Mohave County miner and our mineral wealth., 1922-08-25
|pABSON, stst;st;c;sn R9nGcs
 |D on Business Conditions

>"eileSlcy AIiio, AnooS', AuS' Eo'
 1922-People are not so much inter-
 ested in the temporary settlement of
 the coal strike and the railroad strike
 as in developing plans so that they
 will not periodically re-occur. It is
 not enough toknow that we shall
 have coal this winter or that railway
 traffic is not now suspended. If the
 people of this country are to be
 healthy, happy and prosperous, we
 must know that some plan is .being
 evolved t, to prevent these strikes from
 re-occuring. In view of these facts,
 Roger W. Babson was this week asked
 to make a forecast as to future labor
 developments. His, diagnosis of the strike situation follows:
 "When in Washington during the war, assisting the Secretary of Labor, it was evident that the students or labor problems were divided into two distinct groups: cone group oeneVes in compulsory arbitration as iliustrat- ed iby the Kansas Industrial Court and the other group stands purely for conciliation without any compulsion.. Conservatives and radicals can be found in both groups. Investigation leads me, to believe that there IS a field for both of these linesrof work Labor disputes in connection with gen eral industries, such as the textile in! dustry, the boot and shoe industry, and possibly the steel, industry, should be kept on a .conciliation basis. It surely would be a mistake te tattempti compulsory arbitration in connection with these businesses which are oper- ated solely for profit. The best means of avoiding trouble in these indus tries is by keeping these. industries in two major labor groups, one group to be strictly union" and the other group strictly "non-union". Let the union group adopt the closed shop and let the other group be strictly non-union. Then let the two groups compete. I do not mean necessarily in production, but rather see under which system the public, the enl- ployees and the stockholders, all combined, are most prosperous. My own guess is that none of these three parties would long be healthy, happy and prosperous with all "union" or with all "non-union". When one group secures control, it becomes in efficient, careless and arrogant. My guess is that an industry would be most prosperous and all concerned in it would be rendering the most service and be happiest if the industry were equally divided into union and a non-union field. So much for general industry. When disputes arise, only conciliation should be applied by a third party. There should be no com pulsory settlements in such cases.
 "When, however, we come to trans portation, fuel, public utilities such as water, light and gas, or to the dis tribution of milk, bread, etc., we find group of industries to which com pulsory arbitration must be applied. The first two groups to which such strong-arm methods will be applied are the railroads and coal mines. First let me say that the railroads and the mine operators are themselves largely to blame for present troubles. Although the owners of these proper ties are now behaving themselves, they have not always done so. Most of the unwise methods that labor leaders are using today were applied by the rail- roads and mine operators of twenty years ago. Hence these corporations now are only reaping what they have sown. Nevertheless, two wrongs do not make a right. Our nation must have transportation and fuel at a fair rate and the operation of its railroads ! and coal properties must be undis-4 turbed by either labor leaders or stock ! market operators. |
 Regarding the railroad situation: !; to secure fair rate the Interstate { Commerce Commission has been or ganized, and to secure undisturbed I the Railroad Labor Board has been created. The first of is, the Interstate Com merce Commission-is functioning very well, and the struggle is now ,ver the Railroad Labor Board" , Il At this point MT. Babson was told ,f strong feeling on the part of both the railroad managements and he employees that the Railroad Board was not properly made up. Concerning this, MT. Babson stated:
 Experience has shown that boards of three groups Gone group representing capital, one group rep 'esenting labor, and one group rep 'esenting the public) do not function we'll. The group representing capital 'ote in one body for the corporations; he group representing labor vote in me body for the wage workers; this caves the decision to the three men vho represent the public. The prob- ems involved are too great to permit eaving the decision to three men