The Butler County press. [volume] (Hamilton, Ohio) 1900-1946, 1919-01-03
BY JOSEPHUS DANIELS
Secretary of the Navy.

The relations between labor and the
Navy Department have been highly
satisfactory during the past year. In
spite of the general bidding for skilled
mechanics, the workmen in our navy
yards, with surprisingly few excep-
tions, have remained loyal to the de-
partment and have refused to leave
their vitality necessary work in the
yards for more lucrative positions
elsewhere
1 In addition, on several occasions
when the general relations between
capital and labor appeared, under the
extraordinary conditions created by
the war, to have reached a critical
stage, the various trades in our navy
yards addressed resolutions to the
Secretary Of the Navy so clearly defin-
ing their belief that the duty Of all
loyal American workmen lay in Sc
curing the maximum production of
war materials by combined individual
efforts, without regard to selfish con
siderations of personal betterment,
as to have no slight effect in bring
ing both sides in controversies going
on outside the yards to realization
Of the need Of forgetting their dis
putes and devoting their energies to-
ward winning the war
Much of this satisfactory condition
is due to the loyal cooperation of the
heads for the American Federation of
Labor, with whom the department has
maintained the friendliest relations
and whose wise and patriotic coun-
ellis have done much to keep such yard
workmen as were members of labor
organizations keenly alive to a sense
of their duty as American citizens.
The department feels it may take
some credit to itself for this condi-
tion of affairs on account of the prin-
ciple it has established during the last
five years of frank dealing with men
of labor and by the rule that any
grievance could be brought, without
red tape or formality, directly to the
attention of the Secretary of the Navy
at any time for investigation and cor
rection
The Navy Department trusts the
men who build and repair ships and
make munitions; it believes they trust
the department, and that is the whole
secret of successful cooperation be-
tween employer and employee.
The Navy has suffered severely, in
common with all industry, through the
shortage of labor. 1t was early seen
that men to operate our yards to their
greatest capacity could only be Sc
cured by further crippling the build
ing of merchant ships-so imperative
~ needed and the manufacture of
munitions.
The policy was established, there
fore, of making no demands for more
labor beyond what was absolutely
necessary for the upkeep of the fleet
and very limited amount of new
construction. Even this required a
large augmentation of our yard forces,
but while at times work has been de-
layed more than we would have pre-
ferred, yet enough men have been
found to carry on the absolutely need
ed requirements of the service.
The exigencies of war have made
it necessary for the department in
many cases to take an active inter-
est in the relations between private
manufacturers and their workmen.
In number of instances the navy
department has itself by general
agreement acted as arbiter in disputes
arising in plants engaged in furnish
ing it with materials. Close co-opera-
tion with the labor adjusting agencies
Of the War Department was effected.
and the two military branches of the
Government, since the early days of
the war, have acted in absolute agree
ment and often jointly in such mat
ters.
Through the War Policies Board and