CHAPTER XI
POSSIBLE REMEDIES—GENERAL PRINCIPLES
It has been seen that any measure looking towards a lessening of the difficulties that stand in the way of securing at all times and in all places competent domestic employees, must fail of its object if it does not take into consideration economic history, economic conditions, and economic tendencies. Economic history has shown the remarkable effect of inventive genius and business activity on all household employments, and through them on domestic service; a study of economic conditions has shown the nature of the perplexities surrounding both employer and employee. What are the social and economic tendencies in accordance with which relief from present difficulties must be sought?
The first industrial tendency to be noted is that toward the concentration of capital and labor in large industrial enterprises. Not only have the factory and the mill superseded the individual system of manufactures, but the growth of “bonanza farms” and the increasing number of tenant farms show the same tendency in agriculture; the trust is the resort of wholesale business houses; the department stores of the day are driving out of the retail business circles the smaller houses of a generation ago; the pool may be considered an illustration of the same tendency at work in transportation industries.
A second tendency, forming the converse of the preceding one, is towards specialization in every department of labor. Adam Smith’s famous illustration of this principle—that he found ten persons able to make nearly five thousand pins in a day, while each person working alone could make but one pin—can be seen in every department of work except in the household. Everywhere the field of labor has been narrowed in order to secure the largest and best results.
A third tendency, growing out of these two, is towards the association and combination for mutual benefit of persons interested in special lines of work. Nearly every class of employers has its own special organization; the associated press, associated charities, local, state, and national educational associations, and associations of learned societies, show the influence of organization in other departments; nearly every class of employees also has its trade union or mutual benefit association; everywhere, except in the household, mutual interests are drawing together for protection, for consultation, for economy of forces and resources, for a score of reasons, those engaged in the same activities.
A fourth tendency is the result of the specialization of labor in its higher forms. As all industries become more highly organized, greater preparation for work is required wherever labor ceases to be purely mechanical. Trade schools, technical schools, and schools for training in special work are everywhere demanded, and the demand must in time be fully met. While specialization is the end, special training must be the means to accomplish it.
A fifth tendency is towards a realization of the fact that all who share in industrial processes should participate in the benefits resulting from their work, that “perpendicular” rather than “horizontal divisions” in labor should be the aim in all industry. This is seen in the various efforts made to introduce productive and distributive co-operation, profit sharing, and other measures intended to give employees a share in the results of their labors, and thus to take a personal interest in their work.
A sixth tendency is towards greater industrial independence on the part of women. This is an inevitable result of the substitution of the factory for the domestic system of manufactures, and of the entrance of women into all industrial pursuits at the time of the Civil War, as well as of the inherent demand in every person for some opportunity for honorable work. A comparison of the different census reports shows that the percentage of women engaged in remunerative occupations increases faster than the percentage of men so engaged. Massachusetts shows a larger percentage than any other state of women occupied in business industry, while the investigations of the Massachusetts Bureau of Statistics of Labor show that the marriage rate and the birth rate in that state are both increasing. The facts and conditions do not seem to show that the tendency is incompatible with home life.
One other semi-social and industrial tendency must be noted. It is the result of that systematic study of social conditions seen in the evolution of the principles that the best way to help a person is to help him to help himself, and that reasonable measures aim at the amelioration of some of the conditions under which work is performed, not at the cessation of the work itself. The application of these principles has led to wiser charities, to the Chautauqua movement, to university extension, to working-girls’ clubs, to enlarged opportunities everywhere for every class. These movements springing up in every locality mean that every individual is to have the opportunity of making the most of himself possible, and that the responsibility of so doing is to rest with him, not with society; they mean that ultimately the position in society of every person is to depend not on his occupation, but on the use he has made of these increasing opportunities for self-help and self-improvement; they mean that in time all social stigma will be removed from every occupation and work judged by its quality rather than by its nature; that in time, for example, a first-class cook will receive more honor than a second-class china decorator, or a third-rate teacher.
One general tendency in all business circles must also be mentioned—that towards increasing publicity in all business matters. It is coming to be recognized that society has the right to know certain general and even specific facts in regard to the conduct of affairs formerly guarded in jealous privacy by the individual. The National Census Bureau requires, for the benefit of society, an answer to a large number of personal questions, and the requirement is resisted only by the most ignorant. The state bureaus of labor have legal authority to obtain information in regard to the management of business enterprises which they wish to investigate. The salaries of all public employees are officially published, and legal inquiry is instituted when the expenses of such employees largely exceed the salary received. The number of joint-stock companies is increasing, and these companies are legally bound to render full and exact accounts of all receipts and expenditures. The Chinese wall of absolute privacy is practically retained only with reference to household occupations.