CONFERENCES IN INDUSTRIES URGED.

Taranaki Herald, Volume LXVII, Issue 16501, 31 July 1919, Page 7

CONFERENCES IN INDUSTRIES URGED.

UNITED STATES LABOUR LEADER’S VIEWS. CHICAGO, Illinois. After practical experience, in his owntrade, of benefits of co-operation between employer and employee, Mattbcw Woll, president of the International Photo-Engravers' Union, as well as of the International Allied Printing Trades’ Association, has come to the conclusion that the best means of solving the larger aspects of ’.the problem of Capital and Labour is for employers in each 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. Mr. Well 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 workingmen would not permit the employer to profiteer. He said that while the workers realised that no business could afford the wage earners a proper v-age and wholesome working conditions where competition between employers has forced the industry to the door of bankruptcy, they also realised that to permit the employer, and to help him secure, an exorbitant price for what they jointly produced, would result in the groat injury of all and force the public to reduce its consumption or supply its wants and needs through other methods of production. As Mr. Well put it, he had confidence in democracy in industry to insure fair play, and particularly so if the. inatter 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 tdlief 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 wrui the urgent need of determining their coat of production. The president of the International j Allied Printing Trades’ Association ; said this proposal lay along the lines j of the. lYhitley councils in England, j 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. WoII said he heartily favoured the finish of this law'. Anti-combination laws in many of the States would also, have to be repealed. This would all prove a difficult task, because what ho termed false notions and erroneous conceptions had been termed by the general public on this kind of legislation. . , “Tho Sherman Anti-Trust Law has really operated to the advantage of the trusts,” said Mr. Woli. “It has not dissolved them. It has pi evented the combination of smaller and weaker independents whoso only safeguard against powerful competition with the great trusts was in uniting with eacn otter against these trusts. As a matter of fact, our anti-trust legislation has proven a most powerful instrument in the hands of our largo capitalistic enterprises to stifle” competition, force smaller concerns to sell out to tho trusts or he bankrupted, and to destroy the organisation of the w'age earners in protecting and promoting their conditions of employment. I am in favour of government interference in business to the smallest possible extent. The of business can best be worked out, in my 'judgment, by the men and the management acting jointly with each other through tlieii' respective associations and organisations.” KEEPING EMPLOYEES INFORMED.

Mr. Woll dwelt on the value of the management keeping its employees informed as to tlie 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 sucli results that bankruptcy was staring many in the face, that profits had changed into losses, and that there was i:ot 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 their services suen a manner and under such conditions as would endanger their welfare and continued employment under unfair working conditions. Thus they brought tho employers together, stabilised thencraft 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. This arrangement in tho photo-engraving craft between the employers and employees had been attacked in the courts. Ihe court not only ruled that photo-en-gravers sold their services and not a commodity, but in addition, remarked Mr. Woll, complimented tho photo-en-nravers 1 union for tho prudent policy it had outlined, and for tho general improved industrial relation it had established. Mr. Woll would simply ox tend this procedure to indusliy in general. Mr. Woll is a member of the National' War Labour Board, assistant to Mr. Compors as chairman of the committee on labour of tho Council of National Defence, and during Mr. Compere’ absence in Europe, edited the American Fodorationist, official organ of the American Federation of Labour. He is also president of the Labour Press Association of America.,