Evening star., 1932-02-28
Middle Ground Is Found
In Dealing With Labor

be honest and independent if decision
is ever to be reached.
Its meetings are public. Its technique
of operation IS through committees. A
great element of its power is that it
deals with the ultimate rather than the
immediate; the industry as whole, not
the individual
To give but one example Of the spirit
of cooperation it develops, take an
incident of the year 1928. The council
established a higher rate than the pre-
vailing wage. Employers argued that
lower rate would stimulate building.
Unofficially then, through council in
fuence, the workers agreed to reltnqu1sh
the higher rate.
1t was soon found that lower wages
Gid not produce the expected effect.
Labor then voluntarily lowered its
rate still further. Again the wage-rate
seemed to bear no relation to new
construction. The council then re-
established wages at their previous
level.
This council has justified its some
what formidable title by totally elm
mating organized strikes during the
hectic decade which has followed its
IlCdGlOll Al SOIlS1CGC 4OLlAl ID
one method of doing away with that
most disintegrating and expensive
element on the human side of indus
trial relationship.
Another Hopeful Development.
But there is many another knot in
the tangle of that industrial web.
Walking along the street one hot
Summer night in New York, shortly
after the councils organization, Mr..
Comstock saw a sign on little audi
torium saying that Justice Guy and
! Judge Grossman were speaking on
Industrial Arbitration" He went in
and listened to them and talked with
view of another hopeful development
| in the acceptance of responsibility
within industry He became an ar
dent advocate of a system which sub
stitutes the ease and rapidity of an
arbitration committee for the crowded
dockets Of the judicial process, On
various occasions he sat as arbiter In
such disputes.
voted his attention to his own pri-
Vate business. That Side issue"
he sent out little invitations making
| gentlemen all unsuspectingly into
Conference Club" which had then
developed into the Council" still
kept growing in his mind toward
practical action.
The council was for the relation
Of employer and employe What about
| ployers? Are they all they should be?
| Can they be improved? Clearly they
can. How?
! Tie title Of Mr. Comstock's address
before the 1928 convention Of the As
sociation of ElectragistS illuminates his
| approach to that question-"The New
| Cooperation" new understanding
among employers, to be mutually of
business advantage yet to violate none
of the existing laws.
Nearly every one is half the time
crying out" said Mr.. Comstock, against
competition, and the other half de-
manding it. Workingmen cry to sup
press it in labor and 10 enforce 1t in
trade and commerce. On the other
hand, the leaders in the industrial
| world are trying to secure it in labor
and get rid of it in commerce, while
the leaders Of the regulative or politi-
cal world are trying to maintain it in
commerce and are comparatively In
different to it In labor
Job of Reconciling Views.
at must be our job, through re-
search and team work, to reconcile
these divergent points Of view, pull TO-
gether for common objective, show
| that at least we sense our problems"
AS I suggested at the beginning, the
! challenge of collectivism is the chal-
| lenge of a non-competitive theory to
a competitive system.
Ours is a competitive system. We
are committed to belief in its virtues.
Long since its defects were acknoWl-
edged, and such efforts as the Sher-
man act made by public legislation to
reduce them. Now, while such legisla-
ton continues to exist, Mr.. Comstock
and similarly minded associates seek
legal methods of reducing the evils of
competition by private arrangements
within the industry.
Significantly, the two methods Of pri-
vate approach he suggests are research
and cooperation.
After the Conference Club" after
! the council" enter the Electrical
| Guild of North America" with its own
The guild is committed to the en-
ployment Of only union labor. You
may be member directly of the guild
itself or you may be section mem
Der" To be a section member" YOU
must do a business whose gross an
nual value is at least S56000 YOU
must have assets equaling one and a
half times your liabilities. And your
books must be open to certified public
accountants to prove it. To me that
is an incredible change from old-time
| business secrecy"
What" I asked, docs the business
man get out of it to compensated"
Gets Other Members Help.
'"The help of the other members of
the guild" is the simple, direct and
equally incredibly new answer that Mr..
Comstock returns IF his business is
not flourishing there are many WAYS
In which the industry can help him
without any violation of anti trust and
anti price-fiving laws"
I leave that statement for you to
think over. Perhaps a fuller answer
Is suggested in the guilds expressed
purposes. Take only one:
TO establish code of working rules
which shall be regarded as the common
law of the industry
This most modern and scientific of
business organizations with its code, its
definite h0ok-up with labor, with its
research bureau. its exchange of infor-
nation its adoption of trade standards.
its mutual frankness, gives a new defini-
ton of such funny. old-fashioned words
as "brotherly love" and honest work
manship."
In its own way outside the realm Of
politics, American industry Is developing
its own cures for the admitted evils of
competitive system
Council and guild" within the
electrical industry are brilliant examples
OF such efforts. BY his sympathetic and
scholarly handling of the labor ques-
ton Mr. Comstock has taken a signifi-
cant part in industrial history.
Thus, in the life of one so-called
private business man." one sees the
possible next public answer of our
competitive system to the challenge Of
; collectivism- -. e ---