The Birmingham age-herald., 1908-12-18

successful. And all experience is so far
 in favor of individual management I do
 not believe, therefore that the assumption
 or the railways by the government would De safe business venture And I am
 absolutely sure 1t would add nothing to
 the convenience, comfort and prosperity
 or the citizens. And 1t would have the
 enormous disadvantage of strengthening
 and consolidating the power of the federal government and of undermining good old
 American theory that the less government people have the better.
 Public and Private Reforms.
 l see, therefore, no hope or advantage to | the community in government ownership | of railroads This branch of socialism, | like socialism as a whole, seems to me | utterly unfruitful and even injurious; but | repeat that since we are inevitably ! welded to an individualistic system of l government, and since history shows that l such governments purge themselves by l revolutions when the contrast between | what Mr Bryce calls the 'haves" and
 the have nots.'' has become so vast that 1t is no longer tolerable, 1t is the part | of foreseeing and prudent statesmanship | to anticipate the tendency of events and l adopt such salutary measures as may cor l rect the evils before the revoutionist's l knife is needed to eradicate them.
 Nor is it wholly, or perhaps even main | ly, a matter of statesmanship. The first | requisite Is the enlightenment of public l opinion. And when action is called for 1t l will perhaps be found that in a commun- | ity which has informed itself and reflect l ed upon these problems, more can be | done for their solution by the wise action l of private individuals than by all the eff | forts of government though I am far 1 from saying or believing there is noth- l ing which xpynrnment ran dO in the l premises.
 | The Progress of Working Men. 1 When we speak of the contrast between | the rich and the poor we have in mind at l the latter extreme the wage-earners who own no property and whose livelihood de- 1 bends on their daily earnings which, though generally assured, are sometimes precarious. I not saying that this | class of our citizens is not better off to- | day than 1t has ever been in the past On | the contrary, I believe it is. Certainly Karl Marx predictions in regard to the effect which capital and machinery were l to produce cn the laboring classes have | been falsified by the events. Not only 1 have their wages been increased but the | hours of labor have been reduced and | the sanitary and other conditions greatly l improved. Let a concrete example give l you the measure of the improvement l l l the Rev. Robert Collyer," who has ren- dered high service to country as l noble minister of religion for a great | many years. MT. Collyer was born in l England in 1923. And at years of age, 1 with many more children of about the l same age, he was put to work in a factory | for 13 hours a day, five days in the | week and il on Saturday. From in l the morning till in the evening, with | only an hour for dinner and rest he stood | at a spinning frame and did his work The | weaker children he says were so crip- | pied that the memory of their crooked | limbs still casts for him a sinister light on | the scripture text, ''The Lord regardeth l not the legs of a man." What remark 1 able improvement MT. Collyer has seen | in the condition of wage-9arners during | the IT years since, a boy of years of l age, he went to work in that Yorkshire cotton factory
 l Profit Sharing By Workers.
 | But while I gladly emphasize the inn | provement which has been effected, 1t Is | my opinion that there should be a higher l goal for the future The magic of pros | peritv must somehow touch these un- | propertied classes. These must be not | merely wage earners they must also 1 have a stake in the community The l government, however, is powerless to re- I l spends money; 1t does not create. On the | other hand this problem does not seem to | me beyond the possibility of solution at | the hands of the great corporations of our l time And rejoice to say that hope | ful beginning has already been made. l The greatest, and I suppose the best managed of all corporations has adopted ] the sagacous policy of making Its work | men stockholders. It may have been in- l fuenced in part, perhaps in large part, by self-interest: for personal interest of officers and employees in the work Of an establishment is the best imaginable sub stitute for individual ownership and con | trol, which the modern corporation has eliminated But if the Steel company l was moved by self-regarding motive | it is likely also that 1t was influenced | by some consideration of the welfare of | the men. There Is no need of suppos- ing that business men are absolutely l heartless and egoistic, even in8he pur- | suit of profits. It Is not necessary, how l ever for me to analyze the motives of | the Steel corporation and to determine | how much weight would be given either | to egoism or to altruIsm when the scehme | of profit sharing was adopted. Whatever the motives, the workmen may now be- come owners of stock. And In the year | 1906 s2500,000 worth of additional stock | was offered by the company to its work l men, and all taken, Wnlle zo,Uuu HoTe Ol | the employees have applied for shares. which are to be provided, Altogether nearly ,000 workmen are now share | holders in the Steel company. And they will have all the rights and privileges of shareholders, who are, of course, the l owners of the concern. That Is to say, 1 they will get their proportionate share | of the profits A:.l have a right to vote | with other shareholders for the choice of | directors and all other matters on which shareholders may care to express them selves Nor is this the whole story. An l other feature of this scheme adopted by the Steel company is peculiarly satisfy ing. Other shareholders are in a po- sition to face losses But the wage earner Is not; for his wages are needed for the daily bread of himself and his family. To meet this situation the Steel company guarantees the workman against loss on | his shares He is, therefore, in the happy | condition of receiving dividends, when the company pays a dividend, and of losing nothing when other shareholders suffer | loss Just as the workmans wages are | protected. by making a mechanics lien | the first obligation against building, so the workman's stock Is protected by ma king it a prior obligation against the assets of the Steel company.
 This is the beginning of a movement which has in it great promise and po- tency for the solution of the greatest in- dustrial question of our time The particular solution furnished by the United States Steel corpora ton is not pos ,I1t t1I.