Evening star., 1934-02-08
N. r. Il. Success in Limiting
Hours, Raising Pay Shown
Business Men Rallied to Program, Hast
ening to Coordinate Their Actiui.
ties Under u. s. Lead.

restraint Of trade, but a further au-
by the rules after they were made.
They wished not only to combine to
allot production and establish at least
q living price scale. but to eliminate
innumerable methods Of cheating and
bribing and defrauding that were the
bane of the honest and capable estab-
nshments.
Industry Dema nds Granted.
Up to this point the course Of
events held full sway. without the
slightest regard to any theory or the
wish or Will of the President or any
body else. That the Government,
meddling in business, thrust itself
upon these industries, Is regarded by
the country generally as a preposter-
Gus idea. The Marines could not have
kept them away The rub. II any.
came in the terms exacted by the
administration. suspect, however,
that these terms were also born Of
the situation. inevitable and beyond
control.
The demands Of industry were
granted. They had to be granted.
They were demanded by the brains
and the motive power OF the Nation.
But the administration represented
millions Of workmen as we'll as pro-
ducers, and moreover was face to face
with the shorter hour minimum wage
principle already accepted.
The result was the familiar agree
ment that each industry could make
its own rules, binding upon the whole
industry. subject to governmental
agreement on behalf of labor and
the general public-that Is. in cases
of conflict with other industries or
the newly discovered consumer.
Well, what happened in the actua
world OF struggling men? The cele'
brated American business man Jumpeo
into his element. He started to Or
ranize. Not since the war has any
one seen such co-ordinating. Ihl'
people have genius. Considering tha'
the owners and managers OF every IN
dustry all started at once to formu-
late all the conflicting details Of
Americas infinite and often confiict'
ing business. it is amazing to recorc
that the Job was done with the utmost
dispatch and so little wranglmg OF
complaint that an army of reporter:
hunting trouble could scarcely hnc
any.
Industrial Democracy.
Any idea that this performance wa
thrust upon an arrogant ana iiioe
pendent people by government edlct Il
ludicrous. The great textile operators
! the steel dynasty, the oil companies
| the lumbermen and all the rest wen
to work with their technicians and at
| tornsys to carve out new era II
business.
The results cannot be obscured b,
| the crumbs OF dramatic friction tina
were fed the public. The job was &C
complished. The mills are operating
today under a collective governmen
chosen by the industry. This
neither paternaiism nor socialism no
any other ism 1t is industrial democ
racy-a form Of government and con
troll thoroughly familiar to all tn
people and startling in only one re
spect. That respect Is the recoSnl
tion that workmen as we'll as none
investors have a vested interest ant
hence q voice in the conduct OF tn
affair.
Another element has been injected
but 1t Is hardly novel and meets Will
the intelligent approval of a sumcien
ma jority to insure its effect. That !
RECOGNITION of the fact that in tn
modern world all business enterprise
are dependent upon each other. tina
in the end they prosper or declin
together, and hence that there has T.
be an umpire or arbiter representing
them all-that is. the public. or
governing committee.
! tCopyrignt 1894. by the North American
Newspaper Alliance 1ncD