_By Arno Dosch-Fleurot._
Copyright, 1921, by the Press Publishing Co. (The New York World).
There is a way to peace, at least comparative peace, in industry. The
warfare that is forever being carried on through the open shop, the
closed shop, the strike and the lockout, is coming to be considered just
as uncivilized as any other form of warfare. All that is considered
necessary is the give-and-take of “industrial councils.”
The idea is being worked out in one way in England and in another way
here. The English have had to come to it, forced by the fact that their
factory workers are organized in industrial unions. Here it is
voluntary, for the industrial workers are not organized in America. The
British factory workers are organized because they are all, or nearly
all, British. The American factory workers are largely foreign. In
England it is a question of Englishmen dealing with Englishmen. Here it
is Americans dealing with foreigners.
The British have tried to get down to a uniform system or “industrial
conference,” known as the Whitley system. There it is an even game, with
organization and intelligent leadership on both sides. Here the
homogeneous leadership is all on one side. The industrial workers are at
such a disadvantage, in the fact of their not being all Americans, that
they cannot get together and hold together, like the workers of England,
France, Belgium or Germany, where industrial unionism is already
traditional.