New Britain herald., 1918-01-07
HIGH BIDS FOR
 SHIPYARDS MEN
Biz Demand for Mechanics in
 Government Building Plan

more or less surprising things may come out of the bag in the next six or eight months with congress and the departments plungtng along in dead earnest to strike a tremendous blow in France. There are none too many thinkers and students in con- gress, or in public life generally but there are a few. These pioneers into > war problems are turning over a. num- Der of things observing current prog ress and in some instances, pondering whether the time has come for open advocacy.
 One of these matters is the con- scription of labor, mentioned occasion ally throughout the country. It is a topic that hardly a man in congress is brave enough just yet to advocate but there are some men on the Hill, Nho are thinking very seriously about it. The commerce committee hearings 'on the shipping board have focused congressional attention particularly on this topic. For while almost every wit ness protests that he believes in the patriotism of labor and al that, all most every witness tells how prices for labor have been shooting upward
 
 workingmen especially the young and |. unmarried ones, curtail their working days each week, because with higher wages these men get enough to sup port themselves comfortably, accord ing to their living standards
 And on the top of that condition, shipyards have been offering a bonus for workmen who make a full week. It develops further that the yards having the most success in turning out ships are generally the one that have simply taken the limit off wage offer ings.- In certain cases these successful yards have ''raided' the laborers of other yards, although this has now been checked on the Pacific coast by arrangements for pooling labor through bureaus at Seattle, Portland, San Francisco and Los Angeles
 Developments of that character, brought into the open at the com . merce committee hearings, are making n few thoughtful senators pause. There was another matter of like inn port in the declaration of English delegates that if their country had had as much trouble with labor the United States government is having on war work, the entente allies would have had to surrender long ago, or words to that effect. And these things may have been in the mind of a, cer tain democratic senator from a west ern state, a senator whose office is full of books that he studies and whose time is occupied, as much as he can spare of it, in seeking informa- ton from every possible source on ad- Tanced public questions, when he said--
 "If this war continues very long, we may have to conscript labor after all, just as Italy is doing. It is not half as bad to conscript a mans skill in the factory as it is his life on the battlefield.''
 The great big labor drive for the winter is to get more mechanics for the shipyards. As was testified the other day in the commerce committee, something like 150,000 or 100000 more men are needed to get out the ships to secure the necessary trans port for troops Agents of the gov ernment and also of the shipyards are com ping the interior towns and cities for mechanics. Pacific coast yards arc understood to be operating as far east as Iowa and the Mississippi river points for garage mechanics, who are now upon slack months in their trade and seeking to encourage them to go to Pacific coast yards where 1t Is certain they can be trained quickly for shipbuilding service. There is similar canvassins of interior cities for riveters, whose work ordin- arily slows up in the winter months. These are only instances of the governments activities to recruit shipbuilding craftsmen, who, as a matter of fact. are quite as badly need ed as fighting men on the firing line. Vocational schools in the eastern cities and divers trades are being called upon along the Atlantic sea- board for every possible man who can bear a hand at the building program Upon the success of this organized appeal for mechanics and upon the manner in which the men meet this national emergency will depend meas urably the future course of congress and of the administration toward la bor.
 Certainly there is such an oppor- tunity as can rarely come to organized labor to demonstrate it's patriotism not only in furnishing men for ship building but in working them up te the limit of efficient endurance. IT the lumber camps of the Northwes are leagues of loyal loggers' banded together to circumvent the l. W W's. If shipbuiIding mechanics imi tated. in some measure, the zeal O. the loyal loggers to assure the govern ment quantity and quality of service particular suspicious that might u1ti mate1y develop into dangerous senti nent would be allayed.
 Changing to another topic, there i much impatience at the capitol witt the manner in which railroad bills fo the government are pfling up, particu farly travelling bills. Thousands upo1