Evening Star Newspaper, February 28, 1932, Page 29

THE SUNDAY STAR, WASHINGTON, D. FEBRUARY -PART TWO. 3 WORLD JOBLESS CRISIS - DECLARED AT BOTTOM| Survey, Showing 30 Per Cent Gain in| Unemployment, Has Been Passed. BY ALBIN E. JOHNSON. | ENEVA —That the world un- employment situation has struck the very bottom and cannot possibly get much worse is the deduction of the Inter- national Labor Bureau, which has just compiled complete official statistics on unemployment in most countries of Europe and America. While refusing even to venture an estimate on the total unemployed in the world, the statistics, which have been verified. show that there are nearly 30 per cent more idle now than a year ago. France, which was the last country to feel the effects of the depression, re- ports a gain of 56 per cent in unem- ployment during the past year. Bel- sium’s workless have increased 118 per cent, New Zealand's 184 per cent and Latvia’s by 125 per cent. Germany’s unemployed 6.000.000, while Italy ad officially 909,234, as against 556481 of a year ago, Countries where unemployment has mere than doubled since December, 1930, are Denmark, Holland, Canada, Esthonia and Jugoslavia. Based on Records. The figures are based largely upon government registers and loy- ment relief records. Only th who are receiving aid or ccunted, consequently the actual figures are much larger than revealed The Irish Free State and Japan are the two countries least affected. Dub- lin reports 25,622 unemployed, a gain | of 3 per cent over last year. Japan has 8 per cent more idle than a year ago, | about 6 per cent of her working classes being unemployed, according to latest official calculations. Because of the tendency in many countries to keep the true state of affairs from the public, for psychological purposes, the labor office experts have been particularly careful to accept only figures which are verified. The reports deal largely with percentages of in- crease rathr than actual numbers. The trend is the important thing, however Germany's figures, considered most complete, show that where there were 3.977.000 idle at the beginning of 1931, on January 1 there were 5.349,000, an increase of 35 per cent. A week ago the figure passed 5,900,000. England Improved. Great Britain alone seems to show improvement, although there are 12 per cent more idle than a year ago. In re- cent weeks, however, unemployment has actually been falling, although this in part may be due, the report points out. o alteration in the unemployment in- surance acts rather than to a bettering of industrial conditions. “The situation has become more and more difficult even in countries where a compulsory _unemployment _insurance scheme exists,” says the report. “and far more 50 in those countries where no adequate scheme or no scheme at all is in force. * * * Some peovle are of the impression that the cyclical depression has touched bottom, but even if that be 50 it is too early vet to say how soon an upward movement may be expected.” One fact ttwt emerges from the col- lection of s tics is that the crisis is becoming more and more world-wide. Non-European countries especially show increases in unemployed. Aside from New Zealand's gain of 184 per cent, Canada shows 80 per cent more idle, Australia 35 per cent and the United States 30 per cent over last year. No figures as to numbers of idle in the United States have been obtained by the Labor Bureau, except that 20 per cent of its workers are out of work today Increases in other countries in unem- ployment during the past 12 months are as follows: Australia, 12 per cent; Denmark, 52 per cent: Holland, 92 per cent: Switzerland, 41 per cent; Czecho- slovakia, 45 per cent; Hungary. 28 per cent; Sweden, 44 per cent; Finland, 44 per cent; Italy, 63 per cent; Norway, 28 now exceed Indicates Worst per_cent: Poland, Rou- | mania, 20 per cent | From all parts of the world come re- | ports of heroic measures which are be- | ing taken to weather the storm. { Italy Provides Funds. ! In Italy the Association of Manufac- | turers has given up hope in “providen- tial factors” The ministry of public| works provided funds for employment | of 268,393 workers on communica and land development. The municipa ties of Milan, Turin, Genoa and Naples | have started public works employing | 23000 persons. Expenditure of 285,- | 000,000 lire being provided for in Naples, Milan and Genoa alone. According to Lavoro Fascista, how- ever, “other things being equal, prefer-| ence in engagement is given first to in- | dividuals registered as members of the Fascist party and the Fascist militia which proves that the Blackshirts are looking after their political fences at the same time. Members of trade unions and ex-service men come second. Rotation of employment also is bein practiced with some degree of success So far as possible, there has been a limitation of hours worked in all com- mercial undertakings. hotels, public_es- tablishments, etc. “Forced contribu- tions” also have been. inaugurated in Italy. In some districts workers must give one hour’s pay per month to the unemployment fund, whilc salaried of- ficials give one-half per cent of thei salaries monthly. Milan raises 700,000 lire per month 1n this way. | Germany's plight is the most serious. ! Reduction of hours, distribution of em- ployment and a score of remedies have brought no relief, and the unemployed total is growing by leaps and bounds weekly. It is authoritatively estimated that there are 26,000,000 people in the “bread line” in Germany today—fami- lies and dependents of the unemployed legions. Competent political observers say it is already too late to save Ger- many and predict economic, social and political chaos at almost any minute. Make Little Progres: The scheme for a system of interna- tional public works in Europe, studied by representatives of a dozen States, does not seem to have got very far. The plans envisaged new highway tems between various capitals, dr: works, electrification and ri terways improvements. A Swedish cheme called for a reorganization of | Europe’s entire telephonic and tele- | graphic systems. | France, the last country to slide into the slough of depression, is now aware | of the menace—so far as she is con- | erned. However. France is agreeing to nothing which would better Ger- many's or Italy’s conditicn, although she has made favorable economic ar- | rangement with republican Spain. Foreign workmen, who formed the bulk of France's labor, have been barred | and thousands are being ordered back | to their own countries—Poland, Ita Germany. Instead of public worl however, France is still spending mi lions on’ her fortifications and military defenses—the budget for military pur- poses this year exceeding 13,000,000,000 francs. 24 per cent Chaeos in Spain. | i Spain, in political chaos. finds the task of governmental reconstruction e tremely complicated by econcmic fac- Behind the Rail Wage Cut Voluntary Acceptance by Workers May Have Profound Effect on Future Conferences. tors. Three-fourths the difficulties the republican regime has encountered, | have come from industrial problems— | problems which the old monarchial re- | gime would also have had to face. To be perfectly frank—even though | it may deepen the gloom—the economic situation in Eurcpe never has been darker. If the bottom has not been reached. then there is no bottom. Opti: mistic cbservers believe the conditions cannot get worse—except politically— and say it is now merely a matter of time until the upward trend begins. In other words: Europe is bumping along on the bottom—and a rough bottom at that. French, Lacking Complete U. S. Data, See Activities BY G. H. ARCHAMBAULT. Il PARIS, Frangs—France continues to | ° be puzzled by the United States and | by what is called by moderate opinion here “the contradictions of American | mentality” and by extreme nationalists | “American unscrupulousness.” As may | be imagined, all this turns on the ques- | tion of reparations and debts. The truth of the matter is that Prance remains very ili-informed re- garding America and persists in as- suming that statements by unauthorized individual Americans commit the whole Nation or, at the least, are representa- tive of the bulk of opinion in the Unit- ed States. Many of the misconceptions which persist here may be ascribed to | this lack of well-founded information. ‘The majority of the French news- papers, only one of which has its own service of American news, give promi- nence to any statement favoring French policy, regardless of the weight, or Jack of weight, of the speakers, and seldom print anything interpreting the general trend of American opinion. They do this not of set purpose. but simply be- cause they receive nothing else from the very meager sources of information at their disposal. Take Views as Official. The consequence is a widespread tendency to reason from the particular o the general, to assume that spesches by men without responsibilitv represent the views of official Washingtcn, and to build up a concention of the United States which at times may be dia-| metrically opposed to the reality. When argumentation cvolved from such prem- ises proves false because the premises are false there is great disillusionment, and the belief grows that America is fickle “under the influence of anti- French propaganda.” ; As a specific instance, it is no exag- geration to say that in the French mind the accusation of American fickleness in | the matter of war debts rests in great part on a speech by the late Walter Berry as president of the American Chamber of Commerce in France. In this country Chambers of Commerce are official institutions under govern- mental control, for which reason the utterances of their presidents carry some weight. Manifestly an American Chamber of Commerce is entirely dif- ferent, but the French do not know that ond the foreign office in Paris does not consider it within cope to explain such points to the public. Walter Berry's s dates from 1918. It was a Fourth of July ora- tion. It was delivered French in the presence of leading personalities of the French stat this speech Mr. Berry, after laying stress on the fact that Prance had been “fighting our war,” proceeded to say “Any loans made to you during this time was like lending money to our- selves. Therefore these loans must be written off to the last dollar * * * After the war we shall be prepared to replace the ships lost on our behalf and to pro- vide you with all necessary means to recoup your shipping trade. Seeing that your cities have been pillaged for us, your mills fired and your factories dismantled, it will be incumbent on us to rebuild them. And we shall do it. And when we shall have done all this we shall return home thanking France for having saved the world from pan- Germanism.” At the death of Walter Berry the American Chamber of Commerce | sionsvoiced the deep convictions of in Contradiction' | passed a resolution from which the fol- ng is an extract “Whereas his frank, fearless and out- poken utterances on all public occa- the American people and of the Amer- ican Chamber of Commerce. etc.” Needless to say, neither Walter Berry nor. the American Chamber of Com- merce in France had any sort of man- date to speak for the American people. Yet the contrary has still to be proved | to the French, who to the end will persist in believing that Mr. Berry and | the chamber, by their own statements and resolutions, committed the United s to a policy of annulment of all | When told that the president of the chamber had no mandate to speak on behalf of the American people the French confess inability to understand | who is and who is not mandated in | America, and they revert to the case of | Woodrow Wilson and the peace confer- ence in Paris. To this day a large number of Frenchmen continue to be in the dark regarding the workings of the Consti- tution of the United States and the powers vested in the President. First, Wilson’s commitments were not ratified by the Senate; now President Hoover, | after making certain _propositions to | Premier Pierre Laval, finds that Con- gress places limits upon his suggestions. | It is all very puzzling to the French. Their ignorance of American constitu- tional practice in 1919 has been e plained by recent publications re ing the orders given to the Fr censor at that time. One such o emanating from Georges Clemenceau in person, forbade the publication of any attack on Woodrow Wilson. Interpret- | ing the order in the widest sense, the | censor would not permit the publication of dispatches from America indicating that the Senate was not likely to ratify | the peace treaty. | Still Remain in Dark. Today there is no ban, but the situa- tion remains much the same, for the French public cannot tell from its ne papers what is happening in America, apart from “gangsters” news, the only phase of life in the United States to have received detailed attention in re- cent years. | It is no secrct that the information issued to the papers by the press serv- | ice of the Quai d'Orsay is virtually | confined to extracts from those Ameri- | can publications supporting France; adverse criticism is never available | from that source. On the other hand, | much is made of visiting Americans described as “friends of Franc whom deccrations and other court are lavished, and who very naturall; say pleasant things in return. Thus the impression is conveyed that all Ame cans think as these individual Ameri- cans do, with the result that when | either the administration in Washing- | ton or the United States Congress acts | in a manner different from French an- | ticipation the whole nation is taxed with _inconsistency and _incoherence and there are cries of “Shylock!” ‘The French, who pride themselves on their logical minds, find that Ameri- cans act illogically. The truth is that, as regards America, French logic is sef to work on_incomplete or inaccurat data. The French have evolved from such data a conception of America | which is false, and they have yet to learn that it is their logic that is faulty. (Coprrisht, 19825 RAILROAD WORKERS HAVE CONTRIBUTED MUCH TO THE BY MATTHEW WOLL, Vice Presid American Federation of Labor. T is not possible to forecast the effect of the changed rate of rallroad wages, but it is clearly possible to direct attention to certain facts and draw certain deductions. First, it should be pointed out that the new of the railroad men is ed wage, but a wage com- on the old basis. From that 4 computed, the men have agreed that 10 per cent may be de- ducted during the next year. ear the deduction ceases, At the | unless, of course, there are renewed | negotiations leading to & new arrange- ment or an extension of the present |arrangement. | "It is of tremendous importance that | the workers on the railroads of America have voluntarily agreed to give back to | the roads, out of their wages, the huge total of $250,000,000 during the year. | That is a contribution of tremendous | magnitude. I know of nothing in his- | tory to equal it. |, But to my mind there is a phase that is even more important than the amount of money involved. It is the human |good will involved, the first national GRFAT BRITAIN CAPTURING U.S. TRADE IN SOUTH AFRICA Exchange Advantage Helps English In- on Profitable Market Built ‘ Up by America. BY ARTHUR BELL. URG.—The United won a big and profitable in the Union of South a by good salesmanship. since the World War South Africans have known that they could get prompt deltvery of the right goods at the right price from America. Good | salesmanship has kept them constantly refreshed on this point. It is cne thing to win a market—it’s | quite arother to keep it in these days when profitable trade openings are ce. Now it scems that the market gained by good salesmanship is being lost by bad or inadequate salesmanship. America’s rivals in the South African market have learned their lesson, and at the moment they are out-talking and out-selling the trade representatives of the United States. Great Britain Makes Gain. Great Britain, with an exchange ad- vantage in the South African market, is making up lost ground with a ven- geance, and since Britain went off the standard orders have been pouring of this country—orders which pre- the United States. ionzalist government, anti- British as it is, has encouraged South | Africans to buy from Britain in pref- erence. to any overseas country, because Britain takes outh African goods. s luk proached New York for a loan to sup- port an exchange there. Automobile supply a very good in- dication of the general trend. During Besides, America | the last six months imports from the | United States have been less than one- | half of the figure for the correspond- | ing period last year. Sales have amounted to little more than one-third, despite frequent reductions in price This might well be ascribed to depres- sion were it not for the fact that the sales of automobiles manufactured in Great Britain had more than doubled in the same period. One popular Brit- ish make has actually been unable to meet the demand, despite record ship- ments by every steamer. The only American automobiles their position are those partly manu- factured here. Leather Trade Swept Away. The s stantial trade in boots an shoes formerly enjoyed by the United States has practically been swept away by British, Czechoslovakian and Japa- the greatest share | warm when South Africa ap- | nese competition. American prices put | American_products almost outside this | market. The same applies to all other | leather goods. | American engineering companies | operating in this country are practi- |cally at a standstill; several are ex- pected to close their Petoria and Jo- hannesburg offices. German competi- tion and salesmanship are sweeping away the American photographic trade. (Copyright. 1932 i . S Mexican Border Towns Hard Hit by High Taxe: MEXICO CITY.—High federal taxes| |and import levies are embarrassing| commerce and the general public in towns along the American border, ac-| cording to petitions urging modification | of these assessment measures placed before the finance ministry and other | national executive departments by| chambers of commerce and individuals | of the frontier towns and by American | electric light and power enterprises serving those communities. | The_petitions picture a_sorry condi-| S tion obtaining in the border towns be-| Caribbean and the misconception of | cause of the high import duties on elec- tric power and light used by these com- | munities and which is generated in the United States, and by the federal im- post on passenger and cargo automo-| biles operated in Mexico's northern states. | American electric light and power | companies supplying Mexican border towns ask abolition of duties on their products and argue that because Of| | the impost they “cannot reduce their| rates to Mexican consumers. Thelr| | plea is supported by merchants and residents of the towns, who aver that the electric companies'’ tariffs are pro- | hibitive and that if these are hot | lowered closing of businesses and sus- | pension of industries must reult. | |, Private and public passenger and | freight automobile service in Coahuila | | State has been hit hard by newly ef-| fected annual federal levies ranging| of from one to three or more tons. The | | state government advised the national| | authorities to eliminate this impost. | | The Coahuila government averred that utomobile owners of the state are being taxed out of operation, what with the national levy,and those of the state and munlclpul‘h C coming together of an entire industry on a national basis, in which elected representatives of organized employers and organized workers, representing and | speaking for every single person in the industry, have sat together to decide a momentcus questicn, the decision of these representatives accepted in ad- vance as binding upon all. That is an achievement such as we have never before witnessed in the United States. It will go down in our industrial history. I call attention to the fact that some of the railroads whose officials attend- ed these meetings were not particularly REDUCTION OF OPERATING EXPENS ,enamored of the idea of negotiating | with unions. Some have preferred those | organizations which we know as com- pany unions. Some have not favored the organization of workers at all. But they came to these conferences, representing the entire railroad indus- try, from the management side of the table, and for three solid weeks they sat in négotiation with union repre- sentatives, and finally they found them- selves in agreement with them. There probably is no railroad executive in America today who does not place a higher value upon the trade unions of (Continued on Fourth Page.) FAR EAST GIVES LATINS INTERVENTION ARGUMENT Needed to Empha Japanese Policy Provides Elements size Opposition to Such Action by Armies. BY GASTON NERVAL. so-called “paci- parade triumph- itly through the vastness of Manchuria in persecutian of “Chinese bandits,” and the world looks on, astonished. clever Latin Amer statesmen could ver: well capitalize with profit on the periences of the present Far Eastern crisis. Actual facts have a power cf per- suasion far superior to that of ora- torical arguments or written pleas, no matter how eloquently worded these may be. And the events in the Far East evidently afford the best graphic illustration of what Latin American dplomats and leaders cf opinion have been consistently condemning for a number of years: The intervention of a strong power in weaker one, for alleged protection of foreigners, exterminaticn of bandits and the preservation of internal order. To speak more concretely, if Latin Americans stop to think about it, they will readily find in the Manchurian situation the very elements which they need to emphasize their opposition to the armed interventicn of the United States in the small republics of the the Monroe Doctrine, under which such intervention has generally been practiced. Japanese statesmen have already no- ticed the similarity, and they have pro- claimed it publicly, although, naturally, with a different purpcse. Short of alibis, they have tried to justify their attitude by the simple statement that they are only following the example of the Western powers, and doing in Man- churia what other countries have done \beiore in other regions of the werld, | and the | ¢ only ones to stress this similiarity. | to protect their nationals maintenance of internal peace. To that effect, communiques from the Tokio foreign office have even made reference to a “Japanese Monroe Doc: trine,” or an Asiatic Monroe Doctrine.” If the United States claims the right to maintain a doctrine which not only prevents the interference of maintaining | from 9 to 24 pesos ($4 to $10) on cars non-American countries in the West- ern Hemisphere—as it was originally intended to—but is also invoked to Jjustify the intervention of the United States in preserving order in the weaker republics of Central America, why shouldn’t Japan support a similar doctrine as regards the Asiatic conti- nent and assume by itself the role the affairs of a| | protecting. and keeping peace in, the | weaker nations of the Far East? Specifically talking of the Manchurian crisis, the Japanese more or less. as follows: Japan has cer- tain spechl interests in Manchuria which she must protect at any price. China has lately been involved in civil wars and infested with a plague of bandits who are a constant menace to the lives and property of Japanese and other foreigners in that country. Japan is the most advanced and powerful nation in Asia, and must see that order, peace and civilization are pre- served i weaker China. Is not this the language used by President Roosevelt to justify United States intervention in Central Amer- ica? Does mot this sound very much like the famous Roosevelt corollary, which declared that “if a nation shows that it knows how to act with reason- able efficiency and decency in social and political matters, if it keeps order and pays its obligations, it need fear |no interference from the United | States,” “but that chronic wrongdoing, lor an impotence which results in a general loosening of the ties of civilized | society, may in America, as elsewhere, | ultimately require intervention by some civilized nation, and in the Western Hemisphere the adherence of the United | States to the Monroe Doctrine may force the United States, however re- luctantly, in flagrant cases of suth wrongdoing or impotence, to the exer- | cise of an international police power?"” | This is the “big stick” policy of Theodore Roosevelt, which has caused | so much harm to the good relations of the United States with the republics of Latin America. Today the “wrong- | doer” is China and the “big stick” is | in the hands of Japan. Japanese statesmen, however, are not United States Senator Hamilton Lewis | has emphatically expressed the dangers | of Japan's scheme, one which, he says, | could have been expected by the United | States in view of its own past history. | Speaking to a Nation-wide audience on the Washington Star Radio Forum, | Senator Lewis said a few days ago: “Japan patterns after a policy and | action of the United States. We will | not forget that we took such course in behalf of our own United States to pacify North America when we entered Cuba, then Mexico and later the Cen- tral Amerigan countries. Let us recall (Conishued on Fourth- Page.), spokesmen say, | MIDDLE GROUND IS FOUND BY ANNE HARD. MERICA today i | in the great next war—the great present war, indeed—Db tween the theory of Commu i nism and the theory of indivi ualism: between the theory of public political control of industry and the theory of private control. Private individual leadership in pri- vate industry and business will largely decide the outcome of that war. So that it is fair to say that such leaders are no longer truly “private individu- als” at all, but are public men by any real definition. Such a “public man* such an example of private ind.vidual leadership is Louis K. Comstock, ele: trical engineer. Two lines of effort are the track upon which that private leadership runs. The first is the relation between employer and employe: between capital and labor. The second is the relation- ship among employ themselves within any given industry. Outstanding among the industries of the country today, that of -electrical construction offers a vivid picture of broadening philosophy, of careful e periment, w.thin the theory of capi talistic society and within the legal limitations set by our somewhat an- tiquated Sherman act. Mr. Comstock has played a leading part in the development of those ideas, | those experiments. Has Worked Out Schemes. Within a fieid of labor warfare as corrupt and violent as any in the American scene, he has worked out certain unique schemes for the in- tegration of the interests of workers and employers. Following neither an open shop policy nor an industrial union policy, he has found a means of peace in dealing with an outright American Federation of Labor union. From a mere club of employers he has, by successive stages, developed a relationship on the side of capital which differs from most other associa- tions (among other things) in having a definite hook-up with labor. ‘The successive stages of his experi- ence form a suggestive picture. From the day when he entered the works of the Western Electric Co. in Chicago, in 1897, to the Spring of the present year, when he addressed the first annual meeting of the new Elec- trical Guild of North America, Mr. Comstock has been in contact with these questions. The rattling of gatling guns in the streets of Chicago in the famous Rull- man strike of 1894 pointed the young man’s first attention to the labor ques- tion. He was a sweet-tempered young man, the kind of young man whose quiet smile indicated a sympathetic rather than an exuberant sense of humor—a thoughtfnl man, even then. ! His wns one of those old American »families which left New England when Ohio was’ the West. His mother was born there in a log cabin among Indian fighters. A family of inherited cultiva- tion, natural endowment. His brother, older than himself, was on the way to becoming a distinguished astronomer and professor at the University of Wis- consin. He wes part of the best that the East in those days sent to the West. In his veins was the conservative in- heritance of individual independence and the best of the pioneer. Grows With Industry. Electrical industry was then a ploneer industry. Mr. Comstock went in with its infancy. He had, in Columbus, for example, during his vacation from the University of Michigan, worked at test- ing the second Edison tube ever in- stalled. He has grown along with the industry to its maturity and all the pub- lic questions which that maturity has come to involve. ‘Then, in 1897, a youth, as superin- tendent of construction for the Western Electric, there was enormous variety of experience to be had. There was a great flowering of small municipal plants to be installed. The company’s engineers remained in charge for a month, teaching the novices how to operate The young engineer was instantly thrown into the attitude of the em- ployer, confronted with the problem of “handling men.” A great conflict of sentiment awoke in him. It was one shared by many another who, like him- self, has been torn between a sense of order and decency in human conduct and a love of justice and mercy. On the one hand, he saw hoodlumism, which he detested. On the other he saw an attitude which protected prop- erty but not human rights—which he equally detested. | He began, soon, to sit in on confer- ences when a strike was called or threatened. His observing eye watched the psychology of those sessions. | “It was a war psychology,” he says. “Each side got mad. It became a ques- tion of which side first exhausted the patience of the other. There was no genuine inquiry into the merits of a demand for a wage increase.” Opened Own Offices at 26. By the time he was 26 he had ceased to be an employe himself, and had | | opened his own offices in Chicago. A chance meeting with Paul Sterrett 1 in 1900 turned his life toward New York and the Fuller Co. Mr. Comstock was | new to get at first hand a thorough {dose of all the bitterness of labor dis- putes in that warfare as bitter as any shown—that of the construction in- dustry. “In our meeting with labor in those |days” he says, “there was no thought | |of discussion, consultation; never any | | real negotiation. It was a pow-wow of a tribe of savages. We just wore out, cussing each other.” “Rackets” are nothing new. Two decades ago they existed in the labor world as violently if not as extensively as they do today. Now and then they scandalously broke into public_atten- tion. to be quickly forgotten. The evil went on. | A curious sidelight is thrown on Mr. | Comstock’s temperament by an incident of the time. A certain then famous | labor racketeer from Chicago came into | the office and demanded $3,000 to be “fixed.” “You can go to hell,” sald Mr. Com- stock. “Do you mean that?” said the gent m?l;x Chicago. | The racketeer looked hard at the engineer. Then he said: “In that case, we’ll be friends. Shake.” Mr. Comstock was hiring and firing | workmen. He was dealing with such | {large construction problems as the | Hudson Terminal, the Investment Build- | ing, the Remington Arms plant, with other work which reached from Toronto | to Texas. Yet his mind was never too absorbed with the technical problems | of engineering to dwell on the human | problem of labor relations. i Possesses Flexible Mind. For he possesses a flexible as well as | a profound mind. Never a devotee of | sports, student rather than sportsman | by temperament, his leisure hours were | devoted to his books. In his youth, he protagonist a matter of careful thought, he gave | up smoking for a year in order to buy | a copy of the first American edition of | the “Letters of Junius.” On the front page he inscribed these words. “To my Lady Nicotine.” | In New York, as he had in Chicago, | he preferred the dare of independence to the security of a settled salary. e | left the Fuller Co. in 1904 to set up his | own firm. He was to grow with an industry the | future of which he had the foresight to realize, Grow slowly, As he puts when personal expenditures still were | b IN DEALING WITH LABOR Louis K. Comstock, Electrical Engineer, Develops Mere Club of Employers Into Hook-Up With Employes. ust dubbed along.” reading m practicing_ more, thinking still more, till about 1914 He then began a bit of thinking siz- nificant to today, to this moment when the theory that wages should be main- tained durir fon is being put, to the test. He then thought this wav: “There are two schools of thought in these labor disnutes, the ‘forward-look- it, he * fact that collective bargaining is con- ceived of in terms of unionism, closed king dclegates. A coms st which will safegtiard employer and empio3s istice to either, an ‘index number based tific conception of important the cost of living. Why not, at a scientific wage scale thes> index numbers rromise the rigk without “We I then, based or View cf Problem Broadened. T He had grown out of the war psy- chology in labor disputes. But it was not until 1916 that he had broadened his view of the labor problem and ex=- pressed it in the first of a series of notable addresses which, together with 1 d rep bitration cases ! form 2 small srowth of an Idea. He t read that paper before vhe Con= ference Club. Shortly before we entcred the wat he suggested to & number of men prominent in the electrical industey that they get together at Virginia Hot Springs and play golf. Nothing sald about business or social problems. Just a good time. Yet he had a thought, though he didn’t mention it “Labor, which forms 40 to €0 per cent of the business, is always the last thing we think of from a business standpoint. We are clever buyers of material, but we don't know how to in< vest in men. We must find some com- mon basis for a solution. Side issues are reducible to one; the barbaric competition we are putting up against one another—to no purpose. “T have always been against surrep- titious price fixing. It ism’t necessary to do anything illegal in order to bene- fit oyrselves.” Tho¥e invited came. And from that meeting and its adjournment to At- lantic City developed a long series of consultations, conferenccs, discussions of this idea of co-opgration in effort and science in approach. It was a mutual education which sank into only temporary desuetude when we entered the great conflict. Called to Washington among the dollar-a-year men of the War Indus- tries Board, Mr. Comstock for the time being had other things to think sbout. He was given, specifically, the matter cf brass. Now, at peace, “brass” sounds like & minor thing. Brass, in war, meant “admiralty-tube” in transport and bat- tleship and bombs on the battlefield. In October, 1918, there was only & three-month supply in sight. Received Private Requests. You should hear Mr. Comstock tell of his experiences incidental to “brass control” during the war to cut your illusion that all conservative Americans are patriotic. Well known, important gentlemen from the capital itself who acked him to provide brass tubing for constituents’' restaurants, for example, or for a certain Senaior's suburban house, when the Government was scour= ing the country to get enough to pro- tect the very lives of our men at the front. Not pretty stories, these, but side lights on the reason why the chins of that board stuck out considerably more at the end of the war. Among them, no one’s chin, probably, was squared more forcefully by naturs than L. K. Comstock's. It's breadth ls set at the top of a thick, muscular neck. Above it is a rather small mouth, & clipped mustache, a nose which has no curve of a predatory character, two rather prominent blue eyes and a well balanced forehead. The whole effect, together with his great height and solidity, gives him a strangely Man- darin aspect. Perhaps the effect is in part due to his manner, which is naturally ex- tremely dignified; his speech, which is fluent but never fast, and the lack of gesture with his hands. He has read deeply. He has unus- ually wide acquaintance. Yet little that he has read and no one he has ever known gets forgotten. He can reach into his memory for a name, a date, in some obscure episode of his crowded life with almost unfailing accuracy. Such, in appearance and manner, was the man who returned to private business at the close of the World War. More than ever he thought about that other war—between the employer and the employe. Why should it continue to exist? So far from there being an opposition interest, were not their in- terests identical? And among em- ployers is not everything which is good for the industry as a whole good for ‘each constituent member? Paper Given Wide Publicity. Suppose they are. How can we change the old psychology and get together on a new one? 1919. A significant date for many men who, like Mr. Comstock, had felt wartime's too brief spirit of selflessness, of brotherliness. ‘The paper he had read before the Conference Club had been given wide publicity. He was asked to repeat it at Atlanta and elsewhere. In the South, in the Middle West, along the Atlantic, that “brotherliness” of 1918 might still be fused into daily conduct. The Con- ference Club became the furnace. Rather it was a useful acorn from which in another year came the “Council on Industrial Relations for the Electrical Construction Industry of the United States and Canada.” This council (of which Mr. Com=- stock has been continuous chairman) consists, on the side of capital, of five representatives of contractors and dealers chosen by the national associ: tion and, on the side of labor, of five representatives of the International Brotherhood of Electrical Workers. Its first meeting in Washington saw Mr. Comstock as chairman. And the meeting decided that the council should concern itself but little with current disputes and devote . its efforts to re. moving the causes of dispute. It sal “The function of the council is that of study and research to the end that it may act with the fullest knowitcge of these causes and secure the largest possible measure of genuine co-opera= tion between member organizations and generally between employer and em~ ployes, for the development of the ire dustry as a servant to society and fof the improvement of the conditions of all engaged in the industry.” “The servant of society!” Those were new words to be heara when union labor and capitalist ems ployer were gathered together, Relies on Sense of Fairness. A characteristic personal touch waa announcing that it relied upon the i~ dividual’s instinctive sence of fairness d the “theory that the public wik act correctly when it has the facts. Its fundamental #ea is unique, im that it leaves entirely out the insti- tution of the “impartial umpire” such as one sees in the clothing trades or, under the mediation law, in the ways. The “impartial umpire” makes it pos- sible for both sides to be as violent, as obstinate, as unfair as they please. The ultimate responsibility will rest with the. umpire. In the council, some one must {Continued on Fourth