No strikes are conducted more bitterly than strikes of previously unorganized workmen. As soon as such men become desperate enough to strike, they are transformed; they no longer believe the employer all-powerful, but attribute to themselves that function and faculty; the touching of shoulders brings a newfound power to their minds, of which they never dreamed before, and they look upon their employers against whom they went on strike as absolutely at their mercy.
The employers, in these cases, usually regard the matter of request to be heard upon the question of wages, hours or other conditions of employment, as dictation by their workmen; but whether the strike is won or lost, if the workmen but maintain their organization, the initial step has been taken for a joint bargain and a conciliatory policy in the future. Both parties have learned a severe but a profitable lesson, that neither party is impotent, and neither all-powerful. The organized labor movement in our day is an assertion of the principle that there is no hope that the workers can protect their interests or promote their welfare unless they organize; unless they advocate conciliation to adjust whatever controversies may arise between themselves and their employers and declare for arbitration with their employers upon any disputed points upon which they cannot agree. There are some who advocate compulsory arbitration. I concur with Senator Hanna, who does not believe in compulsory arbitration. Indeed, voluntary arbitration cannot be successfully carried out unless both parties are equally strong and powerful or nearly so. This is true between nations as well as between individuals. Russia never arbitrated the question of the nationality of Poland. England did not arbitrate the question with Afghanistan, but simply bombarded her. England in her dispute with Venezuela proposed to bombard her, and only when the United States said, “Hold on, this is of very serious consequence to us,” did England consent to arbitrate. There has never yet been in the history of the world successful arbitration between those who were powerful and those who were absolutely at their mercy. There has never yet been arbitration between the man who lay prone upon his back and the man who had a heel upon his throat and a sabre at his breast. Arbitration is possible, but only when capital and labor are well organized. Labor is beginning to organize, and when labor shall be better organized than it is to-day we shall have fewer disputes than we have now.
Of the agreements made between employers and employed, two-thirds, if not more, of the violations, of the failures to abide by the awards of arbitrators, are on the part of the employers. But if it were not so, if the awards were broken by either one or the other side or by both sides in equal proportion, it would be better, it would make for human progress and economic advantage, to have an award violated than to have the award forced by government upon either one side or the other. The employer if he chose could close his business, and that would mean his enforced idleness. On the other hand, if the state entered and forced workmen to accept an award and to work under conditions which were onerous to him or to them, you can imagine the result. Men work with a will when they work of their own volition, then they work to the greatest advantage of all. On the other hand, if men were compelled to work by order of the state, with the representatives of the state entering with whip in hand or a commitment to the jail, it would create a nation of sullen, unwilling and resentful workers; a condition that we do not wish to encourage; a condition which would be most hurtful to our industrial and commercial greatness and success. It is strange how some men desire law to govern all other men in all their actions and doings in life. The organized labor movement endeavors to give opportunities to the workers so that their habits and customs shall change by reason of new and better conditions.
We have our combinations of capital, our organizations and federations of labor. These are now working on parallel lines and have evolved the National Civic Federation. Through the efforts of men noted for their ability, for their straightforwardness, noted for the interest they take in public affairs, an effort is being made to bring about the greatest possible success industrially and commercially for our country with the least possible friction.
One of the greatest causes of the disturbance of industry, the severance of friendly relations between employer and employees, is the fact that the employers assume to themselves the absolute right to dictate and direct the terms under which workers shall toil, the wages, hours and other conditions of employment, without permitting the voice of the workmen to be raised in their own behalf. The workers insist upon the right of being heard; not heard alone at mass-meeting, but heard by counsel, heard by their committees, heard through their business agent, or heard, if you please, through the much-abused walking delegate. They insist upon the right to be heard by counsel; the Constitution of our country declares that the people of our country may be heard through counsel. It is a saying in law, and I repeat it, though not a lawyer, that he who is his own lawyer has a fool for a client. The organized workmen have long realized this truism and have preferred to be heard by counsel, and we say that the political and civil right guaranteed to us by the constitutions of our country and our states ought to be extended; the principle of it ought to be extended to protect and advance our industrial rights.
One of the representatives of the Illinois Board of Arbitration recently said to me that there were so many cases of employers who refused to recognize the committees of the organizations of their employees that the Board was in doubt whether it ought to name each individual employer or simply group such employers together and give their number in round figures. No man in this world is absolutely right and no man absolutely wrong. If this be so, men ought, as organized labor has for half a century demanded, and as the National Civic Federation has emphasized, to meet in conference and be helpful in allowing common-sense and fair dealing and justice and equity and the needs of the people to determine what shall be the conditions under which industry and commerce shall continue to advance until we shall be in truth producers for the whole world.
The movement for which we stand tends to foster education, not only among the workmen, but among the educated; for of all those possessing crass ignorance and prejudice regarding industrial matters, the educated man who takes his cue regarding the labor question from those who are always opposed to the labor movement and who never takes the trouble to find out the laborer’s side of the labor question, is in the most deplorable condition.
RESULTS ACCOMPLISHED BY THE INDUSTRIAL DEPARTMENT, NATIONAL CIVIC FEDERATION
By Honorable Oscar S. Straus
The contest between capital and labor is as old as the human race, and very likely will continue as long as there is employer and workman. Early in the history of our country, that rugged reformer, who stood for much of the liberty we enjoy to-day, Roger Williams, said: “What are all the wars and contentions about, except for larger bowls and dishes of porridge?” That is putting the question in a very graphic form. This struggle for the dishes of porridge is still going on, and unfortunately very often through clash and strikes the dish gets broken and neither side gets any of the porridge. We want to save the porridge; we want the dishes to be so large that labor will get its full share, we know that capital will take care of itself. In these industrial contests there are other interests at stake than labor and capital—the general public, greater in numbers than either of these. The Civic Federation believed that if it organized a machinery which contained within itself the representatives of both the laborers and the employers, and associated with these two the representatives of the general public, it would have the true basis for the solution of the labor question. You have heard from capital and labor. I am here as the representative of the general public.