Denver labor bulletin., 1917-05-26
BY LAURENCE TODD
Especial Washington Correspondent The
Denver Labor Bulletin.)


Denver Labor Bulletin)
WASHINGTON, May 81. When
the labor committee of the advisory
commission of the council of national
defense, some $50 strong, went to the
White House on Tuesday, May 15,
President Wilson gave them two
pledges of his policy toward indus
trial relations during the war. He
pledged his support to the maintain
ing and bettering of the standards set
before the war, by the workers. And
he pledged his support of the volun-
tary principle as against conscription,
armies which will supply the military
and naval forces and the home popula-
tion during the period of the struggle.
Here is what he said:
"This is most welcome visit be-
cause it means a most welcome thing,
the spontaneous cooperation of men
from all walks of life interested to
see that we do not forget any of the
principles of our lives in meeting the
great emergency that has come upon
US.
"Mr. Gompers has expressed already
one of the things that have been very
much in my mind of late. have been
very much alarmed at one or two
things that have happened. At the
apparent inclination of the legislatures
of one or two of our states to set aside
even temporarily the laws which have
safeguarded the standards of labor and
of life. l think nothing would be more
deplorable than that.
Lifting Life's Standards.
eve are trying to fight in a cause
which means the lifting of the stand
ards of life, and we can fight in that
cause best by voluntary cooperation.
men representing labor in this coun-
try, speaking for their fellows, will be
willing to make any sacrifice that is
necessary in order to carry this con-
test to a successful issue, and in that
confidence l feel that it would be mex
cusable if we deprived of such a
spirit of any of the existing safe
guards of law. Therefore l shall exer-
else my influence, as far as it goes, to
see that that does not happen, and
that the sacrifices we make shall be
made voluntarily and not under the
compulsion which mistakenly is inter-
preted to mean a lowering of the
standards which we have sought SO
many generations to bring to their
present level"
There was more of the speech, but
this was the part which interested the
labor spokesmen. The president had
agreed that the sacrifices" involved
in changed industrial conditions dur
ing the war were to be made "volun-
tarily and not under compulsion," even
tho he assured his audience that it
was a mistake to suppose that labor
standards would be lowered by COM
pulsory service. He had accepted la
fNv ,,,I, ,{,-,,
army, as set forth in the manifesto Of
labor officials here on March 12.
Young Rockefeller Present.
And he had come out against the
sordid attempts of reactionary legis-
latures, in New York and other states,
to tear down the labor laws under pre-
text of national emergency.
This was a speech worth hearing. 1t
was particularly appropriate since
John d. Rockefeller, Jr., Daniel Gug-
genheim and Elisha Lee, head of the
railroad managers organization of the
United States, were among the men,
bers of the committee. Later in the
afternoon young Rockefeller told how
he had been brought up by his father
to honor the men who work with their
hands. Jim Lord, president of the
mining department of the A. F. of L.,
was present when President Wilson
spoke, and also when Rockefeller told
the committee that he wanted to be
known as the friend of the working
man. The United Mine Workers have
not yet been able to get recognition
from Rockefeller in Colorado.
Canadian Workers Ignored.
This meeting of the committee was
chiefly given over to the answering of
questions on British wartime indus
trial arrangements, by James Thomas
and Charles Bowerman, members of