The Chattanooga news. [volume] (Chattanooga, Tenn.) 1891-1939, 1919-10-07
ON
DEFINITE ACTION
Committee on Rules Reports
Provisions of Greatest
Interest.
LANES SPEECH LIBERAL
(BY WILLIAM ALLEN WHITE.)

(BY WILLIAM ALLEN WHITLEY
Washington, Oct. 1.-THE address
of Franklin X. Lane and the report
of the committee on rules and order
of business indicate that the indus
trial conference Is beginning with
determination to do something.
Lanes speech denounced the ignor-
ance and arrogance Of reaction In in
dustry, comparing it to the ignorance
and arrogance in Prussianism and
the committee on rules and order of
business in its report, trimmed down
to a skeleton, the business to be
transacted upon the floor of the con-
vention. Mr.. Lanes speech was a
liberal speech. II advocated the
step at time which Is the slogan
of the evolutionary socialist, and the
report of the committee on rules.
while 1t adopted the methods of cor
poration organization provided for
an effective machinery for results.
The provisions of the report are of
greatest interest. They are, first.
that no one may introduce a subject
for consideration without the con-
sent of majority of the group to
which he belongs. By group, one
means the labor group, the public
group, the employers group. and so
on,
The subject introduced may not be
debated upon it's introduction, but is
Immediately referred to an appro-
pirate committee, and after the sub
ject has been reported by majority
of the committee. Speeches upon
the subject thus reported are limited
to ten minutes and no one may. speak
twice until every one else has had
his say. and the second and last
speech of any delegate upon any sub
ject shall be limited to five minutes.
Moreover, the committee report pro-
vides FOR voting by groups--a ma
jority of the group being necessary
to cast the vote Of the group, and
the committee of the different groups
on rules further provides that unani-
nous consent shall be required to be
binding upon the conference. This,
of course, does not mean the unani-
nous consent of the delegates, but
1t requires that the consent of a
majority in every group must be Sc
cured before any proposition shall be
binding upon the conference. This
Of course, is cloture. But it is the
only way to get results. 1t puts the
radicals of each group in the discard
They must be able to carry convic-
ton with their groups or lose their
final influence upon the convention
This action of the rules committee
may be somewhat the result of a
feeling in the conference that the
farmers are going to make a disturb
ance. They have little use for the
eight hour day.
Farmers Hunting Trouble.
They feel that the government has not
considered them as it has considered the
laboring man and they are known to be
more or less belligerent and hunting
trouble. But the temper OF the con-
ference is not ready to be burdened
with agrarian troubles The overwhelm-
ing weight of the conference will fol
upon the consideration Of purely indus
trial problems and the conference will
waste not time upon farmers unless one
group or the other. dissatisfied with the
direction the convention is turning, shau
turn the wrath of the farmers upon the
conference as sabotage. That Is re-
mote possibility, for there can be no
doubt that the present temper OF the
conference is hopeful of a genuine solu-
ton of the problem before it.
Secretary Lane, chairman of the con-
vention, is rather more in sympathy
withthe left than the rights more
inclined to labor than to capital in in
dustrial matters-and he is familiar
| with the various solutions arrived at bS
other countries and in this country
which solution will come before the
committees for consideration. But he Is
on record as favoring profit sharing as
an imDOrtant aid to the stabiliZation OF
indstry and is willing to combine profit
| sharing with at least legislative contro
| of any plant or industry by the labor o
| the industry. He has been known a
| a friend of unionism but not hard
and fast supporter of its further aims