Evening star., 1920-03-07
ny SHELDON $. CLINE.


and Investigations and has devoted
weeks to careful study of the prob
Icm of bringing about better rela-
tions between employers and en-
ployes. 1t is expected to recommend
the setting up of machinery for the
adjustment of disputes as to wages
and working conditions and to enun-
ciate certain fundamental principles
of industrial relationship to which
it is hoped that both employers and
employees can be brought to agree.
When the report has been submit
ted to the President and given out for
publication the general public will
have a better knowledge of the issues
involved between capital and labor
and ought to have a truer understand
ing of what constitutes industrial jus
tice. 1t is not unlikely that this in
forming Of public opinion will be the
chief immediate benefit from the
work Of the commission. There are no
present signs that either capital or
labor is eagerly awaiting the COM
missions program as Offering an easy
ties.
EGort Late In Coming.
Had the commission been brought
into being a year or year and half
sooner than it was. its chances OF I'M
mediate usefulness would have been
much enlarged. There was time. fol-
lowing signing of the armistice and
anhGlded
when the temper Of both capital and
labor was softer than 1t Is today.
There swept across the country
great national demand that one oil
the recompenses for the sacrinces
of the war should be betterment OF
conditions for those who toll, truer
Justice and an equalizing of oppor-
tunity. The public mind was keenly
conscious Of the fact that in the great
adventure the sons of rich men and
of Door men had been equally ready
to endure and dare, that they were
equally accomplishing under hard
ships and equally willing. II need De-
tn make the supreme sacrifice Tor
their common country.
century arc the emotions OF people
so deeply stirred as were those OF tne
American people after Chateau 1nlerry
and the battles in tho Argonne forest
Thought Of tho thousands OF American
boys who died there for an ideal. with
no selfish purpose or hope OF gain'
touched profound depths in those who
had remained at home Patrlotism
nam>d high and love Of country took
ON . new significance.
Played worthy Part In War.
Labor as a whole had played worthy
part In tho war. 1t sent its sons 1ortn
tn battle and those who remained toiled
in tho common cause. for the most part
overwhelmingly. Capital. too. had play
ed its part worthily. 1t is true that
there was both capital and labor which
had proiteered. but along with their
other gains they had gained the con-
tempt of their fellows. and their num-
bers were too few to count in the gen.
ersl EQUATION. There was between the
toilers and those for whom they toiled
a closeness of sympathy not often wit
need in the history Of Industrial re-
lationa-
II seemed q time when proper in
ittative and wise leadership might
mako permanent this sympathy and
understanding. But the initiative did
not come from sources sufficiently COM
mandinR. Leadership on neither side
cxerted itself in the necessary direc-
ton. Capital and labor began to drift
apart Old animosites. old jealousies
and old suspicious began to creep in
here and there.
Overtures made by capital did not
meet the kind Of response that had
been expected. and the ardor of capital
for a better order began to cool. In
labor's ranks the voice Of radicalism
and discomfort. forced to sing low while
the war was in progress. once more
became audible. A new school Of rad
icalism came as an aftermath of the
war, and it's preachments made rapid
Roadway with the unthinking. Con-
servative leadership in the ranks OF
labor felt itself threatened. The rad
was danger that men like Samuel Com
pers would be displaced and that the
fruits of their years of constructive
leadership would be swept away. They
fought radicalism within their ranks,
but they had to yield in measure to
it. Some yielding. they judged, was
necessary to their own preservation.
Capital on the Defensive.
And this yielding to radicalism by
conservative labor leaders had a ten
dency to drive capital back behind its
old barriers. If labor had it's radicals,
so within the ranks of capital there
were reactionaries. In organizations
of employers the reactionaries began
to get the upper hand of those who
inclined to policy of generosity and
concilation. The labor unions had
grown stronger during the war and
the reactionaries were afraid of them
Crush the unions or they will crush
u.s." was the doctrine they preached
So things drifted steadily back to-
ward conditions which had existed
before the war. In some respects re-
lations between employers and en-
ployes were worse than they had beer
previously. more ominous of coming
trouble. Within the ranks of organ
ICED labor there was consciousness OF
increased strength, feel OF power tc
take by force those things which II
deemed its rights. Capital sensed thi.
feeling Of increased strength and de-
termination on the part of labor. ant
there was tendency to tighten VI