And so it is with the petty grievance. If it is dealt with sympathetically and justly, immediately it is made known, peace, harmony and good-will are readily maintained. On the other hand, if indifference is shown and lack of sympathy, the grievance is nursed and from it grows the industrial disorders which later become so acute and difficult to heal.
An ounce of prevention is worth much more than a pound of cure. In no place is this saying truer than in dealing with human nature.
If I were to sum up in a few words what I have been endeavoring to say to you in regard to the personal relation in industry, I should say, apply the Golden Rule.
Every human being responds more quickly to love and sympathy than to the exercise of authority and the display of distrust.
If in the days to come, as you have to do with labor, you will put yourself in the other man’s place and govern your actions by what you would wish done to you, were you the employee instead of the employer, the problem of the establishment of the personal relation in industry will be largely solved, strife and discord as between labor and capital will give place to coöperation and harmony, the interests of both will be greatly furthered, the public will be better served, and through the establishment of industrial peace, a great stride will have been taken toward the establishment of peace among nations.
FOOTNOTES:
[2] An address delivered at Cornell University on the occasion of Founder’s Day, January 11, 1917.
[3] 1916.