Evening star., 1937-03-23
INDUSTRIAL PEACE
PLAN IS BR0ACHED
Thomas, in Forum Address,
Asks Definitions of Fair
Practices.
Continued From Sixth Page }

wants security for himself in his home
and In his job He wants relief from
anxiety about the morrow when he
thinks in terms of his wife'S and his
children's welfare. He wants a chance
Tor his children to be educated on an
equality with his neighbors' and given
decent and happy childhood He
wants secure old age. If he can get
some leisure, some right to come and
go, to see, to study, to own and some
simple happiness out of following a
hobby, either by himself or with his
neighbors, the average man is very
well satisfied.
And the greatest of the great, no
matter how they become honored and
envied by other men, and no matter
how rich they become, very seldom get
out OF life any more than that. In the
attainment of these simple detectives
surely the problem is not unsolvable
because on all sides of us we see it
attained by some few, and when we
analyze how that attainment has come,
we discover that it comes primarily
because man is made secure in his lob,
and that will hold as long as our CAP
ltalistic system holds for all good is
dependent upon the right to work, the
ability to work and the continuing of
cur working possibilities. If I am to
be measured by my labor the ultimate
success in measuring me depends upon
my continuing to labor.
There is probably not a thoughtful
man in America who will disagree with
these simple conclusions. Why then.
cannot these same thoughtful men
work toward the solution Of them?
Snail We turn to Australia and adopt
IN America some modified form of their
labor or industrial court? Shall we
turn to England and take from them
some ideas In regard to labor organ
Eatlons responsibilities? Shall we
turn to New Zealand and adopt their
s"stem of compulsory conciliation and
arbitration? Shall we turn to the Far
last and bring about the organization
Ct trade and labor guilds and group
activity as has been practiced there for
centuries? Shall we turn to the Scan
dinavian countries and learn lessons
o labor peace from them? Shall We
turn to Russia, to Germany and to
1saly and adopt some forced or coercive
form OF governmental labor and indus
trial control? Better than anv of
these would be for us to develop in
America a branch of American indus
tTlal and labor law administered not
in spirit of legal prohibition or man.
date, not in a spirit of political right
ana wrong, but in spirit Of mutual
helpfulness based upon the theory that
industrial law and labor law can never
be absolute, but always relative. as
to rights.
Weighs Sit-Down Strike.
Without condemning or condoning.
Let us illustrate our point of the
great complexities of labor disputes
by pointing to what is now popular
LABOR medium of attaining a desired
end: the sit-doWn strike, as it is
called. This medium is very old.
Society has known some aspects of
lis use in many parts of the world
for hundreds of years. The Chinese
butchers, for example, would protest
against tax by using the sit-down
method. Here it is an aspect of the
boycott. English Kings with numerous
and hungry retinue used to humble
naughty mobiles by calling on them
and receiving royal entertainment by
sitting down in the mobiles castle until
the mobiles resources had been ex-
hausted through entertainment In
the story of Odysseus, Penelope's
sutors did something like that.
GandhIS assertion, non-resist-
ance tactics are related to the theory
behind the sit-down strike. japanese
shoguns controlled feudal lords by
making them, against their will, guests
at their castles during troublesome
times. 1t is in essence Lao Tzu
Taolsts theory of the attainment of
action by non-action. He expressed
1t by the saying, DO nothing and
everything will be done"
AS one who has seen the force,
power and the results, and sometimes
the consequences. of these mediums in
the Orient for attaining class or group
obIectives, I cannot refrain from
saying that American industry is now
playing with something they know
little about. This holds not only for
industry and for the general public
but also for labor. The non-action
methods are so strong in their final
aspects that labor itself could easily
destroy its very objectiveS. The