Evening star., 1932-02-28
MIDDLE GROUND ISFOUND
In DEALING WITH LABOR
Louis X. Comstock, Electrical Engineer,
Develops Mere Club of Employers
Into Hook-Up With Employees.
BY ANNE HARD.

A MEH1OA GOOdy ID 6OAA47S
n in the great next war-the
N great present war, indeed-be-
4 \ tween the theory of Commu-
nism and the theory of indivld-
ualism: between the theory OF public
political control of industry and the
theory of private control.
Private individual leadership in pri
vate industry and business will largely
decide the outcome of that war. So
that it is fair to say that such leaders
are no longer truly private individu-
ais" at all. but are public men by any
real definition. Such public man, -"
such an example of private individual
leadership is Louis K. Comstock, elec-
trical engineer.
Two lines of effort are the track
upon which that private leadership
runs. The first is the relation between
employer and employe: between capital
and labor. The second is the relation
ship among employers themselves
within any given industry.
Outstanding among the industries of
the country today, that of electrical
construction offers a vivid picture of
broadening philosophy, of careful ex-
pertinent, within the theory of capi-
talistic society and within the legal
limitations set by our somewhat an
tiquated Sherman act.
Mr.. Comstock has played a leading
part in the development of those ideas,
those experiments.
Has Worked Out Schemes.
Within a field of labor warfare as
corrupt and violent as any in the
American scene, he has worked out
certain unique schemes for the in
80 of L4 sN14n
and employers Following neither an
open shop policy nor an industrial
union policy, he has found a means of
peace in dealing with an outright
American Federation of Labor union.
From a mere club of employers he
has, by successive stages, developed a
relationship on the side of capital
which differs from most other aSsocia-
tions (among other things) in having
a definite hook-up with labor
The successive stages of his expert
ence form a suggestive picture.
From the day when he entered the
works of the Western Electric Co. in
Chicago, in 1897, to the Spring of the
present year, when he addressed the
first annual meeting of the new Elec-
trical Guild of North America, Mr.
Comstock has been in contact with
these questions.
The rattling of gatling guns in the
streets of Chicago in the famous Pull
man strike of 1894 pointed the young
mans first attention to the labor ques-
ton.
He was sweet-tempered young man,
the kind of young man whose quiet
smile indicated a sympathetic rather
than an eXuberant sense of humor-a
thoughtful man, even then.
His WIS one Of those old American
=. families which left New England when
Ohio was the West. His mother was
born there in log cabin among Indian
| fighters. A family of inherited cultiva-
ton, natural endowment. His brother,
older than himself, was on the way to
becoming distinguished astronomer
| and professor at the University of Wis
consin. He was part of the best that
| the East in those days sent to the West.
In his veins was the conservative in
| heritance of individual independence
and the best of the pioneer.
Grows With Industry.
Electrical industry was then pioneer
! industry Mr. ComStock went in with
| its infancy. He had, in Columbus, for
example, during his vacation from the
University of Michigan, worked at test
| ing the second Edison tube ever in
stalled. He has grown along with the
| lie questions which that maturity has
come to involve.
| Then, in 1897, youth, as superin-
! tendent of construction for the Western
| Electric, there was enormous variety Of
experience to be had. There was a
! great Towering of small municipal
plants to be installed. The companys
engineers remained in charge for a
month, teaching the novices how to
| operate.
The young engineer was instantly
| thrown into the attitude of the en-
| ployer. confronted with the problem of
handling men" A great conflict of
sentiment awoke in him. 1t was one
shared by many another who, like him
self, has been torn between a sense OF
! order and decency in human conduct
| and love of justice and mercy
On the one hand, he saw hoodlumiSm,
which he detested. On the other he
saw an attitude which protected prop
erty but not human rights-which he
equally detested.
He began, soon. to sit in on confer
| ences when a strike was called or
| threatened. His observing eye watched
| the psychology of those sessions.
Each side got mad. 1t became ques-
ton of which side first exhausted the
patience Of the other. There was no
| genuine inquiry into the merits of a
demand for wage increase"
Opened Own Offices at 26.
| BY the time he was 26 he had ceased
to be an employe himself, and had
! opened his own Offices in Chicago
| ahoNna
! in 1900 turned his life toward New York
and the Fuller Co. Mr. Comstock was
new to get at first hand thorough
dose of all the bitterness of labor dis
puteS in that warfare as bitter as any
shown-that of the construction in
dustry.
I'm our meeting with labor in those
days" he says, there was no thought
of discussion, consultation; never any
real negotiation. It was a pow-wow of
a tribe Of savages. We just wore out.
cussing each other"
''RacketS" are nothing new. Two
decades ago they existed in the labor
world as violently If not as extensively
as they do today. Now and then they
scandalously broke into public atten-
ton. to be quickly forgotten. The evil
went on.
| A curious sidelight is thrown on Mr..
Comstock's temperament by an incident
of the time. A certain then famous
labor racketeer from Chicago came into
the office and demanded $4,000 to be
fixed"
You can go to hell" said Mr.. Com
stock.
do you mean that?" said the gent
from Chicago.
"I do"
The racketeer looked hard at the
engineer. Then he said In that case,
We'll be friends. Shake"