The Connecticut labor press., 1920-12-04
INDUSTRIAL WARFARE IS
 PLANNED ON GREAT SCALE

ment Agencies by the Public
 in Its Own Defense Can Alone
 Save Situation, Declares Form
 CT Secretary of National War
 Labor Board Coal Wage Hear
 ing Developed Shocking Con
 ditions.
 That the lines are now being drawn for industrial warfare on an unprece dented scale and that public opinion can alone save the situation Is the declara ton made by w. Test Lauck, former secretary of the National War Labor Board, in an address made recently be-. fore the Consumers League at Phila- delphia.
 The public should act, he believes, in its own interest, by the establishments of wage adjustment agencies which should guarantee and safeguard both labor and capital in their fundamental rights as factors of production. This program, in his opinion, would protect industry from the arbitrary control cf either capital or labor and make pos sible larger degree of industrial democracy.
 The speaker had for his subject, What Has the Worker Right to Ex pect of Industry" and in the course of his remarks he gave some exceptionally interesting information concerning the attempt to adjust the wage demands presented by the anthracite miners. to the commission appointed by President Wilson, an investigation which brought out conditions declared to be shocking to all right thinking men and women.
 So pertinent and interesting are Mir. Loucks remarks that The Connecticut Labor Press publishes the address lfl full for the benefit of its readers. It Is as follows:
 Tn any consideration of the ques- ton, What has the worker a right to expect of industry, we must assume general recognition and acceptance of the fundamental social right of labor the right to an opportunity to work. Orderly society must afford opportun- ities of employment to its great con stituent element, the workers, and that form of society which does not do this has something inherently wrong with It that must be corrected, either by url- employment insurance, or measures tor the regulation of employment
 
 The Workers Rights.
 @Conceded this social right, the in- dustrial rights of the workers are Gle mentary.
 sl. The worker has a right to a liv- ing wage-a wage that will enable h1rn to live and to support his family ae- cording to American standards of nv ing in health and reasonable degree of comfort.
 @2. The worker has right to basic day as short as commensurate with maximum efficiency and maximum pro- duction.
 ss3. The worker has right to recog- nition of a so-called part of industry, and. as the result of this recognition, entitled therefore, to voice in the con trol of industry and it's operation. lihs embraces the right of the workers to organize and to bargain collectively with his employer through representatives of his own choosing, and his right to share in the proceeds of industry over and above his wage in proportion to ms productive efficiency.
 sThese rights of the worker are pre- dicated upon his being considered and treated as social. being. Labor IS no longer regarded as mere commodity to be dealt with on the basis ot the law of supply and demand to be exploited 1nerciiessiv. or to be exploited intelli- gently and patronizingly by self,ap- nointed over-lords of industry. That industry which does not or can not yield it's workers living wage IS un- social. and has no economic or etnicaI right to exist, and that industry Wn1eh requires of its workers unduly long hours is destructive and may also pc classed as inimical to the best lnter- ests of society as whole
 aAs rule such industries as these which take advantage of an dexplonf their workers. are equally interruptions iu tlle tribute they levy upon the gen erai public in the way ot hign prices and inniustifable profits. There IS no heffer concrete illustration of this than ;s I'd be found in the anthracite indus fry. the control of which centers III tnis city and the mining operations or WHICH are within short distance
 Shocking Conditions Exposed.
 .sVVhen the anthracite miners present. ed their wage demands and other griev- ances 10 the commission appointed by President Wilson they exposed a con dition of affairs shocking to all right Thinking men and women. They show ed that miners and their families were living under housing and community conditions which were deplorable to say the least The earnings of heads of families in the coal mines were found to be inadequate. In order to supple ment the family income, or the earn ings of husbands and fathers, the wives and children of the miners were forced into the silk mills; the shirt factories and the knitting mills that are to. be found throughout the anthracite region, some of which have been deliberately developed there to take advantage of the necessities of the mine workers and their families. Forty per cent. of the wives of the anthracite miners either kept boarders and lodgers or were enl- ploved for wages, and approximately 28 per cent. of the families were de- pendent upon the earnings of children. Evidence was also offered to show the rnonopolistic control and monopolistic profits of the anthracite industry, and that the industry could pay living wage without increasing the price of coal to the consumer, but this evidence was barred from consideration on the technical grounds that 1t was not ger mane to the arbitration. The anthracite operators took the position that the mat I.