Evening public ledger. [volume] (Philadelphia [Pa.]) 1914-1942, 1915-02-05
ON THE BATTLE LINE
OF RICH AND POOR
Both Sides Met Before a Commission.
They We're Mother Jones and
Young Millionaire - The Original
Closed Shop Discovered.
Rr VANCE THoMPsoN

soft slow unurgent fight, as though all mer
knew II began in the beginning Of days and
would go on to the end of days. There
was no hurry, for this was the eternal bat
tie between the Haves and the Want-to-
Haves And so men saluted each other
courteously, as in leisurely Hundred
Years War, and put up their swords at
noontlde, and lunched and went at IL again
In the afternoon. But all the same 1t was
war.
VIII you look on for moment? Possibly
in this casual way you may get Mt the real
significance of what is called (rather pom
pously) the United states Commission on In
dustral Relations
1t began, I believe, when Congress was
petltioned to investigate the labor troubles
of the lronworkers. Before the slow-mov-
ing statesmen got their law passed that
trouble had been dynamlted into prison, so
the commission was loosed upon an ampler
investigation of labor and the men who
labor. 1t went forth
To make an inquistion
Into their real condition,
and find remedy for their ills and discon-
tent. Therefore the Eight Inquisitors sit in
the pale Colonial room of City Hall, New
York, in q dignif1ed semicirce, hedged off
from the awed spectators To the left is
high backed chair wherein Big Money sit
ting uneasily. Is put to the question.
Look at the Inqusitors.
Big Men Don't Abash Walsh
In the centre sits the chief. He Is Frank
p. Walsh, an Irish-faced man of 40, with
red hair and a free Western manner, law
yer. 1t is plain and evident matter that
he has a heart. Little indignations culver
in his voice when he speaks of the Poor
Man who has been mutilated in the mills
of toll Withal the Rich Ma" does not abash
him. You may picture him lolling back in
his big chair his hands clasped at the back
of his head, his elbows pointing north and
south, smile his shrewd kindly Irish
face, as he glowers shortsightedly through
his glases at the Rich Man. At his left sits
gray, alert old man of toll, Lennon, the
treasurer of the American Federation Of
Labor He eyes the Rich Men warily as
they come and go and keeps-it may be
habit and not precaution-a tight grip on
his watch chain.
Next to the laborer member sits Mrs. Har-
rlman, the only woman on the commission
She is dressed in widows weeds The hat is
curious and amazingly effective. 1t is fiat
and angular and the crepe falls In straight
lines down either side of the face You have
seen something of the kind in old Venetian
pictures and indeed it is to a medieval pic
ture that the beautiful clear eyed patrician
face rightly belongs. To her right sits Mr..
Wenstock California merchant He is in
a revolving chair, so that he can turn his
back on the lady and look out of the window
or turn his back on the window and talk
cheerily to the lady; thus hour after hour he
swings between the two like a pendulum.
r.,
missioners: O'Connell, a grizzIed and drowsy
looking (but that is only his way man of
labor Ballard, Kentucky manufacturer, a
gray and steady man, who sat hour after
hour, his chin in his hand, pondering; Gar
retson. an old conductor with a fine bony
head trimmed with gray hair, who studied the
Rich Man with cold, unblinking eyes; and
last of all. Professor Commons, of the Uni
versty of Wisconsin, who is expected to
write the report of the commission. Him you
may picture as a small dark man, wholly
alive, spectacled as every sef-respecting pro-
fessor should be, with a strong eccentric face
made fine by habits of thought.
These, then, are the Inquisltors.
Mother Jones
They face a dark, crowded, silent audience
that fills the pink curtained room. Doubtless
at that obscurely celebrated old woman
Mother Jones, of Colorado. She is dressed in
the decency of black serge with white lace
at the throat, and is altogether radiant and
winso1he herone-even the Rich Man looks
upon her without dsapprobation.
And what have they done?
What does a commission with a pompous
title usually do?
They have talked. Day after day, leaning
back in his chair-hls elbows squared
over his head-Chairman Walsh has asked
questions So doing he has done Gas he
would say) his "juty." The chairman was
very fond of that word, and said a great
ieaI about the Juty of Capital and the Juty
1f Democracy and other solemn Juties. At
irst the Rich Men who were put to the ques-
ion took refuge i'm pragmatism. Mr.. Schif
and Mr.. Guggenheim had theories based
largely on the German system of doing
hings.
Mr. Ford who manufactures automobiles,
think. was anything but pragmatic. He
ired a shot that-with the less momentous
'ne fired at LeXington-has rung round the
world He made one of those amazing state
nents that make men sit up and think
make them stand up and cheer. 1 do not be-
ieve there is a newspaper in the world East
,r West that has not printed his declaration
that he could land given the chance would)
AXE every prisoner in Sing Sing and employ
lin profitably at a good wage In his factories.
I knocked the wind out OF the crminologists.
It set the reformers thinking. 1t made the
igid old crime hunters gasp. And perhaps
here was in 1t the germ OF new and
ational treatment of the conviets of our
thousand prisons and jaiIs. That may be;