Evening star., 1938-01-02
START Of BETTER
LABOR CONDITIONS
SEEN DURING 1887
All Interests May Benefit
From Experience With
Bargaining Process.
UNION STRENGTH HITS
NEW HIGH IN STRIFE
Workers Forced to Accept Greater
Responsibilities-Capital Takes
Broader Attitude.
By MALCOLM B. FLANDERS,
Cambridge Associates STAFF.


Cambridge Associates STAFF.
1t will be strange If one Of the most
turbulent years in American labor his
tory will also be held to mark the
genesis of a new and more civilized
era in industrial relationships. But
this is not impossible. When perspec-
tive places the trees IN proper relation
to the woods, it may very likely be
found that gains of major significance
to labor, industry and the public good
have been wrought from what orig
inally appeared as only appallingly
wasteful strife.
If one believes that collective bar
gaining-reasonable responsible, tol-
Grant. rational, collective bargaining
Is an essential and inevitable machine
age procedure. and that the sooner
it cap be made to function smoothly
and generally the better our chances
of industrial progress, If one believes
this. there are phenomena observable
in the past years stormy record to give
him hope.
Many industries. not the least the
steel industry, got their first first-hand
knowledge of collective bargaining in
1887. Many workers became ac-
quainted with the bargaining process
for the first time. That something
like chaos resulted in some plants is
not surprising. Methods of settling
disputes were. and still are, in rough
hewn stage. Great numbers of the new
union members were undisciplined and
overtruculent. Numerous employers
found 1t painful to adapt themselves
to new way Of settling employe
problems.
Find Working Basis.
Considering the obstacles, much
progress has been made in q short
time. The newer unions, not unmind-
ful OF the business slump. are begin
ming to feel their responsibilities and
to force members to live up to con-
tracts. Employers, at least many OF
them, have found it not impossible
to work with the unions and a dis
tinctly broader attitude toward union
organization is slowly infiltrating in
termanagement discussions of the sub
ject.
Certainly if capital and labor have
been brought closer to a basis for an
understanding of each other and. more
important. of their responsibilities to
their fellows and the national economy
at large-the conflicts of 1887 will not
loom historically as excessively costly.
Eight Million Union Members.
No previous year, not even during
the dynamic war and postwar pc
rlod. saw SO many new workers
brought under the banner of organ
lied labor. In 1920, in its peak year,
the American Federation of Labor
had only few more than four mil
lion members. Now the combined
strength of the A. F. Of L. and Com
mittee for Industrial Organization
unions is in the neighborhood of the
100000 mark and still gaining.
OF course a primary cause Of this
unprecedented growth is the c. I. O.
This organization, which was formed
Tor the express purpose of recruiting
the workers in the big mass produc-
ton industries, has carried on an in
tensive, well-financed drive in the
steel, automobile, textile and rubber
fields, not to mention many others
which had noN been stirred by labor
organizers for a generation. To this
million-odd membership of the orig
inal A. F. of l.. unions which formed
the c. l. o. in 1886, between two and
three million new members have been
added to bring the total c. I. o. rolls
close to 100000.
A. F. of L. Campaign.
Only q. little less aggressive have
been the trade unions adhering tc
their A. F. of l.. affiliations. Under
the spur of c. I. o. rivalry. special
assessments have been levied and
campaigns launched to list members
In new fields as well as in those in
which trade unions were well en-
trenched. The results of these efforts
have been startlingly successful. Cur
rently, in spite of the loss of former
members to the c. I. O., total Fedora
ton membership is now near its all
time peak.
Conditions greatly favored the
unionization efforts of both organiza.
tionS. Production was rising fastel
than payrolls and employment. In.
dustrfal profits in 1896 showed fat in.
creases and continued to rise in the
early part of 1887. So did prices. AL
these factors, of course, contributed
to the determination of workers tx
share in prosperity through bigger
wages and shorter hours. Labor un.
rest during such a phase Of the re.
covery cycle is traditional and its re.
currence was to be expected.
Wagner Law Aids Drive.
The special element which coloreC
and intensified union organization
drives in the period just past was, o.
course, the friendly attitude of tn,
Federal Government, expressed di.
rectly and forcefully in the Nationa
Labor Relations Act, otherwise known
as the Wagner Law. The A. F. of L
and employers have complained thai
the National Labor Relations Boare
which was set up to make the act effec'
tive, has favored the C. I. o. to thl
exclusion Of all other types Of unioK
organization. The fact remains, how.
ever that the Wagner Act has been .
potent force. more psychological II
many cases than actual, to speed the
collective bargaining process.
The sum Of al these condition.
(eee LABOR, PaSs 1-3J