The potters herald. [volume] (East Liverpool, Ohio) 1899-1982, 1942-11-05
COMMENT ON WORLD
EVENTS

nearS, the peace tnaC Will 1OilOW tle
victory of the United Nations is engag-
ing the increasing attention of the
inter national institutions that are STU
carrying on in the midst of hoStilitieS.
Prominent among these institutions
is the International Labor Organiza-
ton, set up after the last war as an
instrument to promote worldwide So
cial justice.
Since the summer of 1910, when it
became advisable to move from Geneva,
the ILO has functioned from a work
ing centre in Montreal, Canada. In
buildings loaned by McGill University
staff of international experts is at
work on the problems that will face
the world in the reconstruction period.
And while it goes about this task of
planning for a peoples peace, the office
maintains the services that enabled it
international social progress in the
between-war years.
X X 4
The reconstruction work on which
the HOS corps of authorities is now
engaged was charted at a special CON
ference of the organization, attended
| by representatives Of 50 nations, in
New York and Washington late in
| 1941 At that meeting representatives
of the employers, workers and govern
ments of the participating countries
came together despite the hazards of
war and resolved that the IOL should
| hav "a broad mandate to contribute to
the attainment of peoples peace" In
other resolutions, the conference laid
down the general lines that the Hos
work should follow until another CON
ference could be held.
| Since then the program of the Office
has been formulated in more precise
terms. Because of the impOsSibility in
wartime conditions of cOnvening meet
ings of the Offices governing body, the
New York conference set up an emer-
gency committee on which workers,
employers and governments are repre-
| Sented and which could be brought to-
gether conveniently on either side of
the Atlantic. This committee, to which
the responsibilities of the governing
body were delegated, held it's first
meeting in London in April to plan
| ways and means of carrying out the
conferences mandate.
| Reports of that meeting are now be
| ing distributed by the ILO. One resume
of the discussions and decisions, under
the title THE ILO and Plans for a
Peoples Peace" has recently appeared
in pamphlet form and in the lnterna-
tional LabOur Review, the Hos au-
| lucrative monthly publication.
This report makes clear that the
| chief decision of the London meeting
was to establish an international com
| mittee whose function would be to adj
wise the ILO in its current recOnstruc-
tion planning and to recommend what
economic provisions should he included
in the postwar settlement in order to
make possible the experimentation of
the social ObjectiveS of the Atlantic
Charter and, in particular, the provi-
sion of full employment and a rising
standard of living"
The proposal was adopted on the
recommendation of Edward j. Phelan
| the Hos acting director, and i'm adj
vancing it Phelan pointed out that 'if
such Il committee could be composed of
outstanding personalities with the com
petence and experience necessary to
deal with financial and economic prob
| lens from an international standpoint,
not only would its views carry great
weight but it would be invaluable in
| helping direct the work of the office on
these vital important subjects
The proposal was given wholeheart-
ed support by the three workers repre-
SentativeS on the CUmmittee-RObertJ j.
Watt, international representative Of
the American Federation of Labor :;
Joseph HallSwOrth of Great Britain :;
and JEFF RenS of Belgium.