Atlanta semi-weekly journal. (Atlanta, Ga.) 1898-1920, 1918-09-20
WAR AND LABOR KEEPING INDUSTRIAL PEACE-By Haskn

British labor expert who to this country last
fall with a special British mission, invited over here
acquaint the American people with Great
Britain's wartime experience with labor. Said Mr..
Garrod:
I'm every city We have visited in the United
States, have tried to put one fact OF our expe-
rience before yoN-that nation under modern
conditions possibly hope to carry through a
great war, such the present unless it can main
tain industrial peace at home. say that, because,
since have been in this country, matter Of
about two months, there have occurred number
of very serious industrial disturbances. If one
eighth of those troubles had occurred III England
during the whole period of the three years that
we have oeen at war we should have had to make,
long ago, disgraceful peace. That is because we
nearer the than you at present; but
soon you are going to be very the war indeed,
and then you will come to realize that a very small
part of such troubles will be sufficient to bring
you into situation in which, if you cannot get
the better of the trouble, you can only sue for
peace"
1t was the full realization of the reality of the
dangers outlined by Mr.. Garrod which early this
year led Secretary of Labor Wilson to appoint the
national war labor board as the court of final de-
csion in all industrial disputes affecting pro-
duction. 1t the national war labor board which
brought about final harmony in the outlined at
the beginning of this article, as it has done in
of others in the few months of its jurisdc-
ton. With its joint representation of employers
and workers, and its two chairmen, ex-President
Taft and Frank P Walsh representative of the gen.
eral public of the United States, it is doubtful
whether there has ever been body better qualified
in makeup for the difficult task of maintaining in
duStrlal peace. Certainly there never was q BODY
which has been practically successful in the
handling of the problems which come within its
jurisdiction. Given final authority by decree of
President Wilson July 81 of this year, it has, by
prestige and actual settlement reduced the curtail
ment of production by indutral disputes to the
stage where it is almost negligible. All the founda-
tion for the gloomy prophecies of the British labor
expert has been swept away.
These the basic principles which the
national labor board conducts its arbitration:
That this war is not only war of arms, but also
workshops,
tive production and distribution of munitions and
supplies; contest in industrial resourceful-
That the period of the war is not a period of
industrial expansion from which the employer
should expect unusual profits or the employees abb
normal wages; that it is an emergency in which
industry is pursued only for common cause and
common ends.
That capital should have only such reasonable
returns will assure its for the worlds and
nations cause, while the physical wel-being of
labor and its physical and mental efectivensss in
comfort reasonable in view of the exigenciesof the
war should likewise be assured.
That the right to organize the basic eght-hour
day, the right of all workers to a living wage. shall
be recognized basic principles govern the
lions between workers and employers in indus
tries for the duration of the
That there should be no strikes or lockouts dur
ing the war. and that maximum production should
in all cases continue during the period while the
board is making decision a controversy over
which it has taken Jurisdiction
Not ALL a majority. OF industrial dis
putes of course, find their way the Jurisdiction
of the national labor board Were such the
the body would be swamped. The department
of labor has established local adjustment boards in
every industrial locality for the sole purpose of
sitting out and settling ali disputes that be
settled without reference to the higher body. And
in addition there is the large and very efficient
corps of conciliators maintained by the department
for the sole purpose of providing mediation be-
tween employers and workers in the stages where
amcabe relations still continue and where the
ounce of prevention is always found far preferable
to the pound of cure