Evening star., 1941-03-16
Strike Situation Is Good or Bad,
Depending on Point of View
At Moment, President Has the Play Keeping
Congress From Restrictive Action;
Mediation Plan Proposed.
Bv Charles q. Ross.

Since the National Defense Advisory
Commission came into operation last
June, its labor division, under Mr.. Hill
man, has concerned itself with 375 dis
putes, involving 100000 employees in in
dustries connected in some way with the
defense program With the aid of the
United States Cancellation Service, whose
good Offices are regularly invoked by
the commission, settlements have been
reached without strikes in cases involv-
ing two-thirds of the employees, or AGO.
OOO The number of defense disputes re-
sulting in strikes has been between 100
and 125, and some of these have been
of extremely short duration.
13 Strikes Going on Now.
The defense strikes listed Friday at
o. P M. headquarters numbered l3,
of which the most important were
those at the Allis-Chalmers plant in
Milwaukee, affecting some 5000 work
erS and defense contracts totallng S45,-
100000, and at four Midwestern plants
of the International Harvester Co.
involving 1900 employees and s1O.O0oO0O
in defense contracts. About $4,000 men
altogether have been made idle by the
13 strikes
Strike figures compiled by the Bureau
of Labor Statistics of the Department
of Labor bear out the contention that
conditions today in the labor relations
field are relatively good. In 1910
there were 245O strikes (all kinds, in
volving $1,000 workers and causing
6,5OOOOO man-days of idleness. These
figures contrast with a total Of 4,450
strikes. involving 1.227.254 workers in
1917, when the United States was actu-
ally at war. The decrease in the number
of strikes from 1917 is made more i'm
pressive by the % per cent rise in non
agricultural employment since that time
The 2450 strike total of 1910 contrast;
also with 474O for 1887, a year of RISING
business activity and of intensive Or
ganizing efforts by the unions; 2772 fol
1888 and 2,613 for 1889
Supporting his thesis that nothin@
should be done to impair the greater
spirit of cooperation" now being evi-
denced in the relations of management
and labor, Mr.. Hillman cited the fore
going comparative strike figures ana
made the following points:
Hillman Makes Points.
I. For the first time in our industrie'
history employment has increased
sharply without an increase in the num-
ber of strikes. In fact. the number Of
man-days of idleness due to strikes in
the last half of 1910 was 40 per cent les
| than in the last half of 1899.
2. Fewer than half as many persons
were involved in strikes during 1910 as
in the corresponding emergency period
| of 1916, or the war years of 1917 and 1918
this despite the large rise in industrial
employment.
| 3. The amount of idleness caused BY
strikes in 1910 was less than one-quartel
as great as the time lost because Oh
industrial accidents.
4. The strikes that have occurred dur
| ing recent months of ever -enlarging in
dustrial activity have been small and of
short duration.
Unquestionably, the largest cause Of
| friction in management-labor relations
! today, both in industry at large and in
is the pressure of the workers for higher
wages. This is the conclusion to be de-
| rived from such official data as are avail
able, and it is the universal judgment OF
the men directing the Governments
Cancellation work and of a represent
ative group of labor leaders, both of the
| c. I. o. and the A. F. of L., consulted by
| the writer. Demands for higher wages
go always with such rise in industrial
activity and in profits as the country is
now experiencing.
Officials of the labor division Of the
Defense Commission say that the closed
shop issue has played only a minor part
in defense labor disputes; that in no case
whatever the seeming importance of tn
issue at the beginning, has it proved ,
snag holding up a settlement.
| Other factors bearing on the labor sit
(See STRIKES, Page C-3)