Evening star. [volume] (Washington, D.C.) 1854-1972, 1919-10-25
RECAST OF PUBLIC
GROUP IS NOW AIM
President Hopes to Bring
About Peace Between
Labor and Capital.
BY DAVID LAWRENCE.

Labor and Capital.
By DAVID LAWRENCE.
Reconstruction of the group repre-
ment of a new commission to draft
a program of industrial relations is
the plan which President Wilson has
decided upon as means of bringing
about peace between employers and
employees throughout the country.
Members of the public group were
almost unanimous in the opinion that
as at present constituted the person.
mel was not fitted to carry on the task
that would devoIve upon it. and that
while the selections might have been
suitable in the case of a composite
conference. the addition of technical
experts and persons especially ia
Iniiiar with the detail of labor prob
lens is now essential because the
whole burden of framing an equitable
program will be placed on a single
group
Take Judge Gary. for instance. He
was selected originally as a repre-
that by personal association in the
conference with the labor leaders
some settlement of the steel strike
might be made. But it became ap-
parent that so far as the views Of the
public group itself was concerned he
was wholly misfit and should have
been in the employers group, though
Judge Gary himself very tactfully
saved the public group any embar-
rassment by refraining from attend
ance or voting when a proposition on
which the entire group seemed agreed
was to be put before the whole con-
ference.
Include Varying Viewpoints.
Also with the employers and en-
ployes' representatives now outside
the conference, it Is deemed desir-
able to make selections which will
surely include all the varying view
points on the relations of capital and
labor. and yet maintain a personnel
that knows how to bring out COM
promise. Unquestionably the new
commission will take advantage of
the continued presence in Washington
of the leading members of the en-
tain advice or judgment as various
principles are brought forth, and the
personal relations already establish
ed through the conference itself will
stand the new public group in good
stead. making possible informal con-
viduals representing capital and
labor can talk more freely and make
more valuable suggestions than they
could on the floor of conference
recorded in every detail by stenog-
raphers and the press.
Looking back over the events OF the
last two weeks. many mistakes were
made in the industrial peace confer
ence on both Sides Really. it was
big tragedy. Agreement was not as
impossible as it may now seem to have
been through the departure of the
labor group. When 1t Is considered.
for instance, that by the bare major
ity of one or two the employers
group decided to vote as a unit
against the Gompers resolution de-
claring that wage-earners had a right
to organize without discrimination
the proximity of the whole conference
to an understanding on that first
principle can be seen.
Labor and Capital Tactless.
The passing of the first obstacle
would have meant the passing of
crisis and the beginning Of an era Of
reconciliation@in tie conference it
self. But labor was impatient and
tactless. Capital or its part was tact
less because it fail l really to tell the
conference about the vote inside its
group and just what was holding
back assent to the Gompers principle
For Instance, IL the employers group
had said in the conference what so
many of it's members said afterward
privately, the conference would not
have dissolved.
Practically all the employers said
they had no objection to the Gompers
resolution If it could have been fur
Their defined Had they announced to
the conference that they approved the
principle with certain understandings
and definitions as to it's mode of ap-
plication the responsibility for deny
ing those understandings and defini-
the labor group.
The employers on the other hand
argue that 1t was not necessary to go
further because union labor showed
its hand. One of the questions which,
Samuel Gompers, president Of the
American Federation of Labor, did
not announce in the conference and
has not answered yet is that which
L. F. Loree of the employers group
asked him and which Paul L. Feiss of
the public group pressed upon Mr..
Gompers. was this:
Mr.. Loree-I want to read from
the proceedings of the American
Federation OF Labor, held at Atlantic
City. N j., June 9 to %, 1919, pages
S02 and 303. resolution No. 201 1t
starts out with this proposition:
Whereas many steel corporations and
other industrial Institutions have insti-
tuted in their plants systems Of collect
i've bargaining, akin to the Rockefeller
PLAN ard ends up with two resolutions
Resolved. That we disapprove and
condemn all such company unions
and advise our membership to have
nothing to do with them; and be it
further resolved, That we demand
the right to bargain collectively
through the only kind Of organiza-
tion fitted for this purpose. the trade
union. and that we stand loyalty to-
gether until this right is conceded to
us Now, we are not going to be led
into the adoption of any resolution of
this kind that does not set out plainly
on its face all the circumstances
under which collective bargaining can
be conducted"
Inquiry of Mr.. Feiss.
To this Mr.. Gompers made no an
swer. So, later. Mr.. Feiss Of the public
group pursued the inquiry thus:
Il should like to ask Mr.. Gompers,
for the Qualification of my own mind,
If / may, this question, because 1 am
very much puzzled by the resolution.
] would like to ask Mr.. Gompers to
reconcile what, in my mind, are di-
verse statements. We asked you yes
terday. Mr.. Gompers. in the group
meeting. whether the resolution you
then stood for presented in your
mind or permitted, instead, or af-
fected the formation OF so-called shop