New-York tribune. [volume] (New York [N.Y.]) 1866-1924, 1915-08-29
WAGES TOO LOW,
WALSH FINDING
Result Is Industrial Unrest
That MenaceS Nation,
Says Commission.
WORKERS BLAMED
FOR CONDITIONS
Blind to Collective Strength,
They Suffer Without Resist
ance, Is Report to Congress.

Kansas City. Mo, Aug. 28.-Low
wages were found to be the basic cause
of industrial unrest in the report which
Frank p. Walsh, chairman OF the Fed
eral Commission on Industrial Rela-
tions, and the labor members of that
body will present to Congress as re-
suit of the commissions two-year in
vestigation into the subject.
The report, embodyjng the personal
findings of Mr.. Walsh and concurred
in by Commissioners John B. Lennon,
James O'connell and Austin b. Gar
retson, was made public here to-day.
Responsibility for the condition
under which they live was placed pri-
marily upon the workers themselves,
who. "blnd to their collective strength
and oftentimes deaf TO the cries OF
their advisers, have suffered exploita-
ton and the invasion of their most
sacred rights without resistance"
The report, in part. follows: 1--WE
find the basic cause of industrial dis
satisfaction to be low wages. or, stated
in another way, the fact that the work
ers Of the nation, through compulsory
and oppressive methods, legal and
illegal, are denied the full product OF
their toll.
Menace to the Nation.
ave further find that unrest among
the workers IN industry has grown to
proportions that already menace the
social good will and the peace of the
nation. Citizens numbering millions
smart under sense of injustice and
oppression. 49,,
unrest can hardly be exaggerated.
State and national conventions OF
labor organizations, numbering many
thousands of members, have cheered
the names of leaders imprisoned for
participation in a campaign of violence
conducted as one phase of conflict
with organized employers.
employers have created and MAIN
/ tanned small private armies and used
| these forces to intimidate and suppress
their striking employees by deporting,
| imprisoning, assaulting and killing
! their leaders. Elaborate spy systems
! are maintained to discover and fore
/ stall the movements Of the enemy
/ The use of state troops IN policing
strikes has bred a bitter hostility TO
/ the militia system.
Courts, legislatures and governors
have been rightfully accused Of serving
employers, to the defeat of justice
and, while counter charges come from
employers and their agents, with al
most negligible exceptions 1t is the
wage earners who believe, assert and
prove that the very institutions of then
country have been perverted by the
power of the employer.
Militant Host Growing.
"To the support of the militant ant
aggressive propaganda Of organized
labor has come within recent years &
small but rapidly increasing host OF
ministers, college professors, writers
journalists and others Of the profess
sional classes, distinguished IN many
instances by exceptional talent which
they devote to agitation, with no hope
Of material reward.
I'VE find the unrest here described
10 be but the latest manifestation OF
the age-long struggle of the race for
freedom of opportunity for every indi-
vidual to live his life to its highest
ends.
THE unrest of the wage earners has
been augmented by recent changes and
developments in industry. Chief OF
these are the rapid and universal intro
duction and extension of machinery, by
1 which unskilled workers may be sub
stituted for the skilled, and an equally
rapid development of means OF rapid
/ transportation and communication, by
which private capital has been enabled
10 organize in great corporations.
Now more than ever the prohts of
great industries under centralized con-
troll pour into the Golfers of stock
holders and directors who never have
so much as visited the plants, and who
perform no service in return. And
while vast inherited fortunes. repre-
senting zero in social service to the
credit Of their possessors, automatical-
ly treble and multiply in volume, two
thirds of those who toll from eight to
twelve hours dav receive less than
enough to support themselves and fam
lily in Gecercy and comfort.
eve find that many entire commu-
mites exist under the arbitrary eco
nomic control Of corporation officials
charged with the management of an
/ industry or group OF Industries. and we
find that in such communities political