The daily Gate City and constitution-Democrat. (Keokuk, Iowa) 1916-1922, 1920-05-14
HOOVER TALKS ON
/ INDUSTRIAL PEACE
Collective Bargaining and
Good VIII, With Public
Opinion Exercising Only
Pressure.
REVOLUTIONARY STEPS
Former Food Administrator Appears
Before Senate Labor Board Com
mittee to Give His
Views.
REVOLUTIONARY STEPS
[By Raymond Clapper, United Press
Staff CorresDondent1

!
WASHINGTON, May 14.-Collect'
i've bargaining and good viii with
public opinion exercising the only
pressure offer the best hope for IN
dustrial peace, Herbert Hoover tolu
the senate labor committee today.
No revolutionary steps should be
attempted, he said Hoover declared
against injunctions, compulsory arbl'
tration and Industrial courts.
81 do no believe that relationship
between labor and capital can be set
tied by any form OF legal repression
Injunction, compulsory arbitration or
industrial courts, because those LEAD
ultimately to the Jail as means OF
enforcement, Hoover said II ieads
to the border of martyrdom and tenos
to make for compulsory employment
and a compulsory wage.
The only hope lies in moderate en-
Movers and moderate labor leaders,
not in revolutionary steps or extrem.
ISL leaders on either side, Hoover.
said.
me Kansas INDUSTRIAL court law is
rra rtically a reproduction OF the Aus
| tralian labor acts, Hoover said.
| II do not want to condemn the
Kansas act in spite of the failure OF
the Australian acts to effect the re-
! sults anticinated,'' he continued
I"The kansas act is an experiment
| that is worth trying on American SOL
| II nav he possible to develop some
! thing worth while. My own OPINION
! however, is that the act cannot sue
coed. In Australia the number Oh
| strikes and dislocations is as great DIS
| in other countries without them.
The Kansas law, Hoover saad, woulo
ultimately determine fair prohs as
we'll as establish minimum wage NC
added. .,.,
ment control of industry for compe,
t;tion No revolutionary steps shouio
he attempted and the whole proSDieiii
should be advanced one step at a
time"
Hoover said this country need nave
No fear of strikes being used for po-
1itical ends and that labor Leaders
tb,s far have used them only IN the
interest of labor.
Wider use of collective bargaining
:, tbe on,v step that should be taken
- nresent. Hoover believes.
.you do think that ultimately
.b,.a will be worked out an mdus-
tni,1 code7" Senator Kenyon said.
"Iutimately, but it must be worh-
al o,1+ nv experience" Hoover sal1.
..r.ke the question of an eight hour
5av II Is not matter or universal
annl;cat;on, but merely an approx
nation
In some industries eight hours~' IS
+oo long a day, he argued.
THE question Of a living wage IS
also variable matter, ne salu.
Profit sharing plans WORK peItea
ritb executive and office employees
rather than skilled labor, ne roiu 'ne
committee.
"Deyices have been used to the
detriment Of labor and that Is tue
reason for the alarm OF organized
lsbor,- Hoover said. "One accuSa-
tion is that bonuses are given 10 KEY
men to prevent organization.
"By and large the employees OF inc
countrv are looking for a posltion ol
right instead of position h cons'o-
eration,' he said
"what do you mean by that!
asked Kenyon. 80
.They want their rights instead OF
benevoience," Hoover replied.
"we need re.stimulation OF the
creative instinct. With the enlarge
ment of industry there has been a
terrible deadening of the creative IL
$tinct.",
"1rhe mutual feeling of respcnsF
bility between employers and emf
p,oye that prevailed in earlier days
must be restored. -..
.Ttat relationship would be re
stored by some plan of shop organt-
zatfon, but unfortunately labor has In
some cases and wrongfnily l think,
been influenced against 1t.
SELF interest predominates to n
very large degree today. During the
war we had period Of altrufsr,. The
pendulum, however, has swung the
other way with great rapidity,"
Senator Jones, New Mexico, demo,
crat, said he understood that profits
Of the war period are three times
those of pre-war years, but that the
I, kContinued on page 2.)