New-York tribune., 1919-10-18
Industrial Conference Is
Adjourned Until Monday
as Unanimity OH Prin-
ciple Is Not Reached
Compers and Loree Clash
Leader Resents Charge La
Dor Unions Are Controlled
by Few Paid Officials
By Chester M. Wright
Ne1r York Tribune
Wash ingtOn Bureau

" NSNtNytoH fpNftuu
WASHINGTON. Oct. 17.-Leaving the
general committee of fifteen to make one
moro effort to work out a compromise
on the question of collective bargain
ing, the Nat onal Industrial Confer
! cnce tonight adjourned until Monday
after a day in which charges and coun
ter charges colored the debate. When
Secretary Lane, in the chair, brought
the meeting to a close at o'clock ir
ritation was evident on all sides and
half the delegates were SO "jumpy"
controlled themselves.
On the p)r t of adjournment the la
! Dor delegates served notice that the
original resolution on collective bar
gaining, as reported to the conference
from the committee of fifteen, repre-
sented their last word and that they
would accept nothing less. They said
it was in itself a compromise and that
they wou go no further.
The employers hattled all day in
last ditch fight, opposed by every other
contingent in the conference. They
had against them the public, the wom-
en-, labor and the farmers. But they
would not surrender what they define
as the right to refuse to bargain with
labor representatives not on their own
payrolls.
Lariy in the day a resolution was
submitted by Harry A. Wheeler, of Chi
cago, for the employers, making this
reservation, after Frederick p. Fish, of
Boston. had withdrawn his motion of
yesterday to send the subject back to
the general committee.
"State Secret" Revealed
Thus with two propositions before
the assemblage the debate went on
through the day. H. B. Endcott, an
employer of 5000 persons, member Of
the public group, gave to the confer
ence Estate secret" which cleared
up much doubt as to the origin Of the
resolution submitted by the general
committee, and which was regarded as
/ being harsh blow at the employers
case 1t was the first time the proceed
ings of the committee have been dis
cussed on the open floor.
Mr.. Endicott said that after long
discussion in the committee it was
agreed that Charles Edward Russell
This he did, said Mr.. Endcott, bring
ing back what later became the first
paragraph Mr.. Endicott took re-
sponsibilty for the second paragraph.
The resolution thus framed was dis
cussed by the general committee. Mr..
Endicott said both sides were "thunder-
struck" when they heard the resolution
read in committee and that both sides
at once asked the privilege Of retir
ment.
Labor went out one door, he said,
"and the employers out another. The
employers got back first. Some of
those employers-I am not sure wheth
er it was Mr.. OLeary-came to me and
said: Labor will never accept this,
with this codicil ono it," The codcil
was the second paragraph. Mr.. Endi-
cott said if the employers thought
labor drafted the resolution, as had
been said, he did not see how they
could reconcile their statements. Mr..
OLeary said Mr. Endicott was correct,
except that he did NOT mean to imply
that labor had drafted the resolution.
Defence by Gompers
One of the dramatic features of the
day was speech by Samuel Gompers,
in which he took to task +. F. Loree,
who had said: "The actual government
of the trade unions rests in the hands
of the salaried officers of great So
cieties numbering scarcely more than
} 1000, and these in turn are dominated
} by a much smaller number"
Mr.. Gompers said he knew of a uni
versity chair of labor history that was
vacant. He then launched into a de-
fence of the officers of labor unions.
Turning to his colleagues, he said:
: "We have here seventeen members Of
this labor group. | venture to say that
0 there is not one of them that has not
; hoboed it through this country in try
I ing to work for the betterment of his
fellows"
: Mr. Gompers appeared weak as he
began to speak, but he seemed to gain
n strength as he went on.
e Mr.. Loree had thrown the insinua-
q ton of revolution into the meeting
r saying many people felt that four OF
t five well defined groups of revolution.
g ists were being financed by Socialists
e He also called for law to make labor
= union books, letters and records as
9 free to access by the state as are sim
n liar corporation records.
|. Mr.. Gompers took up both Of these
Y statements. He went at length into
t labor's war record and paid high trib
= ute to it. He then went into n compari
q son of labor and capital, as the animate
e and iranimate things.
q "Capital consists of tables" he said
It "these tables and these chairs, thes'
o clothes, steel, clothing, boots, shoes
I pork, hides and cattle. machinery, wool
e sugar, oil, anything that can be brough
&c to your mind relative to the things
have mentioned, is encompassed in tn
q term 'capital'-dead things, inanimat
e things, material things, things whicl
y CdIi NC SO4u dtu OcuSHI, tHihSo WiilSi
o are subject to barter and sale; capita
g invested for the production of Still
d more capital. more inanmate things
is material things.
80 "And what is labor? Labor is tn
r men and the women, enormously an
re intentionally coined in the termlnolog
g, as labor. It is laborers, workers
70 human beings, men and women an
children, and when it comes TO tn
question of determining what is 0
' greater Importance as to men an
10 women and little children and dollar
and things, the soul Of mankind goe
- out to men and women and childre
rather than to capital--the regulatio
f OF capital, the material things Of lif
and the regulation of men and wome
and children.
If Old Concept Prevailed
'If the old concept of labor and capj
st tai had prevailed we should still fin
ds our children, three, four or five year
~ OF age, going into the mines and work