The Connecticut labor news., 1924-10-11
LABOR UNIONS, ASSUMING RESPONSIBILITY, SHOW CAPITAL HOW TO SOLVE PROBLEMS
 Employers are Gradually Coming Round to
 Treating Amicably With Workers.


 allow. And the impartial Chairman
 in each clothing center are not hap
 hazard members of the public who de-
 eide on the good old maxim of fifty
 fifty, but expert economists, usually
 college professors, who decide on the
 merits of the case and for the good of
 the industry.
 Labor must take an intelligent in
 terest in management. Thus, for in
 stance, the curse of the clothing in
 dustry Is its seasonal character. We have two busy and two slack seasons.
 But we must eat all year round. Every industry owes every worker in it con- tinuous support. Most sensible en- ployers would like to stabilize the business cycle, but the element of com control each other. Accordingly, our union made 1t its business to help sta bilize our industry by introducing an Unemployment Insurance Fund in the Chicago, market, which we sha1I try and extend through the rest of the country. This fund is administered by a board of trustees, completely inde- pendent of both labor and employer. The workers pay into this fund 1H per cent of their wages and the manufac- turer pays in an equal amount. It must be invested, principal and interest, in direct obligations of the Federal Gov | ernment. It cannot be used in times of strike or lockout. It is protected i'll a thousand and one ways to serve exclu- sively as unemployment aid. It IS a feat in constructive management-by by both sides.
 But employment too has its prob7 lems. Heretofore when a firm needed, say buttonhole maker, 1t would call upon the union office and the Business Agent, or even the office girl, would send somebody over Now the union manager is not vocational expert. Ac- cordingly we have established Service Exchanges, in charge of expert place ment people They fit folks to the job. Employers have learned to trust us in this bit of management for of course we try to protect the union by sending the proper worker for the operation.
 This tendency-to view labor's con- structive rights and responsibilities and duties in industry and to fight for them -IS industrial democracy. And incl dentally with this growing sense of in f workers with their expanding economic suffrage on the job, their whole social life is quickening.
 organized labor is passing the stage of mere economic haggling. We are still bargaining. But we are bargaining for a way of life" And Sidney Hillman is walking this way very strenuously.
 William H.. Johnston is less strenu- ous. He is older His intelligence is less intense and more mellow. He walks through life on first names. He en- joys a hearty laugh at a story that might look worse in print than 1t life, i'll work, in outlook He is the best product of our indigenous labor move ment Temperamentally he Is an alto gether pleasant person, though he IS shrewd and remarkably stubborn Ill his sincerities. With Hillman he shares cer- tain experiences. In his boyhood Hill man was studying to become a rabbi In his early manhood Johnston was a lay preacher They both entered off cial labor as insurgents. Johnston IS one of the leading sponsors within the Anne rican Federation of Labor of the "new unionism." His union also has a bank of its own, in Washington. Today he IS the leader of cooperative experiments , with management in the railroad indus try. His sincerity is as deep but less militant than Hillman's for the circum- stances in his industry, especially in the railroad branch, force him to far greater caution.
 "I have felt for long time," says MT. Johnston, "that the railroad unions should have labor service bureau, re- search organization, which would en- a"ie them to assume greater respon- sibility toward the technical manage ment of their industry. Thus, for in stance, the large supply companies, which furnish the railroads with all kinds of materials and specialties, send their experts to educate the manage ment in their use. Much the same way we must send our experts to educate both management and our own men in the more economical and efficient and humane use of the human material
 "This is exactly what we are doing in the much discussed Baltimore and Ohio Plan. We had little difficulty i'll per suading Mr. Daniel Willard, President $