The Bridgeport times and evening farmer., 1919-12-29

witnesses. examine them under oath, and to require the production of pa peTs pertinent to the case.
 Existing means of adjustmen ent and conciliation, whether federal or state, or esta blished under mutual agreements of workers and employers in any industry, would not be affect ed by the creation of the system sug- gested by the conference.
 With regard to public utilities, the conference made the following state ment:
 The plan here proposed presents greater difficulties in application to certain public utilities than to com operation of public utilities is vital to public welfare. As the capital in vested is employed in public use, so is the labor engaged in public ser vice; and the withdrawal of either with the result of suspending ser vice makes the people the real vic tim.
 The Conference believes that a plan of tribunals or Boards of Adjust ment and Inquiry should be applied to public utilities, but in the adapta- ton of the plan two problems pre- sent themselves. First, governmental regulation of public utilities is now usually confined to rates ana services. The Conference considers that there must be some merging of reSponslbIl- ity for regulation of rates and ser vices and the settlement of wages and conditions of labor. Such co-ordina- ton would give greater security to the public. to employee, and to em- blower. Second. is the problem whether some method can be arrived at that will avert all danger of in corruption to service. These matters require further conSid deration before concrete proposals are put forward"
 After declaring that the, govern lnent could not permit its functions, conducted in the interests of all the people, to be interrupted by concerted cessation of work, the Conference further affirmed that government employees concerned with the admin istration of justice or the mainten- ance of public safety or public order should not be permitted to affiliate with any organization which author ized the use of the strike An essen tial part of the application of these principles, 1t was added, was the es- tablishnent of tribunals to remedy promptly any grievances submitted by government workers
 Legislation of the nation, the states and the municipalities" the Conference said, should be improved to prevent delay in hearings and to enable speedy action when there are grievances"
 When President Wilson summoned the Conference, of which Secretary Wilson is chairman and Herbert Hoo yer, vice chairman, it was expressly denied the right to consider any exist ing industrial disputes, which was the question which wrecked the first in- dustrial conference. While no speci- fic references to recent industrial troubles were made, several recom- mendations and statements of the Conference reflected the experience of the steel strike and the Boston po- lice strike
 Other members of the Conference are Martin H. Gfynn, Thos- ". Greg ory, Richard Hooker, Stanley King Samuel W. Mccall, Henry NJ Rob- inson, Julius Rosenwa1d, Oscar s Straus, Henry C. Stuart, F. ". Taus- sig, William o. Thompson, Henry J Waters, George ". Wickersham, and Owen D. Young, with Dr. Henry R Seager as executive secretary