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Show TAKING THE STING OUT OF DISCONTENT IN AMERICA By Irving R. Bacon WHV force? Why chaos? Why the brambly, circuitous route when there is a straight, smooth, comfortable com-fortable one to take you to the goal you aim at? John N. Willys has given a practical practi-cal reply to the threats of anarchists, who base their reason for revenge upon tho toilers' inadequate share in the distribution of wealth. lie has taken his employes into partnership on a "lifly-fUiy" basis. And, as his business includes the manufacture of automobiles, farm tractors and other things which fetch big prices in the market, not one of his ten thousand employes but feels a new stimulus in his work and a new gladness in life. Other captains of industry aro also taking the sting out of discontent in one way or another and leading their armies of workers into regions of comfort, com-fort, ease and elegance scarcely even dreamed of before. Comparatively few years ago Colo- rado was the scene of strikes in which the government troops had to be called out. Kiots, bullpen and stockade imprisonments, im-prisonments, bloodshed and venomous hatreds complicated with murders, were the order of the day. Capital and labor were deadlocked in a stubborn stub-born struggle for supremacy and anarchy reared its head and showed its fangs. The Rockefeller Experiment Take a look at Colorado today. Tha Fuel and Iron Company no longer need fear an uprising of its employes. Like the Willys plants, this company, too, has inaugurated a system for bringing sunshine and contentment into the hearts of its employes. Capital Cap-ital and labor there are also working hand in hand. Labor sings joyously In the performance of its tasks, for it realizes that the more cheerfully it produces what is asked of it the richer will be its own returns. An advisory board on social and industrial in-dustrial betterment has been established estab-lished to study and develop methods for putting into effect any feature that may be of value to the employes and the company. It is empowered and even expected to call to its aid the best experct in the country. The task it has set itself just now is to ascertain the most modern developments develop-ments in industrial housing, and methods meth-ods of employing and fit ting men for better jobs. This includes cooperation coopera-tion with the State and Federal authorities au-thorities in vocational education, resides re-sides inquiries in to plans for promoting promot-ing thrift and protecting employes against loan injustices. If any more were needed to be said o show the vast difference! in results brought about by the two angles at rrhich it is possible for capital and labor to view each other that cf hostility hos-tility or that of friendly co-operation-it would be supplied y the tt.-a. sties cf t'.ie "vinn:- ifce war" interest taken by the employes. At the Mih-neqtia Mih-neqtia plant of the company, the employes em-ployes subscribed toward the first loan $133,400; .second loan, $251,800; third loan, $3L'3,900, and fourth loan, $135,-400; $135,-400; a total of $1,196,500. And to the Red Cross they contributed $53,399; to the United War Work Fund, $22,-171, $22,-171, in addition to $6425 directly to the Y. M. C. A. War Work Fund. And, in war and thrift stamp3, they invested in-vested $237,500. And it was not .so very long ago that this very same company and its employes stood opposed to each other with a hatred which made that of the furious Guelfs and Ghibellines of the Middle Ages look like a well-wishing fraternal benevolence. Another big concern which has ' adopted the plan of treating labor as the partner of capital is that of Fuller Calloway, head of an Ohio steel company, com-pany, which is said to have a 135 per cent production per man as compared with 100 per cent of the United States Steel Corporation. Mr. Calloway is most emphatic to have it understood that neither he nor - Cov.TSiUt. 1313. ti- I i " ' , - " , St A ; - - V -i ) i I ' ';. ir . , t 1 k, I V - ' . JOHN N. WILLYS tj any other captain of industry who is I trying to make labor the equal and co-ordmate factor with capital m the production of wealth is moved thereto by anything like a feeling of philanthropy. philan-thropy. It is a sheer business proposition, propo-sition, he savs; and it is the only safe, sound and sane way of dealing with so delicate and Intricate a problem. Before he Inaugurated the era of co-operative cordiality many of his employes were a ragged, shiftless, irresponsible irre-sponsible lot, he said, upon whom he could never count in an emergency. They would leave him by hundreds in response to the lure of a few pennies more offered by another employer. They lived in squalor and their families fam-ilies were neglected and ill-fed and the children of many of them were compelled to go barefoot even in inclement in-clement weather. ft Upbuilding Citizenship Then Mr. Calloway began the experiment ex-periment of paying as high wages as the nature of the work allowed; and lie put up nice, cozy , houses for Kia employes to dwell in, with gardens both for beauty and to serve as miniature minia-ture truck farms; schools and other educational advantages and clubhouses club-houses followed. Gradually the men, whoso mental horizon had been bounded by their immediate physical needs, and who, consequently, had never known the joy of intellectual diversion, began to take an interest in the wider, more objective affairs of life; they began to discuss economic and political problems; saloons ceased tc attract; gambling became one of the "lost arts"; a spiritual atmosphere invaded and pervaded their homes; within an incredibly short time their emancipation from the sordid conditions condi-tions which had held them fettered and enslaved was complete. The thousands of employes' in his great steel plants are as tine citizens today as can be found anywhere on earth. And it is probably no exaggeration to say that every one of them is as contented con-tented as it is given the human heart to be under any conditions at all. "And all this means so much more aU.; i-.i..-r Co. i. r f ; ) v : fc i k ? I " ss x ! r i 1 ' ;if " '( " JOUN O. KUClUil-KLLEK, JR. ' money to me," says Mr. Calloway. "The cost of the extras, in addition to higher wages, is but so much 'bread cast upon the waters.' It has enabled me to turn out 35 per cent more production, pro-duction, in proportion to my force, than the United States Steel Corporation, which is considered ope of the most efficiently conducted organizations in the world." Strange that it required so many thousands of years of bitter experience experi-ence to teach people that neither labor nor capital, nor both combined, constitutes con-stitutes the wealth upon which the well-being of the world is established, but that it is properly distributed production, pro-duction, the offsprmg of the union of capital and labor, to winch the term wealth is applicable and to which the exalted mission to bring a more general gen-eral happiness into the world belongs. Writing in the January 18 number of The Public, which calls itself "a journal jour-nal of democracy," Fvichard Spillane says: "There is one true gauge to apply to. labor, and one only. That is the element of production. Wages come from production. Capital simply is a link between production and wage. In their blindness and antagonism, capital and labor ignore this basic fact One encroaches upon the rights o the other and thinks it is a victory vic-tory achieved when, in reality, injury is done to both. ' "When Henry Ford established the $5 a day minimum wage scale, employers em-ployers the country over had a chill. Highly paid labor is cheap labor if it produces proportionately more than low-paid labor. The problem of the employer in America is not so much to lower the wage scale as to increase the scale of production. Helping the Sailor "Some men in their folly, do all they can not only to continue, but intensify the age-long combat between capital and labor, employer and employed. Edward Ed-ward N. Hurley, of our shipping board, went abroad In the hope of arranging with shipmasters of the principal foreign for-eign countries to accept the wage :- - ' fir- sty a i if?Tt'' : writ " the manning of h fl "K 41 I M U W :e leading ship- - V JIW U I j Bntain have i f 3 ' v jdXrkw P 8' m and gone so ,j i ,a jr 1 J jgestion an im- f- ifK ' i ' f J I f et every man J 5jf , 'J i ff, r"!r f service knos it I. . , J ji ' ' 'l , s unjustly low, Iff' s j L il fl, " i gts is poor, 't!sf4tt- , I life1' f ' I , expended to V N 4KV t Vfi M I ' l ommodations for Splffk S ff ! reatedmoieasan UXIMWvMa P, , , J J i being The men TOWtWV ' ' Df commerce mav If. UU; ' . state, but what a M lit iW r- ,Yif make of our war f!'.l 1 H.'7 . he world a better W MUI - ' we should accept f 'Y '11? it ' Bluish shipemn jo'lfl1!! Li " .'' rf ' wrath at sugges- I ? H:&f f3 fws5 Js''''-"1-'' e lot of the sailor , "ft r f "sli V f ' :' 1 J i:::??!:!!i5j'' illative, wherever found, should be i Proeram s r W irJi couraged and adequately rewarilei fe : W 'VV and Indolence, indifference, restriction view as that of , of production should be diacountw -s paid in the long ' anced. scale and the general regulations America has v established in relation to seamen's wages and the manning of vessels. Some of the leading shipping ship-ping men of Great Britain have scoffed at his mission and gone so far as to call his suggestion an impertinence. im-pertinence. And yet every man who has been in sea service knows the pay of a sailor is unjustly low, that the food he gets is poor, that little eltort Is expended to provide decent accommodations for him and that he is treated more as an animal than a human being. The men who sail the ships of commerce mav not be of the best estate, but what a mockery we would make of our war slogan of 'making the world a better place to live in,' if we should accept the purblind view of British shipowners shipown-ers who rise up in wrath at suggestion sugges-tion of improving the lot of the sailor man! Rockefeller's Program "If such ai selfish view as that of the British shipowners paid in the long run it might have some merit, but it does not pay. It breeds dissatisfaction, dissatisfac-tion, trouble and agitation, as anything any-thing that is unjust in principle and effect is certain to do. It does not make for better men or better service, and only through better men and better bet-ter service byvmen do we progress." Perhaps if the anarchists ceased to be introspective long enough to shift their eyes from their own miseries, to which no doubt those of them who are sincere owe their mental attitude, they might discover to their amazement that one of the stanchest allies labor ever had is John D. Rockefeller, Jr. If there is any definite program at ail in the creed of anarchy, it surely must be to attain happiness for individuals. indi-viduals. And what else than this is the program which Mr. Rockefeller set forth in a paper which he read several weeks ago at a meeting of the Reconstruction Recon-struction Congress of American Industries, Indus-tries, at Atlantic City? Here are its most salient features: "First. Labor and capital are partners, part-ners, not enemies; their interests are common interests, not opposed, and neither can attain the fullest meaeure of prosperity at the expense of the other, but only in association with the other. ' "Second. The purpose of industry is quite as much to advance social well-' being as material well-being, and in the pursuit of that purpose the interests inter-ests of the community should be carefully care-fully considered, .the well-being of the employes as respects living and working work-ing conditions should be fully guarded, management . should bo adequately recognized and capital should be justly compensated,' and failure in any of these particulars means loss to all. "Third. Every- man is entitled to an opportunity to earn a living, to fair wages, to reasonable hours of work and proper working conditions, to a decent home, to the opportunity to play, to learn, to worship and to love as well as to toil, and the respon-siblity respon-siblity rests as heavily upon industry as upon government or society to see that these conditions and opportunities opportuni-ties prevail. "Fourth. Industry, efficiency and in- illative, wherever found, should be e couraged and adequately rewarded and indolence, indifference, restriction of production should be discounte' anced. "Fifth. Tho provision of adequti means for uncovering grievances aal promptly adjusting them Is of fundi mental importance to the successiul conduct of industry. "Sixth. The most potent measure B bringing about industrial liarmonf and prosperity is adequate represent tion of the parties in interest; exlr ing forms ofrepresentation sliouid 1 carefully studied and availed of In far as they may bo found to havi merit and are adaptable to the peculiar conditions in the various industries. "Seventh. The application of rlsf principles never feils to effect right r lAions; the letter killeth and It' spirit maketh alive; forms are who!!? secondary, while attitude and spirit are all-important, and only as tM parties in industry are animated W the spirit of fair play, justice to all and brotherhood, will any plans whica may mutually work out succeed. "Eighth. That man renders tH greatest social service who so coo? eiate.i In the organization of lndustrf as to afford to the largest number 0! men the greatest opportunity for K11' vi .u A-,,Tnont br uvVCIVJIJlIlfJllL L1JU LIIO every man of those benefits which tJ own work adds to the wealth of tivil zatlon." Lest it be thought that Mr. EocW feller is merely a soft-spoken theorif-let theorif-let it not be forgotten that he is t-' head of the big Colorado Fuel and IroJ Company w-hich is doing so much W-its W-its employes, and that at Bayon- N. J., and everywhere else where tr.i Standard Ol Company h?.s a foot'r.c ' conditions similar to tin re of the F"' and Iron Company prevail. Stamping Out Auarcbf The step in advance of all ''' captains of industry whicli -Mr. V';"!' lias just taken by making his empla" his actual partners will no douit P far toward neutralizing the venos in the fang of the more rabid F.ei5 " this country. A great deal has alraG' been accomplished In this respect M the Fords, the Calloways, the He''-' eys, the Listers, tho Harriinar.s, John H. Pattersons, tho Georga 1 Verity-i and several other enlighten? and far-seeing capitalists. If other e-' ployers show an even approxima'-conciliatory approxima'-conciliatory spirit such as theirs, & chances are that the fang of anaro-. will quickly be extracted altoge:'' and capital and labor be allowed tj go arm In arm, unmolested in t5" triumphal march toward a country wide reign of prosperitj and haPP r.ess. And, with tho prestige and a- cendancy which America has acquire In world politics. Its exumplo w soon become wholesomely Infectio-nnd Infectio-nnd tho condition of labor every'1"'1 bo improved. |
