The Connecticut labor press., 1920-01-10
STATE LAW ON
 ARBITRATION IS
 VERY POOR ONE
So Says President O'Meara of Connecticut Federation of
 Labor in Rockville Address.
BOARD MADE IMPOTENT
Men s Club of Union Church Hear Interesting Talk on Capital
 and Labor.

Speaking before the Mems Club of
 the Union church of Rockville, Sunday,
 Patrick F. O'Meara, president of the Connecticut Federation of Labor upon
 and Labor, How Should Their Differ
 ences Be Sett1ed?" MT. O'Meara spoke
 in part as follows
 Besides being the president of the | Connecticut Federation of Labor I am
 also a member of the State Board of ! Mediation and Arbitration and I am
 sorry to say that the law of Connecticut l relating to arbitration Is very poor | one. We have a board i'll this state ! that cannot act because there IS no pro- vision i'll the law that would make either | one side or the other to a dispute tes- | tify before the board, so that the value of the board is absolutely nullifed by such poor law. "I am pleased to speak before your club today on this very important sub ject for if there was ever a time that l those engaged in industry should sit down and hear the story of both sides 1t IS now.
 Your club is anxious to know how the. differences i'll industry should be settled. Well, they all can be settled by applying the common sense method
 to it, but up to now it is hard matter to have this application accepted. I am extremely sorry ts note that, irrespec-
 tive of reports to the contrary, the great
 maj ority of the employers of this coun-
 try do not want mediation efforts in
 settling labor disputes. This Is proven
 by their great effort, and a successful
 one to discontinue the activities of the War Labor Board. They will defeat anything that has to do with a public display of their business methods and of course this is necessary when arbitra- tion is i'll progress.
 There IS great agitation now going
 on to have labor unions incorporate i'll order to be in a position to be sued for failure to keep to contracts, but 1 want to say that if the employer was in this scheme with clean hands I would be
 one of the first to effect this scheme,
 but they are contract breakers just the
 same as the employees and the thought
 that court proceedings will settle labor
 disputes is so obsolete that it is ridicul- ous to think of it.
 Why in the state of Connecticut there are associations of employers that are organized to fight labor i'll its or
 ganized form, instead of elevating it.
 and l am wondering If any of you
 present today know of the blacklist sys-
 tenn that exists in industry i'll this state.
 1 hold here two exhibits, one of which
 is called an entrance card On this card is tabulated the following: The persons name, age, address, male or
 female,' married or single, where born, citizen of what country trade, total eX
 perience, worked last for, name of company, remarks, and the other is what is called a leaving card On this card IS tabu1ated the following: The persons name, age, address, male or female, married or single where born, has this day left our employ, occupa- ton, ability and the cause of discharge or the reason for leaving, under fore man worked from, to, rate per hour, discharged, quit or laid off, was the en- ploye a good workman, fair workman, dissatisfied, poor health, unsteady, in- temperate disturber, desirable, would you re-employ, remarks.
 You can easily see my friends where the wage earner gets off i'll this state with reference system used against him or her such as 1 have shown to you, and to our surprise at the last session of the General Assembly there was a bill introduced there making it | a crime if person in seeking employ | ment gave a wrong name Ill seeking | the job, as the wage earners are now | compelled to do this to defeat this ne farious blacklist system, so that you can | easily see that instead of trying to do | things to stop fighting, which is a somewhat natural thing to do, that en- ployers are using methods that add to the fight i'll industry.
 Il say to you here today that the ideal | day i'll industry will have arrived when | both sides understand that it would be ! better to talk over all differences that l arise and failing to reach an agree ment that 1t would become a moral | crime for labor union to strike or an employer to declare lockout or other l method to fight his employees without | first having some tribunal that would | review any evidence previously pre- l and public peace would be assured dur | report, and the public then would be be accorded the support desired to wages and working conditions
 You notice in this large newspaper advertisement of the Journal-Courier of New Haven, under date of the 29th of last month, wherein the coal dealers of New Haven ask the public if they want to pay more for their coal if they give in to the requests of the employees, and you will also note that they are fighting the closed shop clause in the proposed contract. 1 want to tell you good people here today that the 21 coal dealers that have their names on that ad have a finer working closed shoD 1