The Butler County press. [volume] (Hamilton, Ohio) 1900-1946, 1917-03-09
SCORES PLAN TO
AVOID STRIKES
Compulsory Arbitration Is De-
nOunCad 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 Circumsoribing Their Rights and
Hindering Their Advancement.

People, Have Always Had the Object
of circumscrbing Their Rights and
Hinderina Their Advancement.
Samuel Gompers recently gave to the
New York public service commission
his views on its 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.
lshment of a wage board with the OBJ
ject of preventing strikes
He spoke at the second of a 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
statement outlining its object and the
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.
conciliation or arbitration inst 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 ne-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 a 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:
81 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 50 far as they affected
the working people have always had
the object OF circumscribing their
rights and hinder their advancement
Laws of conspiracy We're never more
brutally or uthlcssly employed than
when workmgmeu 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
cussion, Mr. Gompers said:
y
ice Commission are alive twenty years
from now and still hold the influential
position you occupy at the present time
you viii 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 workingmen?
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-
tion of life and property. Strikers have
| no license to commit crime, but they do
have the inalienable right to refuse to
work If they desire H. otherwise they
would be no better than slaves.
"The slave must work at his mas
ters will, the freeman has the right TO
withhold his labor You cannot take
that labor away from the man without
| taking his body too.
"The bill you have drawn up pro-
vides for broadening and strengthen
ing of the laws affecting workingmen.
The strengthening of the law-put that
in quotation marks-is a step toward
still more unfreedom for the working
man"