The Waterbury Democrat., 1941-04-02

Qozen OmceS on the Cniro do0r or
 the Labor Department building.
 They're just down Q corridor from
 the office of Madame Perkins her. self, and while the secretaryS suite
 Is all wood panels and luxury in
 good taste, the conciliators worry
 along in ofiices undistinguished ex. cept for some of those art project
 oil paintings you find all over the
 labor building.
 Head man of conciliation service
 is John R. Steelman, quick moving,
 graying at 40, an Arkansas farm
 boy who has been both hobo and Harvard instructor. He has been Q
 conciliator since 1884, head of the service for seven years.
 PATIENCE
 IS THE WORD
 Steelman's assistant is his legal adviser, young Carl R. Schneider, and across the hall from them are the four regional supervisors who get all complaints on labor disturbances more important than the cook walk ing out on your nlother-in-law. They are:
 1T. R. Colwell covering New Eng land and the Middle Atlantic states. Howard T. Colvin covering the the south. Edward J. Cunningham covering the midwest, John T. Daly covering the Rockies and the Pacific coast.
 Under these men are the 100 local concinators, distributed in IS main offices so situated that the service can get @ man to any labor disturbance brewing within 12 hours. There isn't any one type of man chosen for the work. They are law yers, teachers, ex-labor leaders, ex- iildustrialists, ex-personrel directors. Their common characteristics are @ natural yen for this type of peace- making, tirelessness, patience, ab- solute lack of temper and an ability to make friends and win the con- fidence of employers and employees.
 Keeping everlastingsy ct 1t is per- haps their one secret of success. They will work all day and all day and all night-24, 27, 30 hours ct Q stretch if necessary, until they doggedly, politely wear down the stubborn resistance of hardheads. NOTHING SUCCEEDS
 LIKE SUCCESS
 Their success? Since 1913, when the service was established, they have been in on 27,000 situations irl- volving 22 million workers. Their batting average has improved every year as they gained experience. Tn Ie4O they had TAG threatened strikes, and settled 700 of them before they reached Q strike stage and without stoppage of work. The average of the last three years has been 92 to e5 per cent success in strike preven- ton whenever the service can get to e dispute before the strike or lock- out begins. It is after the strike be- gins that conciliation's job gets tough, and that is what has perhaps made the service record look bad on defense strikes since the first of the year.
 The strength and the weakness of the organization as now constituted l5 tkihV " 70 CkithCAy VVAhAavuAy service, functioning under the prin- ciples of democracy. There IS no compulsion that disputants in la bor controversy must call in Q con- ciliator. The conciliator may be asked in by one side or the other to help settle Q controversy, Q threat of strike, e lockout or an actual strike.
 That is one big point of conten- ton in the present series of defense labor disturbances the con- ciliation service and the new Na- tional Defense Mediation Board be given authority to compel employer and employe to report their con. troversies, and compel them to call in mediators before the trouble be- gins, or in case of sudden flare-up, should these peace-making bodies have authority to put in effect com pulsory arbitration?
 Supporters of the democratic the- ory of labor handling say that cona- pulsory arbitration, legal preven- ton of strikes, will not work. Op- ponents say they must be made to work.
 The fact that three out of the first four defense labor disturbances certified to the new mediation board were settled within 24 hours after the Department of Labor had passed them on should not be viewed with too much optimism. Cancellation service had them practically settled. The mere fact that the cases had been certified to the board, with the threat of public censure, may have hastened peace, but the real test of this machinery will come in the 1n- ternational Harvester strike involv- ing 24O0O men at Chicago and Rock Falls, H., and Richmond, Ind.