Part 11

The men generally came to see that the man about whom they had heard was very different from the man whom they had met in their homes and at their work. While they distrusted the former, they believed in the latter. Before I left Colorado, a plan of industrial representation, providing for close personal contact between the duly elected representatives of the men and officers of the company, was worked out and adopted by a large majority vote of the employees.

This plan in substance aims to provide a means whereby the employees of the company should appoint from their own number as their representatives men who are working side by side with them, to meet as often as may be with the officers of the corporation, sometimes in general assembly, where open discussions are participated in and any matters of mutual interest suggested and discussed; more frequently in committees composed of an equal number of employees and officers, which committees deal with every phase of the men’s lives--their working and living conditions, their homes, their recreation, their religion and the education and well-being of their children.

In brief, the plan embodies an effort to reproduce in so far as is possible the earlier contact between owner and employee.

I do not venture to make any prediction as to the ultimate success of the plan. Two interesting side lights, however, may be mentioned.

The first is that whereas the plan itself and an agreement covering working and living conditions was adopted by the coal miners employed by this company some fifteen months ago--since that time the same plan and agreement, adapted to the particular requirements of the steel workers, and also of the iron miners employed by the company, has been adopted by both.

The second, while the company has reopened a number of mines formerly idle and is now working quite to the limit of its capacity in the production of coal, it has all the labor at its various mines which it requires, and that too without having made any special effort to attract labor to its recently reopened mining camps.

But there is a further reason why the personal relation in industry is of such vital importance, and that is in order that the attitude and purpose of the owners and directors of a company may be rightly understood by and interpreted to their partners, the employees, and vice versa; also that all grievances may be taken up and adjusted as they arise.

How true it is that when some petty representative of a great corporation makes a sharp trade with a customer, the customer at once says, “Obviously, the president of this corporation is a dishonest and unscrupulous man. It must be that he has directed his agents to pursue these sharp and crooked practices.”

However high-minded the owners or directors of a company may be, it is of the utmost difficulty to guard against such practices on the part of an occasional representative. But it is obviously just as unfair on such grounds to maintain that the owners and managers are unjust and crooked in their business methods, as it would be to say that the whole tree was bad simply because one apple on it had spots or imperfections.

The employee in any corporation must form his opinion of the owners and directors of the corporation from the petty officer or foreman with whom he has personal contact. Too often these men, not infrequently promoted from the ranks, become overbearing and arrogant in their treatment of those under them.

This very naturally is as irritating and unjust to the employee as it is distressing to the company, and it is at this point in ninety-nine cases out of a hundred where grievances arise.

The Colorado Industrial Plan to which I have referred has been so drawn as to guard against the exercise of arrogance or oppression, by providing various channels through which the employee with a grievance can at once secure a sympathetic and friendly hearing, carrying his difficulty to the president’s ear, if necessary.

The foreman who knows that any arbitrary or unjust action on his part may be reviewed by his superior officers is very much more careful in his treatment of his men, always wanting to avoid having his decisions reversed.

If a slight scratch made on the finger with a rusty nail is immediately cleansed with an antiseptic wash, it heals at once. On the other hand, if the poison which has been introduced is allowed to remain, soon inflammation sets in, the disorder spreads, and serious menace to life may result.

And so it is with the petty grievance. If it is dealt with sympathetically and justly, immediately it is made known, peace, harmony and good-will are readily maintained. On the other hand, if indifference is shown and lack of sympathy, the grievance is nursed and from it grows the industrial disorders which later become so acute and difficult to heal.

An ounce of prevention is worth much more than a pound of cure. In no place is this saying truer than in dealing with human nature.

If I were to sum up in a few words what I have been endeavoring to say to you in regard to the personal relation in industry, I should say, apply the Golden Rule.

Every human being responds more quickly to love and sympathy than to the exercise of authority and the display of distrust.

If in the days to come, as you have to do with labor, you will put yourself in the other man’s place and govern your actions by what you would wish done to you, were you the employee instead of the employer, the problem of the establishment of the personal relation in industry will be largely solved, strife and discord as between labor and capital will give place to coöperation and harmony, the interests of both will be greatly furthered, the public will be better served, and through the establishment of industrial peace, a great stride will have been taken toward the establishment of peace among nations.

FOOTNOTES:

An address delivered at Cornell University on the occasion of Founder’s Day, January 11, 1917.

1916.

REPRESENTATION IN INDUSTRY

I speak as a member of the Public Group. I hold no executive position in any business corporation, and am not here representing any business interest.

I have come in response to the request of the President to accept appointment as one of the representatives of the general public in this Conference and am considering the questions which come before the Conference from that standpoint.

The resolution before the Conference is predicated upon the principle of representation in industry, which includes the right to organize and the right to bargain collectively. In supporting this resolution I beg leave to present the following statement which, for the sake of brevity and clearness, I have reduced to writing.

The experience through which our country passed in the months of war, exhibiting as it did the willingness of all Americans without distinction of race, creed or class to sacrifice personal ends for a great ideal and to work together in a spirit of brotherhood and coöperation, has been a revelation to our own people, and a cause for congratulations to us all. Now that the stimulus of the war is over, the question which confronts our nation is how can these high levels of unselfish devotion to the common good be maintained and extended to the civic life of the nation in times of peace.

We have been called together to consider the industrial problem. Only as each of us discharges his duties as a member of this Conference in the same high spirit of patriotism, of unselfish allegiance to right and justice, of devotion to the principles of democracy and brotherhood with which we approached the problems of the war, can we hope for success in the solution of the industrial problem which is no less vital to the life of the nation. Surely the men and women will stand together as unselfishly in solving this great industrial problem as they did in dealing with the problems of the war if only right is made clear and the way to a solution pointed out.