LABOR'S UNREST
LABOR'S UNREST Review of Testimony Before Industrial Relations Commission at big Chicago Hearing Shows That Both Sides are Dissatisfied With the Courts *TpHERE is unrest among the workers, both...
...The employers did not object to organization—only to the methods of labor unions...
...As great as is the dissatisfaction with wages and conditions is the rebellion of labor against working under conditions in which he has no part in the making...
...They wanted the unions incorporated so that funds might be attached for damages in ease of strikes...
...Only on one point did the two classes of witnesses agree: Both expressed deep suspicion of courts...
...The workers, citing experience after experience with laws and courts, declared that only by a strong iron-clad organization could the worker hope for justice and that by collective bargaining alone could he hope to cope with capital's cupidity for profits...
...The employers said they had found judges who were influenced by the votes of unions...
...It is deep seated...
...Significant was the fact that even the emloyers admitted that organizations of labor were advisable...
...Varied as were the remedies for the industrial unrest, opposed as was the testimony in regard to labor unions, diverse as were the stories of the workers as contrasted with the dollar statistics of employers, one great big fact was impressed upon the commission...
...The foregoing is the information given to the Industrial Relations Commission during a week's sessions in Chicago by the leaders of labor who gave details of strikes and conflicts, of oppression by police, of suspicion of courts, of tyrannies and injustices, and privations...
...Expressing great admiration for the membership of unions, for the integrity of the individual workers, they charged that "leaders" and "agitators" caused all the trouble and were often misrepresentative of the desires Of tfie membership—a condition flatly denied by the other witnesses...
...The commission also listened to great employers of labor, to lawyers who bad fought in courts for injunctions against picketing, to millionaires who count their workers by thousands, to representatives of industrial combines whose organizations control the policies of manufacturing...
...He wants to be a human being...
...His standard of justice and his determination to get it are growing...
...The growing sense of democracy is demanding a voice for labor in the management of the industries...
...It has its root in a belief that capital takes too great a share of the rewards of industry...
...It is this: The American worker is dissatisfied with his condition...
...The labor leaders declared that most judges are controlled by men of wealth who, operating through politicians, place their men upon the bench...
...He is refusing to be listed with fly-wheels and levers and belts...
...The worker is no longer satisfied to be a mere part of a machine...
...Neither believe that they get justice...
...He is a human being and demands that he be treated as such...
...LABOR'S UNREST Review of Testimony Before Industrial Relations Commission at big Chicago Hearing Shows That Both Sides are Dissatisfied With the Courts *TpHERE is unrest among the workers, both employed and unemployed...
Vol. 6 • August 1914 • No. 31
