The labor world., 1922-02-25
By ARTHUR E. HOLDER.

~ ~AASA - NV .AIs 4AOADILHs
international Labor News Service.)
On Feb. %. the United States SEN.
ate committee. on interstate com
merce permitted the agents of the
National Council to appear and state
their views on the transportation
problem.
The National Industrial Council
Is the polite name for the inside cir.
Gle composing the boiled -profi-
teers Of the National Associat tton OF
Manufacturers, the United States
Chamber of Commerce and other .ar-
gregations Of wealth takers who, on
occasions which they. consider propi-
tious, pose as defenders of liberty
and friends of the. dear people.
Mr.. G. S. Walker, a manufa cturer
OF Des Moines; iowa, was the first.
speaker. He presented to the COM
mittee a set Of skillfully drawn reso-
lutions purporting to be the delib-
crate expression of the membership
contained in over 800 manufacturing
groups from thirty-eight states com.
posing, it was alleged, 100000 manu-
facturers employing 100000 "op-
eratives." Mr.. James A. Emery,
council of the National Industrial
Council, followed Mr., Walker.
Mr.. Emery is the gentleman who
figured so prominently during the
Mulhall Lobby investigation by the
senate and the house in the year
1913, and is the same gentleman Sc
lected by the recent conference Of
subdued representatives to represent
their views on transportation and
ether industrial problems before the
Federal congress and state legisla-
lures.
The main substance of the resolu-
tions presented undertook to crystal
lze prejudice against labor and the
organizations of labor. The remedies
proposed to solve our TRANSPORTATION
problems were:
l. Compulsory arbitration.
2. Indirect. suggestion for the
abolition of the railroad labor board,
the substitution of a so-called impar-
tial tribunal to which industrial dis
putes on the railroads should be re-
ferred and whose decisions should be
summarily enforced.
3. Repeal Of the Adamson eight
hour law.
T.. Repeal of the state full crew
laws.
5. Invest congress with supreme
powers over all interstate traffic,
thus centralizing the states of any
rights or privileges to regulate trans-
pOrtatlon within their own boundar-
les.
Mr. Emery in reply to questions
put by Senators Cummins and STAN
ley admitted that he had no faith or
confidence in voluntary negotiations
or voluntary arbitration of labor
problems by Representatives Of a.
ganized labor with employers. He
gave no credit to the extraordinary
successes that had been attendant
upon successful voluntary negotia-
t1ons between 145 railroads and their
several groups Of organized employees
for the last 40 years: he waved aside
with magnificent gesture, the service
Fendered by. the Bureau Of Concilia-
ton in the department of labory the
Board of Mediation and Concfliation
established under the Newlands act
in 1913. the many weighty cases al
ready adjusted by the railroad labor
board and to the many thousands
Of cases successfully adjusted with
justice to all interests by the War
Labor board.
OF course. it depends very greatly
upon viewpoint as to the merits and
the benefits accruing from the extra
ordinary undertakings which this In
dustrial history covers, but it was
all useless and worthless from the
material viewpoint Of Mr.. Emery,
his fellow agents and his patrons.
AS to the spiritual value of such
human activities, he had no opinion
to state. thus again showing that the
ultra a-materialist has at heart no re-
gard whatsoever for human rights,
human comforts, human develop