7// '^±3-^ THE LABOR PEOBLEM PLAIN QUESTIONS AND PRACTICAL ANSWERS EDITED BY WILLIAM E. BARNS ^rt'- 35/ VTRODUCTION BY )Q. ^ f"^ T. ELY, Pn.D. D-^/TJ WITH AN INTROD RICHARD AND SPECIAL CONTRIBUTIONS BY JAMES A. WATERWORTU and FRED WOODROW LIBRARY. -S^tbrooVS>- NEW YORK HARPER & BROTHERS, FRANKLIN SQUARE 188G Copyright, 18SC, by IIakper & Brotheks. All rights reserved. PEEPACE. The greater part of the matter contained in this volume appeared originally in the colnnms of The Age of Steel, St. Louis. It has, however, been care- fullj revised and rearranged. The contributors to the "Symposium on Various Phases of the Labor Question," and the chapter on "Trades -unions and Arbitration," are busy men who were compelled by the circumstances of the case to write briefly. The Editor. G89()3G INST. nraCS. BBL. CONTENTS CHAPTER I. PAGE Co-operation in Literatdkk and the State 7 By Richard T. Ely, Ph.D. CHAPTER II. TnK Conflict Hlstorically Considered lY By James A. Waterworth. CHAPTER III. a symposium on several phases of the labor question. Motive ov the Incjuiuv. Views op Political Economists . 52 CHAPTER IV. A 8YMP0SIUM-C«;i/inKtr. 10 THE tAnOR rnOBLEM, Stale. \\ hat liavoyuu? Why, anarchy ; and anarchy means a return to barbarism and the ovcrtlirow of the work of cen- turies. The State implies order and the continuity of prog- ress, the cumulation of the efforts of passing generations until the destiny of mankind on earth is attained. The State alone can guarantee the existence of the peaceful association of man with his fellows, and only through such association can we advance in wealth, knowledge, and moral culture. It is on this account that Aristotle pro- claimed the memorable sentence: " Man is by nature a po- litical being," or it might be better to say " State being," to avoid the use of a degraded but once noble word. This is also what was meant by the distinguished German economist, Gustav Schmoller, when he uttered these pregnant words : " The State is the grandest existing ethical institution for the education of the human race." The State means the conservation of energy. It is the only agency through which this energy of civilization can be maintained. This is the explanation of the divinity of the State. It is the product of our human nature, and was designed by God to be, with the family and the Church, the basis of the social, economic, and ethical life of man. St. Paul was profound- ly moved by the idea of the divinity of the State,* and this is the truth which was misapprehended and perverted when this special sanctity was transferred to a particular person, and the alleged "divinity of kings "was raised up as a barrier against progress. It is the recognition of this truth in all its bearings which constitutes the grandeur of Socrates' death. The laws were wrong, and an innocent man had been unjustly condemned to death ; but Socrates refused to flee because he held obedience to the State to be a sacred duty. * I'We Romans xiii. CO-OPERATION IN LITERATURE AND THE STATE. 11 It is in vain to urge the corrupt condition of our polit- ical life as an argument against an exalted view of the State. It has been well said by a gifted friend of the writer that one might as well carry on a crusade against the human skin — not the skin of any one man, but human skin in general. "What a dreadful thing indeed is this hu- man skin ! Full of sores and all manner of disease, and a constant source of pain and a frequent cause of death ! What does the reader say to one who argues like this? Why, he replies, "To be sure, my friend, disobedience to the laws of nature on the part of past generations, as well as on our own part, has produced disease and suffering ; but our skin is something necessary to our existence. Lot us direct our attention to the improvement of our natural covering by the application of the principles of hygiene and medicine, and let us determine hereafter to lead upright lives, such as must be approved by God and man. We may then hope to improve the human skin. This is our only possible course, for without it we cannot live." Some have said that the duty of the State must be re- stricted to the protection of life and property against fraud and violence. This is a narrow and inadequate conception of the State ; but even the performance of these functions requires a vast apparatus, and the end in view can be at- tained only by the co-operation of a multitude of able and upright men. We can make no beginning in civilized life unless person and property receive tolerably good protec- tion ; but this requires soldiers, judges, legislators, diplo- matists, scholars, clerks, and other classes of civil service employes. But even when the State does least, it must prescribe regulations concerning contracts, and must en- force them when they conform to these regulations; laws governing inheritance must be passed and executed. Laws are likewise everywhere found designed to promote the 12 TllK l.AUOU rKOni.EM. welfare of the weak and the feeble — in particular of tlie insane — of children, and of the aged. Every Christian countrv further attempts to throw a special shield about woman. It is also found necessary in every advanced country to regulate coinage and to establish normal weights and nioasures. It is seen then how large must be the range of the functions of the State, even were it attempted to make the State conform to the ideas of those doctrinaires whose watchword is '''■ laissez faire f or, let people take care of themselves, let the State not intermeddle in indus- trial affairs. But the result of attempts to apply this narrow view is always disastrous. There are many functions of a gen- eral nature which the State must perform or transfer to individuals, and transfer with these functions the power to govern and to oppress the people. The idea is to stimulate individual initiative and individual industry, but the consequence is that a few clever or fortunate people — often successful because more unscrupulous than oth- ers — restrict the activities of their fellows, and effectually repress the freest expansion of the energies of the people. This is the essence of the just complaints of those who cry out against monopoly. Kulership is transferred from the people to a few. Wc start with the intention of securing unlimited freedom ; we end in the supremacy of an offen- sive and uncontrolled oligarchy. The prosperity of the people requires that the State — which is nothing but the people in their collective ca- pacity — should perform functions which cannot be trans- ferred to private parties for any one of these reasons : namely, because they in their nature are not suitable to be performed by any other than a public and responsible au- thority, like the administration of justice, and like the post- office and telegraph ; because private parties can never be CO-OPERATION IN LITERATURE AND THE STATE. 13 trusted to funilsh an adequate and satisfactory supply of a particular category of goods and services generally need- ed, as, for example, schools of all kinds and certain great public works like river and harbor improvements ; be- cause private methods are too wasteful, or because private parties cannot be relied upon to exercise justly the im- mense power which would thus be transferred to them, as, for example, canals, roads, and railways. Dr. James per- ceived the fundamental character of these services when he replied to the questions sent out by the Affe of Steel:* " Arbitration, profit-sharing, productive co-operation are all expedients — makeshifts, I had almost called them — which may help tide over a crisis in national industry, but Avhich cannot be relied upon to keep permanent peace and order. ... I would only call attention to one set of forces which, to my mind, cannot much longer be allowed to work unchecked without seriously aggravating the problem. I mean those forces which control in the management of our most important means of transportation, viz., the rail- roads. . . . No system of co-operation or profit-sharing, or even arbitration on a large scale, can succeed until it is possible to make some estimate of the railroad tax, which is in many cases destructive no less by its amount than by its uncertainty." f When the reader reflects upon these principles, the fact will become clear that the proper functions of federal, state, and municipal government are many and are of fun- damental importance. They must be performed in order to promote justice between man and man, and also to en- courage the development of individual activity. The prop- er fulfilment of public functions will give the best stimu- lus to self-reliance and self-exertion. People must secure * Vide p. 04. f Vide p. OC. 11 THE LAUOll rUOBLEM. by co-operation the means for individual development. \Vc thus find a proper field for the exercise of every facul- ty of man's nature, and we discover that socialism and in- dividualism arc alike destructive, while the normal condi- tion is the satisfactory union of the two forces. It may even be that individualism is the more injurious of the two when carried to an extreme; for in such a case the strong and cunning, either as individuals or in combina- tions, will grasp the means of development in economic and social relations, and will deny them to the many, and the prostration of hope — which is seen to some extent among ns now — is deadening in its private and public consequences. On this point wise words uttered by John Stuart Mill should be seriously pondered : " Energy and self-dependence are, however, liable to be impaired by the absence of help, as well as by its excess. It is even more fatal to exertion to have no hope of succeeding by it than to be assured of succeeding without it." Of how many are the energies paralyzed by the single item of freight discriminations ? How great a load is le- gitimate enterprise bearing on this account ? Is it not true that any rational hope of success in more than one leading line of industry is thus rendered impossible for those not in rings? Christianity teaches us that we arc all brothers, and the recognition of this truth is forced upon us in the State. It was never intended that each one should live in and for himself, and all attempts to organize society on this basis will fail disastrously, while true success will accompany us in proportion as wo recognize the brotherhood of man in public and in private relations. Another reflection which must not be omitted is this: Glittering generalities will never solve any social problem, and this is a truth which the Church in particular needs to CO-OPERATION IN LITERATURE AND THE STATE. 15 bear in mind. It is all very well to say, be good, love your neighbor, obey your God, and these things must be repeat- ed often, but they must also become incorporated in our institutions, and must become an animating force in the •State. Love and goodness must indeed often be backed by a strong force, the force of the State. The luajcsty of the law and the sword of the sovereign cannot be allowed to become empty names. Force and authority have their own proper sphere. Take compulsory educa- tion. The compulsion is a power which gradually lifts people above its own ethical plain. It is felt only by those who live below that level. We often hear it said, Yes, it is true that the State, this great compulsory co-oper- ative society, ought to do this thing and that other thing which you mention, but we cannot trust the State. It is too corrupt. This is precisely the same argument which has been used against the Church. It, too, has become corrupt, and a few hundred years ago there was more room for an argument in favor of the suppression of the Church than now for the abolition of the State. But the great men in the Church, those alone to whom we owe a debt of grati- tude, have not said "abolition of the Church," but "reform of the Church ;" and reform has come by persistent effort, reform is still progressing, and will continue to progress, and we may thank God every day we live for his Church. So must it be with our State. We want a great reforma- tion in our State life, and here is a vast field for the most earnest activity of our clergy. The ethical duties and the holy privileges of a citizen of a republic must be enforced in season and out of season. This is a crying moral and economic need of the hour. Men must be taught that it is a grand thing to serve God in the State which he in his beneficent wisdom instituted, and that to betray a trust in 1(5 Tllli LAHOH IMIOBLEM. the divine State is as heinous an offence as to be false to duty in the divine Churcli. Is not one reason for tlie corrupt condition of our pres- ent State to be found in the undue restriction of its func- tions? It lias been denied its proper functions, and under the inaterialistic drift of mercantilism which has over- whelmed us, our strongest men have preferred the services' of private individuals and corporations to the service of the people. Is it not further true that our State, unable to cope with great corporations which should never have ex- isted — for all the people should be stronger than any pri- vate combination — has been too weak to be good ? Or is it strange that men who from youth up have been taught to take a low view of the State — perhaps even have been told that the State is a necessary evil, instead of what is true, a necessary good — is it strange that those who their life long have listened to the expression of such low, de- graded views of the State, should, under pressure of temp- tation, drift into smuggling, bribery, defalcation, and all kinds of public corruption ? No, it cannot surprise the thinking man. Co-operation is a good thing ; arbitration is a good thing ; profit sharing is a good thing ; but let us remember amid all this discussion that every hope of a permanent reform in industrial and social life must be illusory unless it has a firm foundation in a lasting State reformation. CHAPTER II. BY JAMES A. WATERWORTH. THE CONFLICT HISTORICALLY CONSIDERED. The laborer and the capitalist throughout the civilized world stand face to face this day in grim antagonism. The most peaceful relation anywhere existing between them is one of armed truce, which may be broken at a mo- ment's notice. The conflict is an old one, and has fur- nished much material for the orator and the essayist, and deserves special attention at this time only because of the recent organization of one of the parties, and of the swift- ly changing relations between them consequent on that organization. For centuries, with but few intervals, the caj>italist won the battles and divided the spoils. For cen- turies the laborer toiled, always in poverty, and sometimes in chains. On the side of the capitalist were education, or- ganization, and law. The laborer fought singly, was un- educated, and under the ban of the law. The situation lias changed ; and to-day the laborer, unshacliled, fairly ed- ucated, earning an independence, and a member of power- ful organizations, maintains the conflict on almost equal terms. The only disadvantage under which he fights is the difficulty of maintaining organization in so vast and mixed a multitude. That so thorough an organization has been effected and is maintained is one of the signs of the times. These changed relations between parties forming 18 THE LA130U I'KOllLEM. the effective strength of the body politic amount to revo- lution. "We arc therefore concerned to watch the progress of the conflict with jealous scrutiny. Revolutions, however wholesome, are dangerous, and re- quire the cool head and the honest human heart to direct them. I Of these the native race have given ample proof in times more trying than the present arc likely to be ; and if they direct the movements, we may look on or act our part with interest unmixed with fear. \ ^Yhat the issue shall be depends on the ability and endurance of the parties, but above all, and finally, on the justness of the demands and the reasonableness of the methods. This much may be said, however, that Labor is fighting along a line of devel- opment to some points that will probably be reached; and Capital is fighting on a line of conservation to hold points son^e of which will have fo be given up. The element in this struggle which excites grave appre- hensions is the intense bitterness and animosity which oc- casionally flash out in acts of violence, and which charac- terize the literature and oratory of the conflict. They give a passing glimpse into a volcano of hate, smoulder- ing beneath the crust of deference to law, which may at any moment break forth into acts of fiery violence. Why the differences between the laborer and the capitalist, or between employer and employed, should develop such heat is not apparent from the nature of the grievances usually alleged by either party. The grievances openly proclaimed as the causes of hostility arc frequently childish, unreason- able, and unworthy of serious attention. In the majority of cases they centre round some worthless fellow or some fancied wrong, and create irritation and excitement with- out touching any of the great issues between the capitalist and the laborer. There is in fact no natural antagonism between Capital and Labor to account for this bitterness. THE CONFLICT HISTORICALLY CONSIDERED. 19 On the contrary, they are natural allies; nay, more, they are members of the same body, the connection between them is a vital one, and not to be severed without the de- struction of the social frame. A conflict between them would be as unnatural and suicidal as a conflict between the members and the body. Economic and social science refuses to contemplate such a possibility, but invariably postulates their harmonious and sympathetic working. Capital cannot exist without Labor, nor Labor live without Capita], nor society without both. Why, then, this intol- erable bitterness between the suppliers of capital and the suppliers of labor ? It may be said that the equitable division of the joint product of the labor of any two parties contributing dif- ferent elements to the production affords matter for endless differences, according to the judgments, temperaments, and consciences of the parties. But all this is matter for ad- justment by arbitration or by the courts of law construing the agreements under which the parties have jointly work- ed. These modes of settlement arc in constant use by men in all classes of business, and the idea of a settlement of such differences by violent means would be consider- ed ridiculous. Why are violence and bitterness necessary accompaniments only of disputes between employer and employed ? This is a question on which the present is silent, or at most points o-nly to the unreasoning and unreasonable pas- sions of men. But this is an age in which, less than in any other, such an answer would suffice. Great masses of freemen are not usually moved by unreasonable and con- scienceless passion to any organized and sustained course of conduct. This is an ago and a country in which, more than in any other, an enlightetied judgment and a sincere respect for lawful ami (jnlcrly procedure characterize tli" 20 TUB LABOU FUOOLEM. ordinary movements of masses of the people We must look farther for the causes of this bitterness. It is pro- posed in this paper to appeal to History, and inquire of the by-gone centuries what they have to say for the en- lightenment of the men of the nineteenth century on this, the question of the day.* THE LABORER A SERF. When we first meet with the laborer in history ho is a serf. The ownership of land in the country, and of house and ground in the incorporated town, was the badge of freedom and the basis of all political rights. Every land- less man must have a lord, entitled to his services and re- sponsible for his conduct. He cannot leave his lord's de- mesne without a written permit, or he will be pursued by the sheriflE and brought back. He cannot offer his labor in the highest, nor in any market — it is his lord's. His son cannot go into the neighboring town to leani a trade — his services are the lord's. His daughter cannot marry off * This paper confines the examination to the relations between the English capitalist and the English laborer, because these are the only parties to the question concerning whose relations we have con- tinuous testimony over long periods. The authority for prices and wages is Mr. J. E, Thorold Rogers, whose " History of Agriculture and Prices" is the one authority for such facts prior to 1582. For the laborer's condition, socially and politically, during the same pei'iod, Stubbs's "ConstituLional History" is an authority. For later facts the works of Cunningham, Howell, Brassej, Giffen, and Mulhall have been consulted. The unit adopted for comparing the laborer's condition nt differ- ent periods is the price of one bushel of Avheat, half a busliel of malt, and twenty pounds of beef. Wheaten flour, bread, ale, and beef were almost the sole articles of the laborer's food down to this centu- ry, and the quantity given above would go near feeding a family of four persons for two weeks. When rent and fuel become items of the laborer's expenses they arc added. THE CONFLICT HISTORICALLY CONSIDERED. 21 the estate — her lord having vested rights in her offspring. It is true, the serf — unless of the lowest class of thralls — cannot be sold ; he is ascrijyticius glehw — fettered to the Soil. If the land went to a new owner, the serf followed it to the new lord. He was not permitted to enroll him- self in the national militia; he could not sue in the courts; he had no rights as against his lord, nor against any free- man except through his lord. On the other hand, the lord was bound to maintain his serf's rights against every one else. There were countless bitter and oppressive limita- tions hedging in his liberty, and giving him notice in al- most every act of his life that, if not a slave, he was not free. His physical condition was, nevertheless, very much better than that of his free but pauper descendant of four centuries later. He had a cottage and garden at a nominal rent; when his lord claimed his services, he was paid a penny a day and his food ; when not working in his lord's demesne, he was free to cultivate his own little patch of ground ; he liad rights of wood from the forest for fuel, and of pasture on the commons for a certain number of cattle and hogs — rights not by title-deed but by immemo- rial custom, the loss of which by his descendant, the mod- ern laborer, is one element of his decayed condition. Mr. Rogers estimates his possible income from all sources at this time (a.d. 1260-1350) at about £4 ($20), his neces- sary expenditures at about £3 ($15). The estimate of ex- penditures includes a very liberal supply of food for a family of five persons — so liberal, in fact, that at no time since the year 1550 would the laborer's whole income be sufficient to pay for it. The serf thus appears to have been at least well fed, ex- cept in years of famine, which were frequent, owing to the lack of means for distributing surplus products. His ex- penses otiier than for food were very small. He is fre- 22 THE LABOR PRODLEM. quently a man of some little means. When he is able to buy a piece of land he can free himself. The mechanic in the rural districts was on the same foot- ing as the serf in all respects, his pay when workino^ being higher — twopence to threepence per day. He had the same rights of forest and pasture, and was boimd to the estate as closely as the laborer. In incorporated towns the mechanic was nominally free, but he was bound to a master in the same way that the laborer was bound to his lord, lie had no political rights whatever until he was admitted into the freedom of his trade guild, which re- quired ownership of j)ropcrty. When the mechanic was able to own his house and lot, he was eligible for the full franchise of the corporation. He could then set up as a master, and his apprentices and journeymen were bound to him as he had been to his master. Thus an avenue out of thraldom stood open to industry and thrift. This was very far from being the worst period in the history of labor. No such unbridgable gulf separated the land-owner's state from the serf's humble condition as that which now sepa- rates the rich man's luxury from the poor man's squalor. Both were indifferently lodged, both lived in a sort of rude plenty, neither enjoyed many luxuries. There was no such infinite disparity between the matter and the methods of their daily lives as in these days. The city artisan lodged in his master's house, the serf lived under the shadow of the castle. An extensive system of relief was maintained by the Church and by the guild, and immense sums were expended by the great in benefactions to the poor. There was some human bond between employer and employed other than wages. And yet the laborer and artisan fretted under the conditions of their life. The laborer was per- petually running off to the neighboring town, or to anoth- er county ; was hunted and brought back. The town arti- THE CONFLICT HISTORICALLY CONSIDKRED, 23 san was a chronic disturber of the peace. The fact was that by law and custom they were men of an inferior caste, and the sti2;ma was intolerable, and they would not submit to it. It is unfortunate that Labor has come down through the ages with this unnatural brand upon it. Every law re- lating to the laborer passed between 1350 and 1824 deals with him as with an inferior being. This is the root of all the injustice done to the workman in past ages. The legislator never conceived the idea that he was legislating for a freeman with equal rights, or indeed with any rights at all. The employer simply knew that he who had been his serf was now his servant. The workman conquered his freedom but never conquered caste. He continued to be a servant. The stigma passed from the man to his so- cial condition, and would not be washed out. It remains to this day. It is the largest element of bitterness in the contest at this moment. There is no reason to believe that the capitalist of the period (the land-owner) was actuated by any feeling of hos- tility to the laborer or by any desire to oppress him. Ho seems to have treated his serf with indulgence. lie acted according to the best lights of the times, and to protect his property. Tlie serf was his property, and he did not want to lose him. The question of wages was a secondary con- sideration, a pretext for the quarrel, as it is to-day in nine cases out of ten. The revolt was against the condition. The man rebelled against the stigma of legal inferiority. CONFLICT. The serf's condition from its very nature could not be a permanent one ; he must either win nearer freedom or be thrust down to slavery. The struggle is unrecorded in our popular liistories — in fact, the serf is hardly mentioned as existing, save wlien in open insurrection — but it was un- 24 Tllli LABOR PROBLEM. ceasing, sleepless, untiring. A national calamity turned tho scale in favor of freedom. In 1349 the plague swept over England, One-third of the people died. Labor was not to be had. The harvest lay rotting in the fields. The fields lay unplougliod. Laborers demanded three and four times the customary wages, and refused to work till their terms were agreed to. They were entitled to high wages by all the laws governing wages, but determined efforts were made to prevent their receiving them. Payment of any such wages meant ruin to the land-owners. The cele- brated " Statute of Laborers " was passed, and this stat- ute may be said to mark the beginning of the " Conflict." Here begins the estrangement between the employer and employed of our race. It was unknown before. This act provided that " every man and woman able in body and within the age of threescore, not living by merchandise, nor exercising any craft, not having land about whose till- age he may employ himself, nor having of his own whereof to live, shall be bound to serve at the wages customary in the year before the plague." If he refused he was to be im- prisoned till he ffave bond to (jo to work. No employer was to pay him more, on pain of forfeiting double, and no workman was to I'eceive more, on pain of imprisonment. Two years later another statute was passed, extending the same provisions to every trade and handicraft. Hence- forth mechanic and laborer are alike subjected to continu- ous restrictive legislation. The law of supply and demand was stronger, however, than the statute. The laborer ex- acted his price, or as much of it as could be extracted from the product, but he knew that he could be imprisoned for exacting it. He felt that he was under the ban of the law, and he grew desperate. A feeling of opposition to the es- tablished order spread over the kingdom. Laborers roamed over the country in companies and committed great ex- THE CONFLICT HISTORICALLY CONSIDERED. 25 cesses. They refused to work, except under the most ex- travagant conditions. In these matters they were not a whit more unreasonable than the priests, the lawyers, the doc- tors, and others who gave their services for pay. The laws passed during this period prove the incessant conflict that was maintained between employer and employed. In 1351 a law was passed providing that wages paid to laborers in excess of the lawful amount shall be recoverable at law. In 1368 the same statute was re-enacted. In 1377 a stat- ute was passed to prevent " villeins constraining their mas- ters." In 1378, "that agricultural laborers should not be allowed to be received into towns." During all this time a combination was being effected, inexplicable in its thor- oughness, considering the imperfect means of communica- tion at the time, by means which are unknown even to this day, but complete beyond any that has been effected since. On a signal the whole labor of the country rose in insur- rection, and in 1381 the Peasants' war began. The insurgents carried all before them for a few days, and in the flush of victory, with the city of London in their hands, they presented their demands to the king. They were as follows : "Wo will that you make us free, our heirs and our lands, and that we be no more bond, nor so reputed." A natural aspiration ! Had they only been my lords and gentlemen how History would have glorified the transaction ! The flame of insurrection was quenched in blood, but the cause was won. While the extravagant demands of the serfs were set aside, wages remained permanently forty to sixty per cent, higher than they were before the plague, in spite of the law, and a death-blow was given to serfage. The king had promised the serfs their freedom, but Par- liament when it met peremptorily refused to ratify the promise. They voted that "they would rather perish all 26 THE LABOR PKOULEM. together in one day." But it was soon fonnd tliat they could no longer cultivate their estates at a profit, and pay the wages now demanded by the serfs. For some time the attempt was made, but the bailitifs' accounts show how un- profitable it was. The laborer refused to work for the wages allowed by law ; the land-owner dare not and could not sell at more than the legal price of produce, that be- ing regulated by law also. For some time the strife be- tween them continued, and it must have been bitter, for we find coercive statutes constantly passed. In 1388 a law was passed forbidding the laborer to leave his place of serv- ice or to move about the country without a passport. In 1391 a petition was presented praying Parliament to pass a law forbidding the children of the base born-churls to attend the schools. Finally it became evident that a lon- ger continuance of this strife would end in the common ruin of lord and serf. The great land-owners throughout the kingdom abandoned the attempt to cultivate their own estates with serf labor; they broke them up into farms, and let them to the most active and thrifty of their serfs, and to the small farmers of the neighborhood, even stock- ing the farms for the new tenants. The personal services of serfdom were commuted for a fixed Rent, to be paid in money for the use of the land. The essence of serfdom being personal service, this voluntary commutation silently worked manumission. The serfs who, by reason of inca- pacity or unthrift, failed to obtain an allotment of land, sunk at once into the hired laborers of the new farmers. For some time the old services were exacted of these un- fortunates by their new masters, but by degrees these were commuted into fixed Wages, and the farmer's serf became the modern agricultural laborer. Cases of serfdom meet us as late as the Reformation, but ihey are very rare ; within fifty years after the Peasants' THE CONFLICT HISTORICALLY CONSIDERED. 27 war serfdom was practically extinguished. The drain on the sons of the yeomanry during the civil wars of the cen- tury which followed gave the laborer his opportunity. The demand for labor was so great that the statutes regu- lating wages, though re-enacted over and over again, were disregarded. Labor was practically free. A better under- standing seems to have been reached between capitalist and laborer, for in 1406 it was ordered by Parliament " that every man or woman of whatsoever estate or con- dition shall be free to set their son or daughter to talcc learning at any school that pleaseth them within the realm.'' THE GOOD OLD TIMES. The period which follows is spoken of as the Golden Age of English Labor. The workman's wages were more than sufficient to furnish a comfortable support for himself and his family; he had still his cottage and garden, his rights of wood and pasture; he was well fed, and was housed as well as the times required the laborer to be ; his day's work was eight hours. Harvests during most of this long- period were abundant, and provisions very cheap. When sickness, old age, or poverty overtook him he found in his parish church or the neighboring monastery a generous charity; while the mechanic had his guild, which supported him when sick, buried him when dead, and contributed to the maintenance of his widow and family. During the most turbulent century of English history he pursued his daily avocations unnoticed and unmolested. Ho was of too low degree to be permitted to bear arras. In the glo- ries of Poitiers and Agincourt he had no share, and lie escaped the butcheries of Towton and Tewkesbury. The battles of the White Rose and Red, of King versus Noble, were fought out around him in many a historic field, but lie cared nothing for them, and they did not disturb him. 28 THE LADOH PROBLEM. Nothiiii; in the English character struck the Frenchman Coitiines so much as the fact that in a civil war so long protracted, which changed the Constitution and the Dy- nasty, destroyed Feudalism, and swept away the old No- bility, " no buildings arc destroyed or demolished by war, and the mischief of it falls only on those who make the war." And so the laborer stayed at home at his work, too base for honor and too humble for injury. Sometimes, perhaps, he would climb the neighboring hill to look at the fight, and after it was over he doubtless improved the occasion by carrying off whatever valuables he could pick up on the place of carnage. Many a crested jewel, many a massy chain and embroidered scarf thus found its way into the laborer's cot, to furnish material in later time for the winter's tale and for the thrilling romance. But for the issues of the contest on which history dotes he cared nothing. The New Learning and the Reformation swept over the land and he heeded it not; the hornbook was his epitome of learning and religious belief, and he cared little whether prayers were said in Latin or English. He doubt- less listened with a stolid surprise while the priest belaud- ed the king and reviled the Pope. It was a new thing, and entirely too high for his understanding; but so long as he could say his prayers in the old parish church around which the bones of his forefathers for uncounted genera- tions lay buried, it was little he cared whether Henry or Clement were Pope. He simply knew that he had enough to eat and a place — filth}', it is true, but his own — in which to sleep, and a fire to keep out the cold, and that work was hard, and that, glory be to God, the world was not a bad place to live in. To this age of plenty the worn and starved laborer of later periods looked wistfully back, and stories of the time when a man might earn a year's provisions for his THE CONFLICT HISTORICALLY CONSIDEKED. 29 family in twenty ^veeks lingered around the cottager's hearth for generations, and glorified the period as tlio *' good old times." It was from survivors of this period that Shakespeare drew his faithful Adam in " As You Like It," his grave - diggers in " Hamlet," and many another sketch of humble but cheerful and honest manhood. The table (p. 39) shows that the artisan and laborer could easily earn a comfortable living during the whole of this period. THE LABORER FREE, BUT A PAUPER. By the close of the reign of Henry VIII. the Golden Age of English Labor had come to an end. The workman for a century and a half had lived in plenty. He was so comfortable that laws were passed to restrain his family's extravagance in dress. The only bitterness in his lot was the servile stain on his condition, carried down from the days of serfage. He had no political rights, and was not destined to have for centuries. For this he probably did not care. But he was now to enter on a period of misery and degradation, of which even at this interval of time it is difficult to write with calmness. In this period we shall discover another element of the bittei'ness of the struggle now going on in the oppression which, under various forms of law, and during a long period, ground the laborer into the dust in the mistaken attempt to protect the capitalist. Generation after generation was offered up on the altar of England's Molochs — the landed and manufacturing inter- ests. Like most outrages perpetrated by man on man, it had its origin in ignorance rather than in malevolence. This course of legislation, which in its enactments vio- lated what are now known to be the true principles of Economical Science, was continued during two centuries and a half, and was fuiallv abandoned in 1824. 30 TUK LAUOK I'HOULEM. It is not to bo supposed tlmt a class wlio liad emanci- pated tlicnisclvcs after such a bitter struggle, who had over- ridden all laws fixing their wages during a period of two hundred years, and who had grown independent during a century and a half of prosperity, would tamely surrender all that they had gained, and in the middle of the sixteentli century yield themselves to pauperism. Nor could their submissioi) have been accomplished by any law aimed di- rectly at that purpose. The causes which paved the way to this degradation were various, and some of them of long continuance. The unprofitableness of farming with the ordinary labor at the prices demanded had early in the struggle drawn many of the land-owners into sheep-raising. Immense tracts of land were withdrawn from cultivation and thrown into pasture. Flocks of 10,000 and 20,000 sheep were common. Tlie numerous laborers required for agricultural pursuits were replaced by a few shepherds. At the same time, a greed for land became epidemic. Lord and farmer vied with each other in appropriating, on one pretext or another, tlie common fields. Enclosures of com- mons and waste lands, the customary fields of the laboring poor, were made on a great scale, and this source of supply for the laborer was much circumscribed. The position of the workman was further weakened by the wholesale con- fiscations of the reign of Henry VIII. We must never forget that the workman was the chief sufferer by the con- fiscation of the properties of the monasteries and guilds. Ilis provision for sickness, old age, and death was swept away. The extent of the calamity may be estimated from the fact that property amounting to $250,000,000 of our money was thus withdrawn from charitable purposes and divided up among the greedy horde of courtiers who sur- rounded the king; but the infamous act which destroyed resistance to the enforcement of the statutory wa^es was THE CONFLICT IIISTOKICALLY CONSIDERED. 31 the debasement of the coinage, begun under Ilcnry VIII. and continued under the Protectorate. Debasing the cur- rency is the last and gravest political crime a government can commit against its people. It is especial!}' a crime against the laborer, whose margin of income over expend- iture is of the smallest. Up to this time the penny in which his wages were paid contained 11.1 grains of pure silver. In 1543 Henry de- based it to 8.3 grains; in 1545 to 5 grains; in 1546 to 3.3 grains; and under Somerset's protectorate it was fur- ther debased in 1551 to 1.6 grains! In those days of slow and imperfect communication it was some time before the fraud began to operate on prices, and the laborer was the last to perceive how he was being robbed. Slowly but surely, however, the workman found that his wages were losing their purchasing power. One can imagine the ter- ror of the ignorant laborer as he saw the value of his money disappearing, till at last the vile trash which repre- sented his week's wages would not purchase two days' provisions. This was an enemy he could not fight. The lately prosperous and independent workman found himself a beggar, and .his children starving. Wherever he turned for relief he met only disappointment. The desolate halls of the monastery mocked his misery. Its hospitable ambry was empty, its hearth-stone cold. In liis cottage, lately so joyous, he saw only starvation and despair. Men who had liitherto been industrious and honest now roamed the coun- try either as open robbers or as " sturdy beggars." Savage laws were enacted to repress these crimes. By the first Edward VI. it was enacted that the landless and destitute poor be reduced to slavery, branded, and made to work in chains! An act was passed prohibiting "all confederacies, and promises of workmen concerning tlicir work or wages, or the hours of the day when they should 32 THE LAUOR rUOULEM. work." Any violation of this statute was to be punislicd : for a first offence by a fine of £10, or twenty days' impris- onment; for a second offence by a fine of £20, or the pil- lory; for a third offence by a fine of £40, the pillory, the loss of the left car, and judicial infamy ! ! This statute was not repealed till 1824. Is it supposed these laws were not put in execution ? Listen to Green, in his "History of the English People :" " We find the magistrates of Somer- setshire capturing a gang of a hundred at a stroke, hanging fifty at once on the gallows, and complaining bitterly that they had to wait till the next Assizes before they conld enjoy the spectacle of the other fifty hanging beside them." Never had such misery, such discontent, filled the realm as in the last years of Henry and in the reigns of Edward and Mary. The first years of Elizabeth were quite as mis- erable; but a gleam of hope came with the new adminis- tration, and it was easier to bear. A year of unusual plen- ty sometimes brought a temporary relief. The growth of commerce and the development of new industries would have given permanent relief, had the la- borer been able to take advantage of the opportunity. Sixteen years of privation, however, had robbed him of all power of resisting arbitrary wages. The struggle was not now for his rights, it was for bread. For the first time in two hundred years the laborer submitted to have his wages fixed by statute. How the Justices of the Peace estimated the value of a day's labor under the statute, and how the workman fared under it, will be seen as we proceed. How little share the artisan and laborer had in their country's affairs may be understood when we consider that some of these years of distress are by common consent the golden age of England. No such galaxy of poets, states- men, warriors ever clustered round the English throne. No such names adorn another page of English history. The THE CONFLICT HISTORICALLY CONSIDERED. 33 realm of England was, during a decade of years, the stage across which a grand triiiiiiph was proceeding. In the gorgeous pageant we see the heroic forms of Sidney, Ra- leigh, Drake — sons of Hercules who adventured through the trackless ocean, and won to new gardens of the Hesper- ides, and brought home the apples of gold to lay them at the feet of the virgin queen. Veritable slayers of dragons were they who swept the Spaniards from the sea and un- locked the treasures of the Occident ; and greater than they Spenser, Shakespeare, Johnson, whose great shades possess the stage even to this day ; Cecil and Walsingham direct- ing and marshalling the pageant, and high over all, to whom all eyes devoutly turned, Elizabeth, the incarnation of the spirit of the age, the inspirer of all this endeavor. It is a glorious age, steeped in golden light, resonant with song and jubilant with victory. But nowhere is the pale face of the laborer to be seen amid all this splendor. To him these men are gods, and this pageantry is of anotlier sphere. And yet when this temporary triumph has passed across the stage and is gone forever, it is his misery that colors the scene, it is his ghastly figure that affrights the last moments of the dying queen. The year 1597, as may be seen from the table (p. 39), was one of famine. The case of the laboring man became so shocking that it was felt "something had to be done." It never seemed to strike anybody that the only thing nec- essary to do was to allow demand to fix the price of the laborer's day's work. It was doubtless with an honest and charitable purpose to relieve the wretchedness of the laborer, that in 1601 the English Poor-law was passed. It was a scheme of benevo- lence, and it is probably not the fault of its creators tliat it became an instrument of degradation. It must not be lost sight of that at this time, and for 3 84 THE LABOR I'ROHLEM. centuries later, capital meant the landed interest, and the employers of labor were the land-owners and their tenants. Commerce was in its infancy, and located exclusively in London and in two or three small seaports. Manufactures, in any sense in which we understand them, had not been dreamed of. The land absorbed everything, and the land- owner exercised every governmental function and filled ev- ery official position. The protection of landed capital was then supposed by very good men to be a necessity of State, as the protection of manufacturing capital is supposed by very good men to be at this day. At first. Capital only was protected at the sole expense of Labor, until the laborer died of starvation. Then the Poor-law intervened to pro- tect both at the expense of the whole property of the king- dom, just as the tariff has intervened to protect both to- day at the expense of the consumer. The new Poor-law provided that assessors should be ap- pointed in every parish to assess a tax on the whole prop- erty in the parish sufficient to maintain the aged and inca- pable poor, and to supplement the wages of the honest and industrious poor who could not earn a living by a charity or dole distributed at the almshouse. When, therefore, the Justices of the Peace — land-owners — met, as required by law, to fix the wages which the me- chanic and laborer should be permitted to earn in their parish during the coming year, they had every temptation to fix thera as low as possible, because the land-owner was in those days almost the sole employer of labor. When, immediately afterwards, the same persons, or men of their class, assembled as assessors of poor-rates, to levy a tax for the support of the parish poor, they doubtless remem- bered their own laborers, whose wages they had just fixed at starvation rates, and by doing so had constituted them the parish poor; and as all property had to pay this tax — THE CONFLICT HISTORICALLY CONSIDERED. 35 the doctor's, the lawyer's, the grocer's, the clcro-ytnan's — the rate was made a liberal one. And so we find, year by year, the capitalist unloading more and more of the wages of his own laborer on the public, until finally it comes about that wages are paid half in money by the employer and half in alms by the public at the poor-house gate. Can anything be more repugnant to every sense of honor and decency and justice? Look at the case of the honest workman. He is strong, and full of life, and full of work. He has a wife and family dependent on him for support. He hies him to the justice's court, to hear how much wages he dare demand, or any man dare pay him for a year to come. He hears with horror the paltry sura their Honors allow him to earn, for well he knows it will not buy his food, much less pay rents and clothe his wife and children. Can it be possible that an able-bodied man's labor is not worth his food ? But he is told he can get bread at the poor-house. He hears that wages in a neighboring county are double what he can earn in his own, and in a moment of forget- fulness he trudges off to seek work there. But stop, my friend ; the Law of Parochial Settlement provides that, im- mediately on entering a parish, you must furnish good and suflBcient security that you will not become chargeable to the poor-rates of the parish, and as you have no security — for who will go security for this wretched tramp — you must go to jail till the authorities have an opportunity to return you to your own parish. Poor wretch ! In a short time he is sent home again, and as expense has been incur- red by his reckless and wicked conduct in leaving his own parish to look for living wages, ho is sent to jail io work it out. But what of his wife and family all this time? Oli, they can go to the poor-house! And this legal pauperiz- ing^ of lidMcst labor was submiKeil to for over two eenturies ! 36 THK LABOR PROBLEM. Could there be a fjreater outrage? Tliiiik of a free work- man, honest, capable, industrious, compelled to be a pauper and to receive, hat in hand, at the almshouse gate, in sight of all his neighbors, from his youth to hoary age, as alms, a large proportion of the wages honestly earned by his la- bor; and to know that his children, from generation to generation, shall live this pauper's life, and shall go down into a pauper's grave. Under this system the generations of the English labor- er and artisan lived from 1601 to 1824. Under this sys- tem England began and developed her enormous manufact- uring interests, creating new pauper capitalists to be served by new pauper laborers. Under this system, when she be- came less choice in her selection of the men who should die in her foreign wars, she condescended to accept the life of the pauper youth, and thereby transferred the stigma — the ancient stigma of his serfdom, the present stigma of his pauperism — to the hitherto honorable position of the English soldier ; a stigma that attaches to the bravest man, the truest patriot who fights his country's battles in the ranks to this day. Under this system England became mistress of the seas and controller of the commerce and manufactures of the world. Under this system, and with these men, she has conquered empires, overturned dynasties, and won triumphs of peace as well as of war, before which the illuminated glories of her mediaeval past pale and sink into insignificance. Out of the laborer's blood was coined the colossal fort- unes of the Arkwrights, the Peels, and of every man made rich by manufacturing down to 1840. Out of his blood was coined the enormous sums which England spent in her foreign wars from 1750 to 1815, of which a small remainder exists in her national debt of $4,000,000,000. Out of his blood was extracted the enormous sums assess- THE CONFLICT HISTORICALLY CONSIDERED. 37 ed to maintain the poor, of which abont one-half was doled out to himself in alms, in lieu of wages, and which in the two centuries and a half since the passing of the Poor-law amount to not less than $3,500,000,000. Out of his blood, too, was coined the awful increment of England's wealth which accrued in the three centuries ending with 1850, and which amounted to not less than $15,000,000,000. For this he was starved till he revolted, and when he revolted he was trodden under the iron heel of authority till he became a savage ; and he was hanged, and exiled to the ends of the earth, and imprisoned, and circumscribed with laws so inhuman that Lord Byron exclaimed, on the second reading of one of the bills in Parliament, that the jury to try cases under that law should consist of twelve butchers, and the judge should be a Jefferies. It is needless to enter into details of the atrocities per- petrated on the laborers during the half century ending with 1824 under form of law. Suffice it to say that the conditions which the capitalist then sought to impose on the laborer, and the miseries which came of them, have been outrages on humanity compared with which the tem- porary ferocities of the hungry mob have been childish follies. The capitalist had his day of absolute power, and used it brutally. In order to procure subsistence the Eng- lish laborer has surrendered his children almost in infancy — at wages as inadequate as his own — to the slavery of the factory, mortgaging the energies of a second generation for the survival of the present one. The wonder is that the English laborer has neither been a socialist nor a com- munist. Under it all the Englishman's tremendous powers of endurance, the real powers which have made him mas- ter of the world, have enabled hiin in the main to continue a lavv-al)iditig and even a loyal citizen. This much space has been given to a review of the his- 38 THE LABOR PKOBLEM. toiical relations of the parties to this conflict, inasmuch as the fcelinp :; ^ hd ►:; CO t-'bi ►-' >-' >f- 10. 1-' 2- lOOlOO m 00 JOIO C CCi— ■ ^^eo t-" 10 w it- w «o " Oi Ci o -1 ■» " o 5i o o iJ- r 40 TIIK LAltOK 1'KOHLKM. THE LABORER FREE AND AGGRESSIVE. Tlio law assessing wages was falling into abeyance. The mill-owners found they could induce starving children to work for smaller wages than the consciences of the justices — still land-owners — would permit them to assess. The law was accordingly repealed in 1814. Labor could not le- gally organize, and the laborer was now at the mercy of the new capitalist, the manufacturer, and he soon found that if the landed capitalist had chastised him with whips, the mill -owner capitalist was chastising him with scor- pions. The new capital was well organized, and the laborer discovered that his wages unassessed were no better than the old statute wages — if anything, they were worse. The return of peace (1815) threw immense numbers of discharged soldiers and sailors on the labor markets ; the infamous Corn-law was passed by the land-owning legisla- tors in their own interest; wages were paid in paper-mon- ey depreciated 30 per cent. ; machinery had in many man- ufactories superseded seven-eighths of the operatives, and had not yet created the increased demand for the product which would cause them to be re-employed ; and from all these causes a distress similar to that of 1597, which created the Poor-law, brought matters to a crisis. The average price of a bushel of wheat in 1812 was $3.80, in 1813 $3.29, and in 1817 $2.91. The amount spent in relief of the poor in 1814 was $31,500,000, in 1818 $34,350,000, in 1820 $36,500,000. The support of the poor threatened to eat up the profits of all labor. It is to Mr. Joseph Hume the workman is indebted at this crisis for suggest- ing that it would be well to leave the laborer alone to manage his own affairs — to get the highest wages compe- tition in a free market would yield him, and to permit him THE COKFfifcCT'^ISTORlCABl/E^baMSlDERED. 41 to combine with bis ie]Jq@|^Wb^5je^tne market price as higb as possibldw ^ -^,.^v-^^^ ' In 1824 a birk^ift^odtt«SMJy*1iin^ ^came a law. It repealed all laws agMast ootnbiQaUohs of workmen con- cerning wages and bours of work, and labor was now fur the first time free to organize for its own protection. This date, therefore, marks a new era in the history of hibor. When the shackles were stricken oS the British work- man, be was like a man turned out of prison after a long confinement. He was dazed ; be did not know how to use bis liberty. For centuries it had been unlawful for him to combine for any purpose, so he rushed into combi- nations. Trades-unions sprang up all over the country, and their operations were directed by the boldest and wild- est spirits. His wages had been fixed for centuries by the capitalist, and enforced by law ; he would fix wages for the capitalist, and enforce them by strikes. The old working- day had been lengthened by law in spite of the workman ; he would now fix the hours of labor in spite of the em- ployer. He had for centuries been void of political rights; his cry was for "Radical Reform." The laborer retaliated on the capitalist the wrongs the capitalist for so long time had inflicted on him. We are simply travelling over the same dreary road of injustice and misery and wrong, with this only difference, that the workers of the wrong are now the capitalist and laborer instead of the capitalist alone. One of the worst periods of English labor are these first days of freedom. They were days of great suf- fering and great license. The number of death sentences was enormous; from 9G8 in 1823 it grew to 1529 in 1827, and to 1601 in 1831. Very few of these sentences were carried into execution, the universal misery moving Execu- tive clemency. From this period strikes are incessant. In three cases out of four they were unsuccessful as to the 42 THE LAROR PROBLEM. actual object immediately aimed at; but there can be no doubt the agitation had its effect. Capital cannot thrive in a state of war; and it has been conclusively shown by instance after instance that the workman and his family will endure privation with more patience than the capital- ist will perceive his capital lie unproductive. These strikes the masters attempted to control by using the provisions of the common law against conspiracy, and for some time they obtained judgments of the courts in their favor, con- trary to all just interpretation of the law. Prosecution harassed the unions, but knit them up into a National Association of United Trades, and made them stronger and more aggressive. It trained the leaders to conduct their proceedings in an orderly and legal manner. It accustom- ed the workman, by degrees, to submit to wholesome disci- pline ; but for the time it inflamed the spirit of rancor and revenge, and crimes were perpetrated on both sides during the progress of the strife. The bitter feelings of the past were transferred to this generation, and animate our strikes to-day. In 1875 the last of the penal laws affecting labor were swept from the English statute-book, and the conflict on that side the Atlantic began to assume a more humane character. Except in the case of the Sheffield outrages the war has not been stained by gross or malignant cruelties in the last twenty years. English capitalists and English laborers have entered on the era of arbitration. The units of comparison by which the progress of the workman has been measured seem to cover but a small number of the workman's expenditures at this day. Un- der the head of groceries are many articles of comfort and luxury not known to the laborer of former centuries. Yet, give the British workman to-day his bread, beer, meat, and rent, and it is remarkable how large a pro])ortion of his outlay can still be brought legitimately under these heads. THE CONFLICT HISTORICALLY CONSIDEREU. 43 The following- table exhibits bis progress during this century in a general way : 1 busli. wheat 1820. 1840. 18G0. 1880. 1884. $3 34 1 06 1 34 48 00 $1 99 89 1 14 96 48 $1 60 56 2 30 1 46 48 $1 33 50 3 57 1 93 67 $1 08 47 3 20 1 92 48 X " malt 30 lbs. meat 2 weeks' rent 2 " fuel 1 day's washes of carpenter " " " laborer Batio of wages to price of five ar- ticles : Carpenter $5 83 73 36 13i 6.3 $5 46 81 36 15 6.3 $6 40 96 48 15 7.5 $6 99 1 30 50 17 7.1 $7 15 1 36 60 19 8.4 Laborer But who can measure by these figures the comfort, the cleanliness, the intelligence, the education, the self-respect, the social weight which these figures represent. The work- man walks erect, no serf nor pauper, but a self-reliant, in- dependent citizen, whose duty it is to exact sternly and uncompromisingly whatever remains lacking of social and political and mercantile consideration. Tliis position the workman lias conquered from the capitalist by union. The unions have conducted the conflict on English soil with great ability. They number over 1,250,000 mem- bers; their accumulated funds amount to $10,000,000, and the amounts they have exjiended in the forty years for maintenance during strikes and for sick benefits have been enormous. They liave obtained a recognition from Gov- ernment, and are consulted on every measure affecting the workman and his interests. Under their intelligent con- duct of the workman's cause strikes have become of rare occurrence, and are usually quickly ami peaceably settled. Many of the strikes of late years have been engaged in 44 TIIK LABOR PROBLEM. contrary to tlie advice of the Executive Committees. The more intelligent of the English workmen have begun to see that striking is a clumsy, uneconomical way of settling a ditficulty. It is a question much disputed whether the organization of trades-unions, and the striking which resulted, are to be credited with the great improvement in the condition of the English workman. The capitalist points to the phe- nomenal growth of commerce and manufacture, and claims that the increase in wages, and in the purchasing power of wages, are due entirely to the country's development. They point to the growth of British trade from $550,000,000 per annum in 1831-40 to $3,500,000,000 in 1884, and say there is the source of your high wages. It is true that when this agitation was at its height, when capitalist and laborer were straining every constitutional and legal right in the conflict, England passed through a period of phe- nomenal business activity. Between 1845 and 1875 the whole method of manufactures and commerce changed. The old costly mode of transportation by land and sea was abandoned, and steam carriage was universally adopted. Since 1846 Great Britain has built 18,668 miles of rail- road, the United States over 120,000 miles — the capital invested in these roads reaches the enormous figures of $12,500,000,000. In 1850, seventy-seven per cent, of the commerce of the world was borne by sailing ships, now seventy per cent, is carried by steam vessels. Dy Sail. By Steamer. 1850 19,2.30,000 tons. 5,850,000 tons. 1883 42,630,000 " 109,450,000 " The construction of railroads and the substitution of iron for wood in the construction of sliips have called into existence the colossal iron and coal industries, and created THE CONFLICT HISTORICALLY CONSIDERED. 45 a manufacturing age. The laborer has, during thirty years, raade his fight on a constantly growing demand. The conditions for a contest were created by the aboli- tion of the combination laws ; the material for the conflict was supplied by the abolition of the Corn-laws ; and the opportunity was furnished by the period of practically un- limited demand for labor. The immense sums of money which were put in circulation by these constantly growing and widening industries brought plenty and comfort and even luxury within the reach of workmen whose parents lived in a state of semi-starvation ; wages steadily increased, and funds for prosecuting the work of the unions were readily obtained. Undoubtedly it is true that without these conditions wages could not have been so continuously high, and the workmen so continuously prosperous. The mere occupying the North American continent, which has been the work of the last two generations, would of itself have increased the wages in all the countries furnishing the occupying races; to these two sources part of the credit is due. But it is equally true that had the laborer not been free to or- ganize, and had he not organized so thoroughly and held on to his rights so tenaciously, he would certainly have been defrauded out of his share of all this prosperity. We have been at some pains to set forth the relations of capitalist and laborer in by-gone generations, and the record, as has been seen, is one of intolerable greed and conscienceless plunder on one side, and of monumental suffering on the other. We have seen the laborer in the relations capital selected for liim, made for him, and compelled him to ac- cept. They have been those of the serf and the pauper. If the laborer in Europe is more than these to-day, it is the result of organization ; if the American laborer intends to maintain his independence, organization is essential, ll 46 tup: lauor problem. is essential to his progress in civilization ; it is essential to liis progress in education, morals, and manners ; it is essen- tial to the preservation of his manliness and self-respect. The day is not yet come for the lion to lie down with the lamb. The workman had better give up his life than his organization. On this side the Atlantic the white laborer lias never experienced the privations of his European brother. Po- litically he has all along been any man's equal. It is per- fectly needless, however, to say that his position has not been entirely exempt from the social stigma which was put on honest labor centuries ago. His income has been comparatively stationary, while mere speculators and pro- tected manufacturers have amassed immense fortunes. But his wages have been attractive to foreign labor. No such volume of labor has ever been thrown on any shores in the history of the world. It is fortunate for the United States laborer that the development of an unoccupied con- tinent has maintained a demand thus far equal to the im- mense supply. The troubles that exist here between Labor and Capital are of foreign growth, created and kept alive by foreigners. They exhibit all the animosities gendered during ages of oppression on foreign soil, transferred to a country where the rights of man — the negro's excepted — have always been respected, where want has been compara- tively unknown, where the privileges of the workman have been exceptionally great. They have depreciated the sta- tus of labor materially. They have driven the American workman in self-defence largely into a middle-man class. Twenty per cent, of all American labor is done by foreign- ers, and probably fifty per cent, by foreigners and men born in the United States of foreign parents. Many of these men have been imported to work at lower than cur- rent wages, and such men avenge this wrong done on Labor THE CONFLICT HISTORICALLY CONSIDERED. 47 by perpetrating outrages repugnant to the American cliar- acter. The American spirit is so strongly opposed to out- rage that it is probable this would never give business serious trouble, were it not for the incompetence and dem- agoguery of local governments. The people can always handle labor or any other troubles in this country when they make up their minds to do it. Organization, however, is as essential to the safe and self-respecting existence of the laborer on American soil as in European communities. PROPER AIMS OF TRADES ORGANIZATIONS. But wLat should be the proper aims and methods of a trades organization ? Our review has shown us that law cannot impose arbitrary wages on laborers free to com- bine; unions cannot impose arbitrary wages on employers free to combine or withdraw from business. The wages must be contained within the product, and must admit provision for interest on invested capital and otber ex- pense. To look upon the union as a machinery for direct- ing a strike is like considering a government as a ma- chinery for waging war. Some great masters of govern- ment have made the latter mistake, some great directors of labor seem to make the other. A strike is a labor war. It is an incident, an unhappy incident, not an object, of union. It is a calamity whether it succeed or fail. Wars and strikes are rarely necessary and always barbarous — ex- cusable, perhaps, in tlie infancies of States and unions, but proof of a thin civilization. What, therefore, should be tlie motives, aims, and meth- ods of a trades organization ? Unquestionably the motive of union among men ought to be the welfare of themselves and of the society or State of wliich they are citizens. No motive short of one of large humanity justifies the associ- 48 THE LAHOR PROBLEM. ation of men in these strenuous days. If the trades-unions fail of this motive tliey will miscarry. It is a necessity of association tliat it be either beneficial or hurtful to society, and if it be not openly, honestly, avowedly beneficial it can hardly be other than hurtful. The aims of such an association should be evident enough. It is not enough in this nineteenth century that they should be merely those beneficiary ones of the ancient guilds, although those — relief in sickness, funeral rites at death, and assistance to the widow and orphan — are noble aims and should not be omit- ted. But there must be more. If it be true that the laborer has not his full share of the product of his labor in his customary wages, it surely becomes the members of an organization to be able to compute labor rights in the product. How many members or officers of unions can do it? It involves a knowledge of the market price of raw material, rates of freight, insurance, and interest ; of •wages, and of the course of the markets in which the prod- uct is sold. If there be truth in the allegation that labor is defrauded, then the union must take the place of the capitalist, and the highest species of association, co-opera- tion, must do him justice. This involves education, and one aim of all labor organizations ought to be education. Capitalists are educated men as a rule; laborers must edu- cate themselves. A legitimate aim of trades-unions should be the recovery of any ancient rights which labor has lost. They have recovered their freedom, they have clothed themselves with all political rights essential to its maintenance (at least on this side the Atlantic). Among the rights they have not recovered is the workman's ancient day of eight hours. The English workman has in many trades reduced his day to nine hours. Where the work amounts to physical toil it cannot be pursued economically — that is in the best man- THE CONFLICT HISTORICALLY CONSIDERED. 49 nor — longer than eiglit liours. There are some occupations making small demands on the physical energies ; for these a longer day may be necessary, in the interests both of em- ployer and employed. A shorter day than ten or twelve hours is necessary if education is to be acquired by the workman, and education is a necessity. Where the eight-hour day has been tried it has been found to work advantageously. The work is better done and the quantity has not decreased. The American day's- work is ten hours. Many trades in England have a nine- hour day, and in some establishments an eight-hour day has been established by the employer. This seems to be a legitimate aim for labor associations to pursue. A legitimate object of trades associations is to procure the enactment of national laws relating to employers and employes, their mutual rights and duties. These laws should regulate — 1. The employment and discharge of workers. 2. The accepting and quitting of work. 3. The sanitary conditions under which work shall be pursued. 4. The moral conditions under which work shall be pur- sued, with particular reference to the employment of women and children. The workman in this country holds the sceptre of the ballot, and can easily acquire all he is justly entitled to by constitutional methods. There is neither power nor dis- position to deny to any man, or class of men, right and justice. The English Parliament has at the instance, and by the insistance, of trades organizations thrown the shield of its protection over the workman, the woman and the child; the American Congress will not be slow to afford the same protection. The arbitrary fixing of wages is not a proper aim for 4 50 THE LABOR PROBLEM. the union. It would only re-enact the old labor laws, to the misery of labor and the ruin of the capitalist. On a falling market it would fail ; on a rising market the em- ployer will arbitrate. In cases where low wages are the result of competition between manufacturers or others, unions should at once interfere. Here is a legitimate field for their energies. In their original bestowment Capital and Labor were united in the same hands. Probably the greatest miseries of our humanity have arisen from sundering them. It is a proper aim for unions to endeavor to reunite them. This can be done by co-operation in many lines of business. But it could be reached by adopting some basis on which employer and employed may unite. The methods of trades societies are important factors in any question of ultimate success. The causes on account of which the ordinary occupa- tions of the community in which men live, and by which they live, are interrupted, should be weighty. We can- not divest ourselves of moral responsibility in this matter. It cannot proceed long on self-will. Interference with the public necessities is unwarranted, except for causes in which the particular community is concerned, and unwar- ranted beyond the bounds of that community. The best cause may be ruined by improper methods. As a rule the whole procedure of strikes is an improper method. Intimidation, mob-law, destruction of property, is not a procedure for a free people with vast tracts of unoccupied lands. AVhatever may be the causes of a strike, no cause possible to exist under our laws will justify violation of law and breach of the peace. The capitalist has not hitherto treated the laborer as a man. In this the capitalist has made a grievous mistake. It is a grievous mistake in a purely economic aspect. No THE CONFLICT HISTORICALLY CONSIDERED. 51 great or permanent returns have ever been gained by Capital from oppressed Labor. The growth of England's wealth has been greater in the last twenty-five years of prosperous and highly paid labor than in all her previous history. Her wealth has doubled in that period. Labor must be treated at least as well as any other source of power. A steam-engine is well housed, well fed with fuel, well oiled, and well governed by a competent engineer. For its economic use, it must work smoothly and continu- ously. We must supply it with all that its material consti- tution requires. The economic use of the horse requires that he be well fed, well housed, and well treated. We must supply him with all that his physical nature demands for its healthy working. In like manner, the economic use of the man requires that all the conditions of his well-being shall be respected. II is physical nature must be supported by good food, clean and comfortable housing, and all other good sanitary conditions; but he has an intellectual being as well — its health must be provided for by education, by the literature at least of his business ; he is a moral power, sen- sitive to right and wrong. lie must be influenced to right and withdrawn from wrong, or you will have a destroy- er, not a worker. But is the economic ground the only ground on which this equitable treatment of the laborer is necessary? Nay, this man is your brother. And this brings this paper to an end. There has been no wrong, nor misery, nor injustice, recorded here that has not sprung from ignoring the fact that the capitalist and the laborer are, after all, brethren. Let us restore the Brotherhood, and the problem is solved. CIIArTEK HI. A SYMPOSIUM ON SEVERAL PHASES OF TUE LABOR QUESTION. MOTIVE OF TUE INQUIRY. That the relations of Capital and Labor in this country are gradually, but none the less surely, becoming more un- satisfactory and strained, is conceded by every careful ob- server. The strikes and lock-outs of the last year, with their almost invariable accompaniments of disorder, disas- ter, and outrage, have pushed the so-called labor question into un[)leasant prominence. Manufacturers, economists, and the better class of workmen are looking about not only for some less wasteful and more rational method than the one now in vogue for the settlement of differences which inevitably arise between employer and employe, but to discover some basis on which both parties may stand without loss of independence, manhood, or conceded rights. To the consideration of some of the many schemes which have been suggested for bringing about this desira- ble result we have devoted several chapters of this book. The questions and experiments have not been discussed with any expectation or thought of a final answer, but with a sincere hope of helping the reader to a better understand- ing of the reciprocal relations of laborers and capitalists. Recognizing the wide-spread and growing interest as to every phase of the labor movement, and desiring to give the public the benefit of the latest thoughts upon the sub- ject, we have solicited contributions from those best quali- SEVERAL PHASES OF THE LABOR QUESTION. 53 fied, by reason of experience or observation, to express an opinion. The following questions were sent to a consider- able number of economists, divines, manufacturers, Com- missioners of Labor Statistics, working-men, etc., with a re- quest for concise answers: 1. Are strikes and lock-outs a necessary feature of the wage system ? 2. Is arbitration the missing coupling between Labor and Capital ? 3. May we not hope to discover some more satisfactory and equitable basis for the division of the profits arising from industrial enterprises? 4. Does the remedy lie in the direction of industrial part- nerships — a mutual participation of all concerned in the profits arising from production ? 5. Is productive co-operation practicable in the United States ? Instead of repeating in each instance the above interrog- atories, we have made use of numerals, to indicate the con- nection between questions and answers. VIEWS OF POLITICAL ECONOMISTS. Professor Edwin R. A. Seligman, Ph.D., Columbia College, New York City. "The problems involved arc so intricate as to preclude the possibility of any satisfactory answer within a short compass. I believe, liowever, that strikes and lock-outs are by no means necessary features of the wage system. They are the first rude and semi-barbarous attempts to settle by sheer force the palpable evils of the new economic regime. They are perfectly legitimate, but as a rule utterly unavail- ing. Economic history, especially in England, shows that 64 THE LAUOK PKOULEM. the defects of the factoiy system, most glaringly at first, are boiiig gradually diminished, chiefly owing to the action of the laborers themselves, but partly as a result of the growth of new conceptions as to the relation between the individual and the State. Force and violence generally precede dispassionate judgment and order, and there can be no doubt but that the system of arbitration and concil- iation, as initiated by Mundella and Kettle, is susceptible of an immense development in the future, even though it will not form "the missing coupling between capital and labor." Trades-unions have done much, and will no doubt accomplish far more in the gradual elevation of the work- ing-classes, but their sphere is circumscribed by the very conditions of the problem. They are composed of work- men, and as workmen pure and simple the lot of the arti- sans cannot be materially altered. An effectual improve- ment can only be accomplished by some method which will insure to the laborers a practical independence, which will lift them as a body out of their position as subordi- nates, and make them feel that they are all equally re- sponsible for the evil, equally benefited by the good which may result from their united efforts. " The secret of the success of the mediaeval guilds, in the period before their decadence, and of the absence of any serious social struggles, lies in the fact that every workman either was or could in time become his own master. In other words, he enjoyed both wages and profits, and in this character of profit-taker he kept pace with the progress of industry. Modern attempts, especially in France (as evi- denced in the recent enquete of the Minister del Rube- rieur), have conclusively shown that the system of indus- trial partnership, when correctly applied, will result in vastly increased gains to the laborer, and in actually in- creased profits to the employer, while the increased activity SEVERAL PHASES OF THE LABOR QUESTION. 55 of the workman and the manifest interest of the employer tend to engender a nuitual kindliness of feeling which ren- ders strikes or lock-outs an occurrence of great rarity. Profit-sharing thus seems to be dictated not only by feel- ings of humanity and justice, but also by the purely eco- nomic considerations of increased gains to the capitalist, enhanced efficiency and carefulness of the laborer, and comparative immunity from disastrous and expensive stop- pages of work. The great need of the times is to bring the cogency of these arguments, re-enforced by irrefutable facts, to the attention of the employers, and a change for the better must ensue. Industrial partnership is indeed only a stepping-stone to productive co-operation. But for successful co-operation certain qualities of mind and heart are necessary which, it must be confessed, scarcely exist in an adequate degree among the American laborers at pres- ent. With increased education, both intellectual and moral, conditions of success may in the future be attained, and in many branches of industry productive co-operation will undoubtedly, some day, play an important role. Every effort should be made to encourage the workmen in their laudable endeavors to introduce co-operation; for only through the experience of repeated failures will ultimate success be possible. For the present, however, the interest centres in the question of industrial partnerships. Every one should study the eminently successful arrangements of Laroche Joubert, at Angouleme, or the former attempts of Brewster & Co., in New York, a member of which firm (Mr. Britton) has declared himself to me as thoroughly convinced of the feasibility of the scheme, and as satisfied with the results in so far as increased profits, enhanced efficiency, and kindly intercourse were concerned." 66 THE LABOR PROBLEM. Professor S. Watekiiouse, of the Washington University, St. Louis. " Your inquiries touch momentous issues. An equitable adjustment of the rehitions of Capital and Lfibor is a prob- lem whose solution demands the gravest thought of states- men and political economists. The settlement of differ- ences between manufacturers and workmen by means of strikes is a rude and costly process. It has been stated that the aggregate loss inflicted upon Great Britain since 1870 by these violent interruptions of productive industry is more than §200,000,000. Every great manufacturing nation loses millions annually by the misunderstandings that arise between employers and their workmen. The waste of property by civil strife between Labor and Capital is almost equal to the havoc of a foreign war. The thrift of the working-classes and the well-being of society imper- atively require the prevention of this enormous loss. A reconciliation of the conflicting interests of manufacturers and their operatives is the difficult task which now chal- lenges the attention of practical thinkers. The history of international dissensions encourages the belief that there is a way of pacifying industrial disagreements. In former ages a recourse to war was the sole means of settling royal disputes. The sword was the nniversal umpire of contest- ed rights. Through the slow lapse of centuries the prog- ress of civilization and enlightened humanity has gradually introduced more reasonable methods of composing national quarrels, and now governments, taught by the desolation and miseries of war, have learned to submit their claims to peaceful arbitration. Many a difficulty which in an earlier age would have been decided by a resort to battle, has in modern times been settled by the bloodless arts of diplo- macy. If the discords of alien governments, imbittercd SEVERAL PHASES OF THE LABOR QUESTION. 57 by jealousies and wrongs, can be barrnonizefl by amicable reference, assuredly mere business differences between mem- bers of the same community ouglit to be susceptible of peaceful adjustment. The fact that such differences have often been reconciled by arbitration proves the feasibility of the plan, aiin School of FinariM and Economy, Univcraiti/ of Pennsylvania, Philadelphia, Pa. "An adequate answer to any one of your questions would take up far more space than you propose to allot to tlie wlii>le discussion. I take pleasure, however, in sending you a brief statement of the conclusions to which my study and observation have forced me to come. I think that pro- ductive co-operation is practicable in the United States. Indeed it has been, in certain places and under peculiar conditions, a decided success. I do not think, however, that either American or iluropean experience in this direc- tion has been so successful as to warrant the opinion that it can be introduced generally enough to be considered a satisfactory solution of the labor problem. Nor do I think that any system of industrial partnership — successful as some of the instances have been — promises much hope of permanent and wide-spread relief under our present eco- nomic system. I would say, liovvever, that I firmly believe that the only means of solving this problem lies in active and long-continued experimentation. Consequently I greet with pleasure every attempt at productive co-operation, or at a fair system of profit-sharing, which also implies loss- sharing, if it is to be permanent and general. In arbitra- tion, on the other hand, as a means of immediate relief and of permanent advantage in various ways, I am a thorough believer. I think it sliould be recognized in law by pro- viding for the establishment of boards of arbiters, whose decisions sliould have a binding force. No good can come from our persistently closing our eyes to patent facts of our social life. Our laws and law-makers at present pro- ceed on the supposition of a state of perfect freedom on the part of every individual laborer and employer, whereas, as a matter of fact, they are both usually (and the excep- SEVERAL PHASES OF THE LABOR QUESTION. G5 tions are becoming fewer every day) members of some or- ganization or other, which practically dictates to each what he must do or leave undone. These organizations are facts with which we have to reckon, and as they are powerful for mischief, they may also become powerful for good un- der a proper system of public control. Arbitration has the great advantage of subjecting the acts of the parties to it to the efficient and powerful control of an energetic public opinion. It recognizes indirectly what is too often over- looked, that the interests at stake are not merely those of the laborer and the employer, but also those of the community at large. The latter has such a great stake in the contest that it cannot aflEord to stand idly by and permit the former to disturb society to its foundations and destroy in their struggle the very conditions of sound economic progress. The real solution lies, however, I think, back of all this. Arbitration, profit-sharing, productive co-operation, are all expedients — makeshifts, I had almost called them — which may help tide over a crisis in national industry, but which cannot be relied upon to keep permanent peace and order. Our only hope of attaining to this lies in the establishment of a system which shall not unduly favor, as our system docs at present, the combination of enormous capital in a few hands, and cheap labor against the combination of small capital and intelligence. To develop this point adequately would take much time and space. I would only call at- tention to one set of forces, which, to my mind, cannot much longer be allowed to work unchecked without seri- ously aggravating the problem. I mean those forces which control in the management of our most important means of transportation, viz., the railroads. Under our present system of railroad economy it is the mere whim or caprice of a railroad president, or at best his regard for his own pecuniary interest, not the natural condition of the country, 66 THE LABOR PROBLEM. which determines whether an industry shall i^row np in A or B, and it often ends in planting an industry hundreds of miles from its natural and proper locality. The system has contributed to building up a few great centres so rap- idly, fit the expense oftentimes of the inlying country, that all economic and social conditions have become highly ar- tificial, with the result of enormously aggravating the dif- ficulties of the labor problem. The remedy for such a complicated disease cannot of course be a simple one. But it must include as a constituent some antidote to the poi- sonous influences of abitrary discrimination. No system of co-operation or profit-sharing, or even abitration on a large scale, can succeed until it is possible to make some estimate of the railroad tax, which is in many cases de- structive no less by its amount than by its uncertainty." Professor George B. Newcomb, College of the City of Neio York. '' Co-operative production by associations of working-men, experience has shown, is apt to prove weak at the centre. A great business at least requires, as does government, unity and strength in the executive. A regime of many masters cannot compete for efficiency with the old system of 'master and man.' Competition has brought to the front of industrial affairs the modern ' captain of industry,' and he seems to me to, in the main, hold the key of the present situation as regards the difficulties and strained re- lations between Labor and Capital. Would not much of the diflBculty disa[)pear insensibly with the growing into favor among employers generally of a more liberal and far-sight- ed policy in dealing with labor than has usually prevailed? A serious error, too often committed by the employing class, is that of reckoning with human labor as with their raw materials and machinery. But commodities and serv- SEVERAL PHASES OF THE LABOR QUESTION. 67 ices are two things very different in their nature and their laws, however economists may persist in subjecting them both alike to the ' rules of the market.' The demands nei- ther of equity nor expediency are satisfied by any business method which treats men as the merely accidental and tem- porary instruments of others' enterprises of production. Figures show that the best paid labor is the most produc- tive and the cheapest. Common-sense tells us that a day's labor is not an absolute quantity like a pound of cotton, but depends for its value upon the good-will and nervous force and heart put into it. As to hours of labor, what is gained in employing the 'plant' as many hours as possible may be lost in fogging out the hands and brains which must manage and watch the machinery. Considerate treat- ment and reasonable expectations encouraged for the fut- ure of the worker will also give ' more power to the elbow.' " I would therefore say to the employer, and with a con- fidence the grounds of which I have only been able to hint at above, Give the man you think worthy to help execute your plans the best chance you can of being healthy and happy in the service ; pay him not the least you can get biin, for, but as liberally as you can, and then do not close acpiunts with him when you have paid him his week's ^ges. When the lapse of a suitable period allows an es- timate of profits to be made, after setting aside interest, in- surance on risk, and generous compensation for the brain and will work of the management, let the working-man share some fair portion of what he has helped to make, in the ratio of each one's service as measured by his wages. "It is not mere theory, but rather the spirit of the I)cst practice, which supports these views of the duty and inter- est of employer. In fact it is hard economic theory which has too rigidly regulated in this industrial age the relations between employers and employed on an artificial type, re- 68 THE LABOR PROBLEM. plucintT the more natural and kindly relations existinr^ in the old time between master and man. Liberal and far-sight- ed dealing with men, in recognition of their human nature, wherever and to whatever extent practised, is certain to meet with its reward in the confidence it awakens and the effectiveness of the co-operation elicited." D. II. Wheeler, LL.D., President of Alleglieny College, Mead- ville, Pa. " 1. The wage system seems to run naturally into strikes and lock-outs. It is practically impossible that the employ- ers and the employed should always agree about wages, and each party will naturally exert its power in order to enforce its claims. There is an influence outside of the wage mar- ket which seems to be at present very active in causing labor troubles. The competition in the sale of goods tends to deprive the employer of freedom to deal with the question of wages as one of the division of profits between himself and his hands. He must produce as cheaply as others or he cannot produce at all. Competition in goods markets seems to cause the disturbances in wages. Wages are subject to a competition in both materials and goods. The power of one manufacturer to make a gain (though it be only temporary) by forcing down wages in order to un- dersell his rivals, seems to be one source of the evil. Wages forced down in one mill tend to make a standard for all. This, however, is only one source of the evil. The general tendency in competition is towards a lower price, and wages are carried down by that movement. The goal of this race is the lowest rate of wages this side of starvation. The competition of laborers with each other does not ap- pear to be conspicuous in the fall of wages — that is to say, the cause of the fall is found in the goods market rather than in the labor market. While the struggle to undersell SEVERAL PHASES OF THE LABOR QUESTION. 69 competitors exists, the pressure to underpay laborers will continue — that is to say, the manufacturer will be able to pay less and less. " 2. Arbitration is an excellent palliative. But it cannot reach the cause of the evil unless it can be applied to the goods market. If products are sold under a rule of free competition which tends to lower prices, labor must be sub- ject to the same rule, and laborers must be expected to resist in all possible ways the force which is pressing them down. This force is not the greed of the individual em- ployer; he is as helpless as the laborer and about equally certain of being crushed under the wheel of competition. "3. We may, like charity, 'hope all things;' the world is probably not going to the dogs through the destructive struggles to sell goods at prices which mean starvation wages. " In attaching importance to the struggle to undersell I recognize that it is only one of several causes of distress. Facts are the best teachers. In the Monongahela coal mines some miners receive two cents a bushel, some two and one-half cents, and some three cents, the difference depending on the length of the contract. On a ten- months' contract miners will accept two cents a bushel. This fact looks ten ways into political economy. Let me add that industrial partnerships would probably fail through the competition of the goods markets, if there were no other difficulty." G. M. Steele, LL.D., Principal Wesleyan Academy, Wilbra- ham, Mass. " Of the five questions which you set forth, the answer to the first throe arc partially implicling both laborer and capitalist to receive larger results from their outlay than they otherwise would. " Of course no employer is perfect. Many are incompe- tent, dishonest, overbearing, and unfit for such a position. Still, I apprehend that this is an agency which cannot be dispensed with without evil consequences to all parties, and not the least of all to the laborer. " Now this functionary is not one that can be made to order, or that will spring into being as the result of an elec- SEVERAL PHASES OF THE LABOR QUESTION. 73 tion. Here is one great obstacle to co-operative produc- tion. It involves the dismissal of the employer as a factor in production. It is true the vacancy thus created is ex- pected to be filled so far as it is necessary from the co- operators. Undoubtedly the aim would be to select some one who has the qualities I have enumerated as essential in the employer. But the judgment of fifty or one hun- dred or more men, a large proportion of whom would neces- sarily be unfamiliar with the essentials of business manage- ment, would be very likely to go wrong. Then, again, the manager so selected, whether from among the co-operating members or outside, would not be willing to assume the care and responsibility of such a position for the compen- sation of an ordinary laborer: this would bring back in large measure the evil of an employer. " It may be asked, why cannot a combination of work- men appoint a manager who shall take the place of an em- ployer as well as a combination of capitalists ? There are several difficulties in the way. I mention but one. In ordinary joint-stock companies it is comparatively easy to find a considerable number of men who by reason of having been themselves employers are well fitted to be directors of the enterprise ; their judgment in all business matters would be decidedly superior to that of average men, whether laborers or otherwise. These would select the immediate managers, who together with themselves would exercise the functions of the employer. A company so organized would be likely to succeed where one composed wholly of labor- ers or small capitalists would be likely to fail. "These seem to me to be some of the reasons why pro- ductive co-operation is not likely to prove successful. There is another method which I think would, to some ex- tent at least, avoid both the objections above mentioned, and the evils incident to the present system. It would be 74 THE LAHOU rUOULEM, a co?iil>ination of co-operation and copartnership by per- mittincj laborers to own sliares in the joint stock companies, making the shares small enongh for this purpose, and specially encouraging the investment, and at the same time allowing the principle of sharing in the profits as before described to prevail." CHAPTER IV. A SYMPOSIUM ON SEVERAL PHASES OF THE LABOR qVESTlO'ii— Continued. VIEWS OF MANUFACTURERS. C. H. Spaulding, Vice-president and Secretary of the Spaulding Iron Company, Brilliant, 0. " 1. No. They grow out of a grasping spirit which is not confined to the employer, and incorrect estimates, made by or for organized labor, of the profits accruing to the employer on account of the skilfulness or fidelity, or both, of workmen. "2. Intelligent, disinterested arbitration could do much to settle disputes. But where is that to be found ? In the recent long- continued strike of the nailers, where could disinterested persons be found who would take a broad view, embracing every point involved, and render a just decision ? "3. The basis of a division of the profits necessarily in- volves a division of the losses, which are often considerable, and are never considered by the workman, unless he is also interested as a stockholder. When he sustains the dual relation of employer and employe, it is often easy, especial- ly in times of general depression, for him to see that the latter is the surer, safer, and more agreeable, as well as more profitable, situation. "4. Business enterprises require for success, primarily, capital and commercial standing. No concern can hope for success without a fair basis of cash and character. If 76 THE LADOR PROBLEM. workmen, or workinon and capitalists comMnccI, liavini:; a sufficient amount of the requisites named, clioose to estab- lish a business upon the ' mutual participation ' plan, their success or failure may depend upon a number of things not contemplated by your questions, "5. 'Productive co-operation ' is not impracticable in the United States, but its success is becoming more and. more problematical by reason of the unfairness of men, who through their short-sightedness seem ever ready to grasp at every seeming advantage in favor of capital on tiie one hand or labor on the other, and for the sake of a mere temporary advantage are ever willing to destroy every reciprocally useful business tie. Prescription : com- mon honor, careful inquiry, horse sense, equal parts, large doses." Gaulbekt, McFadden & Casket, FairJiiU Forge and Rolling Mill, Philadelphia, Pa. " We have a sliding scale, and by giving the men a slight advantage it seems to give them entire satisfaction, as we have had no trouble since July 24, 1880, when they went from a ten weeks' strike to work on that date. The scale was arranged and agreed upon by a committee appointed from either interest, and we have no doubt if other manu- facturers would do likewise a very great deal of the annoy- ance and loss sustained on either side could and would be avoided." B. C. VosE, Esq., Treasurer of the Bay State Iron Company, Boston, Mass. " 1. I answer, No. " 2. I think if a commission of arbitration could be es- tablished fairly, representing both interests, and they had the power to make a decision that should be binding, that SEVERAL PHASES OF THE LABOR QUESTION. 77 most of the difficulties could be amicably and fairly ad- justed. " 3. I answer, Yes. "4 and 5. I am very mucli in doubt." Blackmer & Post, Sewer-pipe Manufacturers, St. Louis, Mo. " In our business we Lave no trouble from strikes, be- cause the number of skilled workmen employed is very limited. In our judgment, strikes and lock-outs are an un- avoidable feature of the present wage system. Arbitration is a temporary remedy at best, for the elements of discord and disagreement exist always between employers and em- ployes. Where large numbers of workmen are under one management we do not think any plan of ' industrial part- nership ' possible whereby all concerned in the production of any article shall be mutually interested in the profit or loss resulting from its sale. It is an impossibility to recon- cile so many discordant elements. We see no remedy for the case in this generation." Charles RrooELY, Esq., President of tlie Springfield {III.) Iron Company, and alio of the Ellsworth Coal Company. " As it seems to me, the dissatisfied feeling among the working-classes is what we always witness in periods of de- pression in business. There are special causes of trouble in many of the different industries, but the discontent is more manifest of late because the times have pinched all of them. We are also just now passing from the condition of a new country, with a sparser population and undevel- oped resources, to that of an old one, with a vedundant population, and with all the appliances in the way of plant, money, transportation, skilled labor, etc., necessary to sup- ply ourselves with about all of the manufactured goods, and in fact everything which we need for the supply^f all 78 THE LABOR PROBLEM. of onr dail}' wants. While the country was new and we were importing goods from abroad, to make up for the lack of capacity of our own manufacturers and other pro- ducers, the prices which obtained were naturally those which were current abroad, plus the cost of transportation, and what other loading came from the tariff and conven- ience of delivery. This made a margin for the payment of higher wages, and to this fact the influx of population in this country may largely be attributed. Now, as one in- dustry after another reaches a point where it can supply tbe wants of the whole country, prices recede. The foreign article is first shut out of the market, and then a fierce competition springs up among the different home concerns with the effect of still further reducing prices. Prices are not reduced except when trade is dull. When trade is dull with industries employing labor largely, a great many men are out of employment, consequently, when prices are reduced, it always happens that prices of labor are reduced. Now, it seems to me that, with the advent of better times, wages will so improve with some of the industries as to silence a great deal of the present complaint, but with oth- ers, and these will largely be manufacturers, trade will hard- ly improve enough to keep them fully employed. The tendency of prices and of wages will be permanently low- er until our costs of production are reduced to the point that will allow of exportation in competition with foreign goods. Then we may hope to maintain wages at that point, whatever it is. Holding these views, I think that there will be more and more difficulty in the management of labor, and that onr population will become more and more turbulent. The trouble is too deep to be reached by any change of method in dealing with labor. It is utterly be- yond the control of capital as anything can be. And the trade^unions are utterly insufficient in coping with it. SEVERAL PHASES OF THE LABOR QUESTION. (9 " I can now answer your direct questions. "1. Theoretically, I should say no. But it will be al- most impossible to prevent them, so long as markets fluct- uate and thereby increase and diminish the demand for labor. " 2. I do not believe that arbitration can be a complete remedy for the differences between Capital and Labor. The price of labor must be governed by the demand and sup- ply, and this principle will assert itself in spite of every ef- fort, either of employers, employes, or arbitrators. Arbi- tration, if sensible, will recognize the fact, and in so far as it decides in accordance with it, it will better matters. But that is the farthest extent to which it can go. " 3. I do not see how the relations between Capital and Labor can, in any general way, be other than that of em- ployer and employe. Nor do I see how any man who is charged with the employment of labor, can set any rule by which to be governed in settling rates of wages, except the market price. "4. I think not, in any large sense. I have seen co- operative establishments flourish in a small way and for a limited time. But my observation has been to the effect that, aside from the difficulty which the lack of capital im- plies, the men lack the most important element of proper business training, and are so jealous and suspicious of each other that they make too many changes of policy and of management to succeed. I see no hope of any immediate improvement in that respect. The best of the men are constantly deserting from their ranks to take their places in the ranks of the capitalists. This will always be so, and the progress of co-operation will be retarded accordingly. "5. If I have not sufficiently answered already, I should say that it was not at the present time, except in a small way and under special circumstances." 80 THE LAUOU PROULEM. John A. Gibnky, Esq., St. Louis, Mo., GetiercU Sales Ar/ent, Bilinont Nail Company. " 1. No; but they arc likely to continue features until a better untlcrstandino- Is reached as to tlie duties of Capital as well as Labor. We bear too much of the rights of Cap- ital and the rights of Labor. Both have important rights, it is true, but too great stress on them is calculated to pro- duce ' strained relations.' The contrary spirit should be encouraged — amicable relations — a community of interest feeling. This will be sooner brought about by each side giving up the habit of mind they seem to have fallen into of gloating over and asserting rights, and begin to consider in their hearts their duties, the one to the other. This mental discipline should begin with the so-called masters — the controllers and representatives of capital. A noble ex- ample on their part will not be without its influence. They should begin by considering whether they are absolute masters or merely stewards, with responsibilities propor- tioned to the power that the temporary possession and management of wealth gives them. They should convert their talents, it is true, but with due regard to the princi- ple of eternal justice. They should not forget that labor is the source of all wealth, and entitled to a fair proportion of that which it creates, and give this proportion freely and ungrudgingly, not waiting for demands to be made on them, in prosperous times. " One of the strongest points Labor makes against Capital is that advances are seldom or never offered voluntarily when times are good. They should consider that merely paying the minimum rate for which they can hire the least skilful or careful of workmen is not filling the measure of duty. Labor is defrauded of wages when denied full par- ticipation in the prosperity of employers. When it is pos- SEVERAL PHASES OF THE LABOR QUESTION. 81 sible, the system of piece-work should be employed so that the most expert and industrious may receive the greatest reward. "When this is not practicable, reasonable hours and fair wages should be accorded. Xo sweeping reduc- tions without fair warning, and an end to these inhuman 'lock-outs' that flood the country with tramps and endan- ger all social order. Let the masters be masters in fact as well as in name, and deserve that honorable title by so mastering their business that we may gradually get quit of the great extremes of depression and activity that have been such unhappy features of our industrial system. Let them abandon this mad desire for supremacy or monopoly that leads to reckless increase of product to the extent of fifty, seventy-five, and one hundred per cent, when a few months or years of prosperity are vouchsafed the country, frequently using their earnings and creating heavy indebt- edness to this end. Let them rather observe the law of natural increase. If wealth and population increase at a steady rate of five per cent., let that be their guide. And withhold excessive dividends as well as avoid all stock wa- tering methods, and seek rather to accumulate such surplus as will enable them to make the necessary changes in plant that new processes demand, as well as carr}' their product when demand falls off. They may at such times find it necessary to reduce the liours of labor or scale of wages, which will be accepted on both sides as preferable to lock- outs or strikes. They must not rely too much on the ' su- premacy of cash,' and disregard the well-being of the work- men. Their own safety demands adherence to the principle of justice, and perseverance in it will disarm the profession- al agitator. Such consideration can only be claimed for labor by their deserving it, and they can only deserve it by giving more thought to their duties than their rights. Merely performing their allotted task in a routine way, and 82 THE LAUOK I'KOBLEM. shirking all tliey can, docs not fulfil the measure of this duty. They must put their conscience into their work, despising the shirk and avoiding all wastefulness, and with an eye single to the interests of their employers, keeping . in mind that their continued success and ability to afford steady work and fair wages will depend on the skill and carefulness of workmen. They must be willing to accept reductions in wages and shorter hours of labor when times are dull, and should be very careful about giving their alle- giance to dangerous societies that demand of them the sinking of their individuality in blind obedience to un- known and perhaps unworthy masters, and which makes them unwilling participants in strikes that are ordered without sufficient grounds and against their better judg- ment. They should look on strikes of this kind as crimes against their employers, themselves, and families, and so- ciety at large. They should give over looking on the mas- ters as drones, who live off their labor. Because they see them in comfortable offices reading over papers and study- ing over plans, they must not envy them exemption from manual labor. Mental labor is the most arduous of all, and next to virtue there is no article so rare and invaluable as brains, and none entitled to so high a reward. The promise is that virtue will receive the highest reward in the next world as brains does in this. It is no longer blood that tells, as in the days of conquest and brute force — it is brains that tell. And the few that have the brains must be the organizers and leaders of men. Yon must not despair if you see some who make success the rule of right and wrong. The world is not, as the revolutionists would have us believe, ' the patrimony of the most dexterous scoundrels.' It is for all to enjoy within certain bounds. In conclusion, I vt^ould say an educated or quickened con- science on both sides, by studying the duties rather than SEVERAL PHASES OK THE LABOR QUESTION. 83 the rights of Capital and Labor, will answer not alone one but all of your questions. An adherence to the principle of eternal justice will — 1. Make strikes and lock-outs no longer necessary features, but rare exceptions. 2. Lead to arbitration. Men who consider first their duties, the one to the other, are in a fair mood for arbitration. 3. Not only give grounds for hope of reaching a satisfactory and equitable basis for division of profits arising from indus- trial enterprises, but reach in proportion as the principle is allowed to operate, 4. It will amount to practical partici- pation in the profits arising from industrial productions. 5. It will be true co-operation — free from the well-known objections that have been found to all schemes of a co-op- erative character that have been tried so far." General W. H. Powell, President Western Nail Company, Belleville, III. " My answers to your important questions shall be brief and given from my long practical stand-point. I shall not attempt to deal with any other phase of business interest than that in which I now am and have been engaged since 1835, as employe and employer, in organizations co-opera- tive and non-co-operative, individual and corporative. For I concede that in influence the late consolidated Amal- gamated Iron and Steel Workers' Association of America is the most powerful of all labor organizations, and the most rigid monopoly in existence to-day in the United States — all other labor organizations being but mere off- shoots. "1. I do not consider strikes and lock-outs as necessary features, or results of the present wage system. I hold that the true and real interests of Capital and Labor arc identical and inseparable. They are, however, the results consequent upon the ill-advised counsels of designing men, 84 THE LABOR PROBLEM. denoiiiiiiatt'd leaders, who are influenced by passion and prejudice, regardless of the real interests of the masses of the laboring classes, protecting the highest paid labor, and controlling the lowest paid labor by intimidation and def- amation, regardless of consequent results. " 2. Arbitration is, in my opinion, the necessary link be- tween Capital and Labor. The refusal of the organization known as the United Nailers to submit the wage question to arbitration last April, as was the custom of the Amal- gamated Association of the Iron and Steel Workers of the United States, from which the United Nailers of America seceded last spring, is the sole cause of the long, bitter contest between the manufacturers and their workmen. Legislative arbitration will not obviate strikes and their consequent evils. "There is no power in the State, Church, or societies, no police or military capable of compelling or enforcing com- pulsory practical arbitration. Capital and Labor have ever existed in their separate, independent spheres and interests, and ever will to the end of time. Their union alone makes their combined interests one and inseparable. Amicable arbitration between Capital and Labor is the only true rem- edy. The adjustment of all wages must be based upon the equitable claims of each, which, in my opinion, can only be reached through the medium of an adjustable scale, governed by the minimum and maximum marketable val- ues of the combined product of capital and labor. " 3. I think it next to an impossibility to establish an equitable, harmonious basis between Capital and Labor, or between the individual laboring participants in industrial partnerships, upon the mutual participating basis for the divisions of profits ; hence I do not deem it necessary to argue the question. Neither do I think that the remedy suggested in your fourth question lies in the direction of SEVERAL PHASES OF THE LABOR QUESTION. 85 industrial partnerships and mutual participation in the prof- its. Inequality is seen upon the entirety of God's created work. x\ll men are not alike, nor can any power on earth make them so. Hence, the combination of capital and unequalled labor in capacity and adaptability upon an in- dustrial partnership and mutual participation in the profits of the business would require an ad valorem system in men's capacity, tempers, dispositions, and ambitions, as well as wages or equal divisions of profits, which would open up a new and difficult basis of equalization, which we regard as improbable, if not indeed impossible. " 5. The experiences of productive co-operative enter- prises in the United States are by no means flattering, nor do they give any hope of relief. The instances on record of the organizations of co-operative industries are many, while the history of the success of such enterprises are very few. Results show very conclusively that the co-operative features of such enterprises were of short duration because of the lack of adhesiveness in the body corporate absolute- ly necessary to success — demonstrated in the old truism that too many cooks always spoil the broth." Warrek T. Kellogg, Manager Empire Portable Forge Com- pany, Colwes, N. T. "1. It is not an easy matter to explain one's position on the great questions of Labor and Capital in a few words, and in many cases one is liable to be misunderstood. In answering your questions, I feel compelled to admit that, as at present organized, strikes and lock-outs are the neces- sary and unavoidable fruits of the wage system, and will continue to be in ail large establishments, where the em- ployer cannot be personally acquainted with his employes. And these things must continue until the wage is deter- mined by the profits of the Itusiness. 86 THE LABOR PHOBLEM. " 2. I have no expectation tliat arbitration can solve the ditBculty. " 3. The trne basis, as hinted above, is co-operation, or at least to that extent that the sober and industrions em- ploye can advance his interests by advancing those of his employer, which state of things I believe to be practical, and will result in lifting up the laborer and developing a class now almost unknown in the United States, viz., a servant seeking the best interests of his employer." Samuel Laughlin, Esq., President of the Junction Iron Com- pany, WJieeling, Wed Virginia. " The experience of myself for six months in our mills at Mingo and Martin's Ferry, both nail-mills employing a large number — over one thousand — of intelligent operatives and men whom I personally highly esteem, has been pain- ful to myself and brother, whose death was produced by the incidents of the strike, now lasting over seven months. I have been a quiet observer of the inception and progress of this difficulty, and have been an unwilling participant in it. I do not feel that strikes or lock-outs are a neces- sary feature of the wage system, but do believe arbitration the proper method for the settlement of the differences which arise between the employers and those employed. I am confident, could the parties connected with our nail- raills have had a board of arbitration or even a conference committee, or any method of bringing the moderate and conservative men of both sides together, a settlement could have been reached, saving the immense loss of wages, keep- ing the busy wheels of mills in operation, avoiding scenes of riot, maintaining the peace and laws which have been violated, giving the food and comfort to many families which have been deprived of it, and kept many a good n)an from saloons, intemperance, and vice — the sequences SEVERAL PHASES OF THE LABOR QUESTION. 87 of idleness. In the initial point of our differences this year there was no provision made by the nailers for any conference with the manufacturers, and before such had been provided passion and prejudice had usurped the seat of judgment and true arguments, and facts were accepted only as the means of securing selfish purposes. While I believe the scale presented to the nailers by the manufact- urers mainly correct, and demanded by the condition of trade and surrounding competition, yet it made demands only which could have been harmonized with conflicting views had both parties met in conference. The nailers of our locality are intelligent men as a class and could readily see the requirements of the day, that any arbitrary scale placing us at a disadvantage with other manufacturers could only be to their ultimate disadvantage. Hence I feel that arbitration is not only a wise method, but in fact the only way to harmonize differences arising in reaching an equita- ble basis of the wage question, although I am not prepared to suggest the method most desired." N. O. Nelson, Esq., President of the N. 0. Nelson Manufactur- ing Company, St. Louis, Mo. ** Responding to your serial questions concerning strikes and lock-outs, I would say : " 1. Under the present wage system strikes and lock- outs are a necessary feature. " 2. Arbitration is not a perfect but the most available remedy. "3. A better remedy must be sought in a revision of the whole system of property and its distribution. "4 and 5. The industrial force is too large and unwieldy to allow of co-operation or division of profits being gener- ally adopted. The origin of the pressure of wage-workers for employment at the hands of capital lies in two fuiid.i 8S THE LABOR PROBLEM. moiital causes — the inonop(,)ly and consequent witliholdinf^ from use of great bodies of land and the displacement by maeliinery of a large percentage of independent proprie- tors in country and city. In new countries, where }and is free or very cheap, there are few wage -workers and no strikes. In the great industrial States it requires a consid- erable fortune to be a proprietor of any description. Cap- ital in both real and personal property accumulates and centralizes into relatively few hands with a corresponding and necessary increase in number and dependence of wage- earners. In the periods of active exchange, wages, prices and profits are good. The proprietor saves a liberal mar- gin, stocks accumulate, and at last so much is stored up that there is a clear surplus, and factories begin to close. Wages ceasing, cuts off the workman's purchases, and soon a general stagnation results. Had a larger share been paid the workmen tlie surplus would not have accumulated. Was there now free or cheap land the workman could leave his glutted employment and make his living outside the factory ; the excessive pressure for factory employ- ments would never have occurred, and inequalities of pro- duction would readily adjust themselves. With some fac- tories closed, many running short time, and goods a drug at rapidly declining prices, wages go down. Here comes in the strike and the lock-out. Each manufacturer is one of a vast system ; he cannot pay more, if he would, than his competitors ; he can run by underselling, but this he can do only by reducing wages. He has gained his foot- hold by force and independence of character, and he will not in this emergency submit to interference by others, certainly not his workmen. Ignorant or careless of gen- eral principles, he holds his affairs to be his own, and labor to be worth just what it will bring. He can stop his fac- tory and live. His hands cannot. An irrepressible conflict SEVERAL PHASES OF THE LABOR QUESTION. 89 is thus reached as distinct as that which Seward declared to exist between freedom and slavery. Half-starved and exasperated, the combined workmen strike. Production stops, enormous waste ensues, and hot blood is engendered. Some would arbitrate, but under all circumstances the vast majority of employers would beg to be excused from inter- ference. Co-operation in general is impracticable because workmen have insufficient capital, and chiefly because they must guess at their leaders, while the capitalist proprietor has reached his position by natural selection and adapta- bility. Starting as equals, a scramble for the softer places must engender dissensions, jealousies, and disorder. In- dustrial partnerships or sharing profits with employers is open to about the same objections. Too many cooks spoil the broth. As each man is primarily caring for himself first, the employer cannot well see his advantage in first paying, as he must, the same wages as his competitor, and then dividing at the end of the year. Whether short- sighted or not, he would prefer to pay at once what he was to finally pay. That strikes and lock-outs are a waste, and a source of distress much similar to war, is self-evident ; and pitting class against class as distinctly as in the days of Louis XVI., we may well look with alarm at the rap- idly approaching day of settlement. Millions of able and intelligent men, citizens of a bountiful country, will not complacently see their families hungry while they are will- ing to work for the bread and clothing and house-room which is superabundant, and they will not look too scrupu- lously at the tenure of title by which a few men have se- cured so great an advantage. As nothing better can be immediately reached, arbitration and a division of profits are commendable remedies. In the mean time the pay- ment of fair wages will, as a rule, obviate strikes." 90 THE LADOR PROBLEM. Elliot Todd, Esq., President Standard Foundry, St. Louis, Mo. " 1. Yes. "2. No; the party who feels aggrieved will find a way to avoid any agrceinent. " 3, There are many arrangements of this kind, but it requires an unusually shrewd man to manage them in bad times. " 4 and 5. As long as every man is as good or better than the one in authority, just so long will men be dis- satisfied at not getting as much as he." A. N. Drummond, Esq., President of the Black Heath Mining Company, Colfax, la. "1. I believe there are cases where laborers can get jus- tice in no other way. " 2. Some good may result from arbitration. "3. Yes. " 4. In my experience the laborers seem to want all the profits. " 5. In some cases maybe." A. H. Danforth, Esq., Vice-President and General Manager of the Colorado Coal and Iron Company, South Pueblo, Col. ** 1. Strikes and lock-outs are not a necessary feature of the wage system, but are necessarily associated with human society in a certain stage of development. They are the outgrowth of certain characteristics of human nature — avarice, obstinacy, independence, and a strong sense of right and justice. These are the characteristics of all strong- races of men, and hence strikes only occur among the races which in other ways have shown strength of character. The same traits of character which produce wars among nations cause labor strikes and lock-outs. SEVERAL PHASES OF THE LABOR QUESTION. 91 " 2. Arbitration is not a panacea to cure the ills of labor, but it represents the next stage of human development in advance of strikes. In the Middle Ages might was right, and every dispute was settled by a resort to force. This was the age of feudalism. Following that came the estab- lishment of courts of justice for the settlement of disputes, and the judge and lawyer took the place of the baron and soldier in the settlement of private differences. Strikes and lock-outs are the characteristics of the feudal age of labor and capital, and arbitration will be the characteristic of the age of law. But arbitration will probably bring no greater satisfaction for either side. It will merely involve the use of different and less costly and more humane methods, and hence it means one step in advance. " The third, fourth, and fifth questions all relate to the same general subject, and so I will answer them collectively. There are three fundamental causes of labor troubles. 1st. The question of equitable division of the profits of produc- tion between the laborer and employer. 2d. The desire for uniformity, not equality, of wages on the part of the less skilful workmen. As the most skilful are in a minority, and as they are less apt to join trades-unions, because they do not need their protection, the less skilful and the slothful have no difficulty in controlling the action of labor unions, and hence in all these bodies is engrafted the inequitable principle that the poor workman should receive the same rate of wages as the skilful one. ."^d. The influence of unscrupulous labor leaders and agitators. I speak now only of the class who foment trouble because their oc- cupation and profit arise from the prominence into which they rise in times of strikes. They are the buz- zards who hover about and fatten upon the battle-field where Labor and Capital have fought. The remedy for the first cause lies largely with the individual employer. THE LABOR PROBLEM. lie must win the confidence of those he employs. In do- ino" so he must contend with ignorance and prejudice very often ; but if his acts are inspired by a sense of right and justice, and if he is willing to let that sense show forth in his acts, he will eventually succeed in establishing a basis of mutual trust and esteem with his employes. I believe that the special way in which this can be done must vary with the circumstances of the case, but I believe that the remedy lies in the direction of the following plan, which could be adapted to most cases: Let the employer say to his fore- man, I am entitled to so much per cent, as interest on my investment. You are entitled to such rates of wages for your labor. At the end of each year all profits over and above expenses — including in expenses the interest on in- vestment — shall be divided between employer and employes, that which goes to employes to be pro-rated on the basis of number of days' work done. The details of the system would have to be adjusted to suit individual cases, but the principle involved would, I believe, be equitable, and would bring peace and prosperity to both employer and employed. One difficulty would arise in cases where a year's business showed a loss ; but if every manufacturer worked upon this system there would be less loss, as it would tend to prevent ruinous competition resulting in goods being sold at less than cost. Such a system would also meet the growing de- mand for shorter hours of labor. Many farmers and mer- chants have long ago adopted this principle, and it has been found to work well. But, as I have said before, much de- pends npon individual character, and no system will com- pensate for lack of judgment and sound sense in the indi- vidual who attempts to apply it. As to the second cause, the remedy lies in an alliance for mutual protection between the employer and the industrious workmen on the one hand against the slothful and careless workmen on the SEVERAL PHASES OF THE LABOR QUESTION. 93 other, just as the moral elements of society band them- selves together against the vicious. The remedy for the third cause lies in a greater degree of intelligence (not necessarily education, but intelligence) among workmen. This intelligence can be fostered and cultivated very great- ly by the employer ; and when the employer has once put himself in a position where he has won the confidence of his men, he need have no further fear of the influence of evil-disposed leaders. The solution of the whole question of the relations of Capital and Labor must be evolved out of the chaos which now exists, and much time and money will be spent before the solution is reached. The employer who recognizes the just rights of his men, and who places himself on a footing of equity and confidence with them, is the fittest, and hence will survive, and thus eventually will the problem be worked out. The co-operative plan, pure and simple, can never come into play except as regards en- terprises on a very small scale, and even then it is not like- ly to succeed, but the co-operative principle in some form must be the basis upon which industrial enterprises will finally be adjusted. The aggregation of wealth in a few hands, coupled with discontent among the masses, are in- compatible with republican institutions, and safety lies in some middle ground between an aristocracy of wealth on the one hand and socialism on the other." The Secretary and Treasurer of one of the largest steel manufactur- ing concerns in this country writes : " 1. Not necessarily. Ignorance and liquor-drinking are the difficulties on the one hand, and greed on the other. " 2. Doubtful. Experience here has been on the whole unfavorable. . . . " 4. Not with the class of working-men employed in this vicinity. 94 THE LABOK PROBLEM. " 6. Yes, conditioned upon the workmen being provi- dent and intelligent." Joseph Corns, Su., of Joseph Corns & Son, Masdllon (0.) liolling-mill. " 1. No! most positively no. It is the lack of knowl- edge on both sides of the wage system, and the ignorance grows out of the consuming greed for the lion's share on both sides. The effort and time is used and made in se- curing that end rather than in finding out which, in the long-run, would be the most equitable to both. Until the latter becomes the rule of action, strikes, etc., will occur, and the ever-varying conditions of trade will determine the kind and amount of friction between the parties in in- terest. " 2. We answer just as positively. No. No arbitrator can comprehend the varying conditions of each side, and very few men will so expose their private affairs as to fully en- able the arbitrator to judge fairly ; and the result of the answers to question No. 1 is the entire loss of confidence between the parties in interest that make arbitration a farce, which seldom lasts as long after the results of an ar- bitration is known as it required to reach the decision ; and I have invariably found that the consenting to the re- sult of arbitration was no more nor less than the weak side desiring an excuse for abandoning, for the time being, the contest, to be taken up at a more convenient season. " 3. We answer again. No. No division of profits in the form of dividends made up from the yearly settlements will satisfy both parties at the same time. If dividends are short, somebody is dissatisfied — bad management or something else is the cause. " 4. No ; for the reason that so many men whose labor is so varied and so little understood by each other that SEVERAL PHASES OF THE LABOR QUESTION. 95 jealousy and bickerings are the result, and failure in the end as a very natural result. "In my judgment, made up from an experience of fifty- five years' duration, both as employer and employe, there is but one way to successfully conduct the iron business. First, the employer must act truthfully, promptly, consid- erately, and impartially with all the men employed, keep- ing no man that he cannot treat with common decency, being at all times ready to pay all the wages that the busi- ness will justify, and do it cheerfully. If such a course is pursued there will seldom be a misunderstanding, for I have always been able to show a good cause for any change in wages, and they were generally accepted until within a few years; and since then the whole mass of employers are mistrusted and distrusted as the result of the tyranny of some employers. There are some among them and no mistake. Workmen properly treated will seldom if ever strike — that is my experience. The bitterness now exist- ing is the result of continued oppression and retaliation, first by one side, then the other, and until all this can be changed the fight will go on. You may theorize and rea- son and plan and arbitrate as you please, but the chasm will remain unbridged. There are numerous and good reasons that could be given for the position taken, but I suppose your spare room would not be sufHcient to repeat them." Tlie writer of the following is a prominent iron manufacturer, who requests us to withhold his name. " It will be conceded that ' the relations of Capital and Labor are gradually but none the less surely becoming more strained,' so are all other monetary and tariff relations simi- larly affected. They arc matters too profound for solution by legislation; they can only be solved by the long, painful ex[ierience of ages — by the slow evolutionary growth that 96 THE LABOR PROBLEM. must result from a liiijjher and more general civilization — hy uplifting man, not by law, but by education, by moral re- straint. " The writer knows of model shops and factories in pros- perous Ohio and Indiana towns and cities, which have for several decades been a source of profit to employers and workmen, in which no strike or lock-out attended with vio- lence or disorder has ever occurred, and in which no such violent strikes as occur in rolling-mills and mines is pos- sible. The men are intelligent, thrifty, well-paid, and thoroughly free and independent. The saloon does not en- croach on their financial and moral resources, nor the lodge on their manhood. The man is supreme, not the lodge. They use wisely the freedom which the laws give each of them. With such conditions I would answer your first question in the negative. " But given a class of employers who have nothing in common with a class of employes bonded together by ag- gressive socialistic and labor lodges, whose members are mostly of foreign birth, whose wages, ample for the family and school, are spent in the saloon — with such conditions I would answer your first question in the affirmative, and say that violent and disorderly strikes are unavoidable, and can only be averted by a higher civilization, not by law. " Granted entire freedom to Capital and Labor (and this is about all the law can do) and the violence and disorder of strikes would be impossible. The long, world-wide, in- dustrial depression has demonstrated that the price at which the employer can sell his product and the workman his labor are beyond the control of either and beyond the con- trol of legislation — they are governed by the world's demand and supply. "Arbitration presupposes reasonable litigants; with these it is perhaps the best method that can be adopted. One can SEVERAL PHASES OF THE LABOR QUESTION. 97 always arbitrate with free, reasonable men, but never with a lodge. " The writer knows of strikes lasting five and six months, with ineffectual conference and loss on both sides, where a full understanding was never reached until the bankrupt raanufacturer met his tramp workman on tiie common highway of equality. They then knew less about political economy than they thought they did, but a great deal more about 'the relations of Capital and Labor.' This is a case that the law cannot reach ; nothing but the principles of the Sermon on the Mount conld avert it. There is noth- ing conclusive except practical results. Oh, how weary we all are of theories ! That was a wise iron manufacturer who answered Secretary Manning's letter about the cost of iron. ' The only way to find the cost of iron,' he said, ' is to build a rolling-mill and run it.' He was right. Money and profits are regulated by inexorable but beneficent laws of which we scarcely know anything. Capital is so abundant, so alert, that any manufacture paying even about six per cent, profit is at once duplicated, or any railroad paying more than the same profit is at once paralleled. Thus nothing can withstand our sharp American competi- tion. What the law could not do, in that it was weak, competition has accomplished. Monopolies and even suc- cessful combinations are impossible. "So long as the people of this country spend $1,000,- 000,000 yearly on the drink habit, so long will the rela- tions of Capital and Labor be strained, as well as ail other relations that affect the well-being of our country." E. A. Wheeler, Esq. , Man/irjer of the Wheeler Furnace Com- pany, Sharon, Pa. " 1. Strikes and lock-outs are necessary, and are the only legitimate way to settle prices of labor under the present 7 98 THK LABOR i'ROBLKM. wage system. The wage-worker lias no other way to test the market for increased wages than to stop work and see whether the operator will pay the demand or shut down the works. If times are good and the article manufactured wanted, the stop is generally of short duration, the opera- tor accedes to the demand and adds a percentage to the selling price of his goods, and the works go on and every person has been benefited. But if times are hard, and a large stock on hand, the proprietor is overjoyed that his pay-roll is stopped, and it gives him a chance to clean out the stock and make his collections, and in a short time he is in a much better position. Although there has been much bad blood stirred up, like muddy water it has settled by standing ; the strike is settled and all works well again. Lock-outs are conducted much the same way, only the op- erator finds himself overstocked with goods and a dull market, and he must either stop work or reduce the cost, and he demands a reduction in wages, or a shut down if his workmen refuse to accept; the lock-out follows, very likely to the advantage of both parties. The operator cleans up his stock, gets in better shape, calls in his work- men and settles on some terms, and all goes on as before. Strikes seldom occur when times are good, and I hope to show, before I am through, how the surplus labor can be utilized. " 2. Arbitration is not satisfactory, and never will be as a means of settling this great labor question. It is a com- promise without any regard to fairness. It is a ' split-the- difEerence' ' horse- jockey ' style. It gives neither party what they demand, consequently neither party is satisfied. The proprietor knows better what he can do in his own business than any stranger can come in and tell him ; and if the compromise does not suit him he can close his works, and will, if he cannot run at a profit. We have an arbitra- SEVERAL PHASES OF THE LABOR QUESTION. 99 tion law in this State, and it was tried in the coal-miners' strike last year near Pittsburg, and the miners refused to stand by the decision of the arbitrators. "3. Industrial enterprise is the great lever that moves the commerce of the world, and free to all. It is the means by which the laborer with energy, sobriety, and enterprise becomes the workman, foreman, proprietor, capitalist, mil- lionaire, and finally denounced as the bloated bond-holder, although his enterprise has employed honest working peo- ple by the thousands. Industrial enterprise offers success to all who have the pluck and brain to work themselves up. " 4. The Standard Oil Company might be called a pro- ductive co-operation. They took out a charter, subscribed stock, elected officers, and went into the oil business, em- ployed laborers and workmen by the thousands, paid as good wages as others, gave steady employment, extended their business all over the civilized world, and have made large profits, which they have divided among their stock- holders. They are denounced as a great monopoly. If we had plenty inore such monopolies labor would find bet- ter employment. There is nothing to prevent others from organizing and doing as they have, if they have the energy and brains to run the business. There is only one monop- oly that we need to fear — that is land monopoly. Land is God's given inheritance to the people, and it is a burning shame and sin that our government has been giving it away to corporations and selling it to foreigners in large blocks. No man or company should be allowed to hold any more land than ho could use, say from one liundred to five hundred acres, and the government should take posses- sion of ail over that amount by purchase or otherwise, and hold it for actual settlers. Nothing will change the whole nature of a man so much as to have a home of his own. 100 TIIK LADOR PROBLEM. This is a question that cveiy American citizen is interested in. The land monopoly could be regulated by an increased tax-rate per acre on large tracts, so that it would be un- profitable to hold them. " We all see the condition of things. We see the great masses of idle, discontented, hungry, and desperate, com- munism, socialism, dynamitism, and labor unions, all en- deavoring to do something, they know not what. This is too vast a question for individual enterprise to solve. Per- haps the nearest this labor question was ever solved was under the rule of Louis Napoleon in France. He knew the way to keep the people contented was to keep them employed. In Paris he opened up lanes into boulevards, he tore down dilapidated buildings and in their places built the finest blocks. He made Paris the finest city in the world. He built docks and harbors — in fact, did any- thing and everything to keep labor employed. He taxed Capital to pay Labor, and the people were prosperous and happy. "The only way I see out of this trouble is for the gov- ernment to take it in hand ; first, by regulating the emi- gration to this country. In times of great depression we cannot afford to take all the surplus labor of Europe. I know of no better way than to collect a duty from each emigrant. If this is a better country than the one they left, why should they not pay for the privilege of our ad- vantages? I would make the tax large enough to keep out the beggars, thieves, organ-grinders, socialists, and communists. Then let Congress pass an act authorizing the President to call out or enlist a civil service army, equipped for work under the command of our regular army officers and engineers, at draining and reclaiming swamp lands, boring artesian wells (where water is scarce), build- ing harbors, straightening rivers, building a great national SEVERAL PHASES OF THE LABOR QL'ESTIOX. 101 railroad from east to west, preparing waste lands for set- tlers; and when a man has served the time he enlisted for, give him a farm and free transportation to it and a little money to start, and in this way take up the surplus labor. Give the communist and socialist a chance to own a home and he will quit talking about dividing up. This may be considered a wild scheme, but something must be done ; either the government must take care of this surplus labor or they will have to employ an army to suppress bread riots and mob law." E. G. Peckham, Esq., Toledo, 0. " It is certainly in a very bad situation now, when tlie employer thinks his men the most unreasonable and ngly set on earth, and the employes think their bosses would force them down to starvation prices if they could. This war has been going on so long that it will be more difficult to get things in the right track than it would have been at an earlier day. But to the employer who is willing to allow his men a fair and equitable share of the profits of the business the difficulties are not insurmountable. Sup- pose we infuse a little practical Christianity into the busi- ness. Let the proprietors get acquainted with their men ; call them together once in a while and talk to them, and invite the men to talk back ; furnish them with a library and a reading-room ; give them a half day holiday occa- sionally ; look after the comforts around their homes, and by other such ways make them feel that you are their friend and well-wisher. They will soon reciprocate the kindly feeling and give you their confidence. How does a general do with his army ? lie looks out carefully for their comfort — sees that their rations are good and abundant, water near, etc., and he wants them to know that he is solicitous for their comfurt. He wants them lUJ THE LABOR I'KODLEM. not only to obey bis commands, but to respect bim and feel kindly towards bim — knowing that with such feel- ings they will obey bim more promptly and fight more courageously. It is precisely so with your armies of work- ers. It is for your interest to gain their confidence. They are not any more desirous of strikes than you are, will bear a good deal of what they think injustice before resorting to a strike. But they must have food and raiment and the comforts of a home ; life, liberty, and the pursuits of happiness. Cultivate something of the spirit that prevails at Pullman and in other places. I think this the only true solution of the labor problem, and I do not see why it is not entirely practical, and would make things not only much pleasanter, but also very much more profitable to all concerned. A contented man will be an eflScient worker." J. F. Darnall, President of the Greencastle {Indiana) Iron and Nail Comj)any. " 1. They are a natural result of the present system. The wage-worker studies but one side of the question, hence is educated and indoctrinated into false ideas and theories of commercial interest, and seeks to do by organ- ization that which is impracticable and absurd. Stimulat- ed by the cry of oppression, he is led to be the oppressor. Designing men and demagogues, ever on the alert for self- ish purposes, availing themselves of opportunities presented by labor disturbances for notoriety, are no small factors in producing unrest and disquietude. " 2. No ; I answer, No ! The missing link is common- sense, and to this we must come for a correct solution. Labor is business, and the employment of labor is business ; employer and employe have equal rights, and are entitled to equal protection by law, reason, or justice. A man sells his labor as a merchant sells his goods. It takes two to SEVERAL PHASES OF THE LABOR QUESTION'. 103 make a contract. Where does tlie principle of interven- tion come in if one of the parties does not wish to buy or sell to the other? In the absence of specific contract it is nowhere held that a man can compel another to work for him if he does not want to work. Nor should a man be compelled to hire a man he does not want. If this princi- ple is correct as to one man, it is equally so as to ten men ; or if the employer be one man or a company of men, dif- fering only in degree. A man or company of men build an elevator, and will only pay seventy-five cents per bushel for wlieat; the farmers ask a dollar. Do they call for a board of arbitration ? No ; they simply keep the wheat or take it elsewhere. Is there any more reason why arbitra- tion should be called to say what the elevator company should pay for labor to handle the wheat than to say what they should pay for the wheat? "Let us apply this common-sense principle to all indus- trial pursuits. If Capital will not pay the price Labor de- mands, leave both in the enjoyment of their rights and property; to impose on one is tyranny, the other slavery. The spirit of communism springing into life in this coun- try is a result growing out of a violation of this plain, com- mon-sense idea. We believe the tendency for both Labor and Capital is to smaller rewards. The country is passing from a sparse to a dense population, the labor portion in- creasing probably in the greater ratio, and by natural law the inclination of wages downward. Capital, by excessive competition, has been compelled to avail itself of all mod- ern appliances to increase its productive capacity to cheapen the product. The great cry of the age is ' cheap goods,' which means cheap labor. Both are coming, and much of the resistance offered is fighting the irresistible. "As to your fnirth and fifth questions in regard to in- dustrial partnerships and productive co-operation, I would 104 'I'lIK I.AUOK I'UOIII.KM. say, \vc recoji^nizo the equality of all iik^ii before the law, and that they are endowed with certain inalienable rights, etc. But tlicre is a difference in the circumstances, apti- tudes, thoughts, inclinations, opinions, and judgments of men that make it impossible to bring into general use a system of productive co-operation that would produce har- mony in the le in the I'liiti.'d Slates? Not at IVG THE LABOR PROBLEM. present. Our labor classes are not yet settled in coniniuni- tics where tiicy can or will be able to remain permanently. This is an absolute necessity before co-operation can be ex- pected at all. Our laborers are not acquainted with each other, nor can they become so acquainted until broujzht together by an organizer, who is usually a capitalist. When Capital realizes, as it must eventually, that co-operation will improve production, increase earnings, and facilitate improvements, then co-operation will be possible and profit- able. That laborers can unite and thus secure co-operation is not possible at the present state of the social problem, except in a few of the older manufacturing centres." Hon. J. M. Swank, General Manager American Iron and Steel Association, Philadelphia, Pa. "Unfortunately, arbitration in this country, which has been sanctioned and regulated by law, but not enforced by it, has been of little avail in the settlement of disputes be- tween employers and employes. All other arbitration, being merely an appeal to the reason of both sets of disputants, has existed since the world began, and is not, therefore, a new remedy for anything. Compulsory arbitration, that is, arbitration with a sheriff or a posse of soldiers behind it, to compel obedience to its decisions, is foreign to the ge- nius of our institutions, and neither employers nor employes desire it. We may be certain that we will not see it in our day. "Wherein is the element of justice in compulsory arbitration that would compel an employer to pay wages that he cannot afford, and that might bankrupt him, or that would compel a working-man to labor for lower wages than he believes he is entitled to receive? Voluntary arbitration between a particular employer and his workmen, or between a body of employers and a body of working-nicn, is, how- ever, desirable ; and yet we have seen at Pittsburg how even SEVERAL PHASES OF THE LABOR QUESTION. 177 this kind of arbitration, operating through the Wallace Act, has failed to prevent strikes and their attendant evil con- sequences. " Productive co-operation is a plant that has never taken kindly to American soil. The element of confidence be- tween man and man appears to have always been lacking — the certainty that every man was doing his full share, and that there was the necessary amount of brains at the head of the management. Then, too, manufacturing enterprises in our day and in our country require large capital to ren- der them successful, and any number of working-men may not have this necessary handmaid to labor. Even if a body of working-men should be financially able to build or buy a manufacturing establishment, what is to become of them and their families in dull times, when it would be difficult to secure orders at any prices, and when they might be compelled to cease all operations through a total lack of demand for their products? Capital is needed to tide over periods, and often very long periods, of depres- sion. There will be very little co-operation in this coun- try except in the supply of the necessaries of life. But as a substitute for co-operation there exists no reason why a working-man who has saved something out of his earnings should not bny a few shares of stock in the company or corporation which has given him emplovment. An em- ploye of the Pennsylvania liailroad ('ompany can buy stock in that company as well as a millionaire, and an empl()y6 of the Cambria Iron Company who has money in the sav- ings-bank can buy stock in that company if lie so desires. " There can be no objection to the scheme of profit-shar- ing if manufacturers can be induced to adopt it. It is on its face more practicable as a reniedv for the frequent dif- ferences between working-men and tlu-ir emplovers. and as a barrier to the widfiiing gulf between the rich and the 1'2 178 THE LABOR PKOBLEM. poor, than cither arbitration or co-operation. But is it so in reality? Will manufacturers consent to share their prof- its with their workmen after paying them fair wages? We doubt it. We can see that they might do this from con- siderations that appeal to their sense of justice as well as to their business instincts, but manufacturers are like other people : they have in them a great deal of human nature. Especially do they believe that when the times are good the}' are justified in recouping themselves for losses sus- tained when the times have been bad. We fear that prof- it-sharing will not become a marked feature of the manu- facturing industries of our country until we approach much nearer to the millennium than we have yet done." David H. Mason, Esq., CMcago, 111. " Only an outline of hints at my views can be compressed into the very small space to which you are obliged to limit me. Let me briefly answer your questions by their several numbers. " 1. Strikes and lock-outs evidence friction, and friction evidences an abnormal condition in the working of any kind of machinery, the wage system being itself a sort of machinery, or improved mode of coupling the exertions of the capitalist and the laborer — a mode far superior to that of slavery. " 2. Arbitration also evidences friction. There would be no arbitration needed unless there was friction to be overcome. Arbitration is, therefore, to the wage system what oil is to clogged machinery, and emblemizes a com- promise between opposing forces. " 3. The wage system is only one of the way-stations on the route of development. For a series of centuries the general condition of the laborer has been constantly im- proving. His right to wages, and even to good pay, is now SEVERAL PHASES OF THE LABOR QUESTION. 179 almost universally conceded. But it was not so always. At one time the laborer was a serf, attached to the soil, and transferred with it as so much property, by sale or by con- quest. Often he carried about his neck a collar, with an inscription which showed that he was born a slave, and be- longed to a particular master. In that day any serious talk about compensation for hibor would have been con- sidered as wickedly innovating, and as worthy of merciless punishment. Through a natural process the slave worked out his freedom. His toil was unproductive, because there was in it neither heart nor hope. He produced little, and got little. The master soon saw that he could increase his profits by tempting the slave to increased task-work, giving him all the surplus he could earn after finishing his task. With this partial liberty of working for himself came the stimulus of hope ; he worked harder for himself than when working for his master. It was finally seen that more ex- ertion could be obtained from him, and at a really cheaper rate, by paying him wages than in any other way. " After a considerable period of trial this system is now rapidly advancing to new stages of development. The la- borer perceives that the capitalist realizes a profit upon the hire of services, and knows that all this gain would be his own could he only discover some way of self-employment. Co-operative societies of various kinds have grown out of this view of the subject. It thus seems that co-operation of one sort and another is to embody the next great fun- damental ste[) of progress that will be taken by the laborer in his slow and pamful movement from a state of slavery to one of full power of self-assertion and of self-direction. Here may be caught a glimpse of the idea that antagonism between the capitalist and laborer will cease when the la- borer shall himself beiiome a capitalist. J^abor will then mean only healthful exercise, with few hours and large re- 180 THE LABOR PROULKM. muneration, bereft of the wage system. ]3iit until then, as one difticnlty of the labor problem shall be settled, an- other difficulty, on a higher plane of justice, will gradually emerge from the adjustment, in its turn requiring consider- ation, just as the emancipation of the Southern slaves was followed by the necessity for civil rights, and the granting of those is now supplemented by the need of education to fit the liberated blacks to exercise intelligently and benefi- cially the franchises of citizenship. "Meanwhile, nothing is more certain than that the wel- fare and the progress of the laborer are inseparably bound up in the increase and activity of Capital ; and that both strikes and lock-outs, by arresting and delaying that increase and activity, are very injurious to the laborer. History demonstrates that Capital is the great leveller. It is the la- borer's untiring co-worker and unfailing friend, and will ul- timately redeem him from every species of thraldom. The more plentiful and the more active it can be made the sooner will arrive that grand day of universal emancipa- tion. " 4 and 5. The labor question is, so to speak, a tree the roots of which burrow deeply into the soil of slavery, and the trunk of which develops up, through drudgery, toil, la- bor, and work, to exercise, which is the antithesis of slaver}^ and is what the flower is to the root. Industrial partner- ship and productive co-operation, as well as co-operation for distribution, are legitimate branches of that tree. They are in perfect consonance with the great law discovered and formulated by Henry C. Carey — the law governing the distribution of labor's products, whereby the proportion of the laborer increases with the increase in the productive- ness of effort, the proportion of the capitalist as steadily diminishing with constant increase of quantity, and with equally constant tendency towards equality among the va- SEVERAL PUASES OF THE LABOR QUESTION. 181 rious portions of wliicli society is composed. They are in consonance also with the general socictary law that the first and greatest want of man is association with his fel- low-men." John C. Saksfield, Esq., Associate Editor of " Our Country," New York City. "Regarding the snbject-inattcr of your letter as one of great importance at this time, and which in the near future must command the serious attention of the student, phi- losopher, statesman, and patriot, I must compliment you for your efforts 'to spread the light.' " 1. Strikes are never defensible except as a last resort against the exactions and dictum of Capital. In that sense only are they a necessary feature of the wage system. A strike is the most wasteful form of protest. Its settlement, pro or con, establishes no principle useful in the guidance of future contests. Lock-outs arc entirely without defence if the question of morals is permitted to enter into the de- termination of the labor question. The industrial problem is a moral one, and unless viewed from that stand-point does not admit of fixed settlement, hence lock-outs should not be regarded as a necessary feature of the wage system. "2. Arbitration is a missing link. The chain is broken in so many places that it cannot repair all the fractures. It is an advance from the crudeness of the strike, with its privation and waste, up to a rational means of settlement of disputes between employer and employe. It is the pri- mary step in the evolution of the labor question. " 3. This opens up a wide field. Its fullest aflirmativc demonstration would require more space and time than either of us could afTord to give to it at this moment. Suf- fice it to say that in the discovery and application of the system implied in the question we shall have made a de- lbL5 THE LABOR PROBLEM. cidcd advance in the evolution of the industiial problem. It seems to me to be the posture which the question before us must necessarily reach in the next decade. It has been successfully demonstrated in various localities in France, especially so at the Social Palace at Guise, in that country, where one thousand seven hundred toilers are sharers in the [trofits of that immense establishment. Its value must be admitted when the volume of products is constantly aug- menting and their quality correspondingly improved. In our country the principle has been sparingly applied at some few flouring mills in Minnesota, and its benefits to the employers conceded, as evidenced by the increased price received for their products, which is primarily due to the greater care and skill exhibited by the wage-earners in their capacity as profit-sharers. " 4. This query is involved in your third, and the re- sponse to that covers in a large measure its answer. "5. To answer that in Yankee fashion, I would repeat your query and ask. Has it ever been made so anywhere else? If yes, why not here ? The industrial successes that have accompanied all community enterprises, like the Shak- ers, Perfectionists at Oneida, N. Y., and Dunkers, have been due to the presence of co-operative principles. The mental ability and mechanical skill of these parties, as a whole, is not superior to the 'world's people.' What has been accomplished by them under the eyes of the w'orld's people should have weight in according an affirmative re- sponse to your fifth query. A potent factor in the success which the community enterprises of this country have achieved, has been the recognition which they have accord- ed to the moral question as the fundamental basis of all their industrial undertakings. It is assumed to be unnec- essary to refer to the success that co-operative societies have reached in England, because they are as familiar as house- SEVERAL PHASES OF THE LABOR QUESTION. 183 hold words to people who have given these matters any attention. Industrial co-operation is the highest phase of evolution in the labor problem. When it is established the day of deliverance is at hand for the man, woman, and child whose heritage is poverty and toil. If ' productive co-operation is not practical in the United States,' then all hope of industrial freedom the world over is but a baseless dream." A corretpondent wlio prefers that his name sfumkl not be vsed in this connection writes : "What arc the questions? Are they fairly placed be- fore the public ? That there is antagonism between many employers and their employes is true, but if it be a fact that between many others in the same lines of industry, of equally lengthy connections, there has been no shadow of difference, is it fair to say that there is a natural and irre- pressible conflict between Capital and Labor? If for each employer who, averaging to employ one hundred or one thousand men, has had his business either stopped or crip- pled many times in the past ten years, or five years, through strikes and difScultics with help, there can be found, not simply one, but many employers, each employing as many men, their business dating back twenty years, and still who have suffered from no strikes, is it fair to say that strikes are a legitimate result or accompaniment of the wage sys- tem ? Who that has been observant has not known man- nfacturing establishments where wages sufficient were paid to make all employed and their families comfortable, whose manhood was recognized and respected by employers, and the employed did not feel that it was a necessity for them to be constantly on the lookout to prevent their rights from being trampled upon, but who, seeing in the success and permanent })ro8perity of their employers good wages and 184 THE LADOR PROBLEM. permanent employment for themselves, took hold with a will, and felt an jionest pride in doing the best work of which they were capable, and in sufficient quantity to in- sure the realization of profits by those who carried the risk and burden of investment and management? Such relations may have been, but are not now, does somebody say ? You are mistaken. Such conditions do exist in thousands of instances. " In this very city where these lines are penned, with its population increased within the time in which the writer has known it well, from five thousand or six thousand to nearly thirty thousand, through its manufacturing interests — as essentially a manufacturing place as any in the entire country — there have been no strikes, no labor difficulties. The history of the place for the past half century would include as a prominent feature many, many, many instances of thoughtful care on the part of employers for the best interests of those whom they employed, while on the other hand the instances would come to light by thousands upon thousands of daily, hourly, constant occurrence, in which workers for wages — simple wages, not participation — have willingly, eagerly, proudly striven to increase the produc- tion of their hands through greater individual effort, through combination of action, through invention, and the improve- ment of facilities, to the end that the general business of the place might increase, and that the mines which they were working daily without investment, without risk, should continue to pay. Employers have been tyrants, have they ? Working-men have been living in a condition of poverty or enslavement, have they ? Let us look into this a little. See this magnificent turnout, this pair of splendid horses. The carriage and harness and all the appointments are in keeping. A liveried driver has them in charge. Who dares to so insult the common people? What right has SEVERAL PHASES OF THE LADOR QUESTION. 185 any man to indulge in such extravagance while so many must walk ? Who is this old white-haired man, broad of shoulder and straight of limb, as erect as though but a score of years had passed over him instead of more than three-score-and-ten, which have whitened his hair, but not bent his form or impaired his intellect? He is the owner of the fine turnout. He is President of the Roll and Stamp Brass Company. Why does he walk? Where is he going at a time in the morning when men and women, boys and girls are hurrying along to get to their different places of employment before the seven o'clock whistles blow ? Let's ask him. That wc are working-men need make no differ- ence. He has a cheery ' How do you do ?' and hearty hand- shake for anybody whom he has ever met, and whose man- ners command respect. He snubs no man because he is a mechanic or laborer. What does he say ? Listen ! ' I make it a point to be at the mill before the whistle blows. I find that the exercise of walking back and forth is a ben- efit to my health.' Yes, but he is not a working-man ; what does he go to the mill for? Why, he is worth millions of dollars. He is one of the hated capitalists. Let's go to the mill and see him for a little while in the 'soft place' which Labor in imagination fixes for all men who do not roll up their sleeves and labor physically. Ah ! he is busy poring over some book of accounts, fixing some prices of goods, adjusting some losses sustained through failing or rascally creditors, devising means to meet the notes of oth- er men who liavc let them go to protest, directing the la- bors of a score of accountants and clerks, answering (jues- tions from men in charge of different departments of labor in the mill, figuring out some means of still wringing a profit out of the manufacture of goods, the raw material of which has advanced in price, or the soiling price of which has been cut down in market to less than cost by some un- 18G THE LABOR PROBLEM. scrupulous competitor wlio only wants to get the work into his hands — if it don't pay, something else will carry it along until lie runs the others out, and then he will mark the price up ; and still amid it all this ' grand old man ' greets us as cheerily as he did when we met him along by the city park this morning, with his half-mile walk before him to get to the mill. 'He will be at leisure in a few min- utes — will we be seated V Ah ! here comes the mail. Let us watch him as he opens letter after letter, and takes in their purport — orders, bills, remittances. How rapidly they are disposed of ! Fifty, one hundred of them, and still a few minutes has sufficed to fix the requirements of each on the well-trained mind, and to assort and place them so that subordinates shall know what disposition to make of each. Now he is at liberty. * What can he do for us ?' We want a bit of sheet brass, or a small quantity of wire, or a few pounds of rivets of some peculiar quality or of some special size or shape which needs that something shall be done a little out of the regular line ; they can't be taken out of stock, and this millionaire, president of a great company doing a business of a million of dollars annually, is listen- ing to our statement of what we want. Does he say I have no time to be troubled with a matter so trivial ? No. lie says, ' I guess I had better go into the mill with you and put this in the hands of the man in charge of the de- partment best calculated to do the work. You can explain it to him better than I can.' Now we are in the mill with the millionaire manager and financier. How familiar he seems with the men, and with every detail of the work. How quickly he makes answers to settle knotty questions which have arisen on different operations. All through from stock-yard to casting-room, to rolls, to muffler-slitters, draw-benches, wire-blocks, pickle-vats, among lathes, plan- ers, presses, drops, rivet- machines, through cutting and SEVERAL PHASES OF THE LABOR QUESTION. 187 drawing-up room, through stamping and spinning room, from the drawing up of a ferrule or thimble to the spin- ning up of a thirty-gallon kettle, or the drawing up of a steam-boiler without seam on the great hydraulic bench, he is familiar with it all. "How is it? Let me ask this old man who has just taken from the picklc-tub a coil of wire and is rinsing off the acid — the man with the green hair and beard, which have turned green from the fumes of acid and metal — the man who has tied about liis waist an apron which is dri[)- ping wet, and wliose clothes generallj' look damp, while lie stands on a floor so wet that you wonder he don't ' catch his death of cold.' He ought to know. lie does. Lis- ten : ' I've worked here fifty years. The president and I used to work side-by-side. Yes, sir, for a good many years lie used to come to the mill in the morning with his din- ner in a tin pail, and worked as many hours and as hard as any of us. He knows about this kind of business. AVhy, bless you, he has been all through it ; he can do it now. Good man to work for? do I like him? I'd do anything in the world for him. Why, he is the best friend I have in the world. When I got hurt and was laid up for months he paid the doctor, and my wages went on just the same, and he used to run in to see how I was getting along. Is it particular work running a pickle-tub? Yes, sir. It's got to be done just right, just as much as running a train of rolls or a draw-bench, or doing any other part of the work. I've been at it so long that it don't bother mc much now, but the time was when I could hardly sleep nights for the worry and care. Would I like to have some big- ger job, have more care, and get bigger pay ? No, sir. This is all I want to attend to, and I get a good living. My children arc all doing well, and my wife and I don't need a great deal to make us happy. Do you see (hat 188 THE LABOR PROBLEM. fleshy, gray -liai rod man giving directions about the roll- ing? lie has been here lifty years, too. A good many years ago he got the job of superintending the rolling — gets a big salary. He is worth $50,000. He drives just as good a team as tlie president does. What do I think about legislating to try to divide things up a little more equally ? I'll tell you what I think. Here's we three men — the president, the boss roller, and I. I couldn't fill either of their places, the boss roller couldn't fill the president's place, you couldn't keep the president down to either of our places, and there'd be no more use passing laws on the subject than there would in passing a law that there should be no small potatoes in a hill.' " J. ViNCEJfT Taylor, Esq., Commercial Editor of the "United States Sewing-machine I'tmes," New York. " To answer No. 1 promptly, no strike or lock-out can be a necessary feature in the furtherance of any indus- trial scheme, though it is seemingly alleged to be some- times compulsory to resort to them. Why so ? The work- ing-classes of America are presumed to be intellectually in advance of those of Europe and of the last decade, and so the 'dignity' of labor aspires to something more in keep- ing with that dignity, which in some way aims to be class- ed as a species of capital in itself, arranging its growing importance as ' pliysical capital,' and thus supplies the want of one of your eminent contributors to this depart- ment, seeking the most appropriate title of modern times for labor. Thus when physical capital appeals to the em- ploying powers for some consideration, it does so upon a higher plane than did the men of fifty years ago, asserting that physical capital and fiscal (money) capital are on equal levels, and that if it is fair in law or social conduct for fis- cal capital to reduce wages (or close its doors) in one case, SEVERAL PHASES OF THE LABOR QUESTION. 189 it is equally legitimate for physical capital to demand an increase of wages (or to strike) in the other case. But no strike occurs without some attempts at simple arbitration in the way of stating a grievance, asking for what is de- sired, etc. If, after being listened to, the prayer of the workers is refused, a strike, where one occurs, is the result of cause and effect on the part of both fiscal and physical capital rather than a ' necessary feature of the wage sys- tem.' Nothing evil or inhuman is a necessity, yet both the strike and the lock-out are evils in their very existence. " 2. Arbitration is good only according to the intelli- gence of those seeking redress through its employment. Thus, with arbitration the engineers of the New York City elevated railroads managed to overcome a great difficulty, because the intelligence of the directing head grasped the trouble in an intelligent manner, using reasonable argu- ments with (at that time) a reasonable employing power, which at first was inclined to be overmasterful. Now, take the case of the strike in the coke regions for analytical re- search. What do we find? A foreign element of low in- telligence; an element, too, employed more for reason of alleged cheapness than anything else. But that low intel- ligence (the Hungarian) had made known its wants before striking. Those needs had been refused — a strike, involv- ing the destruction of property, loss of life, etc., ensued. It is thus made manifest that at the present date arbitra- tion is not the ' missing link ' for yoking the two dispu- tants in harmonious activity. Therefore arbitration can only be effective for lasting good where it inheres to the benefit of both parties to a question, aiming to settle (rath- er than making shift with a compromise) the dispute in force according to higher degrees of intelligence on the part of physical capital and the enlarged liberal sympathies animating physical capital. 190 THE LABOR PKOBLEM. "Question No. 3 involves an immense breadth of thoni^lit. As the intelH5lM'd when the work- er has an alti iiialive opportunity of working for himself. 196 THE LAUOR, PROBLEM, Seventy years ago wages \Yere lower than they arc now, but they were approximately just. Land was cheap ; its product was large in proportion to Capital and Labor spent on it; manufactures and trade were conducted in small shops, and the worker that was dissatisfied with the wages offered by an employer could readily ascertain whether or not his work was worth more by becoming his own em- ployer. This alternative has been rapidly disappearing, and for the majority, or wage-workers, will soon be quite gone. There is still cheap land at the West, but to get to it and secure a first year's crop requires considerable capital, and year by year the capital necessary to set up as a farmer or as an independent producer in any department of industry will increase. An increasing proportion of wage-workers, therefore, becomes, year by year, absolutely dependent on employers, and there is no longer any assurance that wages are an equivalent of work performed. " That they are not, the worker concludes because he sees that, notwithstanding the marvellous increase of the produc- tive power of combined labor and capital, he is thus be- coming yearly more dependent.* It is not true that wage- * " It 13 not necessary to show that all the effects of the introduc- tion of power machinery liave been to raise the standard of life wher- ever the introduction has taken place. It is true that in those coun- tries where machinery has been developed to the highest, the greatest number of work-people are engaged, and that in those countries where machinery has been developed to little or no purpose, poverty reigns, ignorance is the prevailing condition, and civilization, consequently, far in the rear. Yet, if the question should be asked, has the wage- worker received his equitable share of the benefits derived from the introduction of machinery, the answer must be no. In the struggle for industrial supremacy in the great countries devoted to mechanical productions, it probably has been impossible for him to share equita- bly in such benefits. His greatest benefit has come through his being a consumer. In vcrv nianv instances the adult male has been obliged SEVERAL PHASES OF THE LABOR QIESTION. 197 earners arc growino; poorer wliilc the rich grow richer, but it is true that the possessors of capital are growing richer so much faster than the wage-earners that the gulf between them is widening. In 1850 wages in the United States averaged 8247.11 a year, in all industries. In 1880 the average was 834G.91, a very gratifying increase. But the percentage of net product paid in wages was 51 in 1850 and only 48.1 in 1880. Fixed capital, rent, salaries, and commissions have largely increased, and through these va- rious channels a larger percentage of net product goes to the employing capitalist. " To find a more equitable arrangement becomes impera- tive, and it must be sought in the various forms of profit- sharing.* Arbitration involves one of these. It subjects tlie bargain between employer and employes to revision, from time to time, with direct reference to the question of what the employer can afford to \)nj, his profits being such or such. Co-operative production is another form of profit- sharing, and ' industrial partnership ' a third. " Co-operative production is practicable under certain well-defined conditions. A majority of the men must be a picked lot, of good intelligence, willing to defer to each other, of quick business sense, and willing to intrust large powers of management to their directors, under responsi- bility. They must have command of ample capital, a fact which at present limits their enterprises to comparatively to work at n reduced waf^e because under improved machinery wom- en and cliildrcn could perform his work, but tlie net carninj^s of his family stand at a higher figure tiian of old. It in also true that while labor has been displaced afiparently in many directions and in many industries, machinery has brought new occupations, especially to women." — Cakholl D. Wkkjht. * For Mr. Giddings's opinion on this question, see chapter on " Profit-sharing." 198 THE LABOR PROBLEM. small undertakings. The lack of sufficient capital has caused groat mortality among co-operative experiments. The labor relation must be subordinated to the stockholder relation, and while profits go ultimately to the members in their double capacity of stockholders and workers, labor must be paid for, as such, regularly, at stated intervals. Each individual member, while in one capacity he helps to manage the affairs of the company, must in another capac- ity regard it as his employer and obey its orders. "Those who are at all familiar with the literature of co-op- eration musthaye read with great interest and profit a little novel by Edward Everett Hale, entitled ' Back to Back.' The plan of this book, as we learn from Mr. Hale, was suggested by Mr. Weeden, one of the most successful of Eastern man- ufacturers. Indeed, the tables and practical proposals in it are in his words and from his pen. Mr. Hale in a letter says : ' The plan^^seemed so feasible that I had three woollen- mills offered me by manufacturers in different parts of the country if I were willing to carry them on on this principle. This I could not do, for I know little more than the differ- ence between felt and broadcloth. Mr. George Holyoakc reprinted the story in England, saying that it precisely met his theory of co - operation. I have never thought that Vandeleur's success in co-operative agriculture had attract- ed the attention it deserved. I published an account of it in "Old and New" in 1871. I believe that a general un- derstanding that eight hours is the average normal period of daily work would be an advantage. Of course sailors, farmers, doctors, lawyers, law -makers, and every sort of workmen, would often have to step over the line. But I could wish it were understood that this is the average. If it were so understood, and I directed a great manufactory, I Avould employ two sets of help, and would run my estab- lishment from four every morning till eight every evening. SEVERAL PHASES OF THE LABOR QUESTIOX. 199 I think the first manufacturer who does this on a generous scale will get the best workmen, will do the most work, and will make the most profit. ... I wisli that gentlemen in your position would do what you can to put an end to the rigmarole about the " dignity of labor." It is work which is dignified; labor never is. And the business of a journal like yours is to elevate laborers into workmen. The distinction between work and labor is marked, I think, in all careful English writers till within the last fifty years, especially and notably in the New Testament.' " CHAPTER IX. A PLEA FOR PROFIT-SHARING. "Beyond all dreams of the Golden Age will be the spleudor, raaj- esty, and happiness of the free peoples when, fulfilling the promise of the ages and the hopes of humanity, they shall have learned how to make equitable distribution among themselves of the fruits of their common labor." — IIoN. Abram Uewitt. A STATE of war, or at least an armed truce, is the con- dition under which industry has been pursued throughout the greater part of the last quarter of a century. The an- tagonism of Capital and Labor during this period has man- ifested itself in frequent strikes and lock - outs, attended with violence, outrage, and coercion, followed by irretrieva- ble loss and inconceivable misery. The injury inflicted not only on the parties to the contest but on the community in general by strikes and lock-outs cannot be measured by the loss which they cause, considerable though that loss undoubtedly is. The suffering and misery they create must be reckoned in the account against them. The pov- erty, pauperism, and degradation of thousands of families are among the baneful consequences of these cruel and often prolonged contests, and among their victims are to be found the members of industrial firms in startling num- bers. But the direct money loss for which these conflicts are responsible is enormous. It has been shown by a very careful statistician, Mr. Charles Waring, that in the period from 1870 to 1879, in- A PLEA FOR PROFIT-SHARING. 201 elusive, 2352 strikes occurred in England, and that the cost to the workmen in the decade was $134,064,000, or an average yearly loss of 813,406,400. The capitalist's or employer's amount of loss in consequence of strikes and lock-outs during the same period is estimated at 820,947,- 500, an average of 82,094,750 per annum. The two sums to the debt of Labor and Capital consequently amount to the total of $155,011,500 for the decade, or at the rate of $15,501,150 per annum. The extent and importance of the moral and material damage done by industrial warfare during the last twenty-five years in all parts of the indus- trial world is almost beyond computation. That it is both costly and demoralizing is universally conceded. It is equally beyond dispute that, so long as the interests of the employer and employed diverge, antagonism and hos- tility will characterize the pursuit of industry, and the com- plete and most profitable development of industrial enter- prise will be delayed. It is obviously, therefore, to the advantage of all that some means should be found and adopted to make those interests identical by the substitu- tion of some form of equitable diversions of the fruits of labor. To this end productive co-operation has been sug- gested and tried. The theory of association of workmen for production has among its advocates many of the most eminent political economists and philanthropists of this generation — Thomas Hughes, Professor T. Rogers, Pro- fessor Cairnes, John Stuart Mill, Lord Derby, Mr. Thomas Brassey, the Earl of Shaftesbury, and others equally well known. And yet the scheme of productive co-operation proposed so long ago, sanctioned by the highest authority, appealing directly to the self-interest of the laboring class- es, has not been successful on a large scale. The history of co-operative production alike in France, in England, and in the United States has been one of the most discourng- 202 THE LAnOH PROBLEM. ing, if not of the most disastrous character.* The advan- tages are great, the difficulties enormous. In the fact that comparatively few of our working-men have the intelligence and sagacity requisite to organize and manage a large business, will be found a pretty clear ex- planation of the reasons why co-operation of this kind has not been more generally introduced. However individual- ly skilful and industrious, thrifty and energetic the men may be, they lack besides capital the necessary business experience, training, and commercial knowledge to enable them to compete successfully with private enterprise com- bining capital and paid labor.f It is scarcely reasonable to expect men without educa- tion, training, and discipline to manage large or even mod- * In the "Co-operative Annual "for 1883 there is a record, on page 168, of 224 failures. ■)■ " I see nothing which indicates that within any near future indus- try is to become less despotic than it now is. The power of the mas- ter in production, the captain of industry, has steadily increased through the present century with the increasing complexity of com- mercial relations, with the great concentration of capital, with im- provements in apparatus and machinery, with the multiplication of styles and fashions, with the localization and specialization of manu- factures." — Professor F. A. Walker. " It is indeed greatly to be doubted whether any body of working- men in the world could to-day organize and successfully carry on a mining or manufacturing or commercial business in competition with concerns owned by men trained to affairs. If any such co-operative organization succeeds, it may be taken for granted that it is princi- pally owing to the exceptional business ability of one of the man- agers, and only in a very small degree to the efforts of the mass of workmen owners. This business ability is excessively rare, as is proved by the incredibly large proportion of those who enter upon the stormy sea of business only to fail. I should say that twenty co-operative concerns would fail to every one that would succeed." — Andrew Carnegie. A PLEA FOR PUOFIT-SUARIXG. 203 erate business enterprises. Educate tlie worker, furnish hiiu the opportunities for training- and discipline, and pro- ductive co-operation will be a success. By what means, then, is the wage-earner to get this training, discipline, and education? We believe that it must come through profit- sharing based upon copartnership. Constant war between employer and employe has brought great loss to both. Such war can be, and ought to be, superseded by their be- coming partners, so that both shall have an interest in the business in hand. The idea of industrial partnersliips for the purpose of enabling workmen to participate in the profits of their labor is not by any means new. In many insignificant and obscure industries which the reader may find more particularly described or enumerated in the writ- ings of Messrs. J. S. Mill and W. T, Thornton, the idea has long been carried into effect, in the mines of Cornwall and Cumberland, in the American whale-sliips, in the mercan- tile navy of Greece, and in the trade in manufactured goods in the Philippine Islands. From these examples, as early as 1832, Mr. Babbage, the mathematician, in his very suggestive little book, " The Economy of Machinery and Manufactures," whicli anticipated more than one of the po[)uIar notions of later days, drew with great clearness and precision the principles of the scheme of "Industrial Partnerships," which liave since been practically carried out both in England and France. It is now about forty years since the distinguislied French- man, M. Leclaire, first put into practice on any considera- ble scale the principle of participation by workmen in the profits of enterprise. As a condition of understanding the present working of Lcclaire's institution, it is necessary to refer to those facts in his life which bear most r "men employed every day in mechanical labor cannot watch the markets, or possess that aptitude for business management on a large scale which is requisite to success." Finally, work done or money earned by the aid of machinery will be counted to the credit of labor, and will share in the distribution of profits the same as day's work or piece work. Commenting on tiiis plan, Mr. Battcrson says : " With the results of a long experience before mc, I am convinced that the payment of fixed wages to a large number of men car- ries with it no inspiring motive to the altainmctit of a high standard of excellence, either as to the quantity or r tlic protection of its special interest. Nearly every class holds annual state and national conven- tions for this purpose. I notice only to-day that the re- tail boot and shoe dealers of the United States have organ- ized a national association, and provided that fonr or more establishments engaged in this trade, located in the same city or town, may form a subordinate branch. The laws of many of our States provide that five or more persons may organize and procure a charter for the prosecution of almost any enterprise under the sun ; and interstate or- ganizations receive national recognition. To borrow a phrase familiar to boards of trade, we are 'long' on cor- porations. The representatives, or at least the supposed representatives, of money are recognized and indorsed both by the States and the nation, and are authorized to combine for specific ends, which in nearly every instance can only be accomplished by the employment of other men's muscle and other men's skill. " If our governments, state and national, recognize the right of Capital to combine for the purpose of employing labor to achieve certain results, I can see no good reason why the working partner — the chief factor in the achieve- ment — should not also receive governmental recognition, and be authorized to name what in his judgment should be his share in the emoluments to be gained. If the sum named cannot be mutually agreed upon, the bargain would simply not be consummated and the chartered company prove barren of results. The bound bundle is harder to break than is the single stick, and when the bundle receives governmental recognition in the form of a charter, it seems reasonable to suppose that its chances to cope with that other bundle which has so long enjoyed a monopoly in the charter business will be perceptibly increased." TRADES-UNIONS AND ARBITRATION. 247 John Cougher. Esq., Assistant Cornmissioner Kansas Bureau of.Labor. "Arbitration to be of ninch benefit should not only be legalized, but provision sliould be made for the enforce- ment of the decision of the arbitrators. Man is endowed with no so-called natural rights except breathing, sleeping, and taking nutriment; all others aie denied from associa- tia^is. Among the latter are the rights of producing and accumulating wealth. The rich man's millions are the re- sult of the poor man's diligence in creating values. Nei- ther are independent, both are interdependent. Their suc- cess depends upon harmonious association, and the welfare of the community is the result of both parties carrying out their mutual obligations in harmony. When disagree- ments arise, resulting in strikes, lock-outs, and boycotts, it is the duty of society to interfere and compel a settlement by the best and most effective method known, which at present is recognized as legalized arbitration. Both parties are under obligations to the source from which they derive their rights, privileges, and protection. Neither of the prime factors of production — Capital and Labor — should be permitted to indulge in a destructive strife that would bring disaster upon the community, merely for the purpose of obtaining a selfish advantage. The wealthy should learn that the safety of their possessions depends upon the fair- ness with which they treat their industrious employes; and it is the duty of society to see that for opportunities con- ferred a proper regard for its interests should be returned. That a system of amicable adjustment can be arranged that will do away with the troubles that now afflict our indus- trial system docs not admit of a doubt. Jiut in order to be ofTcctive, where mutual agreement cannot be had, coer- cion must be resorted to. The fact cannot be drnieil that 248 THE LABOR PROBLEM. Capital is constantly watching for opportunities to make exactions upon Labor, that a surplus of the latter is speedily taken advantage of to compel a-lower rate of recompense; while, on the other hand, Labor never loses an opportunity to strike at a weak point in tiie armor of Capital. It is a never-ending conflict between a hungry stomach and a plethoric purse, with most of the advantages on the side of the purse, " When the conflict becomes destructive in its character why should not society, through the law, step between the combatants and compel a peaceful settlement of the diffi- culty, just as it does in cases of disagreement of any other character. To deny that it has the right to do so is to deny the right of self-government and self-protection." Bev. C. R. Henderson, D.D., Detroit, Mich. "1. The national incorporation of the trades-organiza- tions. My thoughts on this subject are not fully matured for expression. Generally speaking, I am in favor of giv- ing to the organizations of laboring-men privileges at least equal to those given to corporations of capitalists. It was a great step in advance when the Friendly Societies of England received legal recognition. I would not favor giving government patronage to any corporation, but sim- ply largest liberty of social action while the public peace is conserved. "2. It seems that 'legalized arbitration of differences between Labor and Capital ' must come soon. The mine owners and manufacturers of England have seldom thought the 'state of trade' justified the abandonment of child la- bor and other iniquities until taught by statute. There have always been noble capitalists who could see through the mists of prejudice and custom ; but a small minority can make a reform almost impossible by holding out. Such TRADES-UNIONS AND ARBITRATION. 249 reforms must generally be made general by legislation, in order that a few pig-headed and marble-hearted men can- not defeat the generous impulses of the majority. There never was an age when the strong-minded ' princes of in- dustry ' were so tender and considerate as now, but some- times even a large majority need stimulus and help from legislation. Philanthropy and newspaper discussion did not force a few employers to put up fire-escapes for the protection of their hands; but a city ordinance, with a penalty, helped tlie recalcitrant minority to be humane. A few barbers compel all the rest to work on the universal rest-day. "Legalized arbitration will hasten 'profit-sharing,' be- cause it will make the claims of wage-earners more respect- ed, and more closely identified with the interests of employ- ers. I am glad to see evidences on all liands that the reign of sheer conipetition draws to a close, and that the reign of voluntary co-operation dawns. For the despotism which masquerades under the name of 'socialism' — that kind of socialism which aims at absorbing all individual and private functions in an all-powerful State — we have a promised substitute in co-operation. Legislation may aid in making legislation ultimately unnecessary. ]iut the present strained relations ought not and need not be per- petuated. For the socialism of Maurice and Kingsley I have great respect." lion. C. V. R. Pond, Commissioner of Labor for Michigan. "The pertinent question of the hour is. How shall a con- ference committee or a court of arbitration be made up? If a committee of wage -workers would meet their cm« ploycr and be met by him in a spirit of fairness, with a det<;riniMation that their diflorenccs should be amicably settled, no other plan would need to be suggested. But 250 THE LABOR PROBLEM, both bfiiii^ interested parties, tliey do not always look upon each other (as they should) as members of the same business family, whoso differences should not go beyond themselves. If, on the part of the wage-worker, a commit- tee is made up from members of a secret organization to which they belong, and that committee seeks to adjust existing differences, the probable chances are that the em- ployers will not meet them, and in many instances they would he justified by candid people in their refusal. Such a committee, made up of men who are not wage-earners, but possibly professional politicians, or if wage-earners, not altogether without prejudice against the employers whom they are to meet, cannot be successful. Two of the longest and most costly strikes of 1885 in Michigan prove this po- sition to be true. Employers arc willing to meet wage- workers honestly interested in settling differences of their fellow-men, but they repel the approach as arbitrators of men who are known as demagogues, and therefore the foe rather than the friend of the working-men. A clause in the constitution of the Knights of Labor calls for a settle- ment of differences by arbitration. We believe that such a desire is honestly expressed, and that any plan by whicli a committee of arbitrators, satisfactory alike to employer and employe, could be put in operation would by that or- ganization be approved. The suggestion has nothing new or novel in its construction as relating to a system or plan for arbitration, and yet we believe that in all cases of dif- ferences between employer and employe, after failure to settle between themselves, and before a strike shall be re- sorted to, the subject of difference should be submitted to a board of three arbitrators, whose decision should be ac- cepted by the parties in difference as final and satisfactory, without prejudice against the further continuance of their business relations. The appointment or selection of such TRADES-UNIONS AND ARBITRATION. 251 board of arbitrators slioiild be the clioosing of one person by each party to the diflfercncc, one of said persons to be a wage-worker, and the two persons so chosen to choose a third person. If the two representatives of employer and employe should fail to agree upon a third person, then the two representatives should be dismissed and two other rep- resentatives chosen, who should choose a third person, and thus constitute a board of arbitration. To make the fore- going plan effective, legislative action has no part. There must be an understood agreement between employer and employe at time of arranging for season's work, that should a dilference arise between them relating to the subject of Labor or its remuneration, then arbitration as above shall be the agreed remedy. " I have said in the above, to make the foregoing plan effective, legislative action has no part. I mean by that, in bringing about an agreement no legislative action is neces- sary to force it. Possibly it might be wise to compel by law the fulfilment of tlic agreement, whether the above plan is practical or not. I believe most positively in arbi- tration as the great remedy for all troubles between Capi- tal and Labor. Slight differences are often the cause of great troubles. "Wo want a system of arbitration that can be applied the moment disease appears — something that will drive it away, and not simply heal after it has racked the body. If legalized arbitration is the essential, give it to the public at once." J. O. "Woods, Esq., New York, Secretary of tJie Institute of Social Science. " While the first proposition seems a wise suggestion, its acceptability would dc[)en(l very much on the j)rovisi()ns of incorporation. Should it offer exceptional advantages to those who might avail themselves of it, others would objei-t 252 THE LABOK PROBLEM. to sncli special privileges, as they do now to those granted to corporations. " In reference to the second inquiry : workmen would be very suspicious of industrial legislation under the present capitalistic system. Tiiey feel that Capital despises Labor, enslaves, oppresses, and cheats it, and they fear its tender mercies. Hence they would distrust any compulsory arbi- tration. An impartial, competent tribunal might be very useful, but to be acceptable it must be organized so as to command the confidence of workmen. "A board of arbitration would be useful so far as it might allay strife, prevent strikes, and continue production. But arbitration is a mere makeshift, and settles nothing per- manently. Suppose it to award three dollars wages per day instead of two dollars. The effective value of wages depends upon their purchasing power. As the board of arbitration does not fix the prices of commodities and the cost of living. Capital may raise the prices to meet the ad- vance of wages, so that three dollars would buy no more than did the two dollars. The wages must be again ad- justed by arbitration to the cost of living. Determining one factor settles nothing but for the moment, so long as the other factor is not fixed. To maintain the equilibrium there must be continuous arbitration. " Perfect machinery works automatically and requires no extraneous aid to help it over a dead centre. So our eco- nomic machinery will not be perfect until it works without arbitration, as it will when it gives to workmen the actual or equivalent product of their labor. Let Capital remove the social disabilities of Labor and give it its just reward, and there will be no strife nor strikes between them, and but little need of arbitration. The warfare will never cease between them until justice is done." TRADES-UNIONS AND ARBITKATION. 253 Hon. L. McHuGH, Commissioner of the Bureau of Labor Sta- tistics for the State of Ohio. "That trades-unions sliould be incorporated has, with me, long since been determined in the affirmative. The reasons leading up to this opinion may be stated thus : The mechanical classes are, by reason of their poverty, compelled to leave school and commence work at an age that scarcely admits of the acquirement of the rudiments of an educa- tion. The intellectual cravings of the American mechanic require food as well as the body, and trades-unions supply the medium for its requirement, as well as a better oppor- tunity for procuring raiment and subsistence for the physi- cal man. That these desiderata are largely supplied by trades-unions no one familiar with their workings will deny. Many of the brightest minds in Europe and America ac- quired their education and are graduated from the trades- unions of to-day. " Trades-unions are not only educational, they are large- ly friendly, and do more in the way of charity than they are credited with. Even in the most depressed of times it is a rare thing to find a consistent member of a trados-union appealing to public charity for assistance. Well-organized unions take the best of care of their members, and secure to them the highest possible reward for their labor, and by reason of their being conservative they at the same time secure to Capital safety. One of England's greatest men once declared that 'combinations of working-men for the protection of their labor arc alike recommended by reason and experience.' The Duke of Argyle, in his 'lleign of Law,' gave utterance to that sentiment, and no doubt this opinion was founded upon truth, and resulted in the ling- lish Parliament passing the 'Trades-union Ilcgistratiou Act.' 264 THE LABOK PHOBLEM. " All -Listory proves that trades-unions were a large fac- tor in freeing labor from the slavery of the 'feudal s.ys- tem.' They vastly improved and benefited English labor, and brought about their industrial independence and en- franchisement. That trades-unions protect Capital as well as Labor is attested by the fact that nearly all the disputes between Capital and the well-organized unions are charac- terized by an entire absence of violence and destruction of private property, and where such outrages have occurred it can be traced directly to the unorganized and uneducated, of whom it may with truth be said ' they have no past to conserve, nor future for which to provide.' " Thorough organization of trades is the best prevent- ive of strikes. As an illustration of this the record of ten of the leading unions in England may be cited, viz. : Amal- gamated Engineers, Boiler-makers, Iron-ship Builders, Iron- moulders of Scotland, Steam-engine Makers, Amalgamated Carpenters and. Joiners, Amalgamated Society of Tailors, Operative Bricklayers, Operative Plasterers, and London Society of Compositors. These ten unions number 154,000 men, and expended during the year 1884 over $1,250,000, of which enormous sum just six per cent, was expended for strikes. "This is the record of a country where trades-unions are legalized by law. It is extremely doubtful whether the trades-unions of the United States would take advantage of a national incorporation law; doubtless many of them would; but that societies having in their organization so much that is good have not as yet received the sanction of^ law for the protection of their funds is, to say the least, a reflection upon the American Congress. " Compulsory or legalized arbitration (for if entered into by the sanction of law its operations will be compulsory) will never be successful. Men of means wlio are able to re- TRADES-UNIONS AND ARBITRATION. 255 spend to a money award, if such should be the decree of a board of arbitration, will never engage in an arbiti'ation with any oilier than a party equally responsil)le. With le- galized trades-unions the situation might assume a different phase, as they would at once change their members from a condition of absolute irresponsibility into a body corporate, who, if disposed to escape from a moral obligation, could yet be held to an accountability, as well as forfeit their corporate existence under the law. Even under a condition such as this legalized arbitration would be a failure. An agreement to arbitrate requires the consent of two parties, and to make it complete each must be in a position to en- force it if necessary. No manufacturer can be compelled to continue in a business where he is losing money, and no employe can be made to work against his inclinations; and if he could, no manufacturer at this day would be silly enough to put such a mandate in force. " Voluntary arbitratiou has and can be made successful, but not in the absence of organized labor. AVhere trades- unions have reached their greatest degree of perfect organ- ization, there arbitration will be the most successful. Com- pact organization carries with it the power to control its members, and by that means enforcing and making secure any contract they may enter into. Both paities being or- ganized under the law as having a legal existence, would at once make doubly secure the decrees of boards of arbitra- tion." CHAPTER XI. BY FRED WOODROW,* Tlie "Samaritan of Labor." SIDE-LIGHTS ON THE LABOR PROBLEM. LOGIC OF THE CRISIS. The law of Cause and Effect is as inexorable in govern- tnent as in gravitation — it takes no denial and gives no escape. All progress in civilization is a matter of moving * Fred Woodrow, .lutlior of this chapter, writes with a full under- standing of all the factors entering into a satisfactory answer to the greatest of modern questions. He has seen the dark side of a laborer's life to such an extent as not only to make his words practi- cal, but to have surrounded himself with a history closely akin to romance. The following " thumb-nail sketch " of his life is furnished by a friend : " About ten years ago I was looking through a freight depot for goods, when a stranger addressed me, asking me what I desired, and forthwith giving me all necessary information. Such unusual kind- ness and intelligence astonished me, as being out of the usual line of railway officialism. I marked the man from that hour, and embraced every opportunity to cultivate his acquaintance, thus little by little gaining a knowledge of his history, and the virtues of a unique and uncommon character. Fred Woodrow is the son of a British dragoon, born in Ireland ; on one side coming from a race of Hampshire for- esters, on the other of the Huguenot exiles, driven from France at the revocation of the Edict of Nantes. He was left an orphan at an early age, in which, I believe, was the discipline that produced his unique character. His father was bedridden for four years, for three of SIDE-LIGHTS OX THE LABOR PKOBLEM. 257 frmii what has been already accomplished to what yet ic- mains undone. As out of an acorn an oak, and from an egg an eagle, so the progress of every generation has its which he was lockjawed, nutrhnent being administered by means of a glass tube, through a brolvcn tootii. Tiic boy in a b.arraciv iios- pital, reading daily to the dying trooper of the grand old Book tliat gave hope to the soldier, and fixed tlio tone of his son's life and sut)- seciuent writitigs, in which one liears tlie tramp of tlie old prophets. "After his father's death in Birmingham, Ids mother obtained an appointment as a village school-mistress in the lowlands of East An- glia, through the influence of a Pelliam, one of whose brothers was saved from death off the coast of Egypt during the Napoleonic wars by the widow's brother. The mother engaged in bread-winning, the boy developed a philanthropic spirit with his years ; in the early morning gathering violets in the sweet English lanes, digging daisies from lawns at one cent an hour, and at sunset following the sheep to gather the wool left on hawthorn bushes, to obtain money for char- itable purposes — a Howard in a pinafore ! "When older he was apprenticed to bookbinding, where in daily contact with all kinds of literature he accumulated much of his vast stock of knowledge. But here, as in his village home, the instincts of his nature brought him into the service of humanity. lie appeared on the stump and the platform, where he gained the sobriquet of ' The Bold Boy.' It was said, ' The lad is as blunt as Carlyle, as original as Spurgeon, and as uncompromising as John Knox.' Among peasants, city Arabs, and sohliers, and every class of neglected humanity, he was a boy Samaritan. It was while working at his trade he wrote the famous 'Kit Tracts,' which have gone around the world willi the marching regiments of an Emjiire whose drums f(jllow the sun — and in succession ' The Rough March,' ' Charles Bissett,' and ' The Cross and the Camp.' Of military instincts, his sympathies followed ' horse, foot, and dragoons' with unpaid correspondence to the ends of the earth, embracing in its volume the (iovernor-gencral of India and the liumbl(! sapper making roads in the Himalayas — perhaps liie one sol- itary, modest figure in history that from a workman's bench took an interest in the moral welfare of the ostracized soldier. Oft, it is said, ' standing among the tramping chargers of departing troop.s, a solitary figure in a working-man's garb — his presence unnerving the hardest veteran as tliev filed past — .sorrowing most of all that they would see 17 258 THE LABOR PROBLEM. vital force in its predecessor. History is but a catalogue of evolutions, in which, notwithstanding the debris of em- pires and the skeletons of death, the furtherance of human tliat kindly face no more — ^the face of one who had, without money and witliout price, given his time and strengtli for their welfare.' He was subsequently engaged as the almoner of a famous manufacturer, wlicn lie organized some of tlie agencies for the benefit of Labor, which have since made ' Caroline of Carrow ' a Dorcas among tlie poor, and a living example of the only possible socialism. Hard work told on his health — witli the living and the dying he was a daily and nightly presence — till the blood oozed out of his mouth. To save his life he went to sea, and there, as on shore, where he found a man he saw a brother — neither race, creed, nor calling intercepting the course of his kindness. There are sea-tramps living yet who are mementos of his humanity, as shown on the Spanish main — the waters of the Archipelago and the drift of the Dardanelles. Next we find him in the North Sea, the cruising ground of fishermen and storms, and then on English railroads, hauling a rope on one and wheeling a truck on the other, both in forecastle or freight-house promoting contentment, and in a sea-cap or a blue blouse the same Howard of his boyhood. He came across the Atlantic in 18*73, his first night in Castle Gar- den spent in watching over two lone Irish lasses who had no money for a hotel, but were content to sleep on a bench if he would stay to watch beside them. He found employment at a coal-mine in Penn- sylvania, at the time when the Molly Maguires ruled the State. Here he wrought with his shovel, and by disinterested kindness averted threatened death. It was under the coal breakers he chalked on a shovel the initial lines of his ' Ode to the Nazarine,' which has com- manded attention in this country and in India. By the invitation of an ex-soldier he went to Canada. Here on a ' Bush Farm,' a saw-mill, and in the pineries, ho dug up stumps, handled planks, and swung the axe. Here he inaugurated ' free readings ' for the lumbermen, and on one occasion gave a lecture in a remote school-house, standing on one leg, the boot of the other being cut through a few days before with an axe. " We find him next on a homestead in Nebraska, plougliing with oxen and shelling corn with his hands. Here was penned that piece of poetic prose since printed as ' The Sunday Bell.' The grasshopper plague drove him East for bread and work, his books and clothing SIDE-LIGHTS ON THE LABOR PROBLEM. 259 good and tlie perfectness of its civilization follow uner- ringly, as a temple rises to its top stone above the tem- porary scafEolding. The most advanced races of this cen- tury are but the sequence in freedom and prosperity of their ancestors, who died at the plough tail that their chil- dren might sing at the sickle. January comes before August. The freedom of conscience, the right of the suf- frage, the majesty of the law, have evolved from such fires as made smoke of human bones at Sraithfield, and red clay of such as fell at Marston Moor or Bunker Hill. Then, as now, men were perplexed as to the best methods of ac- in an artillery-bag given him by a soldier he had saved from suicide, and his bed a hammock, given him by a sailor he had bought out of service in the English navj-. Ills journey was near three hundred miles, and he had made it memorable by a delicious piece of verse, pub- lished as ' The Break o' Day.' lie found employment in railway serv- ice in Dcs Moines, where I met him, and where he wrote the well- known letter on the railway strike, called 'The Missing Coupling,' perhaps the first public advocacy of arbitration in strikes published in Central Iowa. Here his opportunities for kindness were many, and their use for a railroad man rare. His provision for accidents, known as 'Fred's Pouch,' deserves universal imitation, while his at- tention to the needs of emigrants going westward gave his name a charm by many a camp-fire as far as the ' Rockies.' " His dcvotedncss to an aged mother, long past the allotted time of three score years and ten, who has shared his vicissitudes on sea and land, as the light of his log-cabin and the queen of his shanty, on the prairies of the West and in the forests of the North, is rare in modern days as an exemplary instance of filial faithfulness. " The knowledge of human character — the progress and needs of education, and more cs[)ecially the problem of Labor and Capital, have used his pen for the good of his class. A pliiloso|)liic student of history, he lives abreast of the times ; and pre-eminently practical, what he says has the merit of soinid sense and strong language. He is a cosmopolitan writer, with readers in Hoston, Chicago, and Calcutta. I know of no man so thoroughly capable of forging missing couplings, with which to connect and unify tl>e interests of Labor and Capital." 260 THE LABOR PROBLEM. complishing tlieir reforms, but, as a miner sees gold in tlie quartz before it is put in the snielting-pot, so ail men tliat Lave faith in the Ilight see the issue as the old prophets saw the Messiah, To-day we have the same call for faith and duty. This age, as all others, has its problem. It is the outcome of all others that preceded it, and as moment- ous as any. The harmony of Labor and Capital, the rights and rewards of industry, the claims and security of investment, the lines of each that avoid collision, the virtues that prevent anarchy and dissipate discord — these are the problems to be worked out on the slate of the nine- teenth century. Education is revolutionizing all old con- ditions. There is brain at the man-end of a pickaxe, and thinkers are driving mules and making shoes. The serf- dom that existed in ignorance of the alphabet and the multiplication table is dying out, locates their solution in the heart as well as the head, and gives to the great ques- tion of this age the gravity of a crisis involving regenera- tion or revolution. The industrial conflict as between La- bor and Capital is but a phase in the universal agitation that reaches the altar and shakes the throne. No age in history vibrates as this in which we live. Science has revolutionized conditions. Electricity, steam, and printing annul distance and time. Change and transition are every- where and in everything; and the task of intellect and the trust of virtue lies in securing the best results by the best methods. To the leading nations in civilization the crisis is not a matter of monarchies, but men — the recognition and guidance of the aspirations that are heard in a coal- mine and felt at the bench and the forge. THE LAW OF COMBINATION. In the science of civilization as in that of physics com- bination is a primal law. Its beginning has no date, and SIDE-LIGHTS ON THE LABOR PROBLEM. 261 its continuance no end. In a lump of coal and a mount- ain, in a family and an empire, it is the same eternal verity — that affinities arc the strings that tie the world of matter and of mind together. Atom to atom, and man to man, is, was, and ever will be an everlasting law. The primitive man for companionship ami protection evolved the kinship of a tribe and a nation. Mind co-operated in council, muscle in labor, and as the one learned to command, the other learned to obey. As these two lines have diverged or come in collision, the vices of power and of servitude have produced anarchy and revolution, as in historical par- allels Caesar had his Brutus and Charles his Cromwell. What we have of political or religous liberty is in obe- dience to this law. xVbiisc of power and repression of right have begotten the blood-hounds of bigotry and bat- tle, oppression or resistance being in ratio with the com- bination of either side. In tacit and sometimes blind keeping with this law men have joined hands to rule or to reform. In this age combination is a science. The era of organization has come. Intelligence fuses masses into units. Wc are running into lump. Individualism soaks into societies. Wc reproduce in modern life the clanship of the ancient, and the representative of a lodge is the forecast of more force than the marshal of old empires. We have to accept this fact, with all that it signifies for good or for evil, with this provision — that its power in both directions is limited according to its virtues or vices. Nei- ther history nor science has record of any force but has its correctives and opposites ; and in civilization it is as sure that the migfitiest combination on earth, when corrupt and oppressive, disintegrates and dissolves, as it is that a snow- flake melts in the sun. The inch and the ounce do not count in moral f(jrces ; the majorities of right are not made by counting noses. 'I'lie rich corporation ;iiiil tli<' 2G2 THE LABOR PROBLEM. laborers' union in this matter stand on a common basis, justice being blind to the difference between broadcloth and corduroy. Accepting this logic, we see in the combinations of Cap- ital and Labor a natural law and a continuous corrective. Each has its duties and its rights. As two dollars can buy more sugar than one dollar, so in all enterprises that de- velop our industries and hire more help, a corporation of moneyed men are more effective in combination than in individualism. To average common-sense this is plain, and hence it follows that such corporations are as necessary to human progress as is a crow-bar in a quarry. As two men can oppose wrong with more effect than one, and a com- bined use of reason secure redress and reform, so on the same line of principle a labor organization is as just and natural as that of Capital, protection on each side a neces- sity, according to the present condition of things. Unions are not crimes against society unless made agencies of wrong or oppression ; a bricklayers' club and a chamber of commerce, are equal needs in a common civilization, bo the difference what it may, in grammar or in shoe-leather. THE MORALE OF CAPITAL. Capital is a means to an end ; its value is in its use. It is discretionary with its possessor to keep it in a stocking or put it into a lottery, as he may happen to be a miser or a fool. It may be much or little — a million in stocks, a dollar in peanuts — its virtues and vices not according to its proportions, but its use or abuse. As a constructive and commercial force it is stronger than kings or armies. With a dollar as with a drop of water combination is power, as an aggregate of dimes or drops are necessary to run a gov- ernment or turn a water-wheeL In the right use of this principle men and nations prosper, as in its abuse the law SIDE-LIGIITS ON THE LABOR PROBLEM. 263 of retribution pronounced the sentence of judgment and death. The wealth of a nation or a man cannot keep one from decay or the other from the headache when the vices of either are ahead of their virtues. Had old Rome had morals as well as money, the Goth had never spit in the Pantheon ; and had France kept its virtues with its francs, less of human heads had fell in the executioner's basket. By laws remote as the ownership of a field or a flock, the possession of wealth has come about by dint of energy or skill on the part of some man or body of men. The means used may have been in some cases violent and dishonest — the wolf may liave got a margin on mutton by means of its teetli — but the law holds good that superior force, be it good or evil, has given the much to the few and the little to the many. The inheritance of wealth even by a fool does not affect the logic of superiority that originally made or even stole it. In accepting this truth we must also admit that there is a distributing force in our social economy by which no man, or any race of men, has ever yet put a pad- lock on the world's exchequer. In families and nations absolute monopoly is rendered impossible — a spendthrift son or a debauched empire unable to keep the financial Jonah without a vomit, while the tastes and luxuries that grow out of wealth are so many arteries in the social body by which what circulates under a crown finds its way to a ploughman's shoe. Again, the ever-changing levels of hu- man condition from beggar to prince, and prince to beggar, make the wealth of the world in one sense a common prop- erty. As the abuse of riches ends in their loss, so the right use of the same is as necessary to modern civilization as wind to a ship or steam to a locomotive. The stock- holder and the corporation have become essential factors in enterprise and progress ; they represent the means by which wc light the night with (•lectri(; stars, span the con- 2G4 THE LADOR PROBLKM. tincnts with steel rails, fetch the golden quartz and iron ore from the bowels of the planet, and put the granaries of one latitude into the cupboards of the next — the luigest agency of modern times, but subject as all other agencies to life or death, according to right or wrong doing. It has no salvation in its proportions — millions cannot count in mor- als. It may have the power of a Ctesar, and die with the worms of a Herod. Its abuse produces discontent, despair, and revolution ; pauperism may crawl in the track of its wheels, and the hopes and wages of a State fall at the click of its scissors, and the masses that should rule with the ballot resort to the bludgeon. On the other hand, when on the line of justice and humanity, it moves with other agen- cies of civilization to the higher planes of purpose and prosperity. In this is its strength. Reviewing its past it is moving with the age. The code of public morals and the force of public opinion are becoming factors in its ex- istence. It cannot live in the nineteenth century and re- new the spirit of the dark ages. It may run into gigantic rings and corporations, but " thus far shalt they go and no farther." We are progressive enough to check abuses, and to limit, if not to prevent, the growth of moneyed monarch- ies, always provided people and rulers are not saturated with a common selfishness. In that case trouble and dis- asters are inevitable, and some of it might be spared if Cap- ital always recognized the difference between a man and a mule, and kept the ten commandments among its money- bags. THE MORALE OF LABOR. Work is one of the primal conditions of human life. The first man with his spade in the primitive Eden was the initial idea of labor. Its equivalents were in keeping with his needs ; its hours and its honors regulated by the sun and his own sonl. What he did was honored by how he SIDE-LIGHTS ON THE LABOR TROBLEM, 265 did it. This original idea is now as then a basis — truth ; and notwithstanding present bccloudiucnts and nialfornia- tions, is yet an opal in the day, and gold in the quartz. Work is not, as many suppose, restricted to the use of a pickaxe, the hammer of a forge, or the tail of a plough; it is everywhere, and more or less known to every one. It is ordained that all faculties and parts of our common nat- ure have to exercise the strength that tires and the toil that exhausts ere we own an ounce of mental or moral muscle and bone. In this sense we are all alike in the leathers of a common harness. There may appear to bo an inliiiite distance between the pen of a president and the broom of a crossing sweeper, but in fact each in its place is a cor- relative of the common truth and the common duty — the dignity we attach to the one and the false shame to the other but questions of social opinion and etiquette — the sarcasm of history sometimes shaking the bran out of our pulpits by reversing our code of honor, as in the case of Grant, the tanner of Ohio, became the head of a republic. There is a false sentiment among us regarding this mat- ter that keeps on its lips the old Judaic sneer, " Is not this the carpenter's son ?" It poisons and distorts our concep- tion of honor and true dignity. So we lift a hat to an aristocratic rake, and pass without notice the grander man than he, who has blisters on his hands but none on his character. Even in the temple of God, the reverence for jewellery and silks, cologne and real estate, shuts off for a back seat and a cold welcome the poorer worshipper, who, drivitig rivets six days in the week, forgets neither his clean shirts nor his duty on the seventh. The prevalence and magnitude of this mammon worship and shame of servi- tude is one of our most momentr)us perils. It saps the fabric of society ; it builds a wall where Heaven had nev- er laid a brick. Manhood on both si5. McLaughlin, Daniel, 113, 114. Morris, S.J., 104, 105. Myers, H. M., & Co., 109-111. NKI.BON, N. O., S7-S9. Newcomb, Prof. George B, fiO-OS. Newton, Rev. R. Hebcr, D.l)., 140- 149. NIcollH, Rev. bainucl J., D.D., 150- 152. 330 Tkciuiam, RO., 101, 102. Pond, Hon. C. V. K., 249-251. Towcll, Gen. \V. U., S3-S,-i. RmoEi.Y, CiiAnT.K8, 77-70. Roemer, John, 172, 17."). Rynn, Hon. D.miel J., 242, 243. Rylance, Rev. J. U., D.U., 15-2-156. Sabsfiklp, John C, 1S1-1S3. Seligman, Prof. E. R. A., Ph.D., 53-.''.5. Shurr, Fred, 119, 120. Simpelaar, Matt. J., 1G4, 1G5. Spaulding, C. H., 75, 70. Steele, G. M., LL.D., 09-74. Stewart, Ethelberl, 126-133. Stewart, J. R., 191-194. Swank, Uou. J. M., 17G-17S. Tayloh, J. Vincent, 188-191. Taylor, Sedley, 20S. Todd, Elliot, 90. Trow, Edward, 23&-237. Vosn, B. C, 75, 77. Waurkn, Bishop IIrnry W., 156, 157. Watcrhonse, Prof. S., 56-CO. Watcrworth, James A., 17-51. Weeks, Joseph D., 23S, 239. Wheeler, D. H., LI..D., 08, 69. Wheeler, E. A., 97-101. Woodrow, Fred, 121-120, 250-327. Wood;;, J. 0.,251, 252. " Workiug-nian, A," 139-142. SCT 2 2 1962 Q£C .1 1 1963 OCT ^11968 8 W^%l«t8*; THE LIBRM?Y TOJIVERSITY C--^ '■ ■ ■fORNlA LOS ANGELES ' 3 11! 58 00878 8779 UC SOUTHERN REGIONAL LIBRARY FACILITY AA 001 149 418