THE BRIDGE BETWEEN LABOR AND CAPITAL.
BY JOHN MITCHELL.
[Former President United Mine Workers of America.]
If the interests of labor and capital were identical—as some contend—there would be no chasm between them to bridge; and if the interests of labor and capital were irreconcilable—as others contend—any effort to unite them would be futile. From an experience extending over a considerable period, I am quite convinced that neither of the foregoing propositions will stand the test of close analysis. My judgment is that the interests of labor and capital, though divergent in some respects, are nevertheless reciprocal and inter-dependent.
To elucidate in a practical way the subject of the proper relationship between employer and employe, it is necessary to review the activities of these two factors in the field in which their interests are common and to mark the point at which they diverge. The employer and the employe are mutually interested in the successful conduct of industry; the profits of the one and the wages of the other obviously are contingent upon it, as both profits and wages must be paid from the earnings of the enterprise in which the capital of the one and the labor of the other are jointly invested. This being true, the workman and the employer are equally concerned in the character of the product which is manufactured and sold by them, just as they are interested equally in good markets and regularity of employment. Having worked in co-operation up to the point of turning out an article that commands a wide and profitable sale, the question of dividing the earnings of their joint efforts presents itself. It is the failure of the attempt to adjust satisfactorily this controversy
that gives rise to the differences between employers and workmen and is the basis of the labor problem as we have it today. True, there are many questions of discord apart from those of wages and profits, which result in serious industrial conflicts, but followed back to their source, it will be found that these issues are inseparably related to those of wages and profits. In other words, the demand for a shorter workday, for healthful, sanitary surroundings, has its origin in the irrepressible desire of the working people for a progressive improvement in their conditions of life and labor.
In ancient and mediaeval times when the structure of society was simple and each family consumed all the things it produced; or even at a later period when the master and the journeyman worked together side by side, and when the master had been a journeyman and the journeyman expected to become a master, there was little cause for controversy, and the problem of labor was not difficult of solution. It was not until the invention of machinery, the advent of the factory system, the use of steam, and the application of new processes that the question of the relationship of employer and employed grew so complex and impersonal that new methods became necessary in the proper adjustment of industrial affairs. As step by step industry developed from the stage of the privately owned factory to the firm and corporation, to the combination and the trust, the real employer was removed further and ever further from personal contact with his employes. As a consequence of this transition, the salaried manager took the place once held by the actual employer, and the simple and friendly relations of early days gave way to the intricate and complex industrial life of this generation.
Coincident with the development of industry which has revolutionized the whole life and history of our people and our civilization, have come the local, the district, the national, and finally the international organizations of
labor. These gigantic associations and federations of workmen are the logical and the inevitable consequence of an industrial development which threatened the subjugation of the individual workman and forced him, in self-defense, to merge his interests and his identity with those of his fellow workmen. The momentous change in the status of the workman which accompanied the revolution of industrial processes, transformed the whole problem of labor from the question of production to that of distribution, and it is the effort to find an equitable adjustment of the problem of distribution that is taxing to the utmost the ingenuity of economists, philosophers, and statesmen.
In the search for a panacea to heal the industrial ills against which society so justly complains, many suggestions are made and innumerable remedies proposed. On the one hand are found forces that would deny to labor the right of organization and combination, although exercising and enjoying the benefit of these rights themselves; on the other hand are forces at work advocating and demanding the abolition of the whole competitive system; between these extremes stands a great army of workmen and employers earnestly striving to find grounds of mutual agreement upon which the rights and obligations of each may be defined and brought into harmony. With all due respect to the opinions of others, I submit that the path of safety, progress, and justice lies in the middle course—in the recognition of the right of organization on the part of both labor and capital, by which and through which these factors in our industrial progress may work out their inevitable destiny, contracting freely each with the other upon all questions of mutual concern.