The Hartford herald. [volume] (Hartford, Ky.) 1875-1926, 1919-04-02
IMPORTANT RESULTS OF RE-
CONSTRUCTION CONFERENCE

aOAt III w dohthbtOn Ut tnt Cdli vi
Secretary Wilson of the Depart.
ment of Labor accomplished mum.
Der of important results.
1t impressed first of all on all the
participants that the labor prob
lens of the country must be view
ed as they arise with a more COM
plete understanding of the basic
conditions. There we're men in
the conference, chief executives
from cities, who arrived with the
feeling that such labor disturb
.ances as they had at home were
merely local demonstrations which
had originated either from the adj
verse attitude of the employers, or
because of some petty incident in
local labor circles.
By getting together and ex-
changing impressions in an execu-
tive town meeting" session with
plenty of opportunity for discus
sion, the men were given a wider
vision, and il is certain that those
who were disposed to regard lab 1r
mixups as parochial affairs will now
approach them with clearer I'M
Outstanding and appreciation of the
responsibilities. There is no gain
saying that in many cases the pos
sibility that labor disturbances
were political rather than mere
wage or hour disputes, came as 4
new idea. No chief executive will
be any the worse off because he has
learned to carefully size his job
and to estimate its full significance
in advance.
The formal declaration of Pro-
fessor Irving Fisher, the economist,
that we are permanently on high
er price level, and that prices will
stay up, was sufficiently important
"a declaration to Justify the calling
of the session, ii no other state
ment had been made.
The general impression that
somehow prices of materials and
labor are due for drop within
relatively short time, has been one
of the most stagnating features of
business life. 1t is because this
feeling is so generally current, that
billions of work has been held up
throughout the country, private
and public. 1t is not that men
were anxious to dodge their re-
sponsibilities, but they had the
natural feeling that if prices were
to drop, they did not see why they
should adventure in advance of
that drop on large undertakings.
Long before Professor Fisher pre-
pared his paper, it can be said that
the experts OF the Department of
Labor working in the Construction
Division had within the last three
months reached the same conclu-
sion from a study of conditions fol-
lowing the Civil War.
1t is interesting to note that al
though the Fisher statement was
one of the declarations CLOSED ov-
er by the newspapers at the time,
it is now being reprinted generally
throughout the country by banking
and economic authorities, and as
yet, there has been no attempt to
upset the conclusions. This de-
claration has fortified every Gov
ernor and Mayor who will be able
to use it to meet his budget COM
mittees who may suggest the delay
in public undertakings until the re-
duction materializes.
The unanimity if the decision of
the conference to indorse outright
the Department of Labor policy for
the deportation of such aliens as
advocate or plot the overthrow of
governmental forces was also one
of the important achievements of
the meeting This is another prob
lem which, in many cases, was be-
ing settled on local basis, and
there is no denying that Governors
and Mayors have been handicapped
by the doubt as to how their broth
err officials might act Now after
full discussion by representatives
from all parts of the country, the
executives present have formally in
dorsed this method of procedure,
and all will feel safer in following
this course. The fear that other
Governors or Mayors may perhaps
take issue with them has been dis
sipated.
Having in mind the diversified
political elements participating,
that there should be ten points of
agreement is significant When
the conference resolution is re-
duced to plain, concrete statements,
the conference agreed on these