he express stipulation that the right to organize was not
to be curtailed under any condition and that the War Labor Board could
grant improvement in labor conditions as the situation warranted. Third,
the understanding was that if women should be brought into industry,
they must be allowed equal pay for equal work. Fourth, it was agreed
that "the basic eight-hour day was to be recognized as applying in all
cases in which the existing law required it, while in all other cases
the question of hours of labor was to be settled with due regard to
government necessities and the welfare, health, and proper comfort of
the workers." Fifth, restriction of output by trade unions was to be
done away with. Sixth, in fixing wages and other conditions regard was
to be shown to trade union standards. And lastly came the recognition of
"the right of all workers, including common laborers, to a living wage"
and the stipulation that in fixing wages, there will be established
"minimum rates of pay which will insure the subsistence of the worker
and his family in health and reasonable comfort."

The establishment of the War Labor Board did not mean that the country
had gone over to the principle of compulsory arbitration, for the Board
could not force any party to a dispute to submit to its arbitration or
by an umpire of its appointment. However, so outspoken was public
opinion on the necessity of avoiding interruptions in the War industries
and so far-reaching were the powers of the government over the employer
as the administrator of material and labor priorities and over the
employes as the administrator of the conscription law that the indirect
powers of the Board sufficed to make its decision prevail in nearly
every instance.

The packing industry was a conspicuous case of the "new course" in
industrial relations. This industry had successfully kept unionism out
since an ill-considered strike in 1904, which ended disastrously for the
strikers. Late in 1917, 60,000 employes in the packing houses went on
strike for union recognition, the basic eight-hour day, and other
demands. Intervention by the government led to a settlement, which,
although denying the union formal recognition, granted the basic
eight-hour day, a living wage, and the right to organize, together with
all that it implied, and the appointment of a permanent arbitrator to
adjudicate disputes. Thus an industry which had prohibited labor
organization for fourteen years w