Sixth, the creation of a community spirit.
Furthermore, the plan has proved an effective means of enlisting the interest of all parties to industry, of reproducing the contacts of earlier days between employer and employee, of lessening misunderstanding, distrust, and enmity, and securing coöperation in the spirit of brotherhood. Under its operation, the participants in industry are being convinced of the soundness of the proposition that they are fundamentally friends and not enemies, that their interests are common, not opposed. Based as the plan is upon principles of justice to all, its success can be counted on so long as it is carried out in a spirit of sincerity and fair play.
Here, then, would seem to be a method of providing representation which is just, which is effective, which is applicable to all employees whether organized or unorganized, to all employers whether in associations or not, which does not interfere with existing organizations or associations, and which, while developed in a single industrial corporation as a unit, may be expanded to include all corporations in the same industry and ultimately all industries.
Just what part labor organizations and employers’ associations can best take in such a plan remains to be worked out, but certain it is that some method should be devised which will profit to the fullest extent by the experience, the strength, and the leadership of these groups. While, doubtless, defects will appear in this plan and other methods more successfully accomplishing the same end may be developed, at least it is proving that in unity there is strength and that coöperation in industry is not only idealistically right, but practically workable.
If the points which I have endeavored to make are sound, might not the four parties to industry subscribe to an Industrial Creed somewhat as follows:—
(1) I believe that labor and capital are partners, not enemies; and that their interests are common, not opposed; and that neither can attain the fullest measure of prosperity at the expense of the other, but only in association with the other.
(2) I believe that the community is an essential party to industry and that it should have adequate representation with the other parties.
(3) I believe that the purpose of industry is quite as much to advance social well-being as material prosperity; that in the pursuit of that purpose, the interests of the community should be carefully considered, the well-being of employees fully guarded, management adequately recognized, and capital justly compensated, and that failure in any of these particulars means loss to all four parties.
(4) I believe that every man is entitled to an opportunity to earn a living, to fair wages, to reasonable hours of work and proper working conditions, to a decent home, to the opportunity to play, to learn, to worship and to love, as well as to toil, and that the responsibility rests as heavily upon industry as upon government or society, to see that these conditions and opportunities prevail.
(5) I believe that diligence, initiative, and efficiency, wherever found, should be encouraged and adequately rewarded; that indolence, indifference, and restriction of production should be discountenanced; and that service is the only justification for the possession of power.