CHAPTER IV 
POST-WAR CONFLICT AND RECONSTRUCTION 
The three years following the close of the war repre- 
sented a transition from the old order to the one now 
prevailing. It was a period marked by unprecedented 
industrial unrest and conflict, as well as by a widespread 
and earnest attempt to realize a larger measure of democ- 
racy in industry. There was a strong movement, on the 
one hand, which had for its purpose a return to the old 
laws of supply and demand and the use of economic 
strength in determining wages, while, on the other hand, 
there was an even more aggressive movement, the object 
of which was to put aside the past and to inaugurate a new 
industrial era. This latter movement was relatively not 
so strong industrially and financially as the former, but 
the lack of financial resources was largely compensated by 
its determination, aggressiveness, and enthusiasm for the 
establishment of a larger participation of employees in the 
control and output of industry based on new ideas and 
principles developed during the war. 
PROGRESSIVE OPINION AND CONSTRUCTIVE INDUSTRIAL 
STATESMANSHIP 
An influential group, composed of students, statesmen, 
and publicists, as well as some representatives of both 
capital and labor, wished to carry over into the years of 
peace, the experience in wage-fixing and industrial rela- 
tions—both as to practises and new ideas—which had been 
developed by the war. They claimed that wartime rates 
of pay should not be reduced, as pre-war wage-scales had 
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