Charles W. Eliot to Woodrow Wilson

I am not surprised that you think it impossible at this session of Congress to obtain any legislation whatever touching the Labor situation. Before we went to War with Germany, I was not expecting Congress, or any State Legislature, to deal effectively with the industrial strife; but since we went to War it has seemed to me possible that this country might do something like what Great Britain did to diminish the reduction in the productiveness of the country's industries which the limited output and the closed shop inevitably bring about. That hope now disappears, at least for the present.
Organized Labor does not produce its worst effects in the factory and machine shop industries. There the machinery sets the pace in some measure, and an incessant supervision over the workmen can be exercised by foremen and superintendents. In the building trades, on the other hand, or in any trade which makes small use of machinery, the limited output policy and the closed shop policy, with uniform wage for all workers, have thoroughly demoralized all the men that belong to unions. They no longer work well during the union number of hours, and they waste and kill time in the most shameless manner. It is impossisble that a union carpenter, mason, painter, or plumber should not be personally demoralized by working under union rules and practices in the building trades. Of course the cost of buildings of all sorts has doubled within the last fifteen years, and as to repairs their cost has become so great that to own a house has become for many families an unjustifiable luxury.
You are already encountering not only difficulties which result from the impossible rules of American labor-unions in trades which affect the conduct of the War; but you will soon be struggling, perhaps you are already struggling, with an extreme scarcity of labor which is general all over the country from Maine to southern California. I hope you will be able to find time for taking the best available advice from business men and manufacturers as to the means of coping with these two obstacles to a successful conduct of the War.
Some years ago, I had excellent opportunities for studying the mental and moral processes of Mr. Samuel Gompers. He is an able man; but a patriot had better be very careful how he deals with Mr. Gompers on any matters in which the selfish interests of the labor-unions are concerned.

I am, with high regard,