Now—the problem which lies before the Colorado Fuel and Iron Company is to so interrelate the different elements in the company that the best interests of all will constantly be conserved, and the wage-earners, seeing the situation as it is here shown, must say and will say—because they are square men:
“We only want a square deal; we only want what is our fair proportion of return from this corporation; we will do our best to make it a success because we know that our success is dependent upon the success of all our partners.”
The officers must say:
“Our interest is to have every man that works with us realize that we are his friends, not his enemies; that there is no reasonable thing that he may want to talk about which we will not gladly discuss with him and explain.”
The directors must, on their part, give their best energies and efforts to the devising of policies which will be in the interest of all. The common stockholders must be patient yet awhile as they look at that empty table from which the rest of you have rightly taken your earnings, and they will be patient, I am sure, if they feel that all of the other elements in the company are earnestly coöperating to bring about the highest success of each and to secure a fair deal all around.
This meeting has been called to-day for the purpose of seeing whether we can work out and agree upon, among ourselves here, some plan which will accomplish what I feel sure we all want to accomplish. I have been asked to explain the plan which is up for our consideration.
I may say, men, that for years this great problem of Labor and Capital and of corporate relationships has engaged my earnest attention and study, while for the last eighteen months I have spent more of my time on the particular problems which confront this company than I have put on any other one interest with which I am related.
I have talked with all of the men whom I could get in touch with who have had experience with or have studied these vital questions. I have conferred with experts, and I have tried in every way to get the best information I could, looking toward the working out of some plan which would accomplish the result we are all striving to attain.
Nearly a year ago the officers of the company, after having studied this question with us in New York, introduced, as you know, the beginning of such a plan, namely, the selection by the men at each camp of duly chosen representatives, to confer with the officers of the company in regard to matters of common interest.
That was the beginning, and Mr. Welborn, in discussing the plan with you men, told you that it was only the beginning, that as rapidly as it became clear what further steps should be taken in order to conserve the common interest, those steps would be jointly discussed and introduced as soon as agreed upon. And so, in conjunction with Mr. Welborn and other able advisers, we have worked out a further development of the plan adopted last fall.