Evening public ledger. [volume] (Philadelphia [Pa.]) 1914-1942, 1918-06-19
INDUSTRIAL VOLUNTEERING
CAN PREVENT CONSCRIPTION
Labor Is Confronted by the Necessity Of
Choosing Between Force and Consent in
Engaging i, Work 10 Helm Win War

l. or the abstract justice of the war
labor order that has come out of Wash
ington.
We have drafted men into the army to
fight and, if need be, to die. We con-
sented to the draft because it seemed to
| be a fairer way to raise big army than
tc depend entirely on volunteer enlist
ment. The selective principle distributed
the burden over all industries and over
all parts of the country.
The drafted men cannot fight success
fully if the war industries, which supply
them with munitions and food and ships
and clothing. are handicapped for lack
of labor The volunteer system ought to
provide labor enough. 1t is TO be hoped
that it will do so.
The labor order is intended to dis
tribute the volunteer labor where it is
needed and to prevent one war industry
from bidding against another for work
men. 1t is intended also to induce en-
ploycrs engaged in nonwar industries to
consent to the withdrawal of such part
ply the imperative demands of the war
industries.
The order comes as near as possible
to conscripting labor without actually
conscripting it. Employers are reminded
that if they do not induce their laborers
to volunteer for war work the railroad
management, the fuel administration
and the war industries board can inter
fere so successfully with the conduct of
their business that the!- will not have
work for their men to do. And labor is
reminded that it can get no work with
out card from the Government employ
ment bureaus. All this means that if
the men do not volunteer they will feel
the arm of the Government about them
The men who are allowed to work at
home in order to help win the war ought
to be glad to volunteer, but there will
hnve to be 100 per cent volunteering to
prevent the Government taking the logi-
cal step of actually conscripting all labor
and assigning it to industries where it is
needed. When 100000 men are drafted
into an army and sent to France to fight,
100000 men remaining at home cannot
with justice object to being drafted into
work necessary to keep those fighting
men fed and equipped.
The fact that the present unsatisfac-
tory labor situation was produced by
bungling in the first place does not help
matters. Labor has been demoralized
by the bidding of one war industry
against another. War contracts have
been let providing for the payment of
the cost of production, plus 10 per
cent profit. This arrangement made
some of the contractors Indifferent to
economy. The more they paid for labor
the larger would their profit be up to
the limit allowed. So they offered ex-
travagant wages to unskilled labor, with
the result that men went from one plant
to another seeking more money and get
ting it. Labor was unsettled and pri-
vate employers found it difficult to keep
their help, and we are now confronted
with the necessity of drastic Govern
ment action.
The first result of the new plan ought
to be scaling down of wages to rate
that is fair to the taxpayers as well as
to the workers in nonwar industry. This
will create dissatisfaction among the men
who have been getting big pay, but it
will not diminish their obligation to
work. 1t may force the absolute con-
scription of all labor
The possibility of such an outcome is
| foreseen in Washington, where they are
| talking of reducing the age limit for
the draft to eighteen years at one end
and raising it to forty-fve years at the
other. 1t is intimated that some plan is
under consideration to force the men
between these ages to work or to fight.
Large numbers of men between thirty
and forty-five years old are said to be
engaged in no useful occupation. Their
services are needed. If they cannot be
obtained in one way another way must
be found.
The nation is determined to win the
war and it will submit to methods which
under ordinary conditions it would fight
to the last ditch rather than accept. The
Administration is aware of the national
temper and it makes its plans with con-
fidence.
1t is unfortunate that anything ap-
proximating the conscription of labor is
thought to be necessary. But if we can
not win the war without it we must con-
sent to it and make the best of. it. The
decision lies wholly in the Judgment OF
the President