The Connecticut labor news., 1921-07-29
AMERICAN WORKERS TREATED
 WORSE THAN SCRAP IRON, SAYS
 BRITISHER. AFTER VISITING MILLS
Machinery and Build ings All Right, He Adds, "But Good God How the LabOrer Is Used"

Chicago, July 2o.-The Workers Committee movement of England will have a many-sided picture of Amer ican labor and industry when their enthusiastic representatives Jack Tan ner, returns. He spent two weeks inside of big steel plants and stock yards in the Chicago district and now he is on a round -the-country speaking tour that will take three months.
 What have you learned so far?" he was asked the night before he left Chicago. "A good deal about indus try" he answered. You have model factories, so far as the machine equipment Is concerned but Good God! the human factor is treated worse than scrap iron. 1 saw men over in Gary, Ind, spending up I2 hours a day. 1 saw young men of Where is their organization?"
 "Perhaps that's because they have not got the liberal employers you have in England" was interjected.
 This was too much for Tanner He exploded:
 liberal now They've got to be-"
 "Yes," was said, "you've got stricter labor laws over there"
 Tanner gave an amazed look
 "Laws They're a drug on the market I've heard something about your labor laws in Colorado, com polling honest check weighing, and that sort of thing. What good did they do? Laws haven't anything to do with the liberalism of the British employer. His heart was softened by nothing less than labor's power
 "The old unions accomplished a great deal for the British workers till lifted them out of the unspeakable industrial serfdom that American readers have gotten hints of in the writing of Dickens. And when some of the old unions began to get hard ening of the arteries, then the Shop Stewards or Workers Committee movement, as 1t now IS called, put fresh vigor into the labor movement
 "The old unions won the eight hour day in the steel industry and many others, And now the workers committee movement, working inside and outside of the old union machin- cry, as conditions determine, are fighting for the six-hour day Tn the basic industries, and what is far more important, are winning step by enable the supplanting of absentee ownership when necessity arises.
 This unofficial movement is noth- ing more than a committee move ment right from the shops. The shop is the unit of organization. Ev- cry department in the shop has it's own stewards or committeeman and these form the shop committee There are district and national com mittees for each included industry, and there is a national administra- tive committee for all Where the old unions have adopted steward or committee system, as the Amalga- mated Engineering Union, or the Miners Federation, their committees coincide with ours, providing they are progressive"
 Tanner told some picturesque stories of the fights of 'I7, 'I8 End 'Io in the engineering trades, which finally cRused the associated metal employers to recognize union shop stewards with the hope of putting a respectable damper on the move ment. Such shop control was gained that "hardboiled" foremen were dis charged at the discretion of the men in many cases. In one large motor cab plant in West London where Tanner was a committeeman, 1000 workers took offense at the sneering, suspicious attitude of their superin- tendent and shut off the machinery till he consented to wear a smile in stead.
 Industrial control, rather than mere collective bargaining, is our real goal" he went on. Our move ment is based right on the shop or mine itself, therefore it naturally thinks industrially.
 Technical problems of production are now being considered We realize as is evidenced in coal mining DOT tends an early change of control"
 Do you think that the workesr will displace the employers, as some radicals are asserting?" was asked,
 They'll have to" Tanner answered, "because the employers are not living up to their name. They aren't em- ploying-more than half the time. We have 5,ooo,o out of work, not counting the miners on strike. M Men must live, and they can live only by