Omaha daily bee., 1917-05-26
Keeping Industrial Peace
By Frederic j. Haskin


important that we have peaceful and whole
hearted cooperation within our own boundaries
One of the most delicate tasks that the nation
faces in the coming months is that Of keeping in
dustrial peace at home maintaining friendly rela-
tions between capital and labor
Labor troubles sap the vitality of fighting
nation at its industrial roots. Yet no nation at
war has escaped them. England has had strike
after strike, sometimes when the products OF the
idle factories were cryingly needed at the front
1t has just seen the last OF munition makers
strike, and bus drivers strike that kept the mu-
milton workers from reaching their jobs. Ger
many, in spite of iron-clad discipline and the tra-
ditonaf respect OF its people for authority has
just gotten done with muniton makers strikes
that even the name of Hindenburg could not put
down. There is no reason to believe that we shall
be lucky enough to escape all labor disturbances
and much OF the machinery for adjusting them is
oiled and ready for business
There are two official agencies in the United
States for the settlement of labor disputes
Neither of them in the final analysis has any real
power-power, that is, to enforce a settlement
but both have proven effective The board Of me-
diation and Cancellation is empowered to step in
and mediate and concliate in any labor trouble
affecting the interstate service Of the railroads
The board has jurisdiction ofthi sort over train
men and telegraphers actually engaged in the
operation of trains The only official conciliator
and mediator in trouble affecting other immensely
important factories and industries of the nation
is the Department of Labor The department has
quite remarkable record for settling disputes be-
tween labor and capital, although it has no power
whatever to force settlement and can only use
its Offices to bring about better understanding.
The officials of the department look forward
to doing brick business in the concation line
for the next few months There is undeniably
considerable unrest in the relations between capi-
tai and labor in the United States today. The
department is confident, however, that no trouble
serious enough to threaten the national interest
will arise, il only because both sides have shown
themselves alive TO their patriotic duty in war
times.
None the less, the conciators of the depart
ment are being kept busy. They have smoothed
out troubles in the coal fields in one of the big
gest muniton plants in the country in plant that
is delivering locomotives on contract to Russia,
on one of the most important munition-carrying
railroads. in mandatory of electrical supplies
that was making deliveries to the navy all in the
last few weeks. Even threatened strike in
New Jersey lace-makng town was tied up with
the war situation because the plants in question
were working on contract to supply the United
States army with mosquito netting.
The Council of National Defense plans to SUPP
plement the present machinery for Cancellation
with twenty-five special subcommittee for me-
dation and conciliation, responsible to Secretary
of Labor Wilson.
1t is interesting to note that the experts regard
the present tendency to unrest in labor as nat
ural result of conditions and not indicative of any
spirit that argues desire to obstruct at criti-
cal time. Conditions are abnormal and almost
unprecedented. 81
There has been steady pressure from every
side to increase the output, to make every ma
chine and every man turn out the maximum
amount. Mills are clamoring for raw material,
orders go begging and those who place the Or
ders shout for speedy delivery. 1t works down
at last to a continual appeal to the workman to
speed up his output, until, as one official of the
department puts it, the workman acquires
"feather-edge," He gets nervous and irritable:
1t is well enough for the economist to treat of
labor as commodity, but labor as matter of
fact is mass of humanity with nerves and tenn
peraments. The workman goes ten hours at top
speed and plods home to find that prices have gone
up until his high wages begin to look inadequte.
His family calls for more money and his fore
man calls for>more speed. Finally he throws up
his hands and says: "By heck, they II hake to raise
my wages and be content with my present output,
or I'll strike"
The expert analysis of the situation shows that
what restlessness exists is due to no very dis
quieting causes. 1t seems to be largely the reac-
tion from high tension and forced draught,
coupled with labor scarcity with its continual
temptation to move, and the high cost of living.
All these problems are serious but they open up
no such grave vista as would be indicated by
The department has no authority to arbitrate,
to Judge or to enforce its own opinions Of the
merits Of the case In fact, it carefully refrains
from having any opinions. It is authorized to
conciliate and mediate and il waits for an invita-
ton before even going that far. Sometimes the
employer invites the department to tackle the
problem, sometimes it is the men, and OF late the
Council OF National Defense has been keeping
sharp eye out for labor troubles, and, speaking
for the public, has called on the department to
try and find solution. The official conciliators
then try to get the dsputing parties together on
some common ground They take it for granted
that both sides want an agreement and they try
to find a basis If Cancellation fails they may
resort to mediation but if either party insists
on fighting il out the department cannot stop
them. So far, however, efforts at Cancellation
have been remarkably successful,
1t is hoped that they will continue so, War
calls for stern measures in the last necessity and
il industry vital to the nation were crippled by
disputes the government would have to create
machinery for dealing with the situation. But
Cancellation, the appeal to the reason and the
patriotism Of both parties is the truly democratic
method, and If the country can make it serve
throughout the war the feat will be vindication
Of the efficiency OF democracy.
HIGH MARK IN RECRUITING SCORE.
Nearly every able-bodied man in the town of
Hurst Ill., lined up at the recruiting Office and
offered to do his bit. Even man with wooden
leg hoped in, eager and ready to tackle scrap
ping job. Twenty-one were accepted and nearly
as many rejected for various mperfections in phys
sique. The proportion figures 100 per cent OF
fighting material and nuts Hurst at the top OF the