The Bridgeport times and evening farmer., 1920-01-30
IN DISGUISE HE:
 STUDIED UNREST
Whiting Williams Says La bor Conditions Help Make Working Man Prey of Agitators.

After spending seven months work ing as a common 1aborer in the ship yards, coal mines and steel mills, Whiting Williams, director of person nel of the Hydraulc f1ressea -ieel Co. of Cleveland, returned here and told the members of the Advertising Club that the cause of labor unrest was not the labor agitator but condi- tions that made the average work man an easy prey to radical propa- ganda.
 MT. Williams, who was assistant to the president of Oberlfn College for seven years and executive secretary of the Cleveland Welfare Federation for four years left his position as em- ployment manager for the steel com pany, assumed a disguise and under the name of Charles Hiteman, worked with alien unskilled workers to find out just what they wanted.
 What they want,'' MT. Williams declared, ''is only that which we should be glad to give them steady job and a chance to advance themselves in the world.'
 Soon, Found Something Wrong.
 My company" MT. Williams be- gan, has always believed that most men are square, and when it found out that some one wasn playing square somewhere it tried to find out why. I went to the laborers, lived with them, worked with them, anc found out that something was wrong in the hearts Of the men who la bored with their hands. I didn't have to search long to find out what that was. There was three big reasons The first was the trem endous import ance of the daily job to the average la'borer; the second. the close connec- tion between bodily weariness and ] weariness of the mind; the third, the i amazing ignorance on the part of the employees of the plans and purposas i of his employer.
 "The first is tremendously import-
 ant. hove seen men pray for work
 I have seen in Pittsburgh for seventy.
 five men standing outside the gates ot
 a steel plant waiting to be picked fol
 the two common laborers' jobs --4a-
 were open. They were all willing tc
 work, ready to work, and yet tn =7
 could not find an outlet for tht
 muscle they wanted to sell. They be
 came bitter and blamed it all on tn,
 government.
 Perhaps of greater importance i
 the relation Of bodily i'll health t.
 mental i'll health as a cause of uu
 rest. I worked, as did the other men twelve hours a day for six days
 week in the steel mills. We tool
 turns on an eighteen or twenty-four
 hour shift on Sunday. When we wer
 through we were fired. So we wen
 home to rest. Living conditions wer
 bad. We could get little sleep
 whether we were tired or not w.
 woke up tired. Do that week in anc
 week out and you are ready to be
 come a Bolshevist or any other thing
 if it promises relief. Still, the aver
 age alien laborer is not a Bolshevis
 and doesn't intend to be, if only tn
 employers will make life little les
 hard for him
 Lack of Interest Big Factor. | 'I wasn't working long before found out that lack of interest by tn employer begot lack of interest by tn employees I was told by old em ployees not to work hard unless tn boss was around. The boss didn' care for me. so why should I care fo him And yet we wonder what ha } become of our produc1onI Every ma wants to advance to be of service t the community. They won't let hin He hates his work and gives as littl of his strength to his work as We suffice to keep his job. Whateve 2 strength he has left goes to vices H thinks every one is against him, an on such mind the professional agi ator does not have to work hard MT. Williams said that, agitato1 had admitted that they could mak \ 10 headway n shops where cond lions were moderate. "It is a greI s game of saIesmanship," he declaret On one side is a. small group of me s -eaching labor the philosophy 4 chanse by revolution, and on th yther side a larger group trying | each labor the philosophy of chane by evolution. So far the revolution sts have been using the better sale s methods. They sympathize and UT lerstand the laborer's mind. The en s pIoyer does not.''
 ] His Warning.
 MT. Williams sad that any move s -ent with the object of throttlin E .abor would be dangerous because 5 the agitators. Let the public keep \ cOol head and a warm heart, he sait { Prohibition, according to MT. Wi E tans, will only intensity condition 2 Yet, he added. that one result woul E e the Stiffening of the steel worl s ers' spine in his fight for a shorte ! day.
 Faith" concluded Mir William faith on the part of the employe and employ ee, is the great cure fc