Pine Bluff daily graphic., 1918-02-10
bor unrest, and dislocation of the la

bor supply.
 These are not new conditions in
 American industry. nor are their i, causes new The conditions and
 their causes have long been familiar
 and long uncorrected. War has only
 served to intensity the old derrange-
 ments by making greater demands |
 upon industry and by affording the occasion for new disturbing factors.
 Among the causes of unrest, fa- mlllar to students of industry, the
 following stand out with special sig -! niflcance to the industrial needs of ! war:
 Broadly speaking, American in
 dustry lacks healthy basis of rela-
 uonshlp between mana agement and
 men At bottom this is due to the
 lnsistence by employers upon indi-
 vldual dealings with their nien. Di- !
 rect dealings with employees organ- l!
 izations IS still the minority rule in | the United States. Tn the majority of !
 instances there is no joint dealing,
 and in too many instances employers ale in active opposition to labor or l sanizaticns. This failure to equalize 1
 the parties in adjustments of inevit-
 able industrial contests in the cen
 tral cause of our difficulties. There
 IS a commendable spirit throughout the country to correct specific evils. l The leaders in industry must go fur
 ther, they must help to correct the
 state of mind on the part of labor:
 they must aim for the release of nor
 mai feelings by enabling labor to 1 take It's place as co-operator in the | industrial enterprise. In word, a ! conscious attempt must be made to
 generate d new spirit in industry. l 'Too many labor disturbances are due to the absence of disinterested
 processes to which resort may be had for peaceful settlement Force be- I comes too ready an outlet. We need 1 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.
 Ignorance of LabOr's Feelings. There is a widespread lack of 1 Knowledge on the part of capital as
 to labor's feelings and needs and on i the part of labor as to problems of
 management. This is due primarily 1 1 to alack of collective negotiation as
 the normal process of industry. In
 addition there is but little realization i on the part of industry that the so-
 called labor problem demands not,
 only ocqasional attention but con- 1 tlnuous and systematic responsibility,
 as much so as the technical or finan-
 cal aspects of industry
 1 Certain specific grievances, when l long uncorrected, not only mean def | mite hardships: they serve as sym
 bols of the attitude of employers and | thus affect the underlying spirit l Hours and wages are, ofcourse most 1 ly the increased cost of living, and such demands should be met in the light of their economic causes. Again, 1 the demand for the eight-hour day is nation wide, for the workers regard l 1t as expressive of ap accepted na- i tional policy.
 Progressive dealing with manifes- !! tations of labor unrest is the source l of much bitterness, turns radical l leaders into martyrs and thus in- creases their following, as a partisan
 in an economic conflict. The problem 1 is a delicate one. There is no doubt, however, that the Bisbee and Jerome depcrtations, the Everett incident, the l Little hanging, and similar acts of violence against workers have had a very harmful effect upon labor both 1 in the United States and in some of 1 the allied countries. Such incidents are attempts to deal with symptoms i rather than causes. The I. wv. has 1 exercised its strongest hold in those l industries and communities where 1 employers have most resisted 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 indus try. The shockingly large amount of labor turnover and the phenomenon of migratory labor means an enor- | nous economic waste and involves an l even greater social cost These are evils which flow from grievances | such as those we have set forth; they are accentuated by uncontrolled in- l stability of employment. Finally, we | have failed in the full use and wise direction of our labor supply, have failed to establish a vigorous and com | potent system of labor distribution.
 However, means and added resources
 have beenrecently provided for a bet
 tr grappling with this problem. l Sinister Influences Used Conditions,
 "It 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 ex-
 tremist doctrine may have availed ! themselves of these conditions; they
 certainly have not created them.
 "In fact, the overwhelming mass of
 tn elaboring population is in no sense disloyal. Before the war labor was, of course. filled with pacific hopes |
 shared by nearly the entire country. l
 But, like other portions of the citizen
 ship, labor has adjusted itself to the
 new facts revealed by the European
 war It's suffering and it's faith are