Omaha daily bee. (Omaha [Neb.]) 187?-1922, 1919-10-24

recess of two weeks, but the motion
was defeated by a close vote and in
stead it was decided to meet again
tomorrow afternoon.
| Meantime a committee OF which
John D. Rockefeller, jr., is chairman
and John Spargo, Ida Tarbell,
Thomas d. Jones and Ward M. Bur
CESS are members will prepare arec-
ommendation as to the groups fu-
ture action.
Presidents Message.
| President Wilson, on being in
formed early in the day of labor's
withdrawal, dictated from his sick
| bed a message to Chairman Lane.
Later in the day Mr.. Lane ap-
peared before the public group and
read the message, in the form of a
memorandum, but declined t. make
it public.
| Before the conference was ad-
| sjourned the employers representa-
! tives expressed their willingness to
remain, although realizing that with
out the labor delegates little could
| be achieved.
In their statement the employers
declared that collective bargaining,
an accepted and desirable policy in
industry, had been brought more
prominently before the country"
with the realization that the term
must be understood as having vari-
Gus applications under different con-
ditions. Collective bargaining is in
terpreted by labor in only one way,
the statement said, and that is as
organizing and bargaining through
trade and labor unions"
| On the other hand, Samuel Comp
ers, president of the American Fed
Grafton of Labor, in a statement ex-
planning the stand of the labor
group, declared that 1T is worse
than useless to sit in conference"
with employers unless they agree to
| "a declaration of the right of work.
ers to organize without discrimina-
ton.
| Not Jumping Jacks"
Asserting that the labor delegates
are not jumping jacks" and would
mot reverse their decision Mr..
Gompers said that he had been in
structed previous to yesterdays
meeting by the labor group, includ-
ing both the representatives of the
American Federation of Labor and
the railroad brotherhoods, to an
!nounce their withdrawal in case the
collective bargaining declaration
was defeated. When the declaration
was finally rejected yesterday he
said there was nothing left except
withdrawal.
In declaring the conference ad-
journed, Chairman Lane said that
1.-THE going out of the labor group
had changed the nature of the con-
ference.
Therefore" he added, at is the
presidents desire that | should ex-
press to the gentlemen OF the en-
ployers group who have expressed
their willingness to stay, his desire
that the nature of the conference
itself should, because of the change
| of conditions, be changed, and that
the work should be carried on by
the public group inasmuch as the
burden of these quarrels that exist
in industry falls ultimately upon the
public. And so, gentlemen, the
public group will be asked to make
a report and give advice and sug-
gestions as to the industrial policy
Of this country"
Employers Issue Statement.
The employers group issued the
following statement:
1.-THE adjournment of the national
industrial conference as originally
constituted brings up sharply the
Iquestion of whether the weeks of
[controversy over one phase only of
industrial relations leaves the situa-
ton without single gain. The en-
| ployers' group, soberly reviewing
the work of the conference, discov-
ers three definite gains:
First. it has been demonstrated
THAT failure is inevitable where pre-
iliminary organization of the ele-
ments composing such conference
is absent and where no preparation
is made for the orderly presentation
Of program which shall include
lall Of the known factors upon which
industrial relations are based.
Second. collective bargaining, an
accepted and desirable policy in in
dustry, has been brought more
prominently before the country and
will influence sincere effort on the
part Of innumerable manufacturers
to find an acceptable medium
through which this collective rela-
tionship may be secured and main
tanned in the industrial establish.
ment.
Can't Be Safely Used.
third, collective bargaining a. q
policy or principle cannot be safely
used in the broad and general sense
| with which the public has been &C
custonhed to express it, but must be
4 defined clearly 40 to its applicable.
| ity to the varying conditions Of in
dustry and the varying relations that
exist between wage-earner and the
employer.
Fundamental to the whole ques-
ton of collective bargaining is the
responsibility of those who bargain,
and this is directed quite as much
at the employer as at the wage
Garner or the organization of which
the wage Garner is a member. Only
where there is definite dual re-
sponsibility lived up to as scrupu-