Pine Bluff daily graphic., 1919-10-17
DiSSOL uTI0N OF ECONOMIC MEET
 SEEMS LIKELY
Labor Threatens to Withdraw if Collective Bargaining Plan
 Is Rejected.

Washington, Oct. 16.-Recognition came to the floor of the national in- dustrial conference today and was debated three hours, but a vote was impossible, as the conference had to adjourn at 5:30 o'clock under it's rulers. Virtual notice was given by members of the labor group that should the representatives of capital succeed in their attempt to send the resolution back to the committee of l 15, the labor delegation would with draw.
 ; The collective bargain resolution providing for an endorsement of the right of wage earners to negotiate i with employers through "represen- tative of their own choosing" was reported to the conference, when it met this afternoon with the approv- al of all of the public and labor dele gates in the committee, but opposed by the representatives of capital. Realizing that the conference faced the likelihood of dissolution unless an agreement could be reached on the issue of collective bargaining, members of the public group direct ed eloquent appeals to the employers in an effort to win them over to the resolution. Leading in this effort was John D. Rockefeller Jr., repre- sentative of one of the nations greatest industrial organizations, who pleaded for "a new spirit" in industry with universal recognition ! of "the right of representation" by workers, who, he added, "really sought not higher wages, but recog- milton as men,"
 "What joy can there be in life, what interest, what enthusiasm can a man be expected to develop on be. half of his employer, when he is re- garded as a number on a payroll, cog in wheel, a mere 'hand' he asked. "Who would not earnestly seek to gain recognition of his man hood and the right to be heard and treated as a human being and not as machine?
 Defends Open Shop. 1 MT. Rockefeller was joined by H. B. Endicott, a shoe manufacturer, and member of the public group, who spoke, he said, "as one of the larg- est employers of the country, and /, the largest employer of labor in his ] line in the world"
 l Adding to support given the reso- lution were Gavin McNab of San Francisco; Paul L. Feiss of Cleve- land, John Spargo of New York and Charles Edward Russell of New York, all members of the public group. Judge Ebert H. Gary, i chairman of the United Stateh Steel corporation, another member of the group, was absent. D
 Frank Morrison, taking up the is- sue for the labor delegation, defied the employers with the challenge that they could not deny nor inter- fere with "the right of bargaining | through chosen representatives" which, he said, had been acknowledge , ed by such governmental agencies as the war labor board and the railroad administration. and was accepted generally in Great Britain, Germany and other countries.
 | The arguments of the public ana labor delegates were countered by Frederick P. Fish of Boston. chair man of the national industrial board. with defense of the open-shop and an insistence that the correct place to work out relations between em- ployer and workers was in the in- dividual establishment. He con- cluded his argument bv presenting motion that the resolution be refer red back to the central committee, but adjournment time came before a vote could be taken.
 Dissolution Imminent. MT. Fish's motion to recommit the resolution-a motion which perhaps involves the future of the conference will be the order of business when