GOV ALLEN DECRIES LABOR'S POLICIES

Governor Henry J. Allen of Kansas spoke last night under the auspices of the Liberal Club on the "Open Shop", to an interested audience which overflowed the Living Room of the Union. Dr. Richard C. Cabot '89 introduced Governor Allen as a member of the Progressive wing of the Republican party, who was elected to his present position while serving with the American Red Cross in France and without any effort on his won part. In December 1919 he was brought face to face with the question, whether it was right for one group of Americans to be able to force another group to freeze or starve, and this was settled by the formation of and austral court which Governor Allen explained.

"The chief aim of government is justice, and that is what the Kansas Industrial Court is seeking to assure", said Governor Allen. "The right to strike has been taken away, but the right of unions to gain their ends by collective bargaining remains, and the government has assumed the obligation to see that justice is carried out.

Labor Needs Change of Leadership

"Until labor leadership is changed, labor is in danger of destroying what it seeks to aid. Charles Norman Fay in his book "Labor and Politics" states that Gompers and his 150,000 paid associates will have no place f future industrial disputes are regulated by government. Unionism that preaches suppression of effort is not the right kind of influence. This is what the closed shop has brought about. The struggle today is for control of commodities and production, and the unions are waging a strong fight to secure this control. Labor has been attempting, also, to substitute a government by economic units instead of by political majorities. God help the United States if this should ever happen!"

In December 1919 2,000,000 people were threatened with cold and hunger by a strike of the coal miners. The Governor went to a justice of the Supreme Court to seek an injunction granting the state a receivership of the mines. He obtained it. He then pleaded with the 15,000 miners to go back to work in spite of the union leaders, but only one man came over. He turned to the people of the State to operate the mines and 11,000 immediately volunteered. He chose his crew very carefully, giving preference to ex-army men.

State Can Protect Public

"The State has the right to protect the public against a strike in an essential industry", contended Governor Allen, "in spite of the protests of Gompers. Therefore the Kansas legislature passed a law at special session preventing economic pressure either by employers or by labor. The bill was passed with only four dissenting votes in the Senate, and seven in the House. The bill has been in force for thirteen months, and the Industrial Court has passed judgment on twenty-eight cases, only one of which has been appealed to the Supreme Court of the State which is the higher authority."

At the dinner before the lecture Mayer Andrew J. Peters '95, of Boston, in a short speech congratulated the Liberal Club on its splendid work, and Ex-Governor Samuel W. McCall and Mr. Nutter, President of the Boston Chamber of Commerce, also spoke.