A CONFESSION.
United States Commission on Industrial Relations.
Report from Chicago, August 23.
The Manly Summary finds:
That the causes of industrial unrest group themselves, almost without exception under four main sources, which include all the others. They are:
- The unjust distribution of wealth and income.
- The unemployment and denial of opportunity to earn a living.
- Denial of justice in the creation, in the adjudication and in the administration of the law.
- Denial of the right and opportunity to form effective organization.
Weinstock Employers’ Report.
An abstract of the report signed by Commissioners Weinstock, Ashton and Ballard, renresenting the employers on the commission says:
“Despite the fact that we have been appointed to represent on this Commission the employers of the Nation, we are free to admit that the investigations made by the Commissioners and the testimony brought forth at our public hearings, have made it plain that the employers, some of them, have been guilty of much wrong-doing, and have caused the workers to have their fullest grievances against many employers.
“There has been an abundance of testimony submitted to prove to our satisfaction that some employers have resorted to questionable methods to prevent their workers from organizing, in their own self interest; that they have attempted to defeat democracy by more or less successfully controlling courts and legislatures; that some of them have exploited woman and children and organized workers; that some have resorted to all sorts of methods to prevent the enactment of remedial industrial legislation; that some have employed gun-men in strikes, who were disreputable characters. and who assaulted innocent people and com mitted other crimes, most reprehensible in character; that some have paid lower wages than their competitors’ conditions warrants, wor their people long hours, and under insanitary and dangerous conditions; that some have exploited prison labor at the expense of free la hora that some have been contract breakers with labor, that some have, at times, attempted through the authorities to suppress free speech, and the right to peaceful assembly; and that some have deliberately, for selfish ends, bribed representatives of labor.
“All these things, we find, tend to produce industrial unrest, with all its consequent and far-reaching ills. There is, therefore, no gainsaying the fact that labor has had many grievances, and that it is truly justified in organizing and in spreading organization in order the better to protect itself against exploitation and oppression.”