Omaha daily bee. (Omaha [Neb.]) 187?-1922, 1920-01-02

lfled?,
Il know it," said Judge Gary, "be.
cause | make it my particular bust
ness all the time to know the frame
| of mind of our people. My
instructions regarding the treatment
of the men are absolutely positive
1t follows, then, that the strike
which was great surprise and
shock to Judge Gary. was not due to
his workers, not due to any griev-
ances upon their part--for his in
structions regarding their good
treatment were absolutely positive
but to outside agitators and revo-
lutionaries and to foreigners, as he
repeatedly tells the senate commit
tee.
| Similarly, when the subject of the
| l2-hour day, the seven-day week, the
long turn and the like, comes up
for discussion before the senate
committee he is forced by the logic
of his own position-for he has said
that he knows at all times the frame
of mind of his employes-to declare
that his workmen really want the
long day and Sunday work-al-
though practically every workman
who testified before the senate COM
mittee, and there were MANY of
them, complained of the long hours
and the Sunday work.
"The question of hours" Judge
Gary tells the committee, has been
largely question of wishes, of de-
sire, on the part of the employees
themselves" They want them be-
cause they want more compensa-
ton"
So much for the industry. as it
looks in its broader aspects from
above to the only spokesman among
the employers. Taking up, srecifcal-
ly, the 12-hour day complaint, the
employers argue against change
from a two-shift to three-shift
basis on account of the immense
cost entailed. 1t would require at
once a large increase in the num-
Der of workmen employed, when
the labor supply in America is
already dangerously short. and in
most steel towns the housing is far
from sufficient for such added pop
ulation. There is great difficulty also
in making wage readjustments: for
if the workers go to an cight-hour
cay and expect 12-hour pay for it,
and they cannot live on much less,
it means an enormous addition to
the labor cost of steel. Tie eight
hour day has already been intro
duced in a number of American
steel mills, though in none of those
owned by the United States Steel
corporation, and it is universal in
England, and has been for many
years.
Radicalism In Labor.
Another thing that dsturbs the
employers profoundly-and I am
trying to show how the situation
really looks and feels to them-in
what seems the utterly wild demand
Of the more radical groups of labor
not only to voice in settling labor
questions (Which is all that the con-
sentative labor movement has asked
in the past) but in the management
of the industry itself. They assert
that the whole labor movement is
being permeated with these danger
Gus ideas; several Of them told me
that they had formerly held Comp
ers in high esteem as conservative
labor leader, but that he now SEEM
ed to have yielded to the radical ele-
ment. They have made a great
point-Judge Gary did in his senate
testimony-of the leadership of such
men as William Z. Foster, who was
formerly radical syndicalist and
member of the l. w. W. They have
had reprinted and distributed wide
ly Fosters small red book. I had
it offered to me four different times
in as many days-to show what la
Dor is after. I
They see clearly the enormous
completely and de1icacy of the in
dustrial mechanism they have built
up. They see the complicated tech
nical processes in their industry,-I
visited at Gary the huge establish
ment where the by-products If the
coking ovens are reduced into vari-
Gus valuable oils and chemicals
they see the immense intricacy of
their organization for digging and
shipping the ore and the coal. and
for manufacturing and selling their
products from China to Peru. They
know how little it takes to throw
this delicate mechanism out OF gear.
The idea, then, of crowds of igno-
rant workers, who have no knowl-
edge of the problems involved, no
training to deal with them, breaking
in with extreme demands for a |
share, or for control, of the man
agement seems wildly destructive
and disastrous. They fear it des-
perately--and exhibit as a proof of
the reasonableness of their fear
what has happened in Russia. They
regard it not only as meaning the
destruction of their own power, and |
Of the organizatio which they have
built up so painfully through so
many years, but as a complete over
throw of our institutions. The solid
earth of traditions. economic prac-
tees, legal regulations-their very
earth seems crumbling under their
feet. 1t is this feeling that has
brought so large a number of en-
oloyers, many of whom do not agree
with his policies, to the support OF
Judge Gary.
One of the more moderate en-
Dloyers said to me. 1--WE probably 1
made mistake in not sooner es-
tablishing basis of real co-opera-
lion with our men: but that is past,
and now that the issue has come in
he form it has, we've got to stand
oy Judge Gary"
The unfortunate effect of the pres
mt crisis is to drive both sides to
Extremes. The employers group is
undoubtedly moving at present to-
yard the extreme position of Judge