The labor journal. [volume] (Everett, Wash.) 1909-1976, 1914-03-20
FOR WAGE Farmers
Labor Department Created In
Their Interest.
ITS FUNCTIONS ARE BROAD.
Comprehends All Glasses of Toilers,
Whether Organized or Not-Has
Great Field For Constructive Work.
The Working Employer.

The Working Employer.
1t is in the interest of wageworkers
that the tenth department of cabinet
size in the federal government has
been created.
AS department of labor the func-
lions of this department might well
be more comprehensive. Wagework-
ers are not the only kind of laborers.
Every employer, to the extent that he
puts his own energies into his business,
is to that extent as truly a laborer as
is the humblest wageworker in his
service. Ideally, therefore, a depart
ment of labor ought to be devoted to
the interests of working employers as
well as to the interests of wage work
ers. But working employers have 9th
err personal interests than their own
personal labor interests, and those 9th
er interests are apt to dominate their
minds so that their attitude toward la
Dor problems tends to be hostile to la
Dor interests.
A working farmer, for instance, is to
so great degree laborer that his in
terests are really identical with the in
terests of his hired hands" If the
wages of farm hands rise or fall
generally so also does the employing
farmers own income from his own la
Dor. But, inasmuch as he pays his
"handS" their wages out of his own
pocket and seemingly at the expense
of his own income. he feels that high
wages for farm hands" mean re-
duced incomes for farmers 1t is his
tendency. therefore. to be hostile to
high wages for hands," and this tend
ency places him more or less uncOn-
sciously in opposition to the interests
of labor as a whole. The same tend
ency appears. and for similar reasons,
among all classes and grades of bust
ness men who are self employing Ia
borers as distinguished from wage
workers.
Precisely that tendency appears to
have turned the activities of the now
defunct department of commerce and
labor over to the service of business as
opposed to labor interests. The two
subjects, commerce" and "labor"-in
reality only one subject under two
names-would not coalesce in practi-
cal administration. Consequently not
only did a distinct department of la
Dor become necessary, but there was
the supplementary necessity of confin
irr TIC 70 TIT aF
workers, this class of laborers being
the only class whose individual labor
interests are practically unmixed with
other and hostile individual interests
There were. therefore, right reason and
good economic and political sense in
limiting the scope of the new depart
ment of labor to the interests of wage
workers.
The limitation will probably be
found. however, to be broader than it
seems, for under the organic act (the
act of congress creating the depart
ment of labor the functions of that de
partment, so far from being limited
like the functions Of defensive trade
unions, are as broad economically as
are the needs and natural rights of the
whole labor force of the country. be l.
organized or unorganized, be it of EN-
ployers or of employed. The effect of
the limitation to wageworkers will
probably not operate any more mar
rowly than to prevent anti-labor inter
ests from controlling the department
to the prejudice Of labor interests as
whole.
The organic act Of this department
defines its scope in these particular
terms: THE purpose Of the department
Of labor shall be to foster, promote and
develop the welfare Of the wage earn
ers of the United States. to improve
their working conditions and to ad-
vance their opportunities for profitable
employment"
That trade unions will be sympathet-
ically considered by the department is
to be expected. They ought to be con-
sidered with sympathy and co-operated
with cordially. for they are the organ
lied expression Of wage earning work
ers. Absurd. indeed, would be the
notion that department of the gov
eminent which is designed to foster.
promote and develop the welfare OF
wage earners should, in performing its
functions. ignore or otherwise snub
representative organizations of wage
workers.
But the greatest work of this depart
ment will doubtless be in execution of
its authority to advance opportunities
for profitable employment" not by
finding opportunities for individual
wageworkers at the expense of other
individual wageworkers-as by the
distribution. for instance, of laborers
in support of strike breaking or TO
press down wages where wages may
have shown an upward tendency-but
by so multiplying opportunities for
profitable employment (whether self
employment through cooperation or
individually. or employment by EN-
ployers or otherwise as to make wage
n