the conference with these words: "Gentlemen, we have
come together in a matter which we must all recognize is a very serious
and an important business--not only to settle this strike, but to create
a relation which will prevent similar strikes in the future. That work is
one which, it seems to me, is approached in a spirit that makes the
situation a very hopeful one, and I am sure, from my conferences with
counsel of both parties[27] and with individual members whom they
represent, that those who are here are all here with that desire."

Up to a certain point in the conference, which lasted for three days,
this seemed to be true. The manufacturers agreed to abolish home work, to
abolish subcontracting, to give a weekly half-holiday, besides the Jewish
Sabbath, during June, July, and August, and to limit overtime work to two
hours and a half a day during the busy season, with no work permitted
after half past eight at night, or before eight in the morning. Beyond
this, the question of hours was left to arbitration. Also, the question
of wages was left to arbitration.

The last subject to be dealt with at the Brandeis conference was the
general method of enforcing agreements between the Manufacturers'
Association and the Union. It was in this discussion that the question of
the closed shop and the open shop came before the conference.

Though the Union leaders had agreed to eliminate the discussion of the
closed shop before they entered into negotiations, it was almost
impossible for them to refrain from suggesting it as a means of enforcing
agreements. As one of the cloak makers, one of the old leaders of the
labor movement in America, said: "This organization of cloak makers in
the city of New York can only control the situation where Union people
are employed. They have absolutely no control of the situation where
non-union people are employed. They cannot enforce any rules, nor any
discipline of any kind, shape, or description, and if we are to cooeperate
in any way that will be absolutely effective, then the ... Manufacturers'
Association, ... it seems to me, should see that the necessary first step
is that they shall run Union shops."[28]

The Union shop the speaker had in mind, the Union shop advocated by the
_Vorwaerts_ and desired, as it proved, by a majority of the workers, was a
different matter from the closed shop, which constitutes a trade monopoly
by limiting the membership of a trade to a certain compara