INDUSTRIAL CONFERENCES.

Northern Advocate, 19 September 1919, Page 6

INDUSTRIAL CONFERENCES.

tiltili B'i iiiXi'EKT,

AN AMERICAN VIEW

After practical experience, in his own trade, of benefits of co-opera-tion between employer and employee, Matthew Woll, president of the International Photo-Engravers' Union, ad well as the International Allied .Printing Trades Association, has come to the conclusion that the best means of solving the larger aspects Oi the problem of Capital and Labour is for employers in eacii industry to organise to confer with the organised employees in that industry, and jointly determine the conditions and requirements of production and employment and trade practices which should prevail. INHERENT FAIRNESS. Mr Woll is convinced, so he told a representative of The Christian Science Monitor, that the fairness inherent in men would insure the public against excessive and exorbitant prices, as the workingman would not permit the employer to profiteer. He said that while the workers realised that no business could afford the wage earners a proper wage and wholesome working conditions where competition between employers has forced the industry to the door of bankruptcy, they also realised that to permit th c employer, and to help him secure an exorbitant price for what they jointly produced, would re3iilfc to the .great injury of all and force th e public to reduce its consumption or supply its wants and needs through othe r methods of production. As Mr Woll put it, he had confidence in democracy in industry to insure fair play, and particularly so if th e matter of price fixing came up in conference between the men and their employers. - INFORMATION AS TO COSTS. Ultimately, Mr Woll foresaw some governing body would be necessary to supply information as to costs of production in some industries. In his own trade, in which labour constituted the chief ingredient of costs, the cost element of the problem was not difficult to figure, although it had proved a most difficult task to impress employers with the urgent need of determining their cost of production.

The president of the International Allied Printing Trades' Association said this proposal lay along the lines of the Whi'tley councils in England. He felt American Labour could profit much by studying what was developing there. Any such procedure would of course necessitate the repeal of the Sherman Anti-Trust Act. Mr Woll said he heartily favoured the finish of this law. Anti-combination laws in many of th c states would also have to be repealed. This would all prove a difficult task, because what he termed false notions and erroneous conceptions had been formed by the general public on this kind of legislation, GOOD LAW INEFFECTIVE "The Sherman Anti-Trust Law has really operated to the advantage of the trusts," said Mr Woll, "It has not dissolved them. It has prevented the combination of smaller and weaker independents whose only safeguard against powerful competition with the great trusts was in uniting with each ether against these trusts. As matter of fact, our antitrust legislation has proven a most powerful instrument in the hands of our large capitalistic enterprises to stifle competition, force smaller

concerns to sell out to the trusts or be and to destroy the organisation oi th. wage earners in protecting and promoting- their conditions of employment. I am in favour of Government interference in business to the smallest possible extent. The problems of business can best be worked out, in my judgment, by the men and the management acting jointly with each other through their respective associations and organisations."

KEEPING EMPLOYEES INFORMED

Mr Woll dwelt on the valu e of the management keeping its employees informed as to the business. He said such knowledge would remove much unrest resulting from ignorance of employees as to the general facts relating to their particular craft and industry.

The trade union man related that in his own business employers had been competing against each other with such results that bankruptcy was staring many of them in the face, that profits had changed into losses, and that there was not a sufficient income to pay the employees a fair wage. Employees thereupon got together and agreed to work for no one, as he put it, who would sell the result of thei r services in such a manner and under such conditions as would endanger their welfare and continued employment under unfair working conditions. Thus they brought the employers together, stabilised their craft and calling, and brought in a sufficient income to pay themselves a living wage, and to make a fair return to the management, and on the investment in the industry. Thi3 arrangement in the pho-to-engraving craft between the employers and employees had been attacked in the courts. Th e court not only ruled that photo-engravers sold their services and not a commodity, but in addition, remarked Mr Woll, complimented the photo-engravers' union for the prudent policy it had outlined, and fo r the general improved industrial relation it had established. Mr Woll would simply extend this procedure to industry in general.

Mr Woll is a member of the National War Labour Board, assistant to Mr Gompers as chairman of the committee on labour of the Council of National Defence, and during Mr Gompers' absence in Europe, edited the American Federationist, official organ of the American Federation of Labour. He is also president of the Labour Press Association of America.