The Fall & Rise of Mackenzie King, 1911-1919

The United States Commission on Industrial Relations had been created by Act of Congress on August 23, 1912. It was composed of nine persons: Frank P. Walsh of Missouri, chairman; Professor John R. Commons and Mrs. J. Borden Harriman, representing the public; F. A. Delano (replaced by Richard H. Aishton in March 1915), Harris Weinstock, and S. Thruston Ballard, representing employers; and John B. Lennon, James O'Connell, and Austin B. Garretson, representing organized labour. In its terms of reference, which were exceedingly wide, the commission was directed to 'seek to discover the underlying causes of dissatisfaction in the industrial situation'. More specifically it was called upon to inquire

. . . into existing relations between employers and employees; into the effect of industrial conditions on public welfare and into the rights and powers of the community to deal therewith; into the conditions of sanitation and safety of employees and the provision for protecting the life, limb, and health of the employees; into the growth of associations of employers and of wage earners and the effect of such associations upon the relations of employers and employees; into the extent and result of methods of collective bargaining; into any methods which have been tried in any state or in foreign countries for maintaining mutually

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