The labor journal. [volume] (Everett, Wash.) 1909-1976, 1918-08-02

shocked the conservatives But
Walsh went about the country hold
ing hearings and swinging the dead
cat of informality all over the prem
Uses. Working men found themselves
as welcome before the commission in
flannels as in linen. The present
board, too, greets testimony in much
the same manner. The workers feel
perfectly at home, staunchly defend
ing their positions against the best
efforts of highly trained legal ex-
perts.
Four years ago-four years that
have been fruitful throughout the
world of economic thought-Walsh
came out of his home town, Kansas
City, Mo-, as a national figure. When
the industrial commission was named
by President Wilson-it had been
originated in the administration of
President Taft-Walsh was selected
as chairman. Walsh amazed his col
leagues by the manner in which he
shuffled off 25 years of legal train
ing and got down to brass tacks with
"shirt-sleeve" court. 1t was sheer
atavism, for Walsh had been en-
ployed in barb wire mill, as mes
senger boy, as a Pullman conductor,
at several other avocations, includ-
ing stenography, before becoming a
lawyer.
Board Learned Much.
The commission was named to
learn the causes of industrial unrest.
Walsh already knew lot about
them. But it was fine finishing
school for his colleagues. They
learned all about them in series
of hearings in virtually every indus
trial center over the country. So did
nearly every laboring man. The
boards hearings were published YER
batim by Congress. The testimony
provided wealth of information and
thought to workers as we'll as de-
veloped economists. Baby union ora
tors were teethed on it's truths. Those
of larger growth expanded under its
array of thought, gathered from
every one worth while in the nation
The testimony swept away the petty
boundaries which had confined eco.
nomic thought and progress. Mer
found new levels of thought. Labor
had become intellectual, not indi.
vidually alone, but collectively. The
testimony articulated what has beer
unsaid in millions of hearts.
A singular coincidence is that
Walsh is now chairman of the ma
tional war labor board, jointly with
progenitor of the original labor
board, the industrial relations com.
mission. The war labor board is
taking up the economic problem
where it had been left off by the
industrial commission. But it is
taking it up with the horizons spread
widely. A newer and more vital in
telligence has come to labor The
seed the original commission sowed
fell on fallow soil. Labor no longer
cites individual cases of industrial
wrongs. The industrial commission
gave them witnesses to intolerable
practices in industry. 1t gave them
grasp and vision on the entire ma
chinery which has oppressed them
So they enter into the new battle
with ardent hopes and conscious of
equality before the law, before the
people and before the thought of the
world in their aspirations.
Walsh considers his effort on the
national war labor board as merely
another phase in the cycle of eco
nomic progress for the masses. He
looks serenely ahead to other mea.
sures and to other men who will give
direction and wider scope to truths
learned. Education, he believes, is
what the public needs in order to
grasp labor problems. Having that
no sophistry can uproot verities.
"The fact that labor and capital
saw at the same time the need for
a court of last resort on economics
during the war is, in itself, a fine
indication of the growth of thought
within the last few years." Walsh
declared. "There was an unconscious
realization for years that much of
the bitter differences might be swept
away. The war brought home to us