The Topeka state journal. [volume] (Topeka, Kansas) 1892-1980, 1918-09-18
TOPEKA STATE JOURNAL
INFORM A TON
Blu RE AU.
FREDERIC J. HASKIN. Director.
Washington. D. c.
WAR AND LABOR.
uI-Keeping Industrial Peace.
washington. D. c.

HIs-keeping INDUSTRIAL 1c"ce.
Washington, D. c.. Sept. IA ma
| chinist whose name is well known IN
! organized labor circles recently visited
a middle western city where there
| happened at the time to be gooo
deal of Industrial unrest.
| Because of grievances of one, kind
! and another strike was brewing
| among the employees Of a plant sup
plying the government with war NUM-
| tions. The visitor knew of this situa-
ton and arriving in the early evening
made his way straight to the hall
| where, as he expected, stormy>pro-
/ test meeting, was in session.
| For "a time he sat unnoticed on
dimly lighted bench in the rear OF the
| hall. The place was packed with stern
! faced men in working clothes. The
night was hot and humid and the
American flag behind the chairman's
table dropped in the sultry air.
There was no doubt about the ruling
sentiment among those workers.
| Speaker after speaker with homely,
i fiery eloquence urged the strike upon
| the men as their only effective means
of protest. Between speeches the hall
| buzzed with the recital of real and
fancied wrongs. Only the chairman.
| facing the others, his elbows resting
| on the plain deal table and his chin
| in the cup of his hands, seemed to
hesitate at the momentous step. A
little apart from the rest perhaps he
visualized more plainly what an idle
war plant would mean in the trenches
| where the sons and brothers of many
of those present were facing pitiless
foe.
AS he sat thus a man from the rear
of the hall walked up to the platform
and whispered in his ear. The chair
| man nodded. A speaker, one of the
most infiammatosy yet, was just con-
nj Ind Gfor Of 81, o1r
the room. Three or four times the
chairman started to speak before he
could restore order and make himself
heard.
'In the rear of the ROOM" he said.
lis Comrade Blank. Headquarters at
Washington have assigned him to the
department of labor in response to a
call from the government. Before we
come to a decision on this matter
think it Would be helpful to have a
word from him."
The visitor rose and stood with his
hands gripping the back of the bench
in front of him. All present knew him.
The greater part by reputation; few,
| the leaders there, as personal friend.
The room was as quiet now as a mo-
ment before it had been tumultuous.
II want to tell you men just two
things, he said in clear ringing
voice. First, that the government is
doing everything in its power to insure
that you get square deal. Second,
that it is your plain duty as war work
ers to leave the settlement of your
grievances to the government and not
to cut off war production until you
have reason to know that the trouble
here can't be ironed out in any other
way"
This is true story, wherefore we
can't go the length of saying that all
difficulty ended then and there. There
was a lot more talk, and a lot OF
resistance and a lot of personal dis
satisfaction. But there was no strike.
Munitions continued to pour out from
the plant in an uninterrupted stream
and a month later the national war
labor board handed down a decision
which gave to the workers involved
practically everything for which they
had been on the verge of striking.
The fact of vital and significant i'm
portance in the whole incident, which
in the past few months has been re-
enacted in a score of different in
stances, is that it was a leader OF
organized labor who prevented a
| strike among his comrades
The problem of the strike has been
Zone of the most difficult and deli
cate matters with which the depart
ment of labor has had to cope since
America entered the war. The sue
cess of the nations war program. the
| lives OIL tile men IN france QepeHO
on its elimination. Yet profiteering
graft, corruption and other evils at
tendant on individual greed are pres
| ent in war as in peace and make the
strike, as the only adequate remon-
, STRANGE of the wage earners, almost
inevitable.
The outbreak Of strikes and indus.
trial unrest which swept the nation a,
the outbreak of war was expected
but for that reason it was none the
less alarming. How great an effect
this condition had on slowing dowr
! Americas active participation in the
II war has never been estimated. It's
| potential harm was well summed VI
by Mr.. H. W. Garrod, a British labor
| expert, who came to this country las
5 fall with a special British mission, in.
, vited over here to acquaint the Arheri
can people with Great Britain's war
time experience with labor. Said Mr.
Garrod:
I'm every city that we have visited
in the United States. we have tried Il
put one fact OF our experience before
you-that no nation under modern
conditions can possibly hope to carr.
thru a great war, such as the present
unless it can maintain Industrial peac,
at home. I say>that, because, sine.
we have been in this country, a mat
= ter of about two months. there hav'
l occurred a number of very serious in
| duStFial disturbances. II one-eightf
of those troubles had occurred in Eng
. land during the whole period of tn,
three years that we have been at war
we should have had to make, lont
ago, a disgracefu1 peace. That is be
cause we are nearer the war than vol
are at present; but soon you are goins
r to be very near the war indeed, ant
C. than you will come to realize that
very small part of such troubles will
be sufficient to bring you into a situa
s ton in which. if you cannot get tn
t better of your trouble, you can onl,
sue for peace
1t was the full realization of tn
i reality of the dangers outlined by MI
;. Garrod which early this year led Sec
rotary of Labor/Wilson to appoint tn
| national war labor board as the cour
of final decision in all industrial dis