COOPERATION IS ONLY SOLUTION FOR UNREST SAYS WHITING WILLIAMS

"Just about the sole remedy for industrial unrest, both in this country and abroad, is to foster the spirit of cooperation and understanding between capital and labor, employer and employee." This statement was made by Mr. Whiting Williams, author, industrial investigator, and social service worker, in an interview for the CRIMSON recently.

Mr. Williams, who was formerly vice-president of the Hydraulic Steel Company, Cleveland, Ohio, has worked for considerable periods of time during the past three years as an unskilled laborer, under an assumed name, in steel miles, coal mines, ship yards, and railway roundhouses, both in America and in Europe. With these experiences as a background, Mr. Williams has written several articles and books on the psychology of labor and social problems. He has been delivering a series of lectures in the Graduate School of Business Administration during the past month of "Industrial Management" and "Labor Problems."

"The amount that may be accomplished by cooperation between the laborer and the 'man higher up' is really surprising" continued Mr. Williams. "The coal mines of the Saar Valley offer a striking example of this. These mines, in a district which is under the supervision of the League of Nations, are worked by German laborers, with French engineers, representing the French government in charge of the men. One would naturally suppose that the war being over such a short time, a great amount of friction and hard feeling would exist between the Frenchmen and the Germans. Instead of this the workingman and the engineer have met each other halfway and have come to a surprisingly good understanding under such circumstances The result of all this is increased production, higher wages, and mutual respect.

Conditions Better in America

"If this can be accomplished in a wartorn section, between men of two nations which have just emerged from a hate-engendering struggle, is there any reason why capital and labor cannot get together in America, where conditions are so much better?"

Mr. Williams spent several months in the spring and summer of 1921 investigating conditions in the coal-mining districts around Lens and Douai in northern France, besides visiting the Saar Valley section. As a part of his investigation he spent ten days working in one of the mines near Lens, laboring and living under the very same conditions as the workers themselves.

Mining Arduous in France

"The French laborer is as hard a worker as there is in any country, but although he works hard he has very little to show for it in comparison with laborers in America. The miner's job over there is an especially arduous one. I have seen miners work stretched out in a vein only eighteen inches thick for a great length of time, without even being able to sit up. For this he receives only a very modest wage. The conditions are better in the steel mills in the north of France, which are aiding in the reconstruction of the devastated territory."

"Horny Hands and Hampered Elbows", a new book by Mr. Williams which is coming out this week, deals with these, conditions and with the political problems which are closely connected with the labor problem in Europe.

A strikebreaker on the railroads for nine weeks during the strike this fall. Mr. Williams received first-hand information as to the rail situation. "One of the leading causes of the strike was the sudden calling off of the men's standing as railway workers, and the disregarding of seniority and priority rights by the practice of farming out the shopwork. On 19 different line shop-work was thus contracted out to dummy corporations, and as a result of this the workers on other roads feared that their standing and rights would also be nullified later, unless they made a protest.

"Permanent harmony between the railroads and the workers is a long way off yet. It will be greatly furthered if we of the public will put an end to the investors' strike, by which railways have practically been refused the money needed for improving working conditions. As in practically all these labor problems, it is the public who decides. Particularly in the railway question, a larger understanding and wider sympathy on the part of the public is needed before railway management and railway men can get as close together as they would like.