The cost of the recent garment workers’ strike in New York City has been estimated to be in the neighborhood of fifty million dollars.
The last anthracite coal strike in the short course of five months caused a loss of one hundred and twenty million dollars to employers and employees in the community.
I have seen the statement that in a single year the losses that could be attributed to labor disturbances in this country total more than a billion dollars.
These are extraordinary figures, and though some of them are doubtless merely estimates, they serve to show what enormous proportions the industrial problem has assumed and how serious and vital a question it has become.
May I add that almost beyond belief as these figures are, they do not include those terrible mental and moral losses growing out of struggle and conflict, nor do they take account of the depleted bank balances of the workers, and the hunger, suffering and distress which extend into the homes and which touch the lives not only of those immediately concerned, but of tens of thousands of innocent women and children.
What I have said leads me to advance two ideas, both of which I believe to be profoundly true, but which have received far too limited consideration.
The first is that Labor and Capital are naturally partners, not enemies.
The second, that the personal relation in industry, entered into in the right spirit, gives the greatest promise of bridging the yawning chasm which has opened up between employer and employee.
The mistaken point of view in regard to the relation between Labor and Capital exists on the part of both Labor and Capital, as well as among the interested and disinterested public.
Too often Capital regards Labor merely as a commodity to be bought and sold, while Labor not infrequently regards Capital as money personified in the soulless corporation.
It might seem that technically speaking both of these definitions could be justified, but they are far from being comprehensive and adequate. For both Labor and Capital are men—men with muscle and men with money. Both are human beings and the industrial problem is a great human problem.
This is one of the first things we need to recognize, and it is just because human nature is involved in this problem that it is so intricate and difficult to solve.