University of Illinois Studies in the Social Sciences Volume 8 (Paperback)

This historic book may have numerous typos and missing text. Purchasers can download a free scanned copy of the original book (without typos) from the publisher. Not indexed. Not illustrated.1919 Excerpt: ... CHAPTER VI COORDINATION IN LABOR ADMINISTRATION The facts set forth in the preceding chapters suggest that in spite of our industrial development and efficiency in production, the United States up to the second year of our participation in the war possessed no adequate administrative and judicial machinery for dealing successfully with the serious problems that from time to time arose in the sphere of industrial relations. We had formulated no definite set of principles and evolved no comprehensive labor policy. A year of unprecedented unrest was necessary to demonstrate to the government that a decentralized labor administration could not bring relief. The conviction gradually spread among government officials, representatives of employers and of employees, and the general public, that uniformity of methods, concentration of control, and coordination of administration in handling labor was just as necessary to national productive effort as were similar policies in the field of fuel, food, ships, and munitions production. Summing up the situation Mr. Felix Frankfurter, chairman of the War Labor Policies Board, stated: "Since the outbreak of the war, the United States Government has come to be the greatest single employer of labor in the country... But it has had no operating policy with regard to the plants as a whole. Each one has been operated individually as a separate enterprise, quite apart from others and, so far as the labor supply has been concerned, in active competition with the others."1 A more elaborate interpretation of the situation was given by the Secretary of Labor in the following words: Never before in history was it so essential as now for a government at war to have a central labor administration and a consistent labor policy... Last fa...