LASKI SCORES COMMISSIONER'S ACTION IN WALKOUT CRISIS

That every man has a right to affiliate himself with any organization or union to better his own economic condition is the view of Mr. H. J. Laski, University Lecturer in History and Government, Contrary to the usually accepted opinion, he would lay the blame for the police strike not on the policemen, but on the commissioner, who, according to Mr. Laski, was in large measure responsible for it. He asserts that the commissioner, knew that the men were forming a union, and later knew that they were going to strike, but that he failed to take such action as would have ensured the safety of the city. Mr. Laski then made a more detailed statement regarding the situation as it now stands and suggested a remedy for it.

"The main thing to be done is to use the recognized means of conciliation to effect a compromise that will at least partially satisfy both sides. The strike has developed so that at present the issue is largely one of prestige, and the original issues have been forgotten."

Officers Have Ignored Conditions.

"The Mayor's committee and the mayor himself have both admitted that improvements must be effected in the living quarters, length of work and pay of the police force. In the army it is the duty of an officer to watch out for the comfort of the men under him; in the police force the officers have ignored the question of satisfaction among the men with their work and their surroundings. That the demands of the striking policemen were justified is shown by the fact that new men are being taken on the force under an agreement which fulfils practically all of the strikers' requirements.

"The best thing that can be done now is to take these improvements as a basis for negotiations and to see if the reinstatemen of the men will not act as a curative for the atmosphere of ill-feeling that now exists on both sides."