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Committee on Industrial Relations

A Committee on Industrial Relations has been organized to act as the agency through which all who agree to the fundamental principles embodied in the main report of the United States Commission on Industrial Relations, and who desire to see its recommendations carried into effect, can act to the best advantage.

The final report of the Commission, which expired August 23d, by statutory limitation, will be laid before Congress when it meets in December. Congress and the nation then, for the first time, will be officially advised of what many citizens have known for a long time: that vast numbers of the nation's workers receive wages too low to maintain a decent existence for themselves and their families; that the economic power of the employer in industries where the wageearners are unorganized, either has made him the political and social dictator, as well as the industrial dictator, or has left the workers with a political freedom of little immediate value, and in glaring contrast with their economic subserviency; and finally, that only through organization among themselves, and with their own leaders, can the wageearners rescue not only themselves but the community from a situation that is repugnant to and subversive of American ideals.

The Driving Power of Democracy

The Commission's conclusion is unanswerable, that genuine and lasting improvement must be achieved through the collective action of the workers themselves-the toilers and producers in field and factory, and elsewhere. There exist many opportunities for the general citizenship to aid in the working out of a resolution for this most important and

pressing of all our social and political problems. On the public as a whole must be laid the important duty of removing governmental obstacles to the efforts of the wage-earners to organize, and of insisting that wage-earners and their representative have a fair and free field. We believe that the best public opinion of the nation has failed of effective expression in regard to the industrial problem chiefly because it has never yet done justice to the importance of the labor union, as the only effectual means yet devised by which the principles of democracy can be realized in the political field, and extended to the industrial field. Trade unions, economists, sociologists, public officials, and the disinterested public in general, long ago accepted the principle of collective bargaining. But in the application of this principle, we too often have strained at gnats in finding reasons for either opposing a particular union, or for withholding influence and support during a specific struggle for industrial democracy.

The Committee on Industrial Relations shares labor's distrust of socalled welfare work where such work is not in the hands of men representing the interests of the workers and directed primarily to fitting the workers to exercise an ever-increasing measure of control over the industry in which they are engaged.

Not by Legislation but by Association

The committee declares that government intervention to control, or at all to affect, industrial relations, is warranted only to prevent special privilege, and to prevent the undue use of usurped governmental powers on behalf of special privilege and the wrongfully organized accumulations of wealth. It asserts that in indus

trial facts, as well as in political forms, government must wield only, in Jefferson's phrase, "the arm of the people." With government exercising only its own proper function, the committee believes that the problems of industry, or of capital and labor, are not largely problems of legislation, but are to be adjusted by the voluntary action of the people themselves.

The Committee on Industrial Relations recognizes the need for constant striving after improvement inside the unions. It sees the organized labor movement as the rise of a democracy in the field of industry, a democracy with some of the faults of other democracies, but nevertheless, as the medium through which the vital idealism of the age is finding expression, as the movement that in this century is to be the most potent factor in the upward progress of the race, translating democratic ideals into realities. This committee is prepared to give its whole-hearted support to a labor union in any contest where the existence of the union is at stake.

A chief duty, as it comes home to us, after studying the evidence and findings of the Commission, is to insist that any struggle between employers and employes be accurately and fairly reported by the press; that the public authorities, including police, courts, administrative officials and militia, act with absolute impartiality as between capital and labor, and that the importation of armed guards, gunmen and strikebreakers be prohibited.

Public Not to Tolerate Industrial Feudalism

We believe that non-participants who discharge this duty will be called upon more often than not to combat an unconscious but strong and persuasive caste feeling or class consciousness on the part of the great body of comfortable and well-to-do citizens, a prejudice rooted in misunderstanding and lending itself to

the success of attempts to foster this very prejudice by the use of such catch words as "outside agitators" and "ignorant foreigners," and under it to pervert the use of governmental power.

In pursuance of the principles we have adopted, the Committee on Industrial Relations will give its support to every effort made by the trade unions and individuals to extend the benefits of organization to the unskilled and the unorganized, and more especially to the vast number of wage-earners in this category, in the employ of the great corporations that conduct our basic industries. The greatest obstacles to the organization of the employes of large corporations is the feudalistic control which such corporations exercise over the communities in which their plants are situated. Through their suppression of free speech, of orderly assemblage of citizens, through their allpervading spy system, through their power and practice of ejecting from the community any persons whom they deem undesirable, or of procuring their commitment to jail on false or trumped-up charges, through their power of arbitrary discharge, they have made it difficult, or even impossible for organizers to work effectively in such communities. The aim of this committee will be to break down the feudalistic power of the corporations, to expose every case of abuse, and to work unceasingly to protect the rights of those who carry the message of organization to such communities. The committee hopes to aid also by calling attention to the economic as well as the political evils that exist in those communities in which the poorly paid individual wage-earner pits his feeble and entirely negligible bargaining power against that of the huge corporation.

Critical Times for Labor

The committee believes there is unusual need this winter at Washington for co-operation with the trade unions, and all organizations and per

sons favorable thereto, through which democratic thought on industrial problems can make itself felt.

There is every indication that the next few years will be critical years in the history of American labor. Whether labor shall be ground down by the pressure of rapidly concentrating capital, or whether, from the bitter travail of the nations, labor shall achieve, in some degree, the freedom, comfort, and leisure to which it is entitled, before any other class, will be determined. The Committee on Industrial Relations will bend every effort and use every means to enable labor to reap the harvest of its ages of fruitless planting, with absolute assurance that the result will be a happier, stronger and more truly civilized nation than the work has ever conceived.

Committee on Industrial Relations

Frank P. Walsh, James O'Connell, Frederick Howe, Amos Pinchot, Helen Harot, John Fitzpatrick, Austin B. Garretsch, John P. White, Bishop Charles D. Williams, John B. Lennon, Agnes Nestor, Dante Barton.

Here are the three men who today have the power to suppress the truth about industrial relations or to give it to the people:

Henry A. Barnhart, of Rochester, Ind., chairman, Committee on Printing, House of Representatives.

Clyde H. Tavenner, of Cordova, Ill., member of Committee on Printing.

Edgar Raymond Kiess, of Williamsport, Pa., member of Committee on Printing.

As members of the Printing Committee in the lower House, these Congressmen must decide within the next few weeks how many copies of the report of the Commission on Industrial Relations they shall ask Congress to order printed.

Labor is asking for 200,000 copies. There is good reason for believing that the Committee on Printing, to which was referred the Lewis resolution calling for that number, will in

dorse the request as moderate and amply justified by the demand.

Mr. Tavenner is author of the bill to take the profit out of war by requiring that all munitions and battleships be manufactured in government plants.

Mr. Kiess has given assurance that he believes the report should be printed in a large enough edition to supply the demand. That would mean twice as many copies as are called for by the Lewis resolution, which was purposely made conservative as to the number of reports asked for.

Chairman Barnhart is believed to be favorable to the resolution. The test will come when the committee meets early in January to decide what recommendation it will lay before Congress.

Letters and appeals for favorable action should be addressed to the chairman of the committee.

STRIKERS MAY PICKET

Wheeling, W. Va., Jan. 1.-Packers in this city called on Circuit Court Judge Hervey to issue an injunction against striking butchers. The court, however, believes these workers have rights and toned down the injunction so that it permits pickets to tell their story in a peaceful manner. The butchers are asking for wage in

creases.

San Jose, Jan. 1.-Because the Superior Court has decided that peaceful picketing is legal, striking cooks and waiters have signed agreements with several employers who have abandoned the fight against them. The court cited numerous decisions by the State Supreme Court to support its opinion.

"It's all good enough to be cheerful When life goes along like a song,

But the man worth while Is the man who can smile When everything goes dead wrong."

Geared Traction Elevator

(Courtesy of Otis Elevator Company.)

The modern adaptation, in the Traction Elevator, of the traction principle for elevator service which utilizes the patented feature of operating the car by means of driving the cables direct from the motor without the intervention of retarding rigging, showed so conclusively the merits of that principle that the question naturally arose as to the feasibility of employing this method of drive in the low speed machines as well. The result was the introduction of what is commercially known as the Geared Traction Elevator, which embodies many of the good points of its larger contemporary.

It might be well to state here that the traction principle is neither new nor experimental, as is demonstrated by its use in the familiar type of carriage hoist, this being in reality a low duty hand power traction elevator driven by means of a hemp rope; also this method of drive has been employed on dumb-waiters for some time. However, as applied to the high speed passenger machines used in our tall office buildings, it must be referred to as a comparatively new and improved development of former types.

The geared traction machine is similar in appearance to the standard drum machine, except that a multigrooved driving sheave is mounted in place of the drum, and a nonvibrating idler leading sheave takes the place of the vibrating sheave necessary on the drum type. The car and the counterbalance weight hang directly from the driving sheaveone from either end of the cablesin precisely the same manner as with the Gearless Traction Elevator, the necessary amount of traction being obtained by the extra turn of the

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Three-Point Drive Eliminating End Thrust on Worm Shaft

The double screw machine is designed for the heavier duties, and the gearing consists of a right and left hand worm, accurately cut from a solid forging. This worm, coupled directly to the electric motor, runs submerged in oil and meshes with two large bronze gear wheels which in turn mesh with each other. The effect of the three-point drive thus obtained in conjunction with the right and left hand thread, is the entire elimination of end thrust on the worm shaft-a most desirable feature. The complete gear is fully protected in an oil tight iron case and is well lubricated in every part.

Where space permits, three bearings are provided, supporting the driving sheave, worm wheel and their shaft. The shaft passes directly through the driving sheave and the worm wheel centre, and is securely keyed to both, thus providing a mechanically strong and satisfactory drive.

When compelled to use but two bearings, what is termed a "buffer neck drive" is employed. This con

sists of a buffer neck or driving spider, with extending arms and a flange that is bolted to the gear wheel near its periphery. Similar projecting arms are provided on the driving sheave. These two sets of arms are bolted together, but flexible spacers are placed between them in order to distribute the load equally on all

arms.

The machine is equipped with a mechanically applied and electrically released double shoe brake. The shoes are applied against a pulley of ample diameter and width to dissipate any heat generated, which also serves as a coupling between the motor shaft and the worm shaft.

The brake shoes, normally, are bearing against the pulley with a pressure corresponding to the compression of the two helical springs. When current is admitted to the solenoid brake magnet, and then only, the action of the springs for the time is overcome, so that the shoes are released. It will be seen, therefore, that the brake will apply with full force should a failure of current occur, resulting in an immediate stop of the elevator.

The motor is compound wound and runs usually at about eight hundred revolutions per minute at full car speed and load. The series field is used only at starting to obtain a highly saturated field in the shortest possible time, and is then short-circuited, allowing the motor to run as a plain shunt wound type.

In stopping, a comparatively low resistance field is thrown across the armature, providing a dynamic brake action and a gentle slowing down of the car, the brake being called upon only to effect the final stop and to hold the load at rest. Resistance in series with this "extra field," as it is called, is controlled by magnets which depend, in their operation, on the speed of the armature. It is therefore evident that the dynamic or retarding effect of the field is proportional to the speed, and therefore to the load in the elevator; hence good

stops under all conditions are easily obtained.

Rope guards are provided to prevent the cables from leaving their grooves in the event of either car or counterweight bottoming. The same effect is obtained on these machines as on the Gearless Traction Elevators when the cars or counterweights strike their buffers in the pit; namely, that the tractive effort is so much reduced as to make it impossible for the sheave to drive the cables. This is a most desirable characteristic inherent in all traction machines for the reason that rope strains can never increase beyond a certain limit, well within the factor of safety of the cables and fastenings. This means that the danger of the car or weight dropping, as a result of being pulled into the overhead work, and thus breaking cables or fastenings, is eliminated.

The controller, whose magnets operate the various switches, is complete in every detail and consists of "potential," "reversing" and "fast speed" switches, "accelerating," "load" and "auxiliary load" magnets.

The resistances are all carried on the back of the controller and are easily accessible.

These machines can be arranged for car speeds up to 400 feet per minute with 2,500 pounds, or decreased speeds with corresponding increased loads.

For the lighter duties the single screw machine referred to is furnished, and is essentially the same as the double screw except that it has a single worm meshing with a single gear wheel.

To meet the demands in districts where Alternating Current is in use, the same apparatus described is furnished except that the direct current motor and controller give place to an alternating current motor and controller.

The Alternating Current machines are made in two classes also, single and double screw. The brake is slightly different in appearance but

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