FIRST CONFERENCE FOR DEFENSE BEGINS TODAY

First of its kind over to be held in the nation, a conference on "Labor in National Defense" will get under way this afternoon in Baker Hall at the Business School. Interest in the conference is especially great in view of the fact that the Smith anti-strike bill has new passed the House. By attempting to clarify labor's position in the defense effort, the conference will serve as a guide post for both labor and the Federal Government.

Four hundred delegates, representing more than 1500 local trade unions in Massachusetts will attend the meeting, which is being held through the suggestion of the Labor Division of OPM and with the cooperation of the OPA and the War Department.

Copley Banquet Tonight

Tonight Robert P. Patterson, Under-Secretary of War, will speak at a banquet at the Copley-Plaza on "The Defense of America." Later in the evening he will discuss defense strikes with Mr. Oliver over the NBC Red Network.

Monroe M. Sweeland, member of the Labor Division of OPM, has been working for more than a month in Boston in an effort to bring together representatives of all branches of labor engaged in national defense work for the conference.

He has been assisted by Miss Edith Christiensen of the Consumers' Division of OPA. Philip Cabot, professor of Business Administration, has had charge of arranging the facilities for the meetings in Baker Hall and will be chairman of one of the sessions.

Two sessions on Sunday will wind up the conference. In the morning the delegates will hear Dr. John Cassels, Administrative Assistant in the Consumers' Division of OPA, speak on "The High Cost of Living" and at noon tomorrow the conference will end with a speech by Dr. Luther Gulick, of the National Resources Planning Board and who has recently returned from England, on the plans for a post-war world.