I might tell you of my own organization that has not had a fight in nineteen years. The only fight it ever had was one of extermination, where the employer felt as though it was too powerful in this community. That had to do with transportation, the Teamsters' Union. For nineteen years the employer and the employee have sat down at the table like two brothers and settled all their differences ever since that time; and for the life of me I cannot imagine why that sort of a programme should not be adopted and there be more of industrial peace in San Francisco, and there could not be any other solution to this problem. These gentlemen who are making these big returns in their business, which are abnormal, have got to declare whether it is in the line of legislation or mandatory action on the part of this government to tell that fellow to stop. That has got to be done. As I say, labor, as constituted in the organized groups, has not any apology to make, none whatever. We stand at attention awaiting the call of the employer to' sit down and discuss their problems from time to time. The trouble is on the other end of it. Mr. Metcalf well knows what happened in 1907 to the old conciliation committee, which was composed of a group of employers and a group of employees, and at that time the labor organization of the Moulders' Union in San Francisco was enjoying the eighthour day, and the gentleman over here on my right mentioned the principle involved. The principle involved was to ascertain the hours of labor. There was one small group that had the eight-hour day, and in order that their brothers might enjoy that same condition they agreed, at the request of that conciliation board, to go back to a ninehour day and to gradually approach it, which took three years, so that all might have an eight-hour day. That was the principle that prompted both of us to lay the cards on the table and not take advantage. Labor, as you know, has not had the opportunity of the fellow who has been born lucky. The fellow who said that we were all born equal was not talking about the laborers, according to my notion. The laborer generally is educated in a university of hard knocks. The other fellow was not. He has taken advantage from time to time. (Applause). APPENDIX Statement by R. S. Gray (Prepared for monthly meeting Commonwealth Club, August 21, 1919, but not delivered for lack of time.) There is going forward, not only in the United States but elsewhere, an organic reconstruction in industry, to which no reference has been made this evening and which I respectfully submit should be given place here and in the transactions of this meeting. The true essence of autocracy is leadership and that power abused becomes tyranny usually overthrown by revolution. The true essence of democracy is self-government, and that privilege exercised too soon or abused becomes anarchy. The power of leadership and the privilege of self-government can be kept in balance only by education, and then only provided such education is grounded and tested, and kept so, by experience and the treasure of openmindedness and that open-mindedness which concerns both knowledge and thought. Heretofore and very naturally capital has (through the control of either management personally linked with it or purchased by it) kept an autocratic control of industry but various forms on industry, under that regime, have furnished fields for exploitation of the public that bid fair to be so strong that nothing but revolution will overthrow the tyranny so bred. In agriculture, North Dakota, and in transportation, the great railway Brotherhoods, open up what may be a fair opportunity for testing out the rule of self-government in industry, that may avoid revolution and give us reconstruction by evolution. That reconstruction can be nothing less than depersonalizing capital in public utilities and in at least some of the lines of industry that by amount and character hold the public helpless as to the necessaries of life. We must gradually, or else through the dislocation of revolution, pass from the era of private profit as the foundation of industry at large to the era of public service, and with these two movements towards the self-control of agriculture and the self-control of transportation, we need to plan both there and elsewhere for the restoration of opportunity and ambition for the humblest as well as the highest, and never forget that force through law must always be crude and wasteful and that education is the final resort. ADDRESS BY PRESIDENT WILSON On the visit of President Wilson to San Francisco during his tour on behalf of the Peace Treaty and the Covenant of the League of Nations a luncheon meeting was held in his honor by the Commonwealth Club of California in cooperation with the Advertising Club, the Downtown Association, the Home Industry League and the Rotary Club. The Luncheon was held at the Palace Hotel on Thursday, September 18, 1919, and 1600 members of the five organizations, with official guests and officers of the League to Enforce Peace, were present. Reuben B. Hale presided, and the great audience responded to the speaker with frequent applause. Remarks by Chairman Hale MR. PRESIDENT: The members of the Advertising Club, the Commonwealth Club, the Downtown Association, the Home Industry League, the Rotary Club, and the League to Enforce Peace, have assembled here today to greet you, and to pay to you their tribute of respect. We gave you our votes in 1916, but you have not given us a visit since 1911. We tried to have you come in person to open our exposition, and desire now to express to you our appreciation of your gracious consideration in sending as your representative, a member of your official family-a Californian-a fellow-San Franciscan the Honorable Franklin K. Lane. The most vital question before the American people today is the ratification of the Peace Treaty with the League of Nations Covenant. It transcends in importance party affiliations, personal friendships, or private interests. We are anxiously waiting to hear from you as the first citizen of our great Republic, conveying direct and authentic information from the most remarkable, the most potential, the most constructive peace conference in the history of the world. Gentlemen, I join with you in welcoming the President of the United States. (Standing and prolonged applause.) |