The Washington herald., 1919-10-12
COMPROMISE BECOMES
HOPE OF CONFERENCE
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HOE Z Vt NONr ENElNNE
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food prices soaring, only continuous
peaceful industrial balance can save
terrible situation in the winter.
And the Gompers fight Is really a
fight for the constitution and not
against II. 1t Is a fight to settle by
negotiation and conciliation things
which radicss desire settled by force,
and which 'hardboiled" conservatives
also desire settled by force.
Force Almost Greed In U. 8.
Force is beginning to be a creed in
America The various Union League
Clubs across the country believe in 1t.
The Bolshevists preach it Partly 1t Is
having its recrudesence as a creed by
the feeling that an idea may be put
down or may be promoted by force.
Russia is the hot-bed OF the doctrine
Russia Is teaching the /. w. w.
what can be done by a tyrannical mi
nority to propagate the idea. Kol-
chalk is teaching the reactionary how
to shoot an idea out of the world.
And both are mad. The Industrial
offers the solution of ne
gotiation and compromise.
VIII Advocate Open Shop.
This week the general committee
of the Industrial Conference will make
a report. This report will be a COM
promise. 1t will ask labor to accept
practically a nationwide preferential
open shop-that is to say. to accept the
company union" where the employees
by a secret ballot show their prefer
ence for it. and will demand of capital
to accept the unions and recognize
them in shops where by a secret
ballot the employees show their pref
erence for national trades unions.
In payment for these compromises
labor will get:
Union recognition where the en-
ployes ask II,
The right to strike IN privately
owned industries,
The eight-hour day.
Equal pay for women.
The Limitation OF the work OF chill
dren to 16 years in intensive indus
tries like mining,
Collective bargaining in all indus
tries. union or non-union.
The living wage principle to be
applied in various communities and
industries as circumstances set the
scale, and
Free press. free speech and the
right of assemblage.
Labor to Have It's Reward.
And for this compromise with la
Dor capital also will have its re-
ward. for capital Will get:
ii
through the shop committee where
in the men will elect their repre-
sentatives whether from the
unions or from the organized trades
will depend upon the temper of
the shop. which in turn will de-
pend somewhat upon the manage
ment Of the shop.
The abolition of sabotage through
restricted production.
The open shop dependent large
ly upon the fair plSy OF employ
ers.
stabilized labor conditions and
much desired peace.
The recognition of the individual
plant as the unit of production and
the unit for negotiations with la
Dor.
" http ucn III ldS-
tories permanently by bonuses or'
thus saving the tremendous cost to
industry OF a large labor turnover
And the court OF conciliation.
Compromises Important.
The promise of this court at the
end of the conference is probably
what kept labor quiet Friday wien
the conference adjourned until
Tuesday without Offering to settle
the steel strike.
These compromises, with their gains
on each side, are important. And II
the conference makes any settlement
II will be along practically these lines
That was evident yesterday from
talking with the leaders on both sides
the labor side and the employers
side-also by talking to the group
the public.
Now, this settlement is not social
istic; It is deeply American. A wave
of stupid reaction Is going across the
country which sees red when any
sort OF social reform is proposed. This
wave OF reaction makes men confuse
social reforms-such as these pro-
posed by the Industrial Conference
leaders-with socialism
Gompers Hates socialism.
No one hates socialism more than
Samuel Gompers and his doughty
crew. Says he. speaking Of socialism:
II want to ten you, socialists, that
I have studied your philosophy. read
your works upon economics, and not
the meanest Of them; studied your
standard works. both in English and
German-have not only read, but
studied them have heard your ora
tors and watched the work of your
movement the world over. have
kept close watch upon your doctrines
for thirty years; have been closely
associated with many Of you. and
know how you think and what you
propose. I know, too, what you have
up your sleeve, and want to say
that am entirely at variance with
your philosophy.
IT declare it to you, I am not only
at variance with your doctrines, but
with your philosophy. Economically,
you. are unsound; socially, you are
wrong: industrially. you are an I'm
possibility"
Gompers W. Haywood.
And yet in the face of these senti-
ments one hears Il said that men op-
posing the American Federation Of
Labor in its various struggles for
recognition and higher wages are
lighting the 1ght of, the constitu-
ton" The truth Is, that in industry
IT Is a choice between Gompers and