START OF THE PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK THE SETTLEMENT OF WAGE DISPUTES*** E-text prepared by Stacy Brown, K. Nordquist, Michael, and the Project Gutenberg Online Distributed Proofreading Team (http://www.pgdp.net) THE SETTLEMENT OF WAGE DISPUTES The MacMillan Company New York · Boston · Chicago · Dallas Atlanta · San Francisco MacMillan & Co., Limited London · Bombay · Calcutta Melbourne The MacMillan Co. Of Canada, Ltd. Toronto THE SETTLEMENT OF WAGE DISPUTES by HERBERT FEIS, Ph.D. Associate Professor in Economics University of Kansas New York The MacMillan Company 1921 All rights reserved Printed in the United States of America Copyright, 1921, by The MacMillan Company. Set up and printed. Published October, 1921. Press of J. J. Little & Ives Company New York, U. S. A. To 37 Mellen St. PREFACE "The Settlement of Wage Disputes" falls naturally into two almost equal parts: the first an account of the present industrial situation in the United States, and of the factors which govern American wage levels at the present time; the second an attempt to formulate principles which might serve as the basis of a policy of wage settlement for the country. The proposals made in the second part are based on the theoretical analysis of the first part. Certain chapters in the first part (III and IV) may prove difficult for the ordinary reader. They are intended to be merely an analysis of a particular set of facts and tendencies--those which affect the present wage situation in the United States, or may affect it in the near future. Such an analysis of a particular set of facts is all that economic theory can successfully accomplish. This book was first projected in the summer of 1914. The Dress and Waist Industry of New York City had set up a Board of Protocol Standards to settle wage disputes. The late Robert C. Valentine was then engaged in finding a basis of wage settlement for the industry that would be of more than passing value--and as his assistant, I first became convinced that there could be no permanent peace under the wages system, once different interests became organized, unless a clear body of fundamentals principles applicable to all industries are supported and enforced. In the course of the work I have incurred many obligations both in the United States and Great Britain. I can only acknowledge a very few here. To my teachers, Prof. F. W. Taussig and W. Z. Ripley, I owe much, both for their instruction, direct help and example. In Great Britain, Mr. John A. Hobson, Mr. Henry Clay and Mr. and Mrs. Sidney Webb aided me greatly to understand British experience. My debt to the work of Judge Jethro W. Brown of the South Australia Industrial Court is heavy as the book shows. Above all I have to thank my friend Dr. Walter B. Kahn for his share in the work. H. F. _University of Kansas._ CONTENTS PAGE Chapter I--Introductory 1 § 1. In any attempt to formulate principles for use in the settlement of wage disputes, past experience furnishes much guidance. What this experience consists of. § 2. Such principles as have been used in the settlement of wage disputes have usually resulted from compromise; reason and economic analysis have usually been secondary factors. However, industrial peace cannot be secured by a recurrent use of expedients. § 3. The attitude most favorable to industrial peace. Chapter II--Some Pertinent Aspects of the Present Industrial Situation 8 § 1. The chief aims of any policy of wage settlement for industrial peace defined--the chief tests to be passed. A knowledge of present industrial facts essential to the formulation of sound policy. § 2. The present economic position of the wage earners. § 3. Their relations to the other groups in industry. The acceptance of the practice of collective bargaining essential to any policy of wage settlement in the United States to-day. Trade unionism must prove itself fit for this responsibility, however. § 4. The economic position of capital in the present industrial order. Its service to production. The problems to which the accumulation of capital has given rise. § 5. The economic position of the directors of industry. Industrial control an attribute of ownership. Two important suppositions used in this book, concerning: a. The forms of industrial income; b. The possible spread of public ownership, and its consequences for a policy of wage settlement. Chapter III--The Principles of Wages 35 § 1. A knowledge of the forces governing existing wage levels essential in any attempt to work out a policy of wage settlement for industrial peace. § 2. Wage incomes determined by great number of forces. The three most important and constant among these stated. § 3. These three to be taken up in order. The volume of the flow of wealth in the county of the worker the first to be considered. Its relation to wages indirect, as all product is joint result. § 4. The scientific management theories of wages based on a misconception of the relation between the productive contribution of labor and wages. These theories merely an elaboration of one method of wage payment. They have perceived one important truth, however. § 5. The "group-demand" theory of wages as held by some trade unions, based on a similar misconception. Valid, sometimes, from group point of view; unsound from point of view of labor in general. § 6. The second important force determining wages is the relative plenty or scarcity of the different groups or agents of production. How this governs the share of the product going to wage earners. § 7. Many important modifying forces to the influence upon wages of relative plenty or scarcity. The most important considered. § 8. The forces determining the sharing out of the product of industry summarized. The idea of normal equilibrium in distribution a mistaken one. § 9. A brief analysis of the factors which determine actual plenty or scarcity of the different agents of production at any one time. § 10. The third important force introduced--the relative plenty or scarcity of different kinds of labor. The existence of relatively separate groups of wage earners discussed. The nature of an investigation of the principles of wages. Chapter IV--Principles of Wages (_Continued_) 69 § 1. We have next to examine the causes of formation of relatively separate groups of wage earners. § 2. What is meant by a "relatively separate group"? § 3. The causes of the existence of these groups in the United States to-day. Inequality of natural ability; inequality of opportunity; artificial barriers. All these contradictory to assumptions behind theory of general rate of wages. § 4. Trade unions another factor in the formation of relatively separate groups. Indirect effects in opposite direction. § 5. Each of these groups has a relatively independent economic career. There are a series of wage levels, all of which are governed to a considerable extent by the same forces. § 6. The way in which the relative plenty or scarcity of each kind or group of labor affects its wages. Other forces play a part also. § 7. The nature of wage "differentials." Chapter V--Wages and Price Movements 87 § 1. The transactions of distribution arranged in terms of money. How does this affect the outcome of distribution as regards wages? § 2. The characteristics of price movements. § 3. The direct and indirect effects of upward price movements upon the distribution of the product. § 4. The direct and indirect effects of falling price movements upon the distribution of the product. § 5. The doctrine of the "vicious circle of wages and prices" examined. Its meaning and importance. Chapter VI--Wages and Price Movements (_Continued_) 106 § 1. The problems of wage settlement arising out of upward price movements two in number: (a) Should wages be increased during such periods? (b) If so, on what basis should increases be arranged? The doctrine of the maintenance of the standard of life analyzed. § 2. An alternative method of adjustment proposed, based on a new index number. § 3. Periods of falling prices also present two problems of wage settlement, similar in essentials to those presented by upward movement. These problems discussed. Chapter VII--The Standard Wage 121 § 1. The remainder of the book will consist of an attempt to mark out principles of wage settlement that could be applied with relative peace and satisfaction in the settlement of wage disputes. § 2. Some preliminary notes on the subsequent exposition. The question of the political machinery required to put any policy of wage settlement into effect, avoided on the whole. § 3. The principle of wage standardization defined and explained. § 4. The characteristics of the standard wage examined. § 5. The effect of the standard wage on individual independence and initiative. § 6. The effect of the standard wage on the distribution of employment within the group. § 7. Its effect upon industrial organization, prices, and managerial ability. § 8. Its effect upon the output of the wage earners. This question cannot be satisfactorily discussed apart from the larger one--that of the effect of unionism upon production. § 9. Wage standardization and the "rate of turnover" of labor. Chapter VIII--The Standard Wage (_Continued_) 147 § 1. What variations or limitations should be introduced into the principle of standardization in view of the great area and economic diversity of the United States? § 2. Differences in natural or acquired advantage between different enterprises as a reason for modification and limitation of the principle. § 3. Differences in the character of the work performed by any large group of wage earners as a reason. § 4. Differences in the cost of living at different points within the area of standardization as a reason. § 5. The grounds for "nominal variations" in standard wage rates. The policy to be pursued in regard to payment for irregular employment. § 6. The possibility of maintaining standard wage rates over a large and diversified area considered. § 7. Up to the present, the progress of standardization has not proceeded in accordance with reasoned conclusions as to the results produced. § 8. Where should level of standardization be set? The doctrine of "standardization upward." § 9. The importance of the principle of standardization in wage settlement. Chapter IX--The Living Wage 177 § 1. The reasons for seeking separate principles for the settlement of the wages of the lowest paid groups. § 2. Wage statistics of these groups a matter of familiar knowledge. § 3. The definition of the living wage idea. An inescapable element of indefiniteness contained in it. § 4. The living wage principle put in the form of applied policy. § 5. Should the living wage principle be applied to male labor? The arguments for and against. § 6. The theoretical case for the living wage principle. The verdict of past experience favorable to its extension. § 7. The dangers which must be guarded against in applying it. § 8. It should be administered through machinery which makes possible careful study of facts of each industry. This machinery discussed. § 9. The question of the relation to be established between living wage for men and women difficult. Alternatives considered. § 10. A plan for the adjustment of the living wage to price changes. The basis of adjustment. § 11. The policy of adjustment--already discussed. § 12. The hope of the living wage policy. Chapter X--The Regulation of Wage Levels 209 § 1. Why there must be in industry an ordered scheme of wage relationship between each and every group of wage earners. The limits of collective bargaining as a factor in industrial peace. § 2. In the beginning, the scheme must probably be based on an acceptance of existing wage "differentials." The reasons for this are of a practical kind. § 3. Any policy which planned to develop a scheme of wage relationships merely by maintaining existing differentials would be bound to fall to pieces in the end. The difficulties that would arise. § 4. Two principles proposed as the basis of the desired scheme of wage relationship. Their meaning as applied doctrines. § 5. These principles open to criticism both on practical and theoretical grounds. The chief criticisms examined and taken into account. § 6. Some notes on the best method of administering these principles. The necessity of avoiding political interference, if possible. Chapter XI--The Regulation of Wage Levels (_Continued_)--Wages And Prices 231 § 1. The scheme of wage relationship must recommend itself as just to the wage earners and the community in general. The ultimate distributive question to be met is the division of the product between profit and wages. § 2. Provision for the adjustment of wages to price movements would aid, however, towards reaching distributive goal. A policy of adjustment suggested. § 3. The difficulty of maintaining scheme of wage relationship of wages adjusted to price movements. The best method of adjustment a compromise. Chapter XII--The Regulation of Wage Levels (_Continued_)--Wages And Profits 239 § 1. The profits return in industry, under any policy of wage settlement, will be closely scrutinized. § 2. The possibility of measuring a "fair" profits return for all industry discussed. A method suggested. § 3. Would the principles of wage settlement worked out so far, produce a fair profits return? An open question. § 4. The scope and form of any measure designed to assure the desired distributive outcome can be discerned. § 5. The various steps in the formulation of such a measure reviewed. A measure tentatively suggested. § 6. The difficulties of calculating wage changes called for under the suggested measure. § 7. The chief practical weaknesses of the suggested measure examined. § 8. It would be open to theoretical criticism also. The alternatives even less satisfactory. Chapter XIII--A Concept of Industrial Peace 264 § 1. The hope for industrial peace in the United States. § 2. A policy of wage settlement composed out of the principles already set forth. § 3. What results might be expected from the adoption of these principles as a policy? § 4. The matter of economic security for the wage earners likely to be important for industrial peace. Hardly considered in this book. The question has been presented to the Kansas Court of Industrial Relations. § 5. Certain new ideas concerning industrial relationship have come to stay. They indicate the probable current of future change. THE SETTLEMENT OF WAGE DISPUTES CHAPTER I--INTRODUCTORY Section 1. In any attempt to formulate principles for use in the settlement of wage disputes, past experience furnishes much guidance. What this experience consists of.--Section 2. Such principles as have been used in the settlement of wage disputes have usually resulted from compromise; reason and economic analysis have usually been secondary factors. However, industrial peace cannot be secured by a recurrent use of expedients.--Section 3. The attitude most favorable to industrial peace. 1.--The industrial life of the United States is marked by an almost continuous series of open struggles between the employers and wage earners of its highly organized industries. No one defends these struggles for their own sake. There is a general inclination, however, to regard them as a necessary accompaniment of industrial activity and change. It must not be supposed that all labor troubles are merely wage controversies--that is to say, that they are all incidental to the settlement of the wage incomes of the laborers. Many of them arise in whole or part from a shifting and conflict of ideas about various other aspects of the industrial order. It is possible, however, to concentrate attention upon those conflicts which center around the settlement of wages. There is a quick and somewhat tumultuous stream of investigation directed to the invention and formulation of principles which could be used as a basis of settlement of wage controversies. In various countries such principles have been formally set forth and used. The awards of the War Labor Board are an example of their imperfect application. In the Industrial Court of the Commonwealth of Australia we have an example of the consistent use of one set of wage principles. The material that has arisen out of this process of discussion and experimentation is of the utmost value to any one endeavoring to work out a wage policy for industrial peace in the United States. It forms a body of doctrines. It gives evidence both as to the chief subjects of wage controversy, and indicates the suitability or the shortcomings of many of the principles or doctrines that might be proposed. Thus in any investigation of principles of wage settlement--with a view to industrial peace--we are not without the guidance of experience. This experience consists, firstly, of the principles worked out and applied in the decisions and orders of the courts or boards which have served as agents of wage settlement in the United States, England, Canada and the Australian dominions. Of almost equal value is the material growing out of those great industrial conflicts of recent years, in which claims have been put forward and agreement has been sought on the basis of some definite theory of wages. Such, for example, is the material prepared and presented in the course of the railway wage arbitrations in the United States and England. Such also is the evidence and material presented in the course of the inquiry recently held in Great Britain upon the wages of transport workers. 2.--It should be understood that the principles which have been used in wage settlements in the past were not ideal solutions. That is to say they were not arrived at solely by the use of reason, directed to the discovery of what is just and what is for the general good. The situation has been rather that described by Mr. Squires, when he writes: "Too often in the past arbitration has followed the line of least resistance. With much unction, the lion's share has been awarded to the lion. Decisions proposing another settlement were speedily forgotten because not enforced. Those submitting to arbitration frequently did so with the mental reservation that the decision to be acceptable must at least approximate the conditions they felt they would be able to establish by a show of strength. From this position to one of complacent acceptance of arbitrary decisions, applied not to an isolated group but seeking to comprehend all labor or a given class, is a long step for both employers and employees." And again: "In arbitrary wage adjustments the absence of well defined and acceptable standards to be used in wage determination as well as the difficulty in enforcing awards that did not conform closely to the law of supply and demand has forced arbitration to resort to the expediency of splitting the difference. Cost of living, proportionate expense of labor, and net profits, when taken into account have been more often evoked in defense of claims made than as a means of determining what claims were just under the circumstances."[1] So, also, with any attempt to devise principles which might serve as the basis of a policy of wage settlement in the United States. They would represent the effort to develop standards by which conflicting claims could be resolved. It is not desired to signify agreement by this admission with those who believe that all principles of wage settlement must be purely passive, with those who argue that wage settlement must perforce be nothing more than a recurrent use of expedients produced on the spur of the occasion out of the magical hat of the arbitrator. All that is meant is that no policy of wage settlement will succeed if its results diverge too greatly from the interests which it, in turn, would guide and restrain. Any policy of wage settlement must take into consideration the moral and social circumstances pertinent to the dispute as well as the economic. It must express active social and ethical claims as well as recognize economic facts. It must be supported by the sense that it is at least moderately just. Most attempts, furthermore, to settle wage disputes by the use of defined principles have resulted in an incoherence of policy due to the necessity of bowing to the facts of force. This interference of force and the consequent disturbance of policy is likewise to be expected in all future attempts. For, in all human affairs private interest will, on favorable occasions, revolt against laws or rules which restrain it. Again, in the United States all past attempts to settle wage disputes by reference to principles have been isolated and sporadic. They have, therefore, been virtually foredoomed to failure. For as will be made clearer as we progress, any successful attempt to base wage settlements upon principles will demand the consistent and courageous application of these principles for a not inconsiderable period, and to all important industries alike. Otherwise compromise and a search for any way out of the immediate crisis is the only possible principle of settlement. Any well-conceived policy of wage settlement must have regard for a far wider set of forces and facts than are presented by any single controversy. The objects of any policy could only be attained through a long series of decisions ranging throughout the field of industry, and related to each other. This, it is trusted, will become plain as the difficulties of formulating policy are discussed. 3.--Prof. Marshall in his great book has an arresting passage on the importance of the tendency to organization which characterizes the whole field of industry. He writes: "This is not a fitting place for a study of the causes and effects of trade combinations and of alliances and counter alliances among the employers and employed, as well as among traders and manufacturers. They present a succession of picturesque incidents and romantic transformations which arrest public attention and seem to indicate a coming change of our social arrangements now in one direction and now in another; and their importance is certainly great and grows rapidly. But it is apt to be exaggerated; for indeed many of them are little more than eddies such as have always flitted over the surface of progress. And though they are on a larger and more imposing scale in this modern age than before; yet now, as ever, the main body of the movement depends on the deep, silent, strong stream of the tendencies of normal distribution and exchange which 'are not seen' but which control the course of those episodes which 'are seen.' For even in conciliation and arbitration the central difficulty is to discover what is the normal level from which the decisions of the court must not depart far under penalty of destroying their own authority."[2] Writing in England in 1920, it seems to me as if the events of change in England were more than the surface movements he speaks of, and that slowly but definitely industrial arrangements are undergoing modification so as to give scope to new energies and ideas which will modify the "normal" distribution and exchange as he conceived it. The future in the United States is even less clearly marked. There too new purposes and claims are arising and will seek adjustment with established arrangements. The attitude of all those who really desire industrial peace must be that of readiness to judge such forces of change as may become active, by the balance of good or harm they seem to promise. For that is the attitude which alone can make possible a fusion of the conservatism of experience and of established interest, and the radicalism of hope and desire--by which fusion society can experience peaceful development. FOOTNOTES: [1] "New York Harbor Wage Adjustment," B. M. Squires, _Monthly Review of the U. S. Department of Labor_, Sept., 1918, page 19. [2] A. Marshall, "Principles of Economics," 7th Edition, page 628. CHAPTER II--SOME PERTINENT ASPECTS OF THE PRESENT INDUSTRIAL SITUATION Section 1. The chief aims of any policy of wage settlement for industrial peace defined--the chief tests to be passed. A knowledge of present industrial facts essential to the formulation of sound policy.--Section 2. The present economic position of the wage earners.--Section 3. Their relations to the other groups in industry. The acceptance of the practice of collective bargaining essential to any policy of wage settlement in the United States to-day. Trade unionism must prove itself fit for this responsibility, however.--Section 4. The economic position of capital in the present industrial order. Its service to production. The problems to which the accumulation of capital has given rise.--Section 5. The economic position of the directors of industry. Industrial control an attribute of ownership. Two important suppositions used in this book, concerning: a. The forms of industrial income; b. The possible spread of public ownership, and its consequences for a policy of wage settlement. 1.--The problem of wage settlement may be regarded as the task of elucidation or invention of methods and principles in accordance with which the product of industry might be shared among the wage earners and the other participants in the product with relative peace and satisfaction. It is necessary and permissible, as has been remarked, to separate this problem from other closely related problems. However, any policy of wage settlement that might be adopted would be also an important influence in other industrial issues outside of those it settles directly. It would affect in numberless ways the relations between the groups concerned in production. It follows that no policy of wage settlement will work successfully unless it accomplishes two ends. First, it must represent convincingly the effort to divide the product of industry so as to satisfy the most widely held conceptions of justice in the industrial system. Second, it must contribute, wherever it is a factor, to such an adjustment of industrial relations as will command the voluntary support of all groups whose coöperation is necessary for the maintenance of industrial peace. For the accomplishment of these two objects, any policy must be based upon a knowledge of the present economic position of the various groups engaged in industry, and of the present state of industrial relations between them. It is obviously impossible to review these matters adequately in this book. The most that can be attempted is a brief survey of those aspects of these questions with which the problem of wage settlement must definitely concern itself. Such a survey will occupy this chapter. If it serves no other purpose, it will serve the important one of making clear the source of certain general presuppositions with which the problem of formulating a policy of wage settlement for industrial peace is approached. 2.--It is convenient to deal with the general field under survey by considering in the order stated, the present economic position, firstly, of the wage earners; secondly, of those who own invested capital; and thirdly, of those who direct industrial activity. Questions of industrial relationship between these groups can then be presented at the point at which they arise most pertinently. Such a loose order as this is dictated by the desire to avoid all questions except those which inevitably arise when studying the problem of wage settlement. To begin with the wage earners. The task of giving exact scope to the term "wage earners" may be shirked. The term may be taken to include, at least, all those grades of workers whose incomes would be governed directly by any scheme of wage settlement. When using the term in the course of theoretical discussion, as in the ordinary analysis of distribution, it may be taken to include also other grades of workers, whose incomes probably would not be so governed, as for example, assistant or department managers of large businesses. The recent past has witnessed important changes both in the economic position of the wage earners, and in the relations between them and the other groups engaged in industry. A close connection may be traced between the two lines of change. Up to the beginning of the present century, at any rate, it may be asserted that the wage earners of the country were not separated from the rest of the industrial community, either socially or economically; although at all times throughout the last century, there was to be found a section of recent immigrant labor which had not yet found its way into the main channels of economic society. The farms, the shops and private businesses of the small and semi-rural towns; these were the common origins and discipline of our industrial leaders and of the more skilled groups of wage earners. There was no great difference either of educational or of industrial opportunity between the mass of men. The few great financial centers of the East may have been the home of an established and separate economic class, but this class was not one of the most important industrial forces. The standard of life as well as the economic prospects of all wage earners who had been thoroughly absorbed into the community encouraged a feeling of equality and independence. The tradition of our period of industrial expansion was that most men should seek to operate their own farm or business (and be their own master). This tradition could flourish as long as a great variety of industrial opportunity existed for the ordinary individual. The first stages in the development of our natural resources, the course of mechanical invention and improvement, the rapid growth of our population--all these changes stimulated independent enterprise, and offered great hopes of success in enterprise to men possessed of common sense, energy, and character. No family felt itself placed in a fixed position in the industrial scale except by reason of its own inferior powers of utilizing opportunity. The wage earners were those workers who worked for some one else, but they did not form a separate class different in experience and outlook from their employers. The possession of wealth, under such circumstances indicated individual capacity, temperament, and ambition. That phase of American industry is certainly not entirely past, although it has not persisted to the extent that some of the industrial leaders whose rise was contemporaneous with the earlier stages of industrial expansion, are wont to argue. At the present time able and determined individuals, who in youth are manual workers frequently succeed in discovering openings to the higher industrial positions. The need for business ability is still too great to be supplied by any one level of society; all are drawn upon. The thought that each man can attain to the possession of a business of his own, or to a position of importance in some big business, is even now a common conviction and inspiration among the more skilled groups of wage earners. Yet the economic position of the wage earners in industry has undergone genuine change. The chief characteristics of the present situation are familiar knowledge. First of all, the percentage of employers to wage earners in industry has decreased.[3] Again most new undertakings in the important branches of productive industry require a large amount of capital, a specialized and rather rare capacity for organization and a considerable knowledge of a wide sphere of industry. Indeed, the undertaking of new business enterprises has itself become to no small extent the function of organizations rather than of individuals. Further the personal coöperation between employer and the best men among his wage earners which was in the past the ordinary method of business education is not often practised now. Industry is not a good education for the skilled and able wage earners. Industrial management has usually taken the view that there is no need or profit in educating the wage earners beyond the requirements of their specialized task. The gap between ordinary wage work and managerial work and ownership is in most industries great--the path upward hard to discover. The jobs which carry the easiest opportunities for advancement in many important industries are now the subordinate positions in the various executive, administrative or sales branches. These jobs tend to be given to young men from that section of society which has affiliations, direct or indirect, with the management of industry. The growth in importance of these branches has led to the development of a specialized form of education for industrial leadership which the wage earner does not receive. Indeed, with the ever increasing complexity of the problems of business enterprise, prolonged education, itself, has become of more importance in determining individual chances of success. All these developments have greatly lessened the chances of the ordinary wage earner for any position of ownership or control. They have tended to separate the wage earners from the groups controlling industry; they have taken away in a large measure the inspiration which work receives from hopes of steady advancement. When that hope is gone only the hope for high wages is left, and that is not a sufficiently potent common aim to insure the coöperation required for so complex an activity as modern industry. Simultaneously with the revolution in industrial structure and interacting with it in many ways, there has occurred a great change in the composition and character of the wage-earning body. The change that occurred between 1870 and 1910 in the sources of the immigration which has furnished the United States with the bulk of its supply of unskilled and semi-skilled labor, is a commonplace of American industrial history. The effects of this change have been largely governed by other industrial events, chief among which may be put the increased concentration of industry in and around a relatively small number of cities or regions. For as Mr. Chapin in his study of the sources of urban increase has stated: "Immigration has been the chief source of urban increase in the United States during the past quarter of a century."[4] There has assembled in each of our great cities a mass of workers, many of whom are of recent alien origin, quickly habituated to the routine of existence in crowded city streets and busy factories. The interchange of opinion and of sympathy between these lowest grades of industrial workers and the rest of the community is very imperfect. Their industrial position and outlook tends to be that of a separate class. As a rule, they are unorganized. It is of these grades of labor that Prof. Marshall has written "Some of these indeed rise; for instance, particular departments of some steel works are so fully manned by Slavs, that they are beginning efficiently to take the place of Irish and others who have hitherto acted as foremen: while large numbers of them are to be found in relatively light, but monotonous work in large cities. They may lack the resolute will which put many British, German and Scandinavian immigrants on terms of equality with native Americans. But they are quick withal, versatile; and as a rule, easily molded; they take readily to the use of machinery; and they have no tradition that could prevent them from doing their best in using semi-automatic machines, which are simple of handling, while doing complex work. Thus America has obtained a plentiful supply of people who are able and willing to do the routine work of a factory for relatively low wages, and whose aptitudes supplement those of the stronger races that constitute the great bulk of the white population."[5] They have sought chiefly such improvement in their position as might come from increased wages. They have remained in the regions of the will and of thought subject to those who controlled industry; for they themselves have been in a strange environment, and so have not been able to display, to any considerable extent, the qualities requisite to industrial leadership. The difference of viewpoint and even of economic interest between the groups of skilled craftsmen in industry and the unskilled grades is being gradually reduced. Industrial developments have tended to emphasize the measure of common interest between all grades of wage earners. The steady trend to standardization in production and to simplification of the machine processes has lessened somewhat the difference between the character of the work of the upper and lower grades of labor. Modern industrial developments have led to an increased emphasis upon "general ability" and a lessened emphasis upon "special ability." To quote Marshall again, "Manual skill that is so specialized that it is quite incapable of being transferred from one occupation to another is becoming steadily a less and less important factor in production. Putting aside for the present the faculties of artistic perception and artistic creation, we may say that what makes one occupation higher than another, what makes the workers of one town or country more efficient than those of another, is chiefly a superiority in general sagacity and energy which are not specialized to any one occupation."[6] As labor organization tends to become recognized as a regular part of the framework of industry, as the duties put upon trade union leadership are broadened in order that industry may give the wage earners collective representation, it is to be expected that stronger bonds will arise between the skilled and unskilled grades of wage earners than those which unite them at present.[7] The position of the female industrial workers remains to be noted since the employment of women in industry seems likely to increase. Women are employed, on the whole, on the lighter and more routine stages of the process of production. They have shown capacity, endurance and steadiness upon monotonous and nerve straining work both upon machine and hand tasks. It seems likely that they will continue to displace men in many of the simpler mechanical jobs. Many individual women wage earners have risen to tasks of responsibility and direction. This number will be greatly added to by improvement in the education of women for industry and by their continued self-assertion. Nevertheless, it is likely that the great bulk of women wage earners will continue to be employed as at present upon relatively simple, light and unskilled work. Such, in briefest outline, is the economic position of the wage earners in American industry to-day. There is a diversity of outlook and of animating spirit among the various groups or classes. There is no very settled opinion among them as to the place of the wage earner in the industrial system. There is besides a diversity of racial and sex faculty and adaptability. 3.--Change and diversity also mark the relationships between the wage earners and the other industrial groups. Up to the very recent past, the connection of the wage earners with the enterprise in which they served was limited practically to the fulfillment of the individual wage contracts which were made. The obligation of the wage earners to the enterprise which employed them has been considered at an end with the performance of the work they were employed to do. Similarly, the obligation of the enterprise to the wage earners has been considered fulfilled by the payment of wages earned. The wage earners have been called upon to give their whole-hearted efforts to their work by reason of the belief that such effort was to their own interest, and by reason of their own hopes and desires for advancement. The American wage earners have usually tackled their jobs with energy, good will, and sincerity. It is impossible to attempt to sketch here the development of the practice of collective bargaining, and the various concepts of industrial relationship to which the rise of trade unionism has given impulse. We are now in the midst of a struggle brought about by the efforts of the wage earners to add to their traditional rights of freedom of contract and of enterprise certain other rights. These may be collectively described as the right to organize and to use their organized strength collectively in all ways which may be reconciled with the public interest. Some of the greatest industrial conflicts of recent years have been consequences of the efforts of the wage earners to establish these additional rights both in fact and in law (as for example the strike in the steel and iron industry in 1919). Much headway has been made in the establishment of the rule of collective bargaining in industry. The scope of the matters usually settled by that method varies greatly between individual, establishments and industries. Organized labor has frequently received official recognition by the fact of its representation on bodies concerned with the investigation or control of the conditions of labor, or with general questions arising out of, or closely connected with, industrial activity--especially during the war. The President's Second Industrial Conference, which was appointed to make recommendations concerning the most urgent problems of industrial relationship that had been accentuated by the war, emphasized the need for the "deliberate organization" of the relationship between employer and employees in large industries, but contributed little to the matters in dispute. Their view was expressed as follows: "To-day we have a complex interweaving of vital interests. But we have as yet failed to adjust our human relations to the facts of an economic interdependence. The process toward adjustment, though slow, nevertheless goes on. Right relations between employer and employee, in large industries, can be promoted only by deliberate organization of that relationship. Not only must the theory that labor is a commodity be abandoned, but the concept of leadership must be substituted for that of mastership." The attitude of the community has been to take no step in advance of what resulted from the trial of argument and force by the directly interested parties. But it is probable that in the future public opinion will be more positive and will grant to labor organizations fuller recognition and greater participation in the control of industrial activity than heretofore. It will be impossible to develop any policy of wage settlement while certain of these questions of industrial relationship remain unsettled--particularly the question of the acceptance of the method of collective bargaining. Any proposals of wage policy must put that matter, at least, on firm ground. It is probable that in order to administer any policy of wage settlement some means of representation for the wage earners will be indispensable. And it is likely that satisfactory representation can only be obtained by the organization of the wage earners. Furthermore, this organization will have to be on a wider scale than shop organization, although shop organization may also be useful. Thus it may be said that it will be found necessary in any attempt to secure industrial peace in the United States by the enforcement of a policy of wage settlement, not only to recognize labor unions where they already exist, but also to give encouragement to some form of organization where none exists.[8] If in the trying times immediately ahead the trade unions give proof that they are more than servants of craft interests; if they stand up as democratic institutions capable of exercising power in industry and not abusing it; if their leaders show they can be humble, when made powerful, then that opposition to the growth of trade union power which is based on a genuine concern for the public welfare will be disarmed. If the trade unions show none of these qualities, the common sense of the community will resist them in the name of traditional equality and democracy. Popular movements such as trade unionism must make mistakes constantly, but because of the spirit behind them, they have great powers of recovery. The trade union movement, as a whole in the United States, has not yet shown a thorough comprehension of the economic system of which it is a part; it has, therefore, often erred in its efforts to end an evil or injustice. Particular unions and leaders have often pursued mean, short-sighted and self-seeking policies--which have reflected upon the whole movement. Much like other economic groups, when their own interest has not coincided with the general interest, they have frequently put their own interest first. It is the test of all great popular movements, however, that they show they possess the ability to pursue a just and generous policy even while they are hard pressed, provoked by injustice, and maligned. That is the trial which trade unionism faces in the United States to-day; it is the example trade unionism must set before it can expect willing acceptance as a fundamental industrial institution. Unless the union movement proves itself intelligent, disciplined, and aware of ethical considerations, a continuance of industrial conflict will be inevitable; for any practicable policy of wage settlement for industrial peace will require union participation. 4.--Let us pass now to the economic position of "capital" (the owners of capital) in the industrial order which uses it (of which they are a part). In a society where labor works upon the gifts of nature almost unaided by instruments invented by man and fashioned by previous human labor, the society must content itself with small numbers or little product or both. Modern industry has been shaped, perhaps predominantly, by the effort to support large numbers at a high standard of economic existence. Production has become greatly subdivided among specialized groups. In industry to-day, the wage earners of various kinds perform their tasks with the assistance of such equipment, machinery, and general organization as will serve to make their labor result in a large product. The means which make possible this effective employment of labor in industry are what we mean by the term "capital."[9] The section of the community which owns and directs the investment of the bulk of these means has received the name of capitalists. Almost all the capital accumulated within the United States is privately owned. Since the beginning of our industrial history the opportunities for accumulation have been left to individuals and the capital which industry has used has been provided by private owners. We have depended upon the personal motives of individuals to persuade them to refrain from the immediate consumption of some part of the product of industry which has come into their possession, and to lead them to put their savings at the further command of industry. The circumstances which have governed the course and direction of this accumulation, and the question of the amount of economic cost that it involved have been the subjects of much capable exposition and of very violent differences. Much accumulation has resulted from the fact that industrial or rent incomes have been at certain times distinct surpluses over the possible consumption of the individuals in receipt of them. Much has been prompted and maintained by the efforts of men to move ahead to success and power--that is by ambition and rivalry; much by the idea that pecuniary success is itself an achievement, a mark of ability and leadership. The ordinary hopes of the multitude of men, such as the desire for a secure existence for themselves and their family, and the wish to figure among their friends as an equal, have been the steadiest motives of all. Saving is not one of the most deeply implanted habits. It is a habit that is closely bound up with the qualities of personal ambition, calculation and the desire for responsibility. That is the reason why rich men are so seldom very likable. It is the reason also why those who are the most needy are at times least disposed to save when they have a chance. And if in the immediate future, the responsibility for accumulation is to be more widely diffused than at present, there will have to be a general cultivation of these qualities--qualities, indeed, most requisite for a complex, mechanical civilization like our own. The accumulation of capital, as has been said, enables industry to utilize such methods of production as result in a high volume of product for a given expenditure of effort. Much of the hopefulness and energy which has characterized our industrial life arose out of the belief that the continuous course of capital accumulation, since it made possible the utilization of new inventions and improved methods of production, was preparing the way for a future that would be marked by even a wider distribution of comfort than men saw around them. Thus it has been urged that by devotion to industry and by consuming less than was produced, the time would come when the world would be so well equipped that none of its workers would have to be in want of the economic essentials of a satisfactory life. In Mr. Keynes words, "Society was working not for the small pleasures of to-day, but for the future security and improvement of the race,--in fact for 'progress.' If only the cake were not cut, but was allowed to grow in the geometrical proportion predicted by Malthus of population, but not less true of compound interest, perhaps a day might come when there would be at last the enjoyment of our labors. In that day, overwork, overcrowding and underfeeding would come to an end and men secure of the comforts and necessities of the body could proceed to the nobler exercise of their faculties."[10] Under the guiding force of this conviction, and in the
{'title': 'The Settlement of Wage Disputes by Herbert Feis', 'source': 'Project Gutenberg', 'lang': 'en'}