The popular impression that from the very nature of the case Labor and Capital are two great contending forces arrayed against each other, each striving to gain the upper hand through force, each feeling that it must arm itself in order to secure from the other its rights and its just dues, is even more unfortunate than it is untrue.
I cannot believe that Labor and Capital are necessarily enemies. I cannot believe that the success of one must depend upon the failure or lack of success of the other. Far from being enemies, these two factors must necessarily be partners.
Surely, their interests are common interests, the permanent well being of neither can be secured unless the other also is considered, nor can either attain the fullest possibilities of development which lie before both unless they go hand in hand.
Only when the industrial problem is approached from the point of view of a firm belief in this doctrine is there any hope of bringing about closer, more healthful and mutually advantageous relations between these two forces.
If, therefore, my first statement is true, namely that Labor and Capital are partners, then certain things must follow. They must have contact. This standing aloof one from the other must end.
Respect grows in the heart of each for the other, confidence is developed, and they come to realize that they are working with a common interest for a common result.
But this attitude, this relationship, is the personal relation in industry. Nothing else will take its place, nothing else will bridge the chasm of distrust and hatred.
It is the recognition of the brotherhood of man, of the principle of trying to put yourself in the other man’s place, of endeavoring to see things from his point of view. The old saying that honesty is the best policy is often scoffed at and pronounced unpractical, but there never was a truer saying. Honesty is the best policy.
You may be able to deceive a man once or twice, or, if he is exceptionally gullible, half a dozen times, but you cannot deceive him indefinitely. You may be able to deceive a number of people sometimes, but you cannot deceive all of the people with whom you have business dealings all of the time. You may be able to make a contract which gives you an unfair advantage of the other man, but the chances are that you cannot do it twice.
From a purely cold-blooded business point of view, honesty is the best policy. Likewise do I say that to treat the other man as you would have him treat you is an equally fundamental business principle.