The following outline shows the comprehensive nature of
the view which the laborer took of the relation between task and
the War. The plan embraced
1. Means for furnishing an adequate supply of labor to war
industries.
This included: (a) A system of labor exchanges. (b) The training
of workers. (c) Agencies for determining priorities in labor
demands. (d) Agencies for the dilution of skilled labor.
2. Machinery for adjusting disputes between capital and labor,
without stoppage of work.
3. Machinery for safeguarding conditions of labor, including
industrial hygiene, safety appliances, etc.
4. Machinery for safeguarding conditions of living, including
housing, etc.
5. Machinery for gathering data necessary for effective executive
action.
6. Machinery for developing sound public sentiment and an
exchange of information between the various departments of labor
administration, the numerous industrial plants, and the public,
so as to facilitate the carrying out of a national labor
programme.
Having thus first laid the foundations of a national labor policy
and having, in the second place, developed an effective means of
Americanizing, as far as possible, the various labor groups, the
Federation took another step. As a third essential element in
uniting labor to help to win the war, it turned its attention to
the inter-allied solidarity of workingmen. In the late summer and
autumn of 1917, Gompers headed an American labor mission to
Europe and visited England, Belgium, France, and Italy.
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