Evening star., 1920-09-19
INDUSTRIAL CRISIS
FINDS ALL ITALY
oM|NOUSLY QUIET
Nation AnxiousIy Awaits De.
cisions on Demands of
Workers.
BY HIRAM X. MoDERwELL.

By Gable to The Star and Chicago Daily News.
| Copyright. 1920.
ROME, September 18-Italy is
breathlessly awaiting decisions OF the
conferences between the industrialists
| and workers. Italy understands that
| this is profoundly revolutionary move
| ment. 1t is Of no Importance where
the technical ownership of the factories
resides: the important thing is who has
| the right to control such property. If
| such right shifts from the owners to
the workers then in reality the owner
ship has shifted. II this change is con-
summated in the metal industry it will
extend to other productive capital.
Yet this change is not violent. Con-
troll here means not management, but
! the right Of verihcation in the Euro
! pean sense.
| The demands Of the workers are that
! elected committees shall verify the
hiring and dismissing and shall have
access to all factory accounts in gross
and in detail. Their aim is to de-
termine the maximum wages which a
factory can pay. They claim that
the owners have manipulated the ac-
counts to make it appear that the in
dustry is incapable of paying higher
wages. They know that some of these
/ industrialists are war profiteers. The
workers are willing to produce more
LII they are assured by their own COM
mittees that they and not the prof.
teers will receive the benefit of the
increased production.
Would Improve Morale.
| Such a control system, 1t is argued.
would improve the morale of the
workmen, and perhaps make possible
for the first time the Introduction Of
| modern eciency methods with the
cooperation Of the workers.
This would be great gain for
Italian national economy, but 1t would
be at the expense of private prop
erty chiefly. It is this profound di-
lemma which Italy nov faces.
ment would not stop at control. be-
cause the metal industry is in q diff
ficult economic situation. Higher
wages in the future might require
higher tariffs or q national subsidy
and state socialism. It is interesting
to note that the factory councils de-
manded by the workers are similar
to the factory committee established
by the War Labor Board and that the
language used by the Italian labor
federation concerning industrial au-
tocracy is often precisely the same as
the language used by the War Labor
Board.
Want Immediate Law.
The socialists demand that paflia-
ment be convened Immediately to
pass law for factory control re-
mains unanswered. The conservative
parties are seeking to delay the call
Ing of parliament into session, hop
Ing that the docking" movement will
fail. It is one of the many para
doxes of the present situation that the
socialists who were elected on q plat
form to sabotage or block the par
lament should now be the first to de-
mand that parliament must function,
whereas the conservative parties.
which demand an orderly parfiamen- :
tary government, should now be sa-
botagtng the parliament.
II is known that Premier Giolitti
believes that bolshevism will exhaust
its energy II left alone. The mod
crate socialist, Turati, one Of the most
lleve1-headed Of Italian politicians.
thinks differently. He told me today
that continuation OF the struggle
would bring three serious dangers:
the armed wofkmen in the factories,
and attempt q bloody revolution: the
peasants might attempt to seize the
land, as they have already begun to
do in some places, and the separatist
movement in the south Of Italy, al
ways strong, might gain strength and
defy the authority Of the Rome gov
ernment
Meanwhile all Italy is ominousfy
peaceful.