The daily Alaska citizen., 1920-01-28
CONTROVERSIES
 AMONG WORKERS
 CAUSE STRIKES


 cent of the strikes and 75 per cent of the days of idleness in the building trades in the past have occurred thru what is known as "snowballing" or controversies between waSe-Carners themselves as to which trade should do the work, says Franklin T. Miller president of the F. W. Dodge company and formerly director of the division of the public works and construction of the United States department of labor Only per cent, he declares have been on questions between em- ployer and employe.
 Mir Miller who has been in toucN with the construction work of this country for 25 years, cited the case of a big Chicago hotel costing millions the work on which had been delayed he said more than a year because of a disagreement between skilled workers as to who should han dle certain doors because of the pre- pOnderance of metal over wood. Thi~ he said was an inevitable consequence of the rapid development of the indus try. Analyzing the situation and the building outlook for 1920, Mir Mille~ said:
 "The creation of board of juris- dicitional award by the United Statee department of labor, board compos- ed of architects. engineers. contraC- tors. material men and wage-earners promises a solution of one of the most difficult labor problems In the building industry, As result of 1t decreased cost of construction may be expected The board of jurisdic- tional award has been formulated with the full approval of all interests con cerned, who seem to have entered into it without reservation.
 The labor outlook in the building industry thus promises a condition of greater stability during the coming year because of the organized deal jngs between employers and employees with full recognition of the term con tract and arbitration principles.
 'The first serious labor troubles in the building industry" said MT Miller in reviewing the national construction shortage. "Occurred In the lattor pat of October 1918, thru a strike of carpenters on government wo"k Tn Brooklyn in violation of tho Da1to~- Gompers agreement. a pact between the war department and the hmo"icQn Federation of Labor. This st~iko wa settled by compromise early Tn March 1919, but In the meantime it threaten ed a sympathetic nationwide strike of the building trades and held un construction, not only in New York but made 1t uncertain turnout the land. Other labor troubles sprang uD Niil ''o+t NliN NShLIIE ll'tdDlS III C!lI- cago, where the whole building trade was tied up from July to September 1919" Since then conditions have i'm proved but there would not be com plete harmony in the building indus try he indicated until tha federal board of jurisdicitional award began to function.
 From April 1919, to last July, the war department, thru Colonel Arthur Woods as special assistant to the sec retary of war, engaged in the active promotion of pubic works in order to provide jobs for returning sol diers,' concluded Mir Miller. Then it appeared that there would not be sufficient labor, materials and capitol for the necessary new con of the country. The pro motion of productive public works was abandoned. The federal reserve board early in December, 1919, an it's purpose of postponing the erection of it's contemplated bank ing institutions. These are among the factors in the present situation"