He told his story like this:

While mediating a dispute at a mining company, Estes could see through the conference room doorway into an adjoining office. During the meeting, he noticed a company official rush into the adjoining room and remove a panel from a ventilation duct. Then he took an eyedropper from a small bottle and dropped several drops into the duct, before replacing the panel and leaving the room.

Estes was so intrigued by what he had observed that he later asked the mine superintendent about it. The superintendent said that there must be some problem in the mine that required an evacuation. From experience, management had learned that informing miners by word-of-mouth, the public address system, or by sounding an alarm resulted in confusion, misunderstanding, delay and panic. They had learned that a few drops of skunk oil in the mine ventilation system sends a clear and unmistakable message to everyone at the same time. [2]

Lou Towers worked as Estes’ assistant for a number of years. He described Estes as a colorful showman with a booming voice who could be very bombastic, but also very charming. Estes was comfortably wealthy based on a family owned Department Store run by his brother Henry in Georgia.

Outside of his duties with the mediation service, Estes and his sister Alice organized, managed and funded an educational speaker program in Washington D.C. which each month featured well know speakers on political and cultural issues. These free lectures featured such well-known individuals as William Buckley and members of Congress and the Administration.

Estes brother Henry funded a foundation in Georgia named after Major Estes, which made educational grants to underprivileged students.

During most of Estes’ mediation career, he was assigned to the Washington National Office. His career ended as a mediator in St. Louis in in the early 1950s.

[1] Estes had been a major in the U.S. Army. He choose to continue to using it as a civilian.

[2] Two mediators who worked with Major Estes provided useful information for this post: My oral history interview of Lou Towers in 1988, and long discussions with Charles Tilton while we shared office space for six months in the FMCS national office in 1964.

Major Estes

Lou Towers (Standing Center)

Charles Tiltan

USCS conciliators (mediators) were not writers, and certainly not writers for publication. The same could be said for the early years of FMCS. Major Charles Estes[1] was an exception, having served with both USCS and FMCS, he researched, wrote, trained and mediated.

Here are samples of his writing:

“The Place of Communications in Maintaining Labor-Management Peace.” Southern Speech Journal, March 1949. (In this publication, Estes is listed as Special Assistant to the FMCS Director.)

“Communications in Industry”, Journal of Communications. Nov. 1951, Special Assistant to FMCS Director, and Consulting Chairman to the Committee on Communications in Industry.

“Speech and Human Relations In Industry.” Quarterly Journal of Speech, Vol. XXXII, No. 2. April 1946.

“Speech and Human Relations in Industry“  a 14 page, double spaced typed paper, undated. Under his name are these words: ‘USCS of DoL. Estes outlines a process for conciliation that has the parties reading out-loud to each other, with steps that increase the parties opportunity to discuss issues as they read. The paper ends with this quote: “The ability to steer people into believing that the solution is the result of their own thinking is a most necessary technique in the difficult art of conciliation.”

“Some Steps to Help Union Committeemen and Shop Foremen in the Art of Getting Along with Each Other.” This lengthy document is a very detailed plan for instructing labor and management in better communications and peaceful relations. The process facilitated the parties to jointly read the labor agreement to develop a joint understanding of the meaning of the agreement. This program was produced during the late USCS period before 1947.

MA Dissertation Based Estes’ Work

“Preliminary Investigation of a Procedure for Conditioning of Discussion” An MA Dissertation by George Liston Tatum, June 1948, Northwestern University. Tatum wrote in his introduction: “It is a pleasure to acknowledge first my indebtedness to Major Charles T. Estes, former commissioner of the USCS, now Special Assistant to the Secretary of Labor. Not only is the basic procedure under investigation his, but he has been more than generous with his time and energy in “interviews” or better, “talks” for the past two years.”

Tatum also thanked several mediators: Major James P. Holmes, Thomas J. Cleland, Walter P Monroe, and “especially, Mr. Lewis C. Towers, assistant to Major Estes .

George Liston Tatum eventually earned a PhD in semantics and became a college professor. Interestingly, semantics was a favorite topic of Major Estes.

[1] Estes had been a major in the U.S. Army.