Evening star., 1925-12-02
INDUSTRY AS OWN
COURT IS FORECAST
Nations Business Writer
Sees Legislatures and Bench
Superseded Soon.

LeFisla lures and courts ultimately
VIII he superseded by industrial
agencies in handling industrial prob
lens. the December issue uf The Ma
tons Business" official organ of the
tnlted states Chamber of Commerce.
VIII say in an article by y. G.. Acuew.
secretary of the American Engineer.
iIle Standards committee. entitled
How BUSINESS Is Policing Itself"
Many of the industrial issues now
under consideration of courts. leg
lslatureS and commissions not only
can he solved by industry itself. but
much more has already been accom-
pllShed in this direction through non
regal methods than business men
themselves realize, Mr. AgneW de
ciares. BY setting up through co.
operative action certain national stand.
ards of production. materials and
methods. the various industries viii
eventually forestall the necessity of
either courts or legislatures dealing
with most industrial problems thus
checking the food of legislation which
Is becoming a matter of national con
Germ, he says
Praises Cooperation.
This movement toward industrial
self government. according 10 Mr.
Agnew. has reached it's highest devel-
opnent in the rea Inn of standa rdiZa-
fion. where industrial problems are
solved through cooperation rather
than through legal channels. The va
rious industries. by working out sta nd
ards acceptable to all parties inter
ested. establish their own laws.
thereby Obviating disputes and suhSe-
ouent litigation and legislation. This
manner of industrial Self-goVernment
and its advantages are described as
follows:
The reaching of a national con
sensus on an industrial problem.
through the StatuturN-law process is
an extremely difficult matter, the more
so that legislation on nearly all such
subjects comes within the Jurisdictions
of the legislatures of the As States.
Since aew, if any. members of a leg
fslature have adequate knowledge of
such a problem. the initiative and the
general direction of legislative move
ments of the kind are in the hands of
interested people outside the leg
islature-in short. in the hands of the
lobby
In the Legislative mill most special
lied problems get lost in the game of
partisan politics over popular issues
In nearly all cases. the overwhelming
ma iority of people are necessarily
ignorant both of the existence of the
problem and Of the attempted leg
islative solution. TO "A large extent
the same is true of the legislators
themselves With such conditions in
each State. anything approaching ma
tional uniformity becomes extremely
difficult. often impossible.
Says Present system Fails.
THE legislative method, in short is
not a suitable one for the solution of
less technical problems that arise in
the development Of industry and huSi-
ness II does not reflect upon either
the ability or the probitN of legislators
as such, any more than the statement
tina hammer. chisel and saw are not
suitable tools for the ma king of
watches reflects upon either the abil-
itv or probity of carpenters as a
class
national standa rdiZing bodies in all the
1t is explained that there are now
more important industrial countries
10 altogether. all but one of which
have been organized during or since
the war.
The whole movement is based upon
the principle that purely industrial
standards should not be subject to leg
fslatiVp or other legal control. or to
governmental pressure of any kind
hut that they should he developed and
applied through voluntary. systematic
cooperation of the industries them
selves. though always with the full Co
operation Of any and all governmental
agencies concerned. but on precisely
the same basis as that of any other
interested group" the writer says.
Christmas day in Tibet is called
"the Feas st of Queen Winter" and is
the occasion of a number of vari".l