Montpelier examiner. [volume] (Montpelier, Idaho) 1895-1937, 1916-07-21
FRANK P. WALSH TALKS
TO B. OF |. F. AND {.
Discusses Labor Conditions in Address Delivered
Before the Convention Of the B. of L. F. &
E. at Denver on June 29.

any authority. high or low, in gov
ernment or out of government. CAP
plause.
Now, to briefly state what we did
find: That investigation called for
the introduction of something like
one thousand witnesses in a public
hearing, including three hundred of
the leading employers of labor in the
United States.
Collective Bargaining.
We found one potent fact that
stood out undenied-that the neces-
sity of this country was compelling
that there should be collective bar
gaining in industry. That PROPOSE
| tion was assented to by every great
employer of the United States. save
two. that appeared before our com
mission. 1t was found and readily
conceded that in the basic industry
the single individual had no oppor-
tunity to bargain in any way that
would raise him to the level of indie
pendent citizenship and give him
an economic place in the field of
everyday life that the citizenship
of this country called for
| Now, we learned something, my
| friends, that will have a great bear
| ing on the question that is 50 close
| to our hearts and minds today, and
| that is that there are certain element
| airy and underlying principles that
must be lost, that absolutely inhere
n the very form of our government,
and in the very form of any product
i've organization that goes over be-
yond what even can be done by coll
lective bargaining and gets down to
the original and fundamental rights
of mankind.
Industrial Democracy Essential TO
Political Freedom.
The great evil-the great mistake
that befalls the nation, that has
brought about all ills of the indus
trial body polite, is, I venture to az
sert. in my humble opinion. the idea
that one human being can acquire a
right in the labor of another human
being (Applause.) No such right
can be found to exist by any govern
mental body or any student of eco
nomics It is true that that thought
goes all through the industrial sys-
TEN, 1t seems to be permeating, it
goes through every system of pro,
duction that perhaps the world has
ever known, until we reach a sys-
tenn of production under a democ-
racy but under no form of social or
ganization can there be either polite
al freedom or political democracy
unless there is industrial democracy
still going all through the body po-
litic.
The Right to Live.
There is one right that no human
being can deny us and that is the
right to live. Correlative with the
right of being or the right of exist
ence is mans invariable right to la
bor-his right to earn a living. God
, the Divinity-nature- provided
: the only means by which mankind
can maintain life, being the field and
, the stream, and If his activities are
obstructed or stopped OF deranged
: then the whole body becomes a de.
| ranged and sick thing, and God gave
[ us one way for a man to earn his
2 right to live, He gave everyone a way
; to carry out his mandate that mar
I must earn his bread in the sweat oi
I his face. and that was the land e
4 till, the land to make productive. tbs
rivers of the earth to fish in, the ali
to breathe and cause production, anC
!, / may say right here today that be
q fore we get final solution for th'
ills that inflict the industrial body
y we must come back to the PROPOSE
!. tion that man has right to the lanC
3 just as he has to the air to breathe
r and the water to drink. and until WI
q get down to the main proposition
that there can be no just title to land
:, except through use. we will be floun
| lz,-s s., NA1 aI1 Of d.1af al do
n spair so long as we live. tApplause.
: The Right to a Living.
But il has been truly said, m
friends, by someone that after al
/ mankind is driven to do his ehiefes
It good, and therefore you are here I
l. say what you may do to advance you
= right, il | understand the spirit tha
q animates you. Therefore, l am her
Il to make my humble suggestion. Coz
II relative again with the right to live
d of course, comes the right to a livin
% wage. and / say that any system c
ss collective bargaining that has eve
n been devised will be but another sys
n tenn of slavery, or another opportun
1f ty of welding chains upon human b.
oI ings that does not start out with tn
of proposition that the right to lil
Of ing wage is far beyond collective bal
n gaining, arbitration or anything els
IS But this is what want to say to you
aF From the investigation | have mad
o. an industry in my opinion should M
rs live that does not pay living was
~ to every man in that industry
in wage that measures up to what this
! call American standards. a
ar plause.l The people ought to co.
he slider il an embargo upon the actiy
re ties of their government and insi
BY Continued on page two9