The Washington herald., 1922-08-20
NO BARGAIN WITH
CORRUPTION In
BUILDING, PLEDGE
American Construction
Council Member Stresses
Ethics of Organization.
PRACTICAL RULES
Arbitration Between Builder
And Employe to.Be
3 Guide.

HAYWOOD Broome once remarked
that when the silk worm told the
sow that you couldn't make a SILK
thread out Of a cows ear, neither
could you make a pork chcp out OF
silk worm
Graham Wallace. that great social
phiIosopheS, has summarized one cf
our great problems by stating. THAI
a nation which does not learn coop
Grafton must perish Cooperation
must take various forms. The lowest
unft or rather the smallest unit Is
the family and the largest and most
comprehenSive unit is the State. But
between those two units there must
grow out of our complicated society.
with problems too numerous 10 De
stopped by an Interfering government,
many other units of cooperation. We
find them in the factories; we found
them in the bIildinE trades industry;
and now We are learning that the
methods OF cooperation in the build
ing trades industry have not yet been
broad enough to han&le the great
problem which II has efore II and
that. in Spite of the existing units
Of cooper tion, 1t has faJen into many
abuses which have brought 1t very
Men must unite to achieve individu-
ally. This organization is a mani
festation Of the consciousness on the
part OF all interests contained in the
building trades that cooperation must
not only AXE place between each IN
diyidual interest IN the industry. but
that these different groups Of diff
fersut interests must learn to coop
crate together in order that their
INTERPRETATIONS may be properly solved
upon. a broad basis for the good Of
the public at large
Defer Controversial Questions.
Your task. in my Judgment, Is a
very serious one, because between II
and the complete attainment of its
ideals there are many controversial
questions of very serious moment.
which may be deferred for the time
being but which in the end must be
met and dealt with IL We are ulti-
mately to attain what we are seek
ing
The character Of the discussions
which took place here yesterday. the
character of the subjects which were
assigned TO the various speakers. show
a vagueness and indefiniteness which
is entirely desirable. II we hope TO
specify too much in detail what We
hope to attain, We might find our
selves unduly circumscribing our work
we might find ourselves assuming the
position Of doctrinaires. or we might,
as the Irishman put Il, disunite our
selves before We unite by the introduc-
ton Of Controversial subjects OF a
very fundamental nature. We all have
to recognize that there are some oi
these problems so serious that we
must approach them as a good house
wife approaches a bad egg.
Ny own thought is that this
movement aims to secure every.
thing which can be attained by CO.
operation without transcending tn,
law and that nothing but expert
ence will pick out for us the proper
line and boundaries of each indi
vidual activity. We must go for
ward with a faith which 1 call tn,
democratic faith. the faith in peo
pies capacity for self-government
a faith in that human nature which
leads Us to believe that II we NEE
together and reason together W,
will learn to think. feel and act to
gether.
My endeavor is going to be t,
poses of this organization and t
make it possible to put in variou:
pigeon holes. not for the purpos
OF forgetting or discarding but 70
the purpose of proper consideration
when the time arises, these variou
problems which this organization
has got to meet.
Statistics and Standardization.
The collection of statistics, whicl
give the people connected with it
industries the information upo
which they can formulate intelli
gent acts. Is a function with whicl
no one will quarrel. 1t is perfect.
obvious that Standardization ma,
play a great part in connection
with your work and, as the Secre
tary OF Commerce stated, may lea,
to the development of a nomencla
ture which will reduce frauds an
confusion in the public mind II
connection with contracts and tn
character OF materials in use.
In connection with that work yo,
have in back of you the Fedora
Trade Commission. In a case /,
which / was interested before tn
Supreme Court 1t has been hel,