FOOTNOTE:
[4] Remarks at National Industrial Conference, Washington, D. C., October 16, 1919.
V To the Employees[5]
This is a red-letter day in my life.
It is the first time I have ever had the good fortune to meet the representatives of the employees of this great company, its officers and mine superintendents, together, and I can assure you that I am proud to be here, and that I shall remember this gathering as long as I live.
Had this meeting been held two weeks ago, I should have stood here as a stranger to many of you, recognizing few faces. Having had the opportunity last week of visiting all of the camps in the southern coal fields and of talking individually with practically all of the representatives, except those who were away; having visited your homes, met many of your wives and children, we meet here not as strangers but as friends, and it is in that spirit of mutual friendship that I am glad to have this opportunity to discuss with you men our common interests.
Since this is a meeting of the officers of the company and the representatives of the employees, it is only by your courtesy that I am here, for I am not so fortunate as to be either one or the other; and yet I feel that I am intimately associated with you men, for in a sense I represent both the stockholders and the directors.
Before speaking of the plan of industrial representation to which our president has referred, I want to say just a few words outlining my views as to what different interests constitute a company or corporation.
Every corporation is made up of four parties: Stockholders, directors, officers and employees.
This little table (exhibiting a square table with four legs) illustrates my conception of a corporation; and there are several points in regard to the table to which I want to call your attention.
First, you see that it would not be complete unless it had all four sides. Each side is necessary; each side has its own part to play.
Now, if you imagine this table cut into quarters, and each quarter separated from the others, what would happen? All of them would fall down, for no one could stand alone, and you would have no table. But when you put the four sides together, you have a useful piece of furniture; you have a table.
Then, secondly, I call your attention to the fact that these four sides are all perfectly joined together; that is why we have a perfect table. Likewise, if the parties interested in a corporation are not perfectly joined together, harmoniously working together, you have a discordant and unsuccessful corporation.
Again, you will notice that this table is square. And every corporation to be successful must be on the square—absolutely a square deal for every one of the four parties, and for every man in each of the four parties.
I call your attention to one more thing—the table is level. Each part supported by its leg is holding up its own side, hence you have a level table. So, equal responsibility rests on each one of the four parties united in a corporation.
When you have a level table, or a corporation that is on the level, you can pile up earnings on it (piling coins on the table). Now, who gets the first crack at the earnings? You know that we in New York don’t.
Here come along the employees, and first of all they get their wages (removing some of the coins), every two weeks like clockwork, just what has been agreed on; they get the first chance at the pile.
You men come ahead of the president, the officers, the stockholders and directors. You are the first to put a hand into the pile and take out what is agreed shall belong to you.
You don’t have to wait for your share; you don’t have to take any chances about getting it. You know that there has never been a two-weeks’ period that you have worked when you have not been able to get your pay from this company; whatever happens, so long as the company is running, you get your pay.
And then the officers and superintendents come along, and they get theirs; they don’t get it until after you have gotten yours (removing more coins).
Then come the directors, and they get their directors’ fees (removing the balance of the coins) for doing their work in the company.
And, hello! There is nothing left! This must be the Colorado Fuel and Iron Company! For never, men, since my father and I became interested in this company as stockholders, some fourteen years ago—never has there been one cent for the common stock.
For fourteen years the common stockholder has seen your wages paid to you workers; has seen your salaries paid to you officers; has seen the directors draw their fees, and has not had one cent of return for the money that he has put into this company in order that you men might work and get your wages and salaries.
How many men in this room ever heard that fact stated before? Is there a man among you? Well, there are mighty few among the workers who have heard it.
What you have been told, what has been heralded from the Atlantic to the Pacific, is that those Rockefeller men in New York, the biggest scoundrels that ever lived, have taken millions of dollars out of this company on account of their stock ownership, have oppressed you men, have cheated you out of your wages, and “done” you in every way they could.
That is the kind of “dope” you have been getting, and that is what has been spread all over the country. And when that kind of talk was going on, there were disturbances in this part of the country because the four sides of this table were not square and the table was not level, there were those who in the streets of New York and in public gatherings, were inciting the crowd to “shoot John D. Rockefeller, Jr., down like a dog.” That is the way they talked.
The common stockholders have put $34,000,000 into this company in order to make it go, so that you men will get your wages, you officers have your salaries, and the directors get their fees, while not one cent has ever come back to them in these fourteen years.
If there is anyone who questions that statement, let him speak. Now, let me put it to you men, is it fair, in this corporation where we are all partners, that three of the partners should get all of the earnings, be they large or small—all of them—and the fourth nothing?
Is there a man of you who would put his money in the savings bank and leave it there for one year even, unless he was sure to get at least four per cent. interest? Otherwise you would say that the savings bank was trying to cheat you out of a proper return on your money.
But for fourteen years, to my knowledge—how much longer I do not know—the common stockholders have gotten not one cent out of this company. I just want you to put that in your pipes and smoke it, and see if it tallies with what you have heard about the stockholders oppressing you and trying to get the better of you. That does not sound like oppression, like trying to get the best of the bargain!
And you cannot expect that any one of the partners will remain indefinitely in this or any other corporation if he does not get a fair share of the earnings, with the others. Capital is entitled to a fair return, just the same as labor is.
Would you continue working in some mining camp for even a week, much less a month, a year, or fourteen years, without pay? Of course you would not. You would go to Pennsylvania, Indiana, Ohio—anywhere else on God’s earth where you could get a fair return for your work.
Now, the stockholders have been pretty patient all this time; they have taken a lot of abuse because people have not told the truth.
I think if we had all gotten together, as we have to-day, months and years ago, and discussed these questions, and the facts had been fairly presented, that there is not a man in this room but who would have said:
“That is not a square deal, and in so far as I have anything to do with this company, whether I am digging coal, driving mules, or sitting in an office directing operations—whatever my position, I will do what I can to see to it that every last man in this big family here gets a square deal.”
Now, I am not here to seek sympathy for the common stockholders, but I just want to point out to you what you ought to know: that capital will not stay indefinitely where it does not get proper recognition and a reasonable return.
And not one man in this room can afford to have the capital invested in the mines of the Colorado Fuel and Iron Company become discouraged and withdraw, because as capital gets discouraged and withdraws, work falls off, mines are closed, wages go down, men are thrown out of employment, and the whole enterprise is endangered, and all of these things may result because only three of the four sides in the corporation have received consideration.
(Interruption by Mr. Ben Beach, superintendent of Coal Creek mine:)
“Mr. Rockefeller, I wonder whether I may say a word right here?
“Mr. Rockefeller and Fellow Workmen: What Mr. Rockefeller has stated in regard to the common stock I can vouch for, for about eight years ago I bought some common stock in the C. F. & I. Co. and I have been one of those sorry men because I never got any returns for it.”
Mr. Rockefeller: That is testimony that comes directly home. I have been expecting to hear such expressions from the stockholders. I have been expecting that there would be criticism, and just criticism, from men, like our friend here, who have had no dividends on their stock all these years. They may well say:
“What right have you to go on spending money for club houses, bath houses and fences, for this improvement in the camps, or that, simply to add to the comfort of the men, when we common stockholders have never gotten a cent?” That is just the way the stockholders may well feel. I am glad you brought up that point, Mr. Beach.
I want to show you another thing in connection with this table, this corporation with its four sides, working harmoniously, and with earnings piling up. When any one side says to itself:
“I am not satisfied with my fair portion; I am going to grab all I can and let the others take care of themselves,” and thereupon commences to reach up and lay hold of more than its fair share of the earnings, then it happens that the earnings commence to fall off, there is trouble and nothing is left to divide.
(At this point, Mr. Rockefeller raised one of the legs of the table, thereby tilting it and causing the coins piled upon it to slip off.)
There is still another thing I want to speak of in regard to this table. Here is one of the four parties in the corporation who says:
“I am tired of doing my share, holding up my end of the game. We wage-earners are tired of this thing, we don’t like to carry our fair share of the burden, let us try to get all we can out of the company and put in just as little as we can. Let us do each day just as little work as we can and hold the job down.”
Now, you know there are men going over this country from one end to the other who are saying to the workmen of the country:
“Your game is to get the shortest possible working day you can, to do the least possible work that you can get away with and not lose your job, and to get just as much as you can for what little you do.”
Any man who preaches that doctrine, instead of being your friend, is your deadliest enemy, because see what happens. Here is the side of Labor; it says:
“We will get out from underneath, we won’t work so hard; we will do just as little as we can.”
And Labor’s corner begins to drop down (lowering the corner of the table), the earnings fall off (coins slip off) and there is nothing left for anyone (the table is bare).
Men, only when every man connected with that square corporation which is on the level, is interested, unselfishly, not in what he can get out of the corporation, but what he can put into it for the benefit of every man in the concern, will that man himself get the most out of it.
And I think there is no one thing that threatens greater harm to the interests of the workingmen of this country than that pernicious, that wicked, that false doctrine, that a man should do just as little work in a day as he possibly can, and just as poor work as he possibly can, and hold on to his job.
We see, then, what this company ought to be, what any corporation ought to be: a concern that is square, and always on the level, with every man doing his part. You do not need to take my word for it, you see from the illustration of the table that the interest of every man is sacrificed when any other principle governs.
Now—the problem which lies before the Colorado Fuel and Iron Company is to so interrelate the different elements in the company that the best interests of all will constantly be conserved, and the wage-earners, seeing the situation as it is here shown, must say and will say—because they are square men:
“We only want a square deal; we only want what is our fair proportion of return from this corporation; we will do our best to make it a success because we know that our success is dependent upon the success of all our partners.”
The officers must say:
“Our interest is to have every man that works with us realize that we are his friends, not his enemies; that there is no reasonable thing that he may want to talk about which we will not gladly discuss with him and explain.”
The directors must, on their part, give their best energies and efforts to the devising of policies which will be in the interest of all. The common stockholders must be patient yet awhile as they look at that empty table from which the rest of you have rightly taken your earnings, and they will be patient, I am sure, if they feel that all of the other elements in the company are earnestly coöperating to bring about the highest success of each and to secure a fair deal all around.
This meeting has been called to-day for the purpose of seeing whether we can work out and agree upon, among ourselves here, some plan which will accomplish what I feel sure we all want to accomplish. I have been asked to explain the plan which is up for our consideration.
I may say, men, that for years this great problem of Labor and Capital and of corporate relationships has engaged my earnest attention and study, while for the last eighteen months I have spent more of my time on the particular problems which confront this company than I have put on any other one interest with which I am related.
I have talked with all of the men whom I could get in touch with who have had experience with or have studied these vital questions. I have conferred with experts, and I have tried in every way to get the best information I could, looking toward the working out of some plan which would accomplish the result we are all striving to attain.
Nearly a year ago the officers of the company, after having studied this question with us in New York, introduced, as you know, the beginning of such a plan, namely, the selection by the men at each camp of duly chosen representatives, to confer with the officers of the company in regard to matters of common interest.
That was the beginning, and Mr. Welborn, in discussing the plan with you men, told you that it was only the beginning, that as rapidly as it became clear what further steps should be taken in order to conserve the common interest, those steps would be jointly discussed and introduced as soon as agreed upon. And so, in conjunction with Mr. Welborn and other able advisers, we have worked out a further development of the plan adopted last fall.
Then I said to myself: nothing shall be said about this plan, nor will we undertake to complete it until I have myself seen every mining camp operated by the company.
And now I have visited every camp, with the exception of those on the western slope, and lack of time alone has prevented my getting over there to see you men.
I have gone, as you know, to every camp in the southern fields, have talked privately with every superintendent, except one who was away, and with all of the representatives at each camp with the exception of some two or three who were not available at the time; I have gone into scores of your homes and I met your wives and children, and have seen how you live; I have looked at your gardens, and in camps where fences were only recently built have seen how eagerly you have planted gardens the moment opportunity was afforded, and how quickly you have gotten the grass to grow, also flowers and vegetables, and how the interest in your homes has thereby been increased.
I inquired specifically about the water supply at each camp; I went down into several of the mines and talked with hundreds of the miners; I looked into the schools, talked with the teachers, inquired what educational advantages your children were getting.
I asked what opportunities you men, my partners, had for getting together socially, and I visited some of your club houses and saw plans for others. I went into your wash houses and talked with the men before and after bathing.
As you know, we have pretty nearly slept together—it has been reported that I slept in one of your nightshirts—I would have been proud had the report been true.
If any man could have gone more carefully, more thoroughly, into the working and living conditions that affect you, my partners, I should be glad to have had him make me suggestions as to what further I might have done.
Now, it was only after that careful and exhaustive personal study that I was willing to go on with the plan of representation and undertake to complete it for presentation to you. And, frankly, every waking moment since I left you men in the Fremont district last Saturday, practically every daylight hour of this last week has been spent with the officers of this company in constant, careful, earnest thought looking toward the development of such a plan as would serve our common interest in the best possible way.
I have made a very lengthy introduction, and will now proceed to the explanation of the plan. I shall be glad if Mr. Welborn, Mr. Weitzel, Mr. Matteson, or Mr. King, whose assistance has been of the greatest value in working out this plan, will correct me as I go along in case I make any mistake or omit any features.
(Mr. Rockefeller then explained the plan in detail, calling attention to the fact that if it met with the approval of the representatives and officers in the meeting, together with an agreement respecting wages, working and living conditions, both would be submitted on the one hand to a vote of the men in the camps, and on the other to the directors of the company, and if then approved, the agreement would be signed and become binding until January 1, 1918. Mr. Rockefeller went on to say:)
I want to stay in Colorado until we have worked out some plan that we all agree is the best thing for us all, because there is just one thing that no man in this company can ever afford to have happen again, be he stockholder, officer, or employee, or whatever his position, and that is, another strike.
I know we are all agreed about that, every last man of us, and I propose to stay here if it takes a year, until we have worked out among ourselves, right in our own family, some plan that we all believe is going to prevent any more disturbances, any more interruption of the successful operation of this great company in which we are all interested.
I have been hoping that the votes in all the camps could be taken early next week, so that we would know without delay what the spirit and wish of the men and the directors is. I speak of this point so that in explaining the matter to the men in your camps you representatives will make it clear to them why we are proceeding a little more rapidly than we would if I lived here all the time, and if I was not so desirous of seeing some agreement reached before I go away.
There will be a meeting of the Board of Directors on Monday next, and if this meeting should accept this plan and recommend its adoption, the Board will act on that day. I should hope that meetings could be held in the various camps on Monday, Tuesday and Wednesday. You men can explain the plan to the men in the camps privately and in little groups so that they will be ready to consider it fully and then vote on it by the middle or toward the latter part of next week.