The Bridgeport times and evening farmer., 1919-11-21

The Industrial Conference call ed by President Wilson has failed to do the work it's program called for, that is, to arrive at an agree ment which would enable pro- duction to proceed without hin- drance. We need not here in- quire where the fault lay, if fault there was. But it is almost forced upon the mind that the very failure will render a service wliih the program makers did not foresee.
 One point is very clear, that the failure of tle conference does not mean that the American peo- pie have used the last resource their intelligence can provide. Far from it. Excited prophets de- clared, upon the opening of the conference, that this was "the last chance" that if the conflict ing interests did not achieve peace or at least an armistice, then nothing was to be expected but chaos. The difficulty about such prophecies is that they in variably leave out the common sense of the American people. Beneath all the appearances of disruption is the -unbroken foun- dation stone of sound American thoughtfulness and calmness. Our people are as nearly fool-proof as any nation could be. Certainly the American people do not feel today that the bottom has drop ped out of the world because an / unofficial and in some respects unrepresentative and misrepre- sentative conference has failed.
 One very probable result of the conferees' decision to shut Qown and go home will be the popu- lar conviction that our problems are to be settled that way. Con- ferences do very well when they are clothed with administrative power. But mere irresponsible debating societies accomplish little. That is to say, if the hun dred million people of the United States had empowered those few score delegates to assemble at Washington and adopt an indus trial rule for the guidance Of all the people. it is doubtful if the conference would have broken up as it did. But the delegates had no such commission, they had no power whatever to bind the. people to any agreement, they did not even have a pledge of popular support. So they met, each to put his ideas across to the other and as there was not enough breadth or depth of pa triotic spirit on either side, the meeting disbanded.
 No; the conference hall in which this great problem will be solved is the broad United States, and the conferees will be the People of the United States, and the only idea that will be put across will be the Public Idea
 The fundamental mistake was that three interests met together, each to prove to the other that it was the chief interest They named themselves by groups: the Capital Group, the Labor Group, the Public Group. It may be said that the first two were too small, and the third was not big enough.
 Now, the group that is going to settle this matter, and settle it on sound principles is not the Capital Group which is inclined to think it's interests are para mount, nor yet the Labor Group which is certain that its interests must be built up no matter what other interest suffers; but the Public Group whose interests are, always were and always will be, absolutely, first
 The Public Group is the most important for four reasons:
 First, it includes the other two groups, both producers and con sun1ers;
 Second. it Is more numerous