The Civic Federation is only two years old, and the Industrial Bureau of the Civic Federation has been scarcely organized, but seven strikes have already been settled in three months. It has prevented the occurrence of two strikes which would have brought from the labor ranks more than two hundred and fifty thousand people, and that has been accomplished, my friends, by simply finding out to start with what the differences were, and who were right and who wrong. When men get together with the determination to treat each side of the question fairly, and when the public feels that the men connected with this enterprise are thoroughly acquainted with details, men of prominence in the country, well known and well understood, and are men giving their time for the love of the work and the good they may accomplish, the public realizes that it means something.

In adjusting the relations of labor and capital, appeal must be made to the sympathies of the people. Opportunities like this to-night must be embraced to inform intelligent audiences of the character of the work to be done and to give them an opportunity to contribute their mite and influence to help the cause along. I know no city in the United States where we can look for more aid and comfort than in this great industrial centre of Philadelphia. Indeed, it was because of this that I was induced to come here to-night and discuss this question of capital and labor before people who in every day of their lives can put into execution and effect the principles for which we are contending.

My experience has taught me, my friends, that the employer because of his position has the most to do, and it must be expected that the employers, at least in the beginning of this educational work, should go more than half way. They provide work, and are responsible for the conduct of business, and upon them rests the responsibility of seeing that the men receive their share of its benefits. We must rise to a higher level, where we can have a broader view of this question, where we can tear ourselves away from the prejudices which have heretofore stood between capital and labor.

I believe in organized labor, and I have for thirty years. I believe in it because it is a demonstrated fact that where the concerns and interests of labor are entrusted to able and honest leadership, it is much easier for those who represent the employers to come into close contact with the laborer, and, by dealing with fewer persons, to accomplish results quicker and better.

The trusts have come to stay. Organized labor and organized capital are but forward steps in the great industrial evolution that is taking place. We would just as soon think of going back to primitive methods of manufacturing as we would primitive methods of doing business, and it is our duty, those of us who represent the employers, from this time on to make up our minds that this question is one that must be heard.

You are well aware that there has been a tendency in this country, from the very nature of things, to what is called socialism. Everything that is American is primarily opposed to socialism. We talk about it and regret that these conditions exist, regret that there are extremists who are teaching the semi-ignorant classes labor theories, that proceed upon the principle that liberty is license. This is a condition which must be met. It is the duty of every American citizen to assume his responsibilities in this educational work, and to assist any organization which can correct these theories and these ideas. There is no question concerning our body politic to-day that should command deeper or more serious thought. There is nothing in the organization of society in this country that can afford to permit the growth of socialistic ideas. They are un-American and unnatural to us as a people.

In the beginning of this work I received great encouragement from an address which Samuel Gompers made in Cooper Union Institute, in New York, about a year and a half ago, when he took the broad ground that in the interests of labor there was no room for the socialist or the anarchist, no room for men who undertook to disturb the principles of our society and government. When such words came from a man leading the largest labor organization in the world, a man of advanced thought and of honest intent, I knew that now is the time to strike, now is the time to proclaim to the American people that in the consideration of this question, which sooner or later must be forced upon us, we must consider what is for the best interests of society as well as for our material development.

If I can impress these principles upon the people of this country, either by word or action; if I can hold the attention of the American people away from all selfish and political interests long enough to have them study and investigate this great question, I shall feel that of all the efforts I have ever made to serve my country and society in any way, that has been the best.

THE LIMITATIONS OF CONCILIATION AND ARBITRATION

By Samuel Gompers