission by parti-
sanships and old angers. Some word
must be found that will bring sense
Of our essential oneness home to every
man. woman and child in the country,
so that We may have cooperation. not
antagonism.
Industrialism Comes.
lndustrialsm has come on US like
lightning out OF a clear sky. Fifty years
ago we were an agricultural people, liv-
ing in rural districts and small towns in
the most part, and having chance of
getting into the firm whenever we took
a job. And now. Huge and still huger
cities, sucking the very marrow out of
the country-a change in employment
from the small store to some monster
corporation that squats in one state and
exercises tentacular activities in twenty
1t has come so suddenly that we have not
had time to adjust ourselves to the new
conditions. We are still going along as
though there has been no economic earth
quate. OF course, there is trouble, and
it is not at all improbable that this trou-
Bile may assume the shape of revolution
unless our industrial. political and social
institutions are changed to meet the new
demands.
Take the rights of man. for instance
Yesterday they were rhetorical: today
they are economic-the right to work, the
right to a decent home and comfortable
living and the right to bring children into
the world without wondering how in the
name of God you are to bring them up.
Meaning of Living Wage.
Living wage has come to be as much
Of a catch word as infant Industries and
pauper labor of Europe. What is a liv-
ing anyway? I know what it is for me-
and that's all. Progress has made many
new pleasures and privileges, and these
must be shared equitably. There is
neither sense nor justice in the calm as
sumption that the refinements and beau
Joyed by certain upper class, and the
mass of peop have no higher aspira-
tons than full belly, warm back and
sheltered head
industrial training, vocational guild
ance, blind alley trades, the hideous-
nf inv n1rpv, ,t.r
poverty-all things that must be looked
into. for in them We may find germs Of
class hate and reason for discomfort.
Question of Wages.
The next step is consideration of
wages. What factors determine them?
Is the law of supply and demand in
control of the industrial situation, and
II SO, is it entitled to be the determin-
ing factor? Ii it isn't what restraints
are being imposed? What is the rela-
How do wages compare with dividends
in representative industries? Is cheap
labor really cheap. or is the better paid
labor cheapest in the Ions run?
Scarce day goes by that I am not
confronted with the fixed belief that
In this country there is one law for
the poor man and one for the rich man
Among the leaders Of organized labor
thdt meet lnefe Is bitter unanin.IS
In declaring against the distinction
that the law makes between strikes
and boycotts. II it is lawful to strike,
they argue. why is it unlawful to boy
colt. for the refusal to patronize an
antagonistic employer differs little, If
at all. from refusing to work for an
antagonistic employer.
Feeling Toward injunction.
Nor is there any better feeling toward
the Injunction. They claim and challenge
dispute shat this weapon of the law is
reserved for the sole use of employers
and that no one ever heard of any union
being granted this relief.
With regard to the antitrust law, the
worker compares the possibility of the
United Hatters having to pay a fine Of
$4,000 with the dissolution of the
Standard Oil Company at an enormous
profit, and the two penalties seem some
what unequal to them. AS Prof. Saeger
of Columbia University says, these
anomalies are largely responsible for in
dustrial bitterness and violence, since
nothing is so fatal to a law-abiding dis
position as a conviction that the law it
self is unjust and that its administration
is unfair