The Knoxville independent. [volume] (Knoxville, Tenn.) 1894-current, 1917-04-07
SCORES Plan TO
AVOID STRIKES
Compulsory Arbitration Is De-
nounced by Samuel Gompers.
SAYS IT MEANS SLAVERY.

Legislative Acts of All History, In So
Far as They Affected the Working
People, Have Always Had the Object
of circumscribins Their Rights and
Hindering Their Advancement.
Samuel Gompers recently gave to the
New York public service commission
his views ON it's proposed plan of legis-
lation for reasonable wages and fair
working conditions of employees Of
public utility corporations and agree
ments with the workers for the estab
nshment of wage board with the OBJ
ject of preventing strikes.
He spoke at the second of series
Of hearings arranged by the commits
sion for the purpose Of affording rep
resentatives of railroad employees and
labor organizations an opportunity to
express their opinions on the bill in
| cooperating the above features, now
pending at Albany.
Chairman Oscar s. Straus of the
commission opened the meeting with a
statement outlining its object and the
i, salient points of the proposed legisla-
| ton. He said:
"The employee under our plan makes
his arrangements with the company
just the same as he does now, and the
company can avail itself Of mediation,
1 Cancellation or arbitration just as 1t
does now.
"In case all of those methods fail we
have provided in the first instance for
adjustment of these difficulties, that
have not been settled in the manner
described, by tribunal, wage board,
to be composed, one-half by the repre-
sentative of the employees, both organ
lied and unorganized, and the other
half by the employees. The question
as to whether this board is to be for
the state or is to be wage board for
each system we have left open. We
want light on the entire subject. The
idea is to put all matters Of controver-
sy between employees and employers
into a judicial attitude. We believe
that the function Of the wage board
itself will do great deal In preventing
the irritation and spirit of enmity that
spring up at the crucial stage of such
negotiations"
Mr.. Gompers Immediately registered
his unalterable opposition to the bill.
He said: s4 -
II am convinced that the commission
is prompted by an honest desire to
solve this problem with justice to all
concerned. But there are some things
in this world that are unsolvable, and
one OF them Is the strength and weak
ness of human nature. Human nature
cannot be changed by legislation.
"The fact is that the legislative acts
Of all history in so far as they affected
the working people have always had
the object of circumscribing their
rights and hinder their advancement.
Laws of conspiracy were never more
brutally or ruthlessly employed than
when workingmen met to devise
means of improving their condition.
"Only in the last fifty years has some
thing been done to take the grip of the
employers from the throat of their en-
ployees."
Speaking of the legislation under dis
cussi0n, Mr.. Gompers said:
IF you gentlemen of the Public Serv-
ice Commission are alive twenty years
from now and still hold the influential
} position you occupy at the present time
you will be sorry if this bill becomes a
law. To my mind it is an entering
wedge toward robbing workingmen OF
their freedom of action.
"Workingmen," he continued, must
at all hazards preserve their right to
fold their arms and do nothing for any
good reason or for no reason at ALL
$50 long as employers have the right
to dismiss their men on any pretext
how, in justice, can the right to quit
work at any time or in any circum
stances be denied to the workingmeni
And that is just what this bill means
1t provides for compulsory arbitration.
Workers individually are nothing
but acting collectively they have great
power. / am opposed to the destruc
ton of life and property. Strikers have
no license to commit crime, but they dc
have the inalienable right to refuse te
work IL they desire it, otherwise they
would be no better than slaves.
1.-THE slave must work at his mas
ter's will, the freeman has the right tt
withhold his labor. You cannot take
that labor away from the man without
taking his body too.
1.-THE bill you have drawn up pro
vides for broadening and strengthen
ing Of the laws affecting workingmen
The Strengthening of the law-put thai
in quotation marks-is a step toward
still more unfreedom for the working
man."
Get Jobs For Many Workers.
| N Tnr - s~,n lx.Is M x1r13f