The Connecticut labor news., 1923-07-20
COURAGE NEEDED TO MEET LABOR ISSUES.
 SAYS GREAT BISHOP
Catholic Prelate, Opening NationaI Conference, Pleads With Lead
 CTS to Stand Out"

Milwaukee, July 2o.-The first na- tional meeting of the Catholic Con ference on Industrial Problems, at tended here by Prominent members of the clergy, college professors, business men and representatives of labor was one of the most significant of its kind in recent years The con ference was great success.
 The Rt. Rev Peter J. Muldoon, | bishop of Rockford, ILL, who origin ally conceived the idea of the con ference, sounded it's keynote when he said Men in all walks of life are becoming more liberal minded, but men of prominence are lacking in courage to come forth and declare their stand for industrial justice. Per sonally would rather see two or three great national characters take ton, than any other thing that could happen"
 Officers were elected for the ensu- l ing year as follows: President, Prof David A. MoCabe, Princeton Univer- sity; vice president, Mrs. James Me han, editor of Catholic Forester; sec retary-treasurer, Rev R. A. McGow- an of Washington. Bishop Muldoon | was elected honorary president Can Not Live on Bread Alone. l Prof McCabe, in opening the con- ference, declared the conference ex- pected Catholics to cooperate with l their fellows, instead of acting as in dividuals, to advance in legitimate | ways the interests of the economic groups in which they find themselves. Each of the sessions was devoted to a study of some particular subject, and l at the first session on Wages, Miss Mary McEnerney, vice president of l the Illinois State Federation of La Dor, gave the workers point of view. Summarizing the need for decent wages, Miss McEnerney declared: "No man can live on bread alone and l low wages means starvation of many of the finer qualities and aspirations | of wage-earners and their Families. No greater crime can be committed | against any individual than to force him to repress his instincts and his l lnclinations."
 Father Curran, of WilkeszBarre, Pa, one of the men instrumental in effecting the settlement of the coal strike 20 years ago, declared that if employers and workers would think first of the community at large, indus trial wars would be at an end.
 Labor Strikes Discussed. l Col P. J. Kealy, former president of the street railway company of Kansas City, read a paper on "The State and Industry" wherein he set forth that "the greatest single ob- stacle to continuity of employment and industrial stability was strikes which had resulted in almost bank rupting the southwestern coal indus try" .,.. This statement drew an effective denial from Matthew Woll, vice pres ident of the American Federation of Labor, who pointed out ''that only through strikes were the coal miners able ito correct the most degrading and inhuman conditions of toll that had existed so long in the life of the
 miners" He took issue with Col. Kealy that national organizations en-
 rolled many men against their will and declared that labor should have
 to hire the best counsel 1t can get and use every possible method to ad- vance its interests.
 Failure of Big Business.
 Tn the informal discussion Prof. John R. Commons of the University
 of Wisconsin, spoke on the failure of
 big business men to realize their re-
 sponsibility. toward the worker: As
 an authority on unemployment insur-
 ance, he made plea for law which
 would compel employers to take care
 of unemployment through taxation.
 John A. Voll, president of the Glass Bottle Blowers Association in the I"Ownership" session, suggested that
 labor be given part ownership in in.
 dustries, with capital, being allowed
 a fair return for it's share of the busi- ness"