Denver labor bulletin., 1917-06-16
DICTATOR IS NOT
WANTED
CONTINUED from Page One,

tense Is justice in fundamental rela-
tions of life-economic justice. The
one agency which accomplishes this
for the workers is the organized labor
movement. The greatest step that
can be made for national defense is
not to bind and throttle the organized
labor movement, but to afford its
greatest scope and opportunity for
voluntary effective cooperation in
spirit and action.
Whether planning for peace or war
the government must recognize the
organized labor movement as the
agency thru which it must cooperate
with wage-earners."
Now the time for trial of these prin-
ciples is at hand.
Swiftly Changing Conditions.
War conditions have developed
swiftly in American industry. Vast
sums have been voted by congress-
Millions of dollars in contracts for
every sort of munitions and supplies
and construction are let daily, in all
parts of the country. Sixteen complete
cities of wooden buildings are to be
erected within few weeks, to provide
quarters for soldiers. Hundreds of
steel and wooden ships are in process.
Millions of pairs of shoes, millions of
suits of clothing, millions of rifles
draw two or three millions of Ameri-
cans to the European battlefield before
it is finished-are to be produced as
rapidly as possible.
Will organized labor set the stand
ards of industrial conditions in all
these plants and shipyards? Or will
it be brushed aside as an impediment
to the program of war?
Need of Regulation.
At headquarters of the American
Federation of Labor the complaints
and protests from local unions or CEN
trail labor bodies come in, and from
there they are referred to the war
department, the navy department, or
the department of labor for some kind
of adjustment. But the trouble is that
the whole labor situation is today in
the utmost confusion. One contractor,
sure of the willingness of resident en-
ployes to stay where they are, refuses
even moderate increase in wages to
partially cover the recent rise in cost
of food. Another, anxious only to get
his contract completed at once, offers
big increase over prevailing rates.
Another contractor gets hold of con-
vict labor, while builder of army can
tonments, having guaranty of per
cent profit on the cost of his materials
and labor, doubles the local wage rate
for carpenters while refusing to deal
with union.
Back of all this confusion, rapidly
leading toward a chaos of industrial
conditions, is thought to be a deliber-
ate plan of the big combinations of
and then to destroy the labor move
ment. Thus the coal mine strike in
Pennsylvania caused by the refusal of
most of the employers in one district
to meet 33 per cent raise granted by
one company Is suspected to have been
provoked by anti-union influences to
break the power of the United Mine
Workers in that district.
How to Solve Problem.
What can be done to secure a fair
rate of pay, reasonable hours in every
industry, and security in the continu-
ance of all Industrial safeguards? The
answer to this question, which has
been troubling the administration
the danger in the industrial unrest,
has seemed to be the creation of
national board for the enforcement of
industrial standards. Such a board
would sit continuously, like the inter
state commerce commission. 1t would
have broad powers, such as are pro-
posed to be given to the food admins
traitor. 1t would dictate the clauses
regarding labor conditions which
would be written into all war con-
tracts. 1t would dictate similar con-
ditions for subcontracts, and indeed
for the production of all supplies which
would finally be used for the general
purpose of national defense.
But it would not be dictatorship.
1t would simply be public body which
would announce in terms of legal con-
tract with the business contractors the
conditions under which the American
labor movement would serve the coun-
try in time of war. It's standards
would be the standards of organized
labor. Its connection with the wage
earners would be thru the labor unions
and the American Federation of Labor.
Approaching Labor Treaty"
Its platform would be the platform
of March 12. 1t would mark the reali-
zation, in the world of fact, of the
dream of the labor movement-that
the government and the labor move
ment would some day make treaty,
whereby the wage earners of America
would secure universal democratic rep
resentation in the management of in
dustry, so far as their own conditions
were concerned.
Back of this plan for a national
board for enforcement of labor stand
ards, then, the whole force of the or
ganized workers will presently be
thrown
Secretary of Labor Wilson wants
the national board placed within his
department. Other members of the
council of national defense want it
made responsible directly to the presi-
dent, as is the case with the interstate
commerce commission, the federal
trade commission, and the food admin
istration The officers of the Ameri-