The daily star-mirror. (Moscow, Idaho) 1911-1939, 1919-12-04
RESPONSIBILITY or
INDUSTRY CONTROL
VITAL QUESTION is WHETHER
INDUSTRY CONTROL SHALL
BE RESPONSIBLE

That the great question before tn
American people today is that of re
sponsibile control of industry, is tn
trend of an article published in tn
last issue of the Worlds Work TIL
article is timely and deals with tn,
present labor situation and the con
troversy between capital and labor
and should be read by every one wish
ing to become posted on this vita
question. The article follows:
Early in it's deliberations the Pres
iden's industrial conference reached
the vital question of whether the con
troll of industry should be responsible
or not. The labor delegates stoutly
maintained that it must be irrespon-
sible. The employers stoutly main
tanned the opposite, and the labor dele
cation left the conference.
Mr.. Gompers would probably re-
pudiate the description of his attitude
as an attempt to make the control of
industry irresponsible but neverthe-
less it is in reality just that. The
American Federation flo Labor has
tried for many years to make its
membership contain practical mon
opoly of labor. If it could achieve
this aim it could insist that every en-
ployer deal with the union. And if
the union has complete monopoly of
labor it could force it's demands upon
the employers up to a point where the
business failed or the employer pre-
ferred not to continue it. Complete
union domination would mean the
ownership of industry by the employ
er and its control by the Federation
of Labor. Under this arrangement
the union officials with the power to
dictate policy to all employers would
be without any responsibility either
to make the business pay or properly
to serve the public, for if business
did neither and failed it would cost
these leaders nothing. In other words,
the more radical leaders of the Ameri-
can Federation of Labor have been
seeking complete and irresponsible
power over American industry.
However, the difficulties of attain
ing this have led to a seeming mitiga-
tion of this position. The Federation
is willing to arbitrate or negotiate
questions, if it is recognized that the
arbitration be, between the union of
ficers and the employers, and that the
employers agree not to deal with their
own men directly This does not es-
sentlally change the situation, how
ever, for the Federation does not nee
essarily agree to accept awards unless
it likes them, nor can it guarantee
that its members will keep any agre-
ments that are made. 1t even op-
poses the incorporation of the unions
which would bring some measure of
responsibility, for if incorporated they
could be sued for damages in case
they broke their contracts. In other
words, the labor leaders insist upon
the full measure of responsibility.
However, even under the very able
leadership of Mr. Gompers the Ameri-
can Federation of labor or, in fact,
all union organizations together have
failed to get as much as half of
to join. The unions have
not been able to convince the ma
jority that the benefits of union
membership are worth the price of the
dues. AS long as this state of affairs
lasts the union leaders will lack COM
plete power and will usually not be
able either to start to win strikes ex-
cept where conditions are bad enough
to justify the strike At present a
certain amount of responsibility is
forced on the union officers because