The Commission on Industrial Relations (also known as the Walsh Commission)
[ p. 12.] was a commission created by the
U.S. Congress on August 23, 1912, to scrutinize
US labor law
United States labor law sets the rights and duties for employees, labor unions, and employers in the United States. Labor law's basic aim is to remedy the "inequality of bargaining power" between employees and employers, especially employers "orga ...
. The commission studied work conditions throughout the industrial United States between 1913 and 1915. The final report of the Commission, published in eleven volumes in 1916, contain tens of thousands of pages of testimony from a wide range of witnesses, including
Clarence Darrow
Clarence Seward Darrow (; April 18, 1857 – March 13, 1938) was an American lawyer who became famous in the early 20th century for his involvement in the Leopold and Loeb murder trial and the Scopes "Monkey" Trial. He was a leading member of t ...
,
Louis Brandeis
Louis Dembitz Brandeis (; November 13, 1856 – October 5, 1941) was an American lawyer and associate justice on the Supreme Court of the United States from 1916 to 1939.
Starting in 1890, he helped develop the " right to privacy" concep ...
,
Mary Harris "Mother" Jones
Mary G. Harris Jones (1837 (baptized) – November 30, 1930), known as Mother Jones from 1897 onwards, was an Irish-born American schoolteacher and dressmaker who became a prominent union organizer, community organizer, and activist. She h ...
,
Theodore Schroeder,
William "Big Bill" Haywood, scores of ordinary workers, and the titans of capitalism, including
Daniel Guggenheim
Daniel Guggenheim (July 9, 1856 – September 28, 1930) was an American mining magnate and philanthropist, and a son of Meyer and Barbara Guggenheim. By 1910 he directed the world's most important group of mining interests. He was forced out ...
,
George Walbridge Perkins, Sr. (of
U.S. Steel),
Henry Ford
Henry Ford (July 30, 1863 – April 7, 1947) was an American industrialist, business magnate, founder of the Ford Motor Company, and chief developer of the assembly line technique of mass production. By creating the first automobile that ...
, and
Andrew Carnegie
Andrew Carnegie (, ; November 25, 1835August 11, 1919) was a Scottish-American industrialist and philanthropist. Carnegie led the expansion of the American steel industry in the late 19th century and became one of the richest Americans in ...
.
[ 40 Wm and Mary L. Rev. 557 p. 573]
Predecessors
In 1871, there was a failed attempt to create an Industrial Commission. There was also the Hewitt committee hearings of 1878–79, the three-year study of the Blair committee which ended in 1886, and a probe conducted from 1898 to 1902 by the
United States Industrial Commission, appointed by President
William McKinley
William McKinley (January 29, 1843September 14, 1901) was the 25th president of the United States, serving from 1897 until his assassination in 1901. As a politician he led a realignment that made his Republican Party largely dominant in t ...
.
[ p. 3]
Origins
In 1910, two leaders of the
Structural Ironworkers Union,
the McNamara Brothers, dynamited the
Los Angeles Times
The ''Los Angeles Times'' (abbreviated as ''LA Times'') is a daily newspaper that started publishing in Los Angeles in 1881. Based in the LA-adjacent suburb of El Segundo since 2018, it is the sixth-largest newspaper by circulation in the ...
building, killing twenty people. There was public outcry as a result, and President
William Howard Taft
William Howard Taft (September 15, 1857March 8, 1930) was the 27th president of the United States (1909–1913) and the tenth chief justice of the United States (1921–1930), the only person to have held both offices. Taft was elected pr ...
proposed the creation of a nine-person investigative committee called the Commission on Industrial Relations, which was approved by Congress
[Kaufman p. 8] to be formally created April 23, 1912. Its findings were filed April 23, 1915.
The Commission on Industrial Relations got its name from a petition presented to President Taft on December 30, 1911, entitled "Petition to the President for a Federal Commission on Industrial Relations," signed by 28 prominent people,
[Kaufman p. 200] Members of the Committee on Standards of Living and Labor of the National Conference of Charities and Corrections, many of whom were associated with ''Survey'' magazine, such as
Paul Underwood Kellogg and
John A. Fitch.
[McCartin p. 18]
Commission members
The Commission was made up of nine commissioners, all nominated by the president and confirmed by the U.S. Senate. All but one served from beginning to end. The original nine Commissioners were:
* Chairman
Frank P. Walsh,
Kansas City, Missouri
Kansas City (abbreviated KC or KCMO) is the largest city in Missouri by population and area. As of the 2020 United States census, 2020 census, the city had a population of 508,090 in 2020, making it the List of United States cities by populat ...
labor lawyer and activist (who once told a friend "I hate like hell to be respectable"),
[McCartin p. 22]
* James O'Connell, of the
American Federation of Labor
The American Federation of Labor (A.F. of L.) was a national federation of labor unions in the United States that continues today as the AFL-CIO. It was founded in Columbus, Ohio, in 1886 by an alliance of craft unions eager to provide mutua ...
(A.F.L.)
*
Austin B. Garretson, of the
Order of Railway Conductors
The Order of Railway Conductors of America (ORC) was a labor union that represented train conductors in the United States. It has its origins in the Conductors Union founded in 1868. Later it extended membership to brakemen. In 1969 the ORC merg ...
*
John Brown Lennon
John Brown Lennon (October 12, 1850 - January 17, 1923) was an American labor union leader and general-secretary of the Journeymen Tailors Union of America (JTU). In 1890, he was elected treasurer of the American Federation of Labor and served in ...
, of the A.F.L.
*
Frederic A. Delano, President of the
Wabash Railroad
The Wabash Railroad was a Class I railroad that operated in the mid-central United States. It served a large area, including track in the states of Ohio, Indiana, Illinois, Iowa, Michigan, and Missouri and the province of Ontario. Its primary co ...
(and uncle of
Franklin Roosevelt
Franklin Delano Roosevelt (; ; January 30, 1882April 12, 1945), often referred to by his initials FDR, was an American politician and attorney who served as the 32nd president of the United States from 1933 until his death in 1945. As the ...
)
*
Florence Jaffray Harriman
Florence Jaffray "Daisy" Harriman (July 21, 1870 – August 31, 1967) was an American socialite, suffragist, social reformer, organizer, and diplomat. "She led one of the suffrage parades down Fifth Avenue, worked on campaigns on child labor ...
, a New York socialite and social activist
*
Harris Weinstock
Harris Weinstock (1854–1922) was an American businessman. He was the co-founder of Lubin and Weinstock in Sacramento, California. As the founding State Market Commissioner, he oversaw regulations and marketing for the citrus, poultry and fishing ...
, a progressive California businessman
*
S. Thruston Ballard, a
Kentucky
Kentucky ( , ), officially the Commonwealth of Kentucky, is a state in the Southeastern region of the United States and one of the states of the Upper South. It borders Illinois, Indiana, and Ohio to the north; West Virginia and Virginia ...
democratic flour mill owner
Shortly before the Commission's final report, Commissioner Delano resigned, and was replaced by Richard Aishton, vice-president of the
Chicago & Northwestern Railroad
The Chicago and North Western was a Class I railroad in the Midwestern United States. It was also known as the "North Western". The railroad operated more than of track at the turn of the 20th century, and over of track in seven states befo ...
.
Among the Commission staff were
John R. Commons
John Rogers Commons (October 13, 1862 – May 11, 1945) was an American institutional economist, Georgist, progressive and labor historian at the University of Wisconsin–Madison.
Early years
John R. Commons was born in Hollansburg, Ohio on ...
, a labor economist at the
University of Wisconsin–Madison
A university () is an institution of higher (or tertiary) education and research which awards academic degrees in several academic disciplines. Universities typically offer both undergraduate and postgraduate programs. In the United Stat ...
,
and Luke Grant, a labor journalist and editor of the ''
Chicago Inter Ocean
The ''Chicago Inter Ocean'', also known as the ''Chicago Inter-Ocean'', is the name used for most of its history for a newspaper published in Chicago, Illinois, from 1865 until 1914. Its editors included Charles A. Dana and Byron Andrews.
Histo ...
''. Only one of Grant's reports on the structural ironworkers bombing campaign was actually published by the CIR. However, an explosive report by Grant "Violence in Labor Disputes and Methods of Policing Industry" was never published and is only available in draft form from the National Archives and Wisconsin Historical Society.
Congress had authorized the Commission shortly before the
1912 presidential election, in which incumbent President Taft was defeated by New Jersey Governor
Woodrow Wilson
Thomas Woodrow Wilson (December 28, 1856February 3, 1924) was an American politician and academic who served as the 28th president of the United States from 1913 to 1921. A member of the Democratic Party, Wilson served as the president of ...
. Four Commissioners ultimately confirmed were originally named by President Taft in December 1912, one month after his defeat: Commissioners Delano, O'Connell, Garretson and Lennon. Taft also nominated five other persons, but the Senate failed to confirm them. Those failed nominees were U.S. Senator
George Sutherland
George Alexander Sutherland (March 25, 1862July 18, 1942) was an English-born American jurist and politician. He served as an associate justice of the U.S. Supreme Court between 1922 and 1938. As a member of the Republican Party, he also repre ...
of Utah (who was Taft's proposed chairman), Connecticut state legislator George B. Chandler (American Book Co.), Charles S. Barrett (Farmers' Union);
Adolph Lewisohn
Adolph Lewisohn (May 27, 1849 – August 17, 1938) was a German Jewish immigrant born in Hamburg who became a New York City investment banker, mining magnate, and philanthropist. He is the namesake of Lewisohn Hall (which formerly housed the Scho ...
(investment banker, copper magnate, and philanthropist); and F. C. Schwedtman (electrical engineer).
Two months after entering the White House,
[McCartin p. 19] President Wilson nominated replacements for Taft's five failed nominees.
Investigation
The Commission's responsibilities were to:
:"inquire into the general condition of labor in the principal industries of the United States, including agriculture, and especially in those which are carried on in corporate forms ...; into the growth of associations of employers and of wage earners and the effect of such associations upon the relations between employers and employees ..."
The commission held 154 days of hearings.
Walsh's leadership of the Commission attracted media attention and publicity.
Some of the commission findings included:
#The Commission found that lumber workers in the Northwest labored at their jobs for ten hours a day at only twenty cents an hour.
#Seasonal unemployment affected tens of thousands of people in Pacific Coast cities. Only the fortunate averaged more than a meal a day.
#In California, migrant laborers work in fields with temperatures up to 105 degrees on farms where growers refused to supply them water in the fields.
#One Paterson, New Jersey, silk mill fined workers fifty cents for talking and fifty cents for laughing while at work.
[McCartin, p. 25]
"In an era of...muckraking, the
ommissionraised the technique to an unprecedented height."
The commission studied several major strikes which occurred during its investigations, including:
#The Paterson, New Jersey, silk mill strike (1911–1913), led by the
Industrial Workers of the World
The Industrial Workers of the World (IWW), members of which are commonly termed "Wobblies", is an international labor union that was founded in Chicago in 1905. The origin of the nickname "Wobblies" is uncertain. IWW ideology combines general ...
,
#New York City garment workers strike (1909–1910),
#Illinois Central and Harriman lines struggles with the railroad shopmen (1911–1915),
#The Colorado Fuel and Iron Company strike, where the Ludlow Massacre occurred (1913–1914).
When Walsh embarrassed President Wilson, and suggested investigating the southern states, U.S. Senator
Hoke Smith
Michael Hoke Smith (September 2, 1855November 27, 1931) was an American attorney, politician, and newspaper owner who served as United States secretary of the interior (1893–1896), 58th governor of Georgia (1907–1909, 1911), and a United S ...
of Georgia attempted to cut Walsh's budget 75 percent.
The vote failed, and Walsh promptly sent investigators to Smith's state, making lasting and powerful enemies.
[McCartin, p. 26]
Journalist
Walter Lippman
Walter may refer to:
People
* Walter (name), both a surname and a given name
* Little Walter, American blues harmonica player Marion Walter Jacobs (1930–1968)
* Gunther (wrestler), Austrian professional wrestler and trainer Walter Hahn (born 1 ...
stated there was "an atmosphere of no quarter" when Walsh subpoenaed and then questioned
John D. Rockefeller, Jr.
John Davison Rockefeller Jr. (January 29, 1874 – May 11, 1960) was an American financier and philanthropist, and the only son of Standard Oil co-founder John D. Rockefeller.
He was involved in the development of the vast office complex in ...
about the
Ludlow massacre. For three days Walsh publicly chastised Rockefeller.
[McCartin, p. 26, 28]
Historian Montgomery stated that the commission found:
:"repression by police, judicial, and military agencies, which envisaged themselves as the defenders of society's 'good people.' And in each case but Philadelphia, where the public as a whole was irate over the general conduct of the transit company, the 'good people' in turn endorsed the repression. Small wonder that in all these strikes, and above all in the sanguinary three-year conflict on the Illinois Central Railroad, workers simply took the law into their own hands."
Commission conclusions
Unable to agree on many points, the Commission published three different final reports.
[McCartin, p. 13] One of the reports — primarily written by Commissioner Commons, with Commissioner Harriman — was signed by a bare majority of five Commissioners. Instead of calling for "industrial democracy," the Commons' report instead advocated the creation of impartial labor boards. It did not characterize conflict between labor and management as an inevitable and permanent condition. Commons' report expressed fear that the Commission's report would "throw the
abor Abor or ABOR may refer to:
* Abor, Enugu, a town in Ojebogene L.G.A., Enugu, Nigeria
* Abor, Ghana, a town in the Volta Region of Ghana
* Abor Hills, Arunāchal Pradesh
* Abor people (disambiguation), multiple uses
* Abor Formation, located in the ...
movement into politics."
The report signed by chairman Walsh and commissioners Lennon, O'Connell and Garretson, written by attorney Basil Manly, was much more provocative and accusatory in its tone and conclusions.
Its centerpiece was a call for industrial democracy and
Henry George
Henry George (September 2, 1839 – October 29, 1897) was an American political economist and journalist. His writing was immensely popular in 19th-century America and sparked several reform movements of the Progressive Era. He inspired the eco ...
's
'Single Tax' on land values.
That report explained the conditions of agricultural estates:
:"It is industrial feudalism in an extreme form. Such estates are, as a rule, the property of absentee landlords, who are for the most part millionaires, resident in the eastern States or in Europe."
Regarding conditions in
company towns, the Manly report observed that they displayed "every aspect of feudalism except the recognition of special duties on the part of the employer."
[ p.10]
A separate supplemental statement joined only by Commissioners Lennon and O'Connell opposed the creation of an agency-administered system of mediation and arbitration, in favor of strengthening trade unions (and employer associations). Their statement concluded:
:"Where (labor) organization is lacking, dangerous discontent is found on every hand; low wages and long hours prevail; exploitation in every direction is practiced; the people become sullen, have no regard for law and government, and are, in reality, a latent volcano, as dangerous to society as are the volcanoes of nature to the landscape surrounding them."
:"We hold that efforts to stay the organization of labor or to restrict the right of employees to organize should not be tolerated, but that the opposite policy should prevail, and the organization of the trade unions and of the employers' organizations should be promoted...This country is no longer a field for slavery, and where men and women are compelled, in order that they may live, to work under conditions in determining which they have no voice, they are not far removed from a condition existing under feudalism or slavery."
Public response
The
New Republic observed that the commission had gone well beyond its duties to investigate the "cause and cure" of labor unrest. In promoting industrial democracy, it offered a "tonic" for American democracy itself.
The
Seattle Union Record exclaimed that the report was "an indictment against organized capital.
The journal ''
The Masses
''The Masses'' was a graphically innovative magazine of socialist politics published monthly in the United States from 1911 until 1917, when federal prosecutors brought charges against its editors for conspiring to obstruct conscription. It was ...
'' stated the report signaled "the beginning of an indigenous American revolutionary movement.
Others criticized the report. The
New York Herald
The ''New York Herald'' was a large-distribution newspaper based in New York City that existed between 1835 and 1924. At that point it was acquired by its smaller rival the '' New-York Tribune'' to form the '' New York Herald Tribune''.
Hi ...
characterized the Commission's president as "a Mother Jones in trousers."
In 1916, Republican Presidential candidate
Charles Evans Hughes
Charles Evans Hughes Sr. (April 11, 1862 – August 27, 1948) was an American statesman, politician and jurist who served as the 11th Chief Justice of the United States from 1930 to 1941. A member of the Republican Party, he previously was the ...
called the commission "one of the tragic incidents of the present administration" which had "accomplished nothing".
[McCartin, p. 34.] The president of the Pittsburgh Employers' Association stated publicly that Walsh "should be assassinated."
[ p. 115 106 Yale L.J. 941]
Long-term influence
The influence the report had on US politics is debated among historians.
Graham Adams, Jr. argues and Louis Galambos agrees that the Commission's hearings and reports influenced the passage of such labor legislation as the
Adamson Eight-Hour Act.
Historian Rayback explains that the commission's report influenced the decisions of the War Labor Board and the authors of New Deal labor legislation.
David Montgomery states:
:"The uniqueness of the efforts of the Commission on Industrial Relations between 1913 and 1915 lay in its staff of Wisconsin-trained experts and in the steadfast refusal of its nine members to allow any diversion of their attention from immediate problems of industrial relations. These very qualities paradoxically imparted to the commission a political significance greater than that of all previous investigations combined, for out of its work emerged both a labor program for the Democratic party in 1916 which shattered the narrow limits of its 1912 platform and, through the minority report of John R. Commons and Mrs. J. Borden Harriman, a series of proposals that were to become widely infused into the welfare capitalism of the 1920s."
On the other hand, LaFayette Harter argues that the commission had been established to determine the roots of labor problems, but its liberal leanings caused Congress to ignore its findings.
[Kaufman, p. 9.]
George Brooks, reviewing Adams' book, contends that despite the fact that
Frank P. Walsh later became cochairman, with
William Howard Taft
William Howard Taft (September 15, 1857March 8, 1930) was the 27th president of the United States (1909–1913) and the tenth chief justice of the United States (1921–1930), the only person to have held both offices. Taft was elected pr ...
, of the
War Labor Board during World War I that "it is an exaggeration to assume that the Commission was the principal, or even a major, cause of subsequent developments and to attribute to it, as
dams
A dam is a barrier that stops or restricts the flow of surface water or underground streams. Reservoirs created by dams not only suppress floods but also provide water for activities such as irrigation, human consumption, industrial use ...
does, the development of "a more steeply graduated tax structure, promotion of collective bargaining, minimum wage scales, and the eight-hour day... ." There is nothing in
dams bookwhich would support the view that the Commission ever had the importance of the
La Follette or
McClellan Committee
The United States Senate Select Committee on Improper Activities in Labor and Management (also known as the McClellan Committee) was a select committee created by the United States Senate on January 30, 1957,Hilty, James. ''Robert Kennedy: Broth ...
s."
See also
*
US labor law
United States labor law sets the rights and duties for employees, labor unions, and employers in the United States. Labor law's basic aim is to remedy the "inequality of bargaining power" between employees and employers, especially employers "orga ...
Notes
References
* 11 volumes – online internet archive
* 64th Cong., 1st sess., 1916, S.Doc. 415 (Google Print—Entire document online)
*
{{DEFAULTSORT:Commission On Industrial Relations
History of labor relations in the United States
History of the United States Congress
Industrial Relations
Industrial relations or employment relations is the multidisciplinary academic field that studies the employment relationship; that is, the complex interrelations between employers and employees, labor/trade
unions, employer organizations, ...
Progressive Era in the United States