The longshoremen interested Carl for the same reason that the migratory and the I.W.W. interested him; in fact, there were many I.W.W. among them.  It was the lower stratum of the labor-world—­hard physical labor, irregular work, and, on the whole, undignified treatment by the men set over them.  And they reacted as Carl expected men in such a position to react.  Yet, on the side of the workers, he felt that in this particular instance it was a case of men being led by stubborn egotistical union delegates not really representing the wishes of the rank and file of union members, their main idea being to compromise on nothing.  On the other hand, be it said that he considered the employers he had to deal with here the fairest, most open-minded, most anxious to compromise in the name of justice, of all the groups of employers he ever had to deal with.  The whole affair was nerve-racking, as is best illustrated by the fact that, while Carl was able to hold the peace as long as he was on the job, three days after his death the situation “blew up.”

On his way East he stopped off in Spokane, to talk with the lumbermen east of the mountains.  There, at a big meeting, he was able to put over the eight-hour day.  The Wilson Mediation Commission was in Seattle at the time.  Felix Frankfurter telephoned out his congratulations to me, and said:  “We consider it the single greatest achievement of its kind since the United States entered the war.”  The papers were full of it and excitement ran high.  President Wilson was telegraphed to by the Labor Commission, and he in turn telegraphed back his pleasure.  In addition, the East Coast lumbermen agreed to Carl’s scheme of an employment manager for their industry, and detailed him to find a man for the job while in the East.  My, but I was excited!

Not only that, but they bade fair to let him inaugurate a system which would come nearer than any chance he could have expected to try out on a big scale his theories on the proper handling of labor.  The men were to have the sanest recreation devisable for their needs and interests—­out-of-door sports, movies, housing that would permit of dignified family life, recreation centres, good and proper food, alteration in the old order of “hire and fire,” and general control over the men.  Most employers argued:  “Don’t forget that the type of men we have in the lumber camps won’t know how to make use of a single reform you suggest, and probably won’t give a straw for the whole thing.”  To which Carl would reply:  “Don’t forget that your old conditions have drawn the type of man you have.  This won’t change men over-night by a long shot, but it will at once relieve the tension—­and see, in five years, if your type itself has not undergone a change.”