The San Francisco call., 1910-06-08

of a product is higher than in other
cities, trade goes to the other cities
and business stops. To a great extent
that is the situation in San Francisco
today. The local industries are dom
inant and the interests of workmen in
the competitive Industries are in no
wise Identical with those of workmen
in local industries. In time economic
pressure will compel recognition of that
condition.
If employers and employed in those
industries here would get together and
each side do its best to help the other
side make money this city could win
out in all industries in which the geo
graphical distribution of raw material
does not too greatly handicap US But
If the workmen in the competitive
trades are to insist on getting what
any wage above what the industry can
pay, San francisco as an industrial
center must be merely a repair shop
and and. a y producer in small way of art. art
large work which supports large
population must go elsewhere.
LABOR AND COMPETITION
From the employers standpoint wages
are immaterial; hours are immaterial;
conditions are immaterial if they do
not cause vexation and worry over
trifiing controversies. The one thing
which is material, and indeed abSo-
lutely essential, is that the labor cost
per unit of product must not exceed
that of competitors. And the greatest
factor in reducing labor cost is the
hearty desire on both sides that each
shall make the last dollar that can
honestly be got from the production
and sale of the products.
But the great body of both of en-
ployers and of workmen are honest.
reasonable men. 1t is my belief that
if equal numbers of the reasonable men
on both sides will sit down at a table,
each fully determined before insisting
upon any demand to completely under
complete exchange of information is
made, they will usually come to an
agreement, for, after ALL it is true that
the main interests of employers and
workmen, as we'll as of all other classes
of community, are identical. In the
long run each will prosper as all are
prosperous. There should be agree
ment, not arbitration. Agreements
leave no sore spots.
In conclusion there seem to me to be
three essentials Recessary for the de-
velopment of the competitive manufac-
turerS of San Francisco. The manufac-
turer must be up to date in every sense
in his business methods. He must have
his ear continually on the alert for all
improvements throughout the entire Pa
cific coast that make possible the sale
of his wares. He must camp on the
job. Guarantee early deliveries and
be more prompt in filing the order than
In mailing the bill The reverse has
been too often the case in the past
1t is essential that the man repre-
senting organized capital shall be
broad enough to consider the neces-
sites of the great mass who perform
the labor in the factories. He should
be as thoroughly posted on the cost of
the raw material that goes into the
kitchen of his employees as he is of
the cost of the raw material that goes
to the mill. He should be big enough
to have the human interest as we'll as
the commercial interest.
1t is essential that the representative
of organized labor should know some
thing of economies; should be a stu
dent of all the problems that face the
industry in which he and his fellows
are engaged, both from the manufac-
turers' and the workmen's standpoint
He should be big enough to eliminate
all passion and prejudices and to con-
slider the problem as a whole; to work