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Show The Vast Improvement of the Relations Between Capital and Labor By CHAUNCEY M. DEPEW, on His 91st Birthday. The greatest and most beneficial change which has occurred in our time is the vast improvement of the relations between capital and labor. In the early days all industry belonged to individuals, and there was a constant struggle between the owner and his employees as to the share to which they were entitled. Labor, to protect-itself, rushed into unions and legislation. Then the smallest of wage earners, and the poorest paid, was labor. Today there is an extraordinary change. A skilled mechanic earns more than the average storekeeper, lawyer, doctor or minister. He has a surplus which he invests in a home which he owns, in the industry in which he is employed, and in labor banks. The industries have become so vast, and their stockholding interests so enormous, that. all of them are run necessarily by managers. These managers are employees, and so are ' the whole operating forces of our great industries. The result is, there is an intelligent and almost brotherly co-operation by which capital and labor equally share in the results. Labor is fully protected and is largely satisfied. |