The Brattleboro daily reformer. (Brattleboro, Vt.) 1913-1955, 1922-08-02

Would Insure Organized Labor In Ne
Assist in Drawing Up Bill for Pres
gotiations With Capital - Borah to
entation to Congress.
BY DAVID LAWRENCE.
Especial Despatch to The Reformer)
Copyright 1922.
WASHINGTON, Aug 2-When the
two big strikes now pending are settled,
the entire question of Industrial rela-
tions will be tackled by President Hard
ing and Senator Borah chairman of the
senate committee ON labor, in an effort
to draw up a code of principles that can
be enforced
The President outlined such code in
his message to congress last December
and Senator Kenyon of Iowa, who was
| then chairman of the committee on la
Dor. introduced a bill which is still be
fore the committee even though Mr..
Kenyon has resigned to go on the fed
eral bench. Other proposals have been
made along the same line and Senator
Borah visited President Harding the
other day to get his views on the kind of
| legislation that would meet his APP
prOval. Mr.. Harding promised to go
into the question thoroughly with Sen
ator Borah just as soon as the present
situation is cleared up.
The truth of the matter is that, al
though the rail and coal strikes cannot
be cured by legislation at the moment,
several issues have been raised which
will again cause embarrassment to the
public welfare unless settled Both the
President and Senator Borah feel, OF
! course. that much more can be accom-
Lii brl h., IL,
dustrlal storm of this summer than ii
| proposals were to affect the particular
controversies of the hour.
Presidents Views.
The Presidents viewpoint on the
necessity of regulated industrial com
munity is expressed in his own words
/ thus:
| ''As we have great bodies of law care
| fully regulating the organization and
| operation of industrial and financial
| corporations, as we have treaties and
| cOmpacts among nations which look to
| the settlement of differences without the
necessity of conflict in arms so we
| might as well have plans of conference
| of common counsel, of mediation. arbi-
tration and judicial determination in
| controversies between labor and capital.
| To accomplish this would involve the
necessity to develop a thorough going
code of practice in dealing with such af
| fairs. 1t might be we'll to frankly set
| forth the superior interest of the com
| munity as a whole to either the labor
| group or the capital group. With rights,
privileges, immunities and modes of or
| ganization thus carefully defined it
/ should be possible to set up judicial OF
quasi judicial tribunals for the consid-
| Grafton and determination of all disputes
which menace the public welfare.
The right of labor to organize is just
| as fundamental and necessary as is the
| right of capital to organize. The right
| of labor to negotiate and to deal with
| and solve its particular problems in an
organized way through its chosen agents,
| is just as essential as is the right of CAPT
| tai to organize, to maintain corporations.
to limit the liabilities of stockholders.
| Indeed, we have come to recognize that
the limited liability of the citizen as a
| member of a labor organization closely
parallels the limitation of liability of a
citizen as a stakeholder I'm corporation
for profit Along this line of reasoning
we shall make the greatest progress to
ward solution of our problem of capital
and labor.
Must Protect Public.
I'm the case of the corporation which
enjoys the privilege of limited liability
of stockholders, particularly when en-
| gagged In the public service, it is recog
| nized that the outside public has a large
have provided regulations. restrictions
and in some cases detailed supervision
Likewise in the case of labor organiza'
tons, we might we'll apply similar and
equally well defined principles of regula
ton and supervision in order to con
serve the public interests as affected by
| their operations just as it is not lie
sirable that a corporation shall be al
| lowed to impose undue exactions upon
the public so it is not desirable that q
labor organization shall be permitted t.
exact unfair terms of employment OF
subject the public to actual distresses il
order to enforce its terms
The difficulty thus far in industrial
relations has been that some of the prin
ciples which Mr. Harding avows as
fundamental lave not been accepted. The
capital and labor conference held in
| Washington under the last administra
ton was wrecked at the very start by
men like l.. f. Loree-a factor, by the
way. in the present rail strike-beeaust
the principle of collective bargaining
through labor unions was deemed often
SiYe. Much water has gone over the
dam since that conference but the issues
raised then are still unsettled and il
an agreement could have been reached
then some of the recent conspir;fcies tC
break unionism would not have gained
much ground. In fact, officials here
think these efforts to break down recog
nized principles of the right of men tc
organize have contributed not a little to
the industrial crisis this summer. Presi
dent Harding means to put his influence
behind a code or charter that will have
sufficient sustained force of law and pub
lie opinion to solve these questions.