Social legislation and social activity

by American Academy of Political and Social Science

Massachusetts, New York, Ohio, Indiana, Illinois and Wisconsin seem to be the only states within which tangible results have been accomplished, doubtless due to the highly developed industries prevailing and the frequency of labor disputes therein. In this as in all other matters of enforcement of public laws, successful results depend upon the strong impelling influence of an enlightened public sentiment.

The United States Government has established a method for arbitration and mediation in strikes and lock-outs upon interstate transportation lines, by virtue of its constitutional authority over interstate commerce. The act of 1888 provided for a voluntary board, but had no provision for enforcement of awards, and seems to have fallen into disuse. In 1898 a new act was passed under the terms of which either party to a dispute upon any interstate transportation line might request the intervention of the chairman of the Interstate Commerce Commission, and the United States Commissioner of Labor. These officers have no specific authority to intervene on their own motion, but apparently have the right to attempt conciliation even in the absence of an application from either party. There has been no case of arbitration under the act, so its effect in application is yet to be demonstrated.

The compulsory law of New Zealand has found no favor in this country. The hearings before the recent Industrial Commission show that the representatives of both employers and workingmen gave testimony against compulsory arbitration. The employers object because, they claim, it would be one-sided owing to the lack of responsibility on the part of the workingmen, while the workingmen object because, they claim, it would be manipulated to suit the employers, and, if enforcement carried imprisonment, it would provide for a species of slavery intolerable in a free country. Many state boards, however, while not advocating as a whole compulsory arbitration, urge further legislation which shall prevent public inconvenience and loss resulting from strikes and lock-outs involving public service corporations and means of transit.

This condensed summary of the general features of the question brings us logically to a consideration of the method or methods best suited to our time and country. Since the great majority interested on both sides, employer and employed, reject any system of arbitration which includes compulsion in its composition, experiments must be along the line of mutual concession and tactful persuasion. Such results may be hoped for, and, perhaps, confidently expected in the system of mediation and conciliation promulgated by the Industrial Department of the National Civic Federation.

That brings me up to date. I do not propose to treat this question from an academic standpoint, but to give an expression of my own experience, having been a large employer of labor for more than thirty years, and having studied that question from the standpoint of mutual interest. My attention was strongly directed to this subject as far back as 1874, at the end of one of the most severe and destructive strikes that ever occurred in Northern Ohio, in the coal mines, long and protracted, bitter and destructive. When it was over both sides had suffered, and it occurred to me that there ought to be some other way to settle these differences, and as a result of that we organized in Northern Ohio an organization of employers, the mine owners, and the men organized what was known then as the National Bituminous Coal Miners’ Association, the first of that character ever organized in the United States. Their constitution and by-laws provided that no strikes should occur until every other effort in the right should fail, and the employers covenanted that they would give hearings and consideration to any committees sent to them by the union.

As a result, during the life of the organization on the part of the men, there never was a serious strike. All differences, which with small beginnings very often lead to disastrous strikes, were settled by the employer and employee coming together with a proper spirit, with a determination to do right. Upon that hypothesis I have been working ever since, and from that day to this I have never had a serious strike.

The Civic Federation is the outgrowth of the evolution to which your chairman has referred. This country has grown greatly. Our industries have multiplied, and the opportunities for labor equally with it. Great undertakings are claiming the attention of the people, and this question of labor and capital has approached a crisis. This Civic Federation has adopted a constitution and by-laws covering simply the methods of procedure, and has also adopted a principle, and that principle is the Golden Rule.

Now, Mr. Chairman, the great productive capacity of this country has forced upon us the aggregation of capital and the creation of great material wealth seeking opportunity for investment. This rapidly increasing wealth must find investment, and to make the investment in industrials secure we must have industrial peace.

The Civic Federation is beginning to lay the foundation for such results, with the hope that it will appeal to the whole country and to all classes of the people. We are simply placing before the American people the opportunity to unite with us in the accomplishment of this purpose, as necessary to our social conditions as to our industrial conditions. Of course, it is not an easy task; the conditions in the United States differ from those in any other country in the world. This great cosmopolitan people, coming to our shores by thousands every year from every country and from every clime, this coming together of all classes and all kinds of people from the four quarters of the globe, produces a condition of things not found in any other country. It is not an easy matter to assimilate such a large number of foreign immigrants; they do not understand our language, they are not abreast with the education of a self-governing people; they do not understand our institutions. Therefore, it must necessarily be a work of education, and the Civic Federation is merely a nucleus to begin this educational work.

When I make the appeal to all persons and all classes in the United States to join with us, I believe that in their hands ultimately rests the future of that question. We may have arbitration and we may have meetings of our conciliatory committees, but unless we have the sympathy of the people, who in the end are the final arbiters on this question, we cannot hope to succeed.