Evening public ledger. [volume] (Philadelphia [Pa.]) 1914-1942, 1922-08-24
THE ONLY WAY OUT

THE country at large, uniformed as 1t Is
i about the underlying details of the coal
situation, will yet be right in refusing to
sympathize with the demand of the anthra-
cite miners for wage contracts covering
period of years which has brought strike
settlement negotiations to another deadlock.
The proposal Of the operators to continue
the old wage schedule and TO leave future
disputes to arbitration seemed fair and rea-
sonable enough. Arbitration of this sort
worked we'll in the past. There is no con-
ceivable reason why it should not work well
In the future. John l.. Lewis, refusing to
accept the principle of arbitration for the
miners, Is open to suspicion of desire to
fortify the institutions and usages of his
unions at great and needless expense 10 the
miners themselves and the country at large.
Winter is coming on and coal IS scarce
and prices are high, and there is no sign of
relief for the unorganized public. But mass
opinion in the United States Is surely, If
slowly, crystallzing in definite and novel
forms opposed alike to the autocracy of
unions and operating corporations in control
of essential industries. 1t Is becoming
clearer every day that the people will have
to reconcile themselves to the prospect of q
long period Of industrial regulation by Fed
eral commissions or to a continuance of
ruinous waste in the larger fields of pro-
ductive effort.
A spirit of good will and enlightenment In
the groups now opposed to each other would
make a choice between these alternatives
unnecessary. But there is no sign or prom
ise Of it anywhere, and it is significant of
the state Of mind of labor leaders that Mr..
Lewis should telegraph to the President de-
manding union representation on the fact
finding coal commission soon to be estab.
nshed with the authority Of Congress.
All the bitter experience of the last three
years proves, however, that such an ar
rangement would be disastrous. The fail
ures and tribulations of the Railroad Labor
Board may mean nothing TO Mr.. Lewis,
though to every one outside the circle estab-
/, lished by the unions and the corporations
they mean that the whole plan on which in
dustrial arbitration commissions have been
conceived since the war is wrong.
The Rail Board is composed of nine mem
bers. Three members are appointed to rep
resent the railroad corporations, three to
represent railway labor and three to repre-
sent the public. In practice it has been
demonstrated that the corporation commits
sioners are forever for the corporations and
that the labor group Is always ready to sup
port airy demands that unions may make.
Thus the Railroad Labor Board, in so far
. as 1t may be expected to guard the public
interest, is not a commission of nine, but a
commission of three.
In commission Of three one man will
always dominate by the force of an aggres-
sive or superior mind or character. So II
Z has been in the Rail Board. The decisions
OF the board have been the decisions of Ben
w. Hooper, head Of the public group. II
has been contended in some quarters that
Mr.. Hooper's handling of the issue raised
by the shopmen and intensified by their
strike was faulty. Mr.. Hooper should not
be blamed for this. The responsibilities
forced upon him have been too heavy for
any Individual to bear with dignity or
equanimity.
The President very properly departed from
The principle Of organization reflected in the
nall Board when he began to plan for a
fact finding coal commission. He has in
mind a commission that shall be without di
goct represeRtation of either operators or
mincrs. In the course of time the Rail
\ Donrd will have to be reorganized upon simi :
n ~ lines. What we shall have to have are
a 'stenmisiA able to be as impartial and
\ xust ~ ~ United States Supremek Court.