Those who have coöperated in the development of this plan recognize that it is far from perfect, that it will have to be changed and adapted to the requirements of the company in which it has been adopted.
On the other hand, it is the earnest hope of all who are associated in the plan that it may point the way toward a closer coöperation between the employees and the other parties in interest in this company, that it may so establish relations of friendship and of mutual confidence, that it may so benefit the workers, the officers and the stockholders of the company, that there may never come a day when there will be repeated the industrial disorders which have occurred in the past in this company and in other companies in this State.
And it is our hope that toward that end all of the citizens of the State will coöperate, for, as I have said to the representatives of the workers of the Colorado Fuel and Iron Company, to many of the men themselves, as well as to the officers and directors of the company, there is one thing which must never happen again in that company, and that is a strike. Wantonly wasteful of human life and human property, no parties in interest are benefited thereby, but all seriously and permanently harmed as well as the public and the citizens of the State.
The way to prevent war is to cultivate and develop those qualities of head and heart which promote happiness and peace, and it is with that purpose in mind that this plan, to which I have referred, has been developed.
The time has come when the business man of this State and county must think in terms of the laboring man, and the laboring man must think in terms of the business man; when each must strive to imagine himself in the other’s place; when the teaching that every man is his brother’s keeper should no longer be a dead letter but a living reality; when coöperation and not conflict should be the watchword.
The opportunity to lead the nation in the permanent establishment of industrial peace is yours; if you will lay hold upon it, the name of this fair State will be written large in the history of the nation; if you let it pass, you and your children and your children’s children, will never cease to regret this day.
And if in any smallest way my coming to Colorado may prove to have been of service to you in approaching the solution of this world problem of industrial relations, I shall feel a sense of satisfaction and gratitude beyond expression.
FOOTNOTE:
[6] Address at the Chamber of Commerce Luncheon, Denver, October 8, 1915.