Distributive Justice: The Right and Wrong of Our Present Distribution of Wealth

by John A. Ryan

Labour Unions

The general benefits and achievements of labour organisations in the United States down to the beginning of the present century, cannot be more succinctly nor more authoritatively stated than in the words of the United States Industrial Commission: "An overwhelming preponderance of testimony before the Industrial Commission indicates that the organisation of labour has resulted in a marked improvement in the economic condition of the workers."[268] Some of the most conspicuous and unquestionable proofs of rises in wages effected by the unions are afforded by the building trades, the printing trades, the coal mining industry, and the more skilled occupations on the railroads. Between 1890 and 1907 wages increased considerably more in the organised than in the unorganised trades.[269]

Nevertheless, when all due credit is given to the unions for their part in augmenting the share of the product received by labour, there remain two important obstacles which seriously lessen their efficacy as a means of raising the wages of the underpaid.

The first is the fact that the unions still embrace only a small portion of the total number of wage earners. According to Professor Leo Wolman, a little more than twenty-seven million of the thirty-eight million persons engaged in "gainful occupations" in the United States in 1910 were wage earners in the ordinary sense of that phrase, and of these twenty-seven million only 2,116,317, or 7.7 per cent., were members of labour organisations.[270] The membership to-day is about two and three quarter millions. If the total number of wage earners increased between 1910 and 1916 at the same rate as during the preceding decade, the organised portion is now somewhat less than 7.7 per cent. of the whole. Evidently the labour unions have not grown with sufficient rapidity, nor are they sufficiently powerful to warrant the hope that they will be soon able to lift even a majority of the underpaid workers to the level of living wage conditions.

The second obstacle is the fact that only a small minority of the members of labour unions are drawn from the unskilled and underpaid classes, who stand most in need of organisation. The per cent. of those getting less than living wages that is in the unions is almost negligible. With the exception of a few industries, the unskilled and the underpaid show very little tendency to increase notably their organised proportion. The fundamental reason of this condition has been well stated by John A. Hobson: "The great problem of poverty ... resides in the conditions of the low-skilled workman. To live industrially under the new order he must organise. He cannot organise because he is so poor, so ignorant, so weak. Because he is not organised he continues to be poor, ignorant, weak. Here is a great dilemma, of which whoever shall have found the key will have done much to solve the problem of poverty."[271]

The most effective and expeditious method of raising the wages of the underpaid through organisation is by means of the "industrial," as distinguished from the "trade," or "craft," union. In the former all the trades of a given industry are united in one compact organisation, while the latter includes only those who work at a certain trade or occupation. For example: the United Mine Workers embrace all persons employed in coal mines, from the most highly skilled to the lowest grade of unspecialised labour; while the craft union is exemplified in the engineers, firemen, conductors, switchmen, and other groups having their separate organisations in the railroad industry. The industrial union is as much concerned with the welfare of its unskilled as of its skilled members, and exerts the whole of its organised force on behalf of each and every group of workers throughout the industry which it covers. The superior suitability of the industrial type of union to the needs of the unskilled labourers is seen in the fact that more of them are organised in the coal mining than in any other industry, and have received greater benefits from organisation than their unskilled fellow workers in any other industry. Were the various classes of railway employés combined in one union, instead of being organised along the lines of their separate crafts, it is quite improbable that the unskilled majority would be getting, as they now are getting, less than living wages. While it is true that the various craft unions in an industry are often federated into a comprehensive association, the bond uniting them is not nearly so close, nor so helpful to the weaker groups of workers as in the case of the industrial unions.

Human nature being what it is, however, the members of the skilled crafts cannot all be induced or compelled to adopt the industrial type of organisation. The Knights of Labour attempted to accomplish this, and for a time enjoyed a considerable measure of success, but in the end the organisation was unable to withstand those fundamental inclinations which impel men to prefer the more narrow, homogeneous, and exclusive type of association. The skilled workers refused to merge their local and craft interests in the wider interests of men with whom they had no strong nor immediate bonds of sympathy. Among labourers, as well as among other persons, the capacity for altruism is limited by distance in space and occupational condition. The passion for distinction likewise affects the wage earner, impelling the higher groups consciously or unconsciously to oppose association that tends to break down the barrier of superiority. Owing to their greater resources and greater scarcity, the skilled members of an industrial union are less dependent upon the assistance of the unskilled than the latter are dependent upon the former; yet the skilled membership is always in a minority, and therefore in danger of being subordinated to the interests of the unskilled majority.

For these and many other reasons it is quite improbable that the majority of union labourers can be amalgamated into industrial unions in the near future. The most that can be expected is that the various occupational unions within each industry should become federated in a more compact and effective way than now prevails, thus conserving the main advantages of the local and craft association, while assuring to the unskilled workers some of the benefits of the industrial union.

Organisation Versus Legislation

In the opinion of some labour leaders, the underpaid workers should place their entire reliance upon organisation. The arguments for this position are mainly based upon three contentions: it is better that men should do things for themselves than to call in the intervention of the State; if the workers secure living wages by law they will be less likely to organise, or to remain efficiently organised; and if the State fixes a minimum wage it may some day decide to fix a maximum.