New-York tribune. [volume] (New York [N.Y.]) 1866-1924, 1918-02-10

tors, the threatened strike of packing
house workers in Chicago and the
street railway trouble in Minneapolis
and st. Paul.
The commission resords at length
its search for the "real cause of the
labor unrest and comes to these con-
elusiens:
'The effective conduct Of the war
sutfers needlessly, because of interrupt
ton or work, due to actual or threat
ened strikes, purposed decrease in eff
cheney through the strike or the job,
decrease in efficiency due to labor un-
rest, and dislocation of the labor sup
ply.
These are not new conditions in
American industry, nor are their causes
new. The conditions and their causes
have long been familiar and long UNI
corrected. War has only served to in
tensify the old arrangements by MAX
ing greater demands upon industry
and by affording the occasion for new
!, disturbing factors
Among the causes of unrest. famil-
lar to students of industry, the follow
ing stand put with special significance
to the industrial needs of war:
! Broadly speaking, American indus
try lacks healthy basis of relation
s ship between managementand men. At
bottom, this is due to the insistence
by employers upon individual dealings
with their men. Direct dealings with
employees organizations is still the mi
: nority rule in the Omitted States. In
the majority of instances there is no
+. joint dealing, and in too many IN
: stances employers are in active oppo-
J s;tion to labor organizations. This
failure to equalize the parties in adj
, justments OF inevitable industrial con-
: tests is the central cause of our diff
: culties.
Task for Leaders Of Industry
"There is commendable spirit
through out the country to correct sue
. cihc evils The leaders in Industry
must go further, they must help to
correct the state of mind on the part
. of labor; they must aim for the release
; of normal feelings by enabling labor
/ to take its place as a cooperator in the
I industrial enterprise. In word,
conscious attempt must be made to gem
crate new spirit in industry.
: Too many labor disturbances are
due to the absence of disinterested
for peaceful settlement. Force be-
comes too ready an outlet. We need
continuous administrative machinery
by which grievances inevitable in in
dustry may be easily and quickly dis
posed of and not allowed to reach the
pressure of explosion.
"There is a widespread lack of
knowledge on the part of capital as
s to labor's feelings and needs, and on
the part of labor as to problems CT
management. This is due primarily to
lack of collective negotiation as the
/. normal process of industry In addi-
ton, there is but little realization son
the part of industry that the so-callcd
labor problem demands not only occa-
Slonal attention but continuous and
systematic responsibility, as much so
as the technical or financial aspects of
industry.
Certain specific grievances, when
long uncorrected, not only mean definite
the attitude of employers, and thus
affect the underlying spirit. Hours and
wages are, of course, mostly in issue.
On the whole, wage increases are asked
for mostly in order to meet the ia
creased cost of living. and such de-
mands should be met in the light of
their economic causes. Again, the de-
mand for the eight-hour day is nation
wide, for the workers regard it as
expressive Of an accepted national
policy
ASpASooifC ASdIluE Will INdHllSStd-
tions of labor unrest is the source CT
much bitterness, turns radical leaders
into martyrs, and thus increases their
following, and, worst of all, in the
minds Of workers tends to implicate
the government as partisan IN an
economic conflict. The problem is a
delicate one.
There is no doubt, however, that
the Bisbee and Jerome deportatioas,
the Everett incident the Little hang
ing and similar acts of violence against
workers have had very harmful effect
upon labor both in the United States
and in some of the Allied countries.
Such incidents are attempts to deal
withs symptoms rather than causes. The
]. W. W. has exercised its strongest
hold in those industries and communi-
ties where employers have most re-
sisted the trade union movement and
where some form of protest against
unjust treatment was inevitable.
THE arrangement of our labor sup
ply is one of the great evils in in
dustry. The shockingly large amount
of labor turnover and the phenomenon
of migratory labor mean an enormous
economic waste and involve an even
greater social cost. These are evils
which flow from grievances such as
those we have set forth; they are ac-
centuated by uncontrolled instability
of employment. Finally, we have
failed in the full use and wise direc-
'tion of our labor supply, falsely called
labor SHORTAGE because we have
failed to establish vigorous and COM
petent system of labor distribution.
However, means and added resources
have been recently provided for bet
ter graphing with this problem.
Uncorrected Evils
sit is, then, to uncorrected specific
evils and the absence of healthy
spirit between capital and labor, due
partly to these evils and partly to an
unsound industrial structure, that we
must attribute industrial difficulties
which we have experienced during the
war. Sinister influences and extremist
doctrine may have awaited themselves
OF these conditions; they certainly
/. have not created them.
I'm fact, the overwhelming mass of
the tailoring population is in no sense
/ uisloyal. Before the war labor was of
course, illled with pacific hopes shared
by nearly the entire country. But, like
! other portions of the citizenship. labor
has adjusted itself to the new facts
revealed by the European war. Its suf
/ 1erlng and its faith are the suffering
! and the faith of the nation.
/ with the exception of the sacrifices
OF the men in the armed service. the
greatest sacrifices have come from