20 



HARDWOOD RECORD 



December 10, 191S 



iiig if it would be helpful to have in attendance at the peace confer- 

 ence and available for counsel on such phases of the peace negotia- 

 tions as may bear dire(ftly upon commerce and industry a group of 

 business men selected as having the largest vision and the most 

 generous impulses in connection with the resumption of industrial 

 activity throughout the world. The President practically ignored 

 the suggestion. 



A letter was read from Bernard M. Baruch, chairman of the War 

 Industries Board, in which he expressed his appreciation of the 

 hearty cooperation that had been given him in mobilizing industry 

 for the prosecution of the war. His comment on the possibility of 

 returning to the old, wasteful methods of unrestrained competition 

 was heartily applauded, indicating that it was not in the minds of 

 the four thousand delegates present. 



At the afternoon session of Wednesday, Director General Charles 

 M. Schwab of the Emergency Fleet Corporation was received with 

 inspiring American welcome. He indicated that the shipbuilding 

 proposition should be kept going at full speed under government 

 supervision or under individual ownership. He favored subsidy to 

 individual owners or by appropriations to the end that we may 

 maintain our high standards of living and wages. He expressed the 

 opinion that individual efforts should be made to educate the 

 workers to see the manufacturer 's side and that the initiative of 

 the individual should be cultivated. 



Secretary of Commerce William C. Redfield then spoke on "Our 

 Opportunity and Obligation in Foreign Trade." Inasmuch as it 

 seems to be the government's idea to discontinue the work of the 

 war boards, he advised concentrating effort on production rather 

 than reducing wages. "The world," he said, "has visible need 

 for all its ships for at least two years to come." 



Wednesday evening a group conference of Number 21 was pre- 

 sided over by J. J. Donovan, president of the Bloedel-Donovan Lum- 

 ber Mills, Bellingham, Wash., and Boiling Arthur Johnson was 

 secretary. The conference began with an impromptu song service. 

 Attorney L. C. Boyle, counsel for a number of lumber associations, 

 said the conference indicates that henceforth business is going to 

 take more interest in government. His keynote was "It does not 

 lie within the mouth of any man to criticize Congress unless he has 

 cooperated to assist Congress." He ably reviewed the Sherman 

 law and suggested a definite program for reform. He believed that 

 a representative committee embracing all industries should compile 

 and present a complete showing of the harmful effects of the law 

 and outline the changes desired, leaving to Congress the actual 

 drafting of a bill. He also suggested that a suborganization of all 

 natural resources and industries be part of the Chamber of Com- 

 merce of the United States. Had these interests acted unitedly 

 on the invested capital clause of the revenue bill its correction 

 would be more certain. 



N. C. Brown reported on the lumber investigations, told about his 

 trip to Spain, Italy and France and commented on the resources of 

 other countries catering to this trade and the possibilities of a 

 market in these countries, provided we aggressively promoted our 

 goods and discovered the needs of those countries and met their 

 local conditions to intelligently handle this trade. 



A committee on resolutions was appointed with L. C. Boyle as 

 chairman to report direct to group Number 6, which is a group 

 composed of manufacturers of lumber and wood products. A com- 

 mittee on relations to the Building Trades' Federation was also 

 appointed with John L. Kaul as chairman. Chas. S. Keith, Kansas 

 City; B. F. Masters, Chicago, representing the box industry; C. T. 

 Williams, Buffalo, of the fruit package industry; C. L. Harrison, 

 Cape Girardeau, Mo., of the Associated Cooperage Industries, and 

 Lewis Curtiss of the Sash, Door and Millwork Association; M. J. 

 Fox, Iron Mountain, were elected as part of this committee of ten. 



On Thursday morning President Wheeler called the meeting 

 together with approval of the registration, there being no contest 

 of credentials. James A. Farrell, who was to have talked on the 

 subject of foreign trade, was unable to be present and his address, 

 which was both eloquent and practical, was read by proxy. He 

 cited the fact that President McKinley in his historic address at 



the Pan American Exposition at Buffalo, N. Y., in 1901, had strongly 

 urged the development of our foreign trade, and at last after all 

 these years the nation approved of this development and is ready 

 to meet that condition. How are we going to do it? We should 

 be careful as a nation that we do not enter into agreements that 

 will embroil us in controversies to boycott the commerce of any 

 nation. 



John D. Rockefeller, Jr., made a masterly address on "Represen- 

 tation in Industry." His modern viewpoint, carefully prepared, 

 regards industry as social service, and he summed up the four par- 

 ties in interest that should be taken into consideration: Capital, 

 management, labor and community. All must benefit or it cannot 

 continue. Both labor and the community have a right to share in 

 the control of industry. He endorsed the principle of labor organi- 

 zations, and warned that occasional improper functioning should 

 not prejudice the principle. Organizations of capital also have 

 gone too far and done wrong. He endorsed the British Whitley 

 plan of national district and works councils, but commented further 

 that the present unions include but a small part of the nation 'a 

 laborers. If the j)lan is just in improving these conditions labor 

 must be given adequate representation. He commented on the ten 

 basic principles embraced in the Standard Oil Company plan of 

 labor representation, and said that men are rapidly coming to see 

 that human life is of infinitely greater value than material wealth. 

 He urged leaders of industry not to be stand-patters with their 

 backs to the wall, but to accept the new spirit of the age and the 

 present great opportunity. 



Alba B. Johnson of Philadelphia at the Wednesday session made 

 a masterly address on a new system of public financing. He has 

 studied this subject very carefully and urged that the present 

 revenue tax bill before Congress be reduced to a maximum of at 

 least $4,000,000,000, so that the trade may not be affected, and the 

 country in his opinion may be able to take care of itself as to 

 finance. 



Edward A. Filene devoted his attention to the necessity of 

 upbuilding the merchant marine, a subject with which he hae been 

 particularly identified. 



At the meeting of the National Councillors at the Traymore Hotel, 

 Thursday, Henry P. Kendall, chairman of the committee on indus- 

 trial relations, suggested methods and plans for labor and wage 

 readjustment. He said: 



It seems to me there are three ways In which this prolilem may be con- 

 sidered. First, a set of federal industrial courts after the plan of the 

 Australian system, which virtually involves compulsory arbitration with a 

 huge governmental machinery set up to carry it out. The experiences of 

 the war penod hardly tend to increase the confidence in, or the desire to 

 further on any large scale, governmental Interference in this delicate and 

 complex problem. Second, there is a plan of wage adjustment boards set 

 up by the industries themselves and their employes with equal representa- 

 tion on each side, who should in advance determine and agree on standards 

 of wages, hours and conditions of employment. This second plan has 

 worked to some extent and is the only possible safeguard for management 

 and sound business principles and methods. The third method, advocated 

 by some, involves, since lalior and management are in an irreconcilable 

 conflict, the keeping up of the fight. But the situation is so tense that far- 

 seeing business men toda.v would do well to speak in no uncertain fashion 

 and declare the principle tor which they stand. They must be ready to 

 meet the situation squarely with a full knowledge of economic law and 

 the laws of society. 



A. W. Shaw, chairman of the conservation division of the War 

 Industries Board, spoke to three hundred representatives of the 

 wood and allied industries at the Breakers hotel. He said that the 

 conservation division had been created as a war emergency measure 

 and would go out of existence shortly, but that the greater part of 

 its duties would be delegated to the United States Department of 

 Commerce. He urged strongly the unity between the business 

 interests of the country and the continuance of the war service com- 

 mittee. Under the Sherman act it is not unlawful for business 

 industries to get together with a view to eliminating waste in the 

 interests of the public. He expressed the opinion that during the 

 war the various government agencies had done good work, but it 

 was his belief that in normal times business people should not be 

 told what to do and what not to do. 



