Atlanta Georgian. [volume] (Atlanta, Ga.) 1912-1939, 1913-09-26
ASSET Of
ANY NATION IS
|TSC|T|zENS
New Democratic Laws Force Big
Business to Consider Welfare
of Employees.
By B. C. FORBES.


That question is not often dis
cussed by financial or business lead
ers, by chambers of commerce OF
boards of trades, by railroad or in
dustrial or mercantile conventions,
Yet Is it not as important even as
tariff legislation, currency reform or
any of the other serious problems
now engaging business mems minds ?
America is proud Of her manufac-
lures, proud of her agricultural
achievements, proud OF her great
railroad systems. All these are vital
to the country's well-being.
But a. natian's greatest asset is
her citizens. on her citizens de-
ponds everything else. They are at
once the foundation and superstruc-
ture, the Alpha and Omega of her ex-
istence, her very raison d'etre.
Said one of our foremost bankers
to me the other day:
Don't forget that there is to be
a change in the method of elect
ing our Senators.
They are to be chosen by the
people.
They are already acting with this
in mind
1T means that the Senate will be-
come less conservative, that 1t will
be less OF bulwark than heretofore
against radicalism.
I'VE must not overlook this fact
in analyzing the financial and bust
ness future"
Had you thought OF that?
Does it not mean that the people
the ordinary, everyday voters-are
moving nearer the throttle Of the en-
CINE of government, that they are
brushing aside privileged classes, that
they are routing the "Old Guard" who
have rendered long and jealous serv-
ice on behalf of their masters?
Don't you begin to see, therefore
why it is Of greater moment than al
any previous time in Americas his
tory to consider the question just
propounded: What kind of voters are
our corporations and other employers
turning out?
Let US here leave out OF account
entirely the moral aspects of the
subject and discuss it strictly as a
business proposition.
The factory worker. the clerk, the
mechanic, the day laborer, the rail-
way man, the miner, the wagon
driver, the salesman. the printer, the
navy, the molder-all are voters
And we have just noted that the
voters are leaping into the saddle
that they are asserting their right ia
govern the country without the OBJ
struction of old school politicians
placed and kept in power by capital
istic interests. Government by the
people, for the people is to become
reality, not merely a theory.
Well, then, what kind Of a govern
ment are our capitalists, our corpo-
rations our manufacturers, our mine
owners, our railroads molding?
Are some of them picking a rod
to be applied by-and-by to their own
stripped backs?
Or. are most employers grasping
the fundamentals of the situation?
My own view, based on many
heart heart talks with financiers
corporation managers and large en-
ployers, is that a majority of the
most influential Of them are alive tC
the necessity of treating employees
fairly, of paying decent wages, OF
granting reasonable hours, and, above
all, of WANING the loyalty and CO.
operation of their workers by mani
Testing genuine interest in their vel
fare, by treating them as fellow
beings instead of as soulless. money
producing machines to be worked tc
the limit and scrapped when i'm
paired.
But only a start has been made in
this direction. There is much lee
way to make up.
The new income tax, the new tariff
law. the new currency system, all In
principle mark progress in the right
direction. So do employers liability
laws and pure food laws So do cor
porate pension schemes, profit shar-
ing plans and sales of stock on ad-
vantageous terms to employees.
Beyond all this, however, and
transcending these measures in i'm
portance, lies the need of restoring
the personal element, the human
bond between employers and en-
ployees. Sentiment was driven from
commerce by corporations, the blood
less, non-human machines devised by
High Finance to carry on Big Bust
ness.
How to forge anew this bond, how
to bring into harmony the interests
of employees and employers, how 10
displace hostility by a spirit of mu-
tuality and cooperation, how "a
reconcile the ambitions OF labor with
the just rewards Of capital-this is
the one problem that overshadows