The Bridgeport times and evening farmer., 1919-11-13

social millennium was at hand and 1 delay and disappointment in it's com ing contributes to the general un- rest.
 "I have hoped that this feeling might be abated by conferences and l agreements laying down reasonable principles for collective bargaining I and the recognition of unions between conservative labor leaders of wide spread influence and broadvisioned liberal employers. I do not despair of such an alleviation now, although l think MT. Gompers and his asso- 1 ciates, in yielding to Foster and Fltz' patrick in beginning the steel strike, and in the initiation of the coal strike, ] and in the threat of the nremen's strike, accompanied by a demonstra- ! ton which many of the steel strikers i thought was the initiation of a Bol- l sheVist-Soviet regime, have aroused ! the fear of the country and have made the great majority resent the | stand and deliver policy of these i great unions which would exercise 1 their powers to make the whole pub lie suffer in order to compel the public in some way or other, unex- l plained, make employers. meet the de- | mands of their employees.
 | "I have thought in the controversy l between Judge Gary and the majority 1 or the employers group on the one | hand, and MT. Gompers and the pub ! lie group on the other, in respect to | the principle of collective bargaining that the latter were in the right; but it has seemed to me MT. Gompers lost | the advantage of his position by with l drawing from the round table confer T, ance to the steel strike and by seem- ing to encourage things which the | whole public are getting so tired Of ] l mean the plan of taking the entire 1 United States by the throat without mediation, without arbitration, al-
 most without discussion, and insisting | upon compliance with demands by la i Dor, however extravagant and how | ever unreasonable.
 Now the American public are a | long-suffering people, but they won't l stand everything, and when they re- act they react with a great deal of
 emphasis, and in their indignation | and general desire to secure free l dom, they are not disposed to make
 nice distinctions in reference to the
 concrete issues between labor and 1 capital That attitude of the public l IOAASJ IS l4lS ISSuAL Ol "n6L seems to
 me to be the errors and blunders of policy on the part of the leading la 1 Dor leaders.
 'I realize the labor leaders fear to
 lose their power if they advise wise, 1 conservative course and do not allow
 the extremists in their ranks to force
 the hands. But it would be most re- 1 freshfng if the labor leaders ook a
 freshing if the labor leaders took 2
 against the extremists and made a fight with their followers.
 | Nothing would aid the cause of
 labor so much; nothing would secure the respect and recognition by broad
 minded employers so completely. 1 The solution of the difficulty lies,
 in my judgement, in coming together I-for purposes of discussion and set
 tlement-of the liberal employers
 and conservative labor leaders, each strengthening the other with his own
 people and working out a relation
 which shall not banish differences for differences must arise at times,
 but minimizing the acuteness of
 those differences by a mutual fair ness of attitude and an ability to see | the other side
 The current Is now running, so far as the pub1ic-at large Is
 concerned, against the trades
 unions because of the abuses of power by some of these. The l bourbons among employers are taking advantage of this, and
 hope for radical weakening of | power among labor unions.
 l There is no doubt the whole pub
 lie was thoroughly aroused by what I
 bor to the deserting policemen who
 furnished the opportunity for the Boston riots. The .ecent results Of
 the Massachusetts election and the
 joy with which they were received
 all over the country show this.
 | "The American Federation of La
 Dor, useful as this organization is
 within its whole field and conserva-
 lively as 1t has been managed In
 many respects, has made a serious
 blunder in sticking it's nose into con
 troVerstes between policemen, firemen
 mail carriers and other government
 and state employees on one hand, and
 governmental authority on the other
 hand. The Massachusetts affliation between the Boston police and the
 American Federation of Labor has been condemned by an unpreceden- l SoN POiiIASel IIdJOIIly III tIAS OlO Doy 1 State.
 '"The attitude of MT. Lewis and the Bftuminous Coal Miners Union is
 another instance of an outrage upon
 the sense of justice and the free spirit
 of the American people. The steel
 strike is another, with it's Bolshev- istic support by hordes of non-Eng- , fish speaking foreigners, who don't know our institutions and who don't | care for them.
 eff the labor leaders insists on fight ing out the present issue it will be doubtless hard issue and the public | will suffer thereby. But the Ameri- can people has made up its mind to fight 1t out, and labor ought to
 realize 1t
 ''It is not too late for labor to re-
 trive the blunders already made, but F if the issue goes on to fight to the
 finish, the labor unions will rec1eve
 g blow in America from which II Will
 take them a long time to recover. 'I would deply regret this, for l
 am in favor of labor unions, and when
 they are wisely and conserVatlVely : conducted they aid labor and can be made in proper ways, to a1d em- , p1oyers But such a fight to the fln- s ish as that now threatened will leave