The labor journal. [volume] (Everett, Wash.) 1909-1976, 1917-02-16
VALUABLE
VOLUMES OF
TESTIMONY
(By Dante Barton)

There has just been issued from
the Government Printing Office in
Washington the completed volumes of
the Testimony submitted to Congress
by the United Commission on Indus
trial Relations of which Frank p.
Walsh was chairman.
One of the first of the important
industrial acts of the Wilson admin
istration was the appointment by
President Wilson of this Industrial Re-
lations Commission with the follow
ing membership selected by him.
Frank P. Walsh of Missouri, Chair
man; John R. Commons of Wisconsin
and Mrs. j. Borden Hartman of New
York, representing the general public;
John B. Lennon of Illinois, James o.
Cornell of Washington, D. G. and
Austin B. Garretson of Iowa, repre-
senting organized labor; and Freder-
rick A. Delano of Illinois; Harris
Weinstock of California and S. Thrus-
ton Ballard of Kentucky, representing
employers. Upon the resignation of
Mr.. Delano, to accept a place on the
Federal Reserve Board, the President
named Richard H. Ashton, of Him
OILS, who finished out the term.
When the European War was in it's
hn Of &c irrh+ Of -
interest the news of it was shared
on the front pages of all the daily
newspapers throughout the country by
the news of the hearings conducted by
the Walsh commission. Of such ire
mendous importance were the facts
brought out by the commission, so
thorough, so inclusive of all phases of
the national life and so all embracing
in the character and interests of it's
witnesses were the hearings that the
proceedings of the commission were
as vital and absorbing of the public
interest as was the contemporary
news of the greatest world conflict
in history.
Here now, in the published volumes
of the verbatim testimony, questions
and exhibits, is an encyclopedia of
the industrial, economic and political
life of the American people in their
present cycle of development.
The inspiration of public demand
and of public knowledge, out of which
grew the chief acts of the Wilson ad-
ministration for greater industrial
justice, was in these hearings of the
Industrial Relations Commission. 1t
is impossible to understand not only
the economic policy of the national
government of this period but the very
spirit and temper and drift of the
industrial United States without
linking them up with the searching
Investigations of the Commission.
1t is an incidental tribute to the
living character of the work perform
ed that members of the British Gov
ernment's Committee on Commerce
and Industry" to reconstruct British
trade and industrial organization dur
ing and after the war (The Recon-
struction Committee it is called) have
sent urgent requests to the Committee
on Industrial Relations for sets of the
Testimony to aid in the study and
solution of Great Britain's problems.
The quality of the Commissions
inquiries which distinguished it par
ticularly was it's assurance to workers
and to the economically least fortu-
nate that the full power of the FEEDER
al government would be used to I'M
cover injustice and iniquity rather
than to cover them or apologize for
them. The Judicial poise" which
would balance one interest and view
viewpoint, and thus produce vacuum
of misunderstanding and inaction,
was expressed discarded by Chairman
Walsh. While a chief support was
given to Mr.. O'Connell and Mr.. Gar
retson, there was general prevailing
and notable harmony among all the
Commission as to the course the in
quiries should take and as to the con-
duct of the hearings. For the funda-
mental and searching thoroughness of
the Commissions hearings great
credit has been given by all the MEM
bers of the Commission to Basil M.
Manly, who worked to the front as
director of research and investigation
for the Commission and who prepared
and directed the most important of
the hearings.
In these eleven volumes of testi-
mony and exhibits are presented the
direct testimony of the chief or the
representative actors in all the in
dustrial disputes and in all the in
dustrial life of the United States. The
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