Omaha daily bee., 1899-11-19
MEANING OF NEW SOCIALISM
Employers and Employed Working in Unison
in Many Instances.
!. PROVISION FOR THE WoFK RS COMFORT
tomc Extraordinary Instances of suc-
cessful Co-Opcrntion Profit
sharing rnd other Plans
Views and Interviews.


The new socialism, as you call it, is
the right socialism. When employers and
employed realize their true relative posi-
tions there will be no more strikes-no more
friction between them 1t is as hard TO
get good employees 1t Is to get good EN-
ployers. The employer who furnishes the best
working places and the best home surround
ings to the employed is the best employer,
and to him the best employees will gravitate
as iron filings seek magnet The en-
ployer who has the best employees will turn
out the best finished product and will as
certainly get the best business This Is
merely a logical statement OF the fact that
the relations between employer and en-
ployed are not the relations between master
and man, but are partnership, pure and
simple.
THE word service should be removed from
the language. 1t has no meaning now and
no mission except to make misunderstood the
relations existing between employer and en-
ploye. 1t came down from the old Roman
empire and should be abolished as the slav-
cry which 1t then represented has been.
THE relations between employer and en-
ploye are the relations between partners.
An employer may discharge his employe and
take another in his stead, but he has merely
changed partners. An employe may leave
his employer and seek another. And there
he has merely changed partners. AS l said
in Chicago, trades unions never have and
never can in any sense OF the word regulate
wages The proportion of the profits which
the workingman shall get from any pro-
ductive form of labor is fixed by an i'm
mutable law-tho law of production and de-
mand Trades unions have been most use
full and will continue to be most useful as
time savers in helping employers and en-
ployed, the two parties to the partnership,
to understand their relationships
Take chair. The man who owns the
factory in which the chair is made cannot
decide for himself how much he will pay
the men who work in that factory. The
profits on that chair must be divided among
many people, The employer must be paid
for his labor in establishing the factory, in
selling the finished product and in mana
giug the business. The wood-cutter in the
forest must be paid for his labor in cutting
down the trees. The men who plane the
lumber in the saw mills must have their
share; the polsher, the wood d-carver-every
human being connected with the manu-
facture Of that chair must have his share,
and his share will be absolutely regulated
by the number Of chairs that is manufac-
tured The moment the employer tries TO
reduce wages below the point fixed by this
immutable law OF supply and demand, com
petition for good labor will step In and he
will lose his best working men. They will
be employed by other manufacturers OF
chairs. These other manufacturers Of chairs
will then make better chairs than the man
we have been first considering, who must
now employ inferior labor, and he must
become bankrupt. On the other hand IL the
cmployer first mentioned increases wages
beyond the point fixed by this immutable
law. he will not find in his business sufficient
payment for his labor and again he must
become bankrupt. The situation Of the other
mariner to the partnership-the employe-
ia exactly the same. If he demands higher
wages than the man who owns the factory
can nay. he must lose his job or bankrupt
his employer This is beginning to be un-
derstood. Employers cannot give men profits,
or shares OF profits, which they have not
made themselves. What the employer gets
on his capital is really just as much re-
turn from energy as is what the working
man gets from his labor. The more proVl-
sion that is made for the workers comfort,
the better his surroundings, the pleasanter
the home provided the better work and the
more work we can do and the greater Will
be tho reward OF the employer
Change in Public Sentiment.
.In the last two years. said Senator Gull
lom recently, "the attitude OF the entlre
country toward the social problem mas
changed. There Is a new note In rehgioh'
politics and press. But the transformation
in the industrial world is more marked ana
important Business men and practical men
of affairs everywhere are today giving more
thought to the social side of their establish
ments than to almost any other feature OF
their business. The largest and best organ
lied factories in the United States are busy
with far-reaching plans for the beneht OF
their employees. 1t is becoming recognized
fact that no great producing concern can
ignore the progress of the age and survive
IL an establishment employing labor hopes
TO live in the future it must devise system
nv which every man who is connected with
1t will receive. not only his days wages, but
the opportunity for happy, comfortable
and progressive social life.'
Hundreds OF the largest employers nave
been striving with more or less success 10
bring about a more sympathetic and mar
monious relation between themselves and
their employees. The first efforts were baseo
on a proit-sharing plan, by which at the END
of successful year certain per cent oi
each mans wages was given him. as his
share in the profits OF the business This
was thought few years ago to be grea'
step in the direction OF socialism 1t was
because 1t marked the first general concep'
tion among employers that they were In any
way connected with the men they employed
except in possessing the right to force upor
them the greatest possible service for the
least pay Profit sharing has been looked
upon with doubt from the time OF Its IN
ception and today those who advocated II
consider 1t only as a short step in the righ
direction. The most pronounced instance
of It's success is furnished by the great New
York banking house OF Spencer Trask d Co
which has for some years been in the habit
of declaring to each employe per cent o
the annual profits of the business. Las
year this additional sum amounted to tha
received as salary by each employe, thus
doubling his income
Philanthropy which Pays.
The older plan OF profit sharing has. how
ever, been one OF the things leading 10 q
more effective method which is replacing
1t. II is generally conceded that the Ma
tional Cash Register company Is the mosi
perfect example OF the new ideas in opera
ton The president Of this institution
John H. Patterson is the most watchfu
and practical OF business men. Through
him has been developed an ideal com
munitv life of which the factury Is tho