The Brookings register. [volume] (Brookings, Brookings County, S.D.) 1903-1971, 1920-01-08
MAY YET ENDO,,
THE WILSON: N
THE RECENT COAL ANlS
STRik Es SHOW THE NE
MEDIATION BoARt q
INDUSTRIAL CONFERENCE IS APPROVED
Public is Demanding That Employer
and Employee Shall Cease
Their Striking.
BY J, T.. Jones.

j. Il.
The trend of the times indicates that
out of all this stress and turmoil the
country has been going through, that
man may yet carry into execution the
threat of doing the sensible thing, by
accepting tribunals and courts in which
the reasoning processes of the human
mind will supplant violence and pas
sion that have had their outlet in in
dustrial strikes. The preliminary state
ment of the presidents industrial con-
ference came at the close of the year,
and it indicates that there are still
Tall men, sun-crowned, who live
above the fog
In public duty and in private thinking"
The second conference has pro-
ceeded in a wholly different manner
from the first one, which went on the
rocks when the Garys and the Com
pers disagreed, as naturally should
have been expected, upon the subject
of collective bargaining" The new
conference profited by the errors of
it's predecessors, and refused to permit
itself TO become debating society,
recognizing the fact that industrial
problems present irreconcilable points
minds of men are in some instances
as far apart as the poles.
Lord Grey, in reviewing the days
before the outbreak OF hOstilities in
Europe, brushed aside all the "ifs" and
lands" of prior causes and told the
Gridiron Club, that if there had been
something like the League of Nations
to turn to, that the war could doubt
less have been averted. Lord Grey is
one of the tall men, sun-crowned, who
live above the fog" and his prescrip-
ton for the prevention of war is in
principle exactly the same as the
method recommended by Secretary of
Labor Wilson, Herbert Hoover. ex-
Governors Martin H. Glynn and Samuel
w. Mccall, former Attorney General
Wickersham, Oscar S. Strauss, julius
Rosenwald, and their associates in the
industrial conference, who have pro-
posed that there be created federal
industrial court with headquarters 1T
Washington, with dozen regional
boards of inquiry and adjustment
throughout the country, to investigate,
try and determine disputes arising be-
tween employers and employees.
And in order to insure confidence
in these tribunals the men composing
them are selected through nominations
which will be made in way satisfac-
tory to both the employing and
employed classes, with due regard for
the public, that same public which Car
lyle said was "an old woman" and
which is sure to be satisfied if two such
contending classes as employers and
harmony.
The statement of the presidents in
dustrial conference passes rather
easily over the relations of the public
utilities, but the spirit of the docu-
ment is to create machinery that will
make strikes unnecessary. But it does
not forbid strikes except among gov
ernment employees, policemen, and the
like. The purpose is to establish a
sort Of league of industry, where ag-
grieved mortals can bring their grew
ances and get justice.
1t is not surprising that the Hinden-
burgs of American industrial affairs
should have thus early aligned them
selves against the constructive plan
set forth by the industrial conference,
and the first voice of opposition comes
from Mr.. Gompers' Office, from whence
many substitutes for work have
emanated. ANY plan to establish or
maintain anything like fair relations
between workers and employers must
avoid compulsory features" says Mr..
Gompers; to which Secretary Morrison
adds that the report offers mo hope
to lovers of industrial peace who see
the necessity of abolishing autocracy
in industry" Which interpreted into
American.E English speech means that
these autocrats Ut labor's council
board insist that any laws that pro-
hibit strikes are unacceptable to them,
possibly because strikes are their "life
and trade" The Gomperites have re-
peatedly denounced the radical" work
ers of the country, and in turn the
radicals" in their conventions accuse
the Gomperites of being hopeless "con-
servatives." Assuming that their DIFF
ferences are of the fifty-fifty variety;
and passing by all the Hindenburgs
of INDUSTRY, whether they are found in
the employing or the employed class.
there ought to be little question about
the principle recently voiced by Attor-
ncy General Palmer in the coal strike
when he asserted that there Is In
yolyed the right and power Of the