Evening star., 1937-04-16
Industrial Peace.

With collective bargaining established
not only as a principle underlying in
dustrial relations but also as the law Of
the land, it is the duty of employer
way to bring peace in industry-a peace
that has been widely lacking in recent
months. Miss Perkins, Secretary OF
Labor, has called some of the leaders
here for conferences, to begin next Tues
day. There is every reason to hope that
material benefits may come from these
discussions.
The decisions of the Supreme Court
in the Wagner act cases appear to have
definitely established the rule OF COL
lective bargaining and the right of the
National Labor Relations Board to see
that such bargaining is carried forward
between employer and employe. Col
lective bargaining is not new in this
country. 1t has been successfully carried
out in thousands of cases in the past,
diGiiouSAI lIldlly AldSC AlClC-
tofore resisted it. Such resistance must
now become thing of the past, under
the law. 1t is, of course, one thing to
bargain and another thing to reach
satisfactory agreements. The law does
not nor can it, compel either side to
accept conditions demanded. 1t can
do to oil b,-ir
ing the opposing elements into agree
ment.
Miss Perkins has invited to her con-
ferences men who stand at the very
head and forefront of industry and OF
organized labor, men who have shown
clearly that they are desirous of reach
ing some means of bringing to an end
the strife which has already this year
cost millions of dollars in wages, in
earnings and in production Heading the
list of employers is Myron c. Taylor,
chairman of the board of the United
States Steel Corporation. Already Mr..
Taylor has broken precedent in the great
corporation he represents and has agreed
to the principle of collective bargaining.
Gerard SWope, president of the General
Electric Company and w. C. Teagle, presi-
dent of the Standard Oil Company, are
other industrialists who have been invited
to the conferences. Organized labor will
be represented particularly by William
Green, president of the American
Federation of Labor, and John L. Lewis,
chairman of the Committee for Indus
trial Organization.
The principal object of these confer
ences, it is assumed, is to discuss ways
and means of making the operation of
the Wagner act widely effective in
bringing about peaceful adjustment OF
differences between employer and labor.
Chairman j. Warren Madden of the
National Labor Relations Board is to
be participant. The discussions may
run to the widening of the act itself, by
amendment. There is report that such
subjects as child labor, minimum wages
and maximum hours may also come into
the discussions at the conference.
Whether such matters could be dealt
with by Federal law without consti-
tutional amendment, however, is still
question. They are matters in which the
present administration is strongly in
terested. The Supreme Court, in its
decision holding invalid the N R. A.,
did not give much hope that it would
be possible to set up laws governing
maximum hours and minimum wages for
industry
The administration has yet to produce
its program for legislation which it will
seek at the hands OF Congress. With
Miss Perkins as its representative at
the coming conference, it may give evi-
dence of the way it proposes to follow.
Certainly it may obtain ideas and infor-
nation of value to be used in working
out its program