The Salt Lake herald. [volume] (Salt Lake City [Utah]) 1870-1909, 1894-11-12
EMPLOYERS AND EMPLOYEES.
Mrs. Josephine Shaw Lowell Writes
EntertainingIy.

Entertainingly.
Boston, Nov. 1.-THE following letter
from Mrs. Josephine Shaw Lowell to
Miss Frances Willard will be read at
the National W, G. T. U. convention
which assemblies at Cleveland Novem-
Der Is:
My Dear Miss rd:-You ask
me to advise the women of the w. c.
T. Z. how they can best help the work
ing people. and 1 am very glad TO give
you my views of the matter, for I be-
lieve they can make themselves as
strong a power for good in this direc-
bion as they have in their own special
field, but to accomplish this they must
themselves desire justice in the rela-
tons between the employers and the
employees, and must create a public
opinion which will demand it.
In this country, with rare exceptions,
justice is seldom found in these rela-
tons. At some times and in some
places IT is the labor organizations
which are dictatorial, while the en-
ployers crfnge and relinquish all their
rights to maintain peace, but more fire.
quently the employers are arbitrary
and tyrannical, asserting loudly that
they intend to manage their own bust
ness as they choose, and will not be
interfered with by their workmen.
Here is the weak point-there will
never be justice between employers
and employees, consequently there will
never be a lasting peace until the en-
ployers recognize the claim of the en-
ployees to voice in THE settlement of
questions relating to making the hours
and conditions of labor. 1t can scarce
ly be expected that American citizens,
who nave been born and bred with the
instincts Of free men, will submit to a
system which places their welfare en-
| tirely in the hands of others.
This suggestion that the employees
| have right to a. voice in what is
called their employers business will be
new to many, and will at first seem to
be unreasonable, but the more it is
considered, the more justice it will
show itself to be, and it will be finally
acknowledged to be true.
For the last twenty or thirty years
in many large industries in England
all questions of wages, hours and con-
ditions Of work have been settled with
out strike of lockout, by joint boards
Of consolation, or arbitration boards. =
Of which the associations of employers
and employees have been represented
by delegates duly chosen and en-
powered to legislate for their con-
stituents, and on these boards the en-
ployers and employees have always
had an equal representation. In ou1
country, also, and in Belgium, boards
are known and have met with equa1
success, but the practices of justice with
US have not been so long nor so widely
extended as in England, and strangely
enAugh employees here, instead of in
istinctively recognizing this is the only
solution of the difficulties of the labor
question, assume a tone of arbitrary
ownership and proclaim their rights tC
issue orders which must be obeyed.
believe it is by the study of this phase
of the labor question and the advocacy
of Consolation as a means of prevent
ing disputes, and of arbitration as E
means of Settling them, that the mem,
bers of the w. c. T. U. can best hell
the working people. Respectfully yours
JOSEPHINE SHAW LOWELL.