The Industrial Department of the National Civic Federation is composed of twelve men representing the employers, twelve men representing labor, and twelve men representing the general public. At the head of these three groups of the Civic Federation stand Grover Cleveland, Senator Hanna, and Samuel Gompers. This is the only semi-public office ex-President Cleveland has accepted since he retired from the office of President of the United States. The purpose and the objects of the National Civic Federation appealed to his heart. His acceptance and co-operation have been to us a tower of strength and an inspiration for our difficult task.
The Civic Federation feels there is a possibility of inaugurating a great work, of promoting a better feeling and better relations between the employers and the workmen, and thereby removing some of the chief obstacles militating against industrial peace. We have been criticised; peacemakers always are. I want to answer one or two criticisms that have been made in reference to our organization. One of the misconceptions is that the Civic Federation is a board of arbitration. Its purpose is to mediate, to conciliate, and only in very exceptional cases, when requested by both sides, to arbitrate between capital and labor. It has been said that the existence of such a body would stimulate laborers to threaten to strike or to strike or to make demands which otherwise they would not make, with the hope that the subject might be brought before this body, and that they might thereby gain concessions which otherwise they could not hope to secure. It might as well be said that preventives and curatives stimulate disease. It has also been stated that we promote the organization of labor, and that organized labor stimulates strikes. The Civic Federation’s platform or statement of objects distinctly provided that its province would embrace unorganized as well as organized labor. The scope of the Federation is embodied in the By-Laws:
“The scope and province of this Department shall be to do what may seem best to promote industrial peace and prosperity; to be helpful in establishing rightful relations between employers and workers; by its good offices to endeavor to obviate and prevent strikes and lock-outs, to aid in renewing industrial relations where a rupture has occurred.
“That at all times representatives of employers and workers, organized or unorganized, should confer for the adjustment of differences or disputes before an acute stage is reached, and thus avoid or minimize the number of strikes or lock-outs.
“That mutual agreements as to conditions under which labor shall be performed should be encouraged, and that when agreements are made, the terms thereof should be faithfully adhered to, both in letter and spirit, by both parties.
“This Department, either as a whole or a sub-committee by it appointed, shall, when requested by both parties to a dispute, act as a forum to adjust and decide upon questions at issue between workers and their employers, provided, in its opinion, the subject is one of sufficient importance.
“This Department will not consider abstract industrial problems.
“This Department assumes no powers of arbitration unless such powers be conferred by both parties to a dispute.”
The Civic Federation recognizes conditions and aims to improve them in the interest of the public welfare. Railroad accidents do not argue for the stage-coach, but that the railroad should be better constructed so that accidents may be more and more eliminated. Education upon this great question of labor and capital is not entirely confined to the labor side. We have found in our short experience that education is needed upon the other side as well, and if the Civic Federation succeeds in bringing out a more conciliatory spirit on both sides and thereby contributes to a better understanding of such principles as have been laid down to-night by Senator Hanna and Mr. Gompers, it will be doing a very great public service.
It will perhaps surprise some of you, I confess, that before I became more familiar with this subject, I was agreeably surprised, to hear, in the conferences recently held in the rooms of the National Civic Federation, one of the most important officers of organized labor, state, that he wished it to be understood, that organized labor does not approve of sympathetic strikes, and that organized labor has come to the conclusion that restrictions of output should not be permitted, as all such efforts were uneconomical.