Denver labor bulletin., 1916-11-04
Room at the Top
By SCOTT NEARING.

Despite the current assertion that
There is plenty of room at the top"
and that consequently anyone may come
up from the crowded tenements into spa
cious mansions whose wide flung doors
invite the overburdened to an infinity
of relaxation and rest, the possibilities
of advancement in the present-day in
dustrial organization are few and far
between.
To be sure, there is always a chance
of the workingman rising out of the
ranks of the workers and becoming
manager or n capitalist. The existence
of this chance to rise has never been
questioned, tho its mathematical extent
has not always been understood. Con-
slider, for example, one of the greatest
single industries in the United States,
the railroad industry, employing nearly
million and three-quarters Of men.
What are the possibilities for advance
ment in this industry as shown by the
latest reports of the interstate commerce
commission?
There were in 1914, $40 general Of
ficers directing the activities of the mil
lion and three quarters employees. There
fore each employe should have one
chance in three hundred of becoming q
general officer at some time during his
life, provided that the employees live as
long as the general officers, and provid-
ed further that all of the general Off
GERS are drawn from the ranks of the
employees. Neither of these assumptions
however is correct because in the first
place insurance tables indicate that the
life of the general officer is consider
ably longer than the life of the average
workingman. In the second place, the
general officers are not always drawn
from the ranks. Leaving these two con.
siderations out of account, however it
is apparent that the mathematical prob
ability that the average railroad EN-
ploye will become a general officer is
about one-third of one per cent.
Consider another phase of the situa-
tion. Suppose that you are a railroad
trainman. Mathematically you have one
chance in three hundred of becoming d
general officer at some time during your
! life On the other hand you have about
one chance in ten of being injured, and
one chance in two hundred and fifty OF
being killed during each year that you
are at work.
| Supposing that your total term of ser
vice is twenty years, the chances arc
two to one that during that time you
will be injured, and one to twelve that
during that time you will be killed; SO
that the chance of your being injured Is
six hundred times as great, and the
chance of your being killed is twenty
times as great as your chance of be-
coming general officer in the company
which is employing you.
In short, the tendency OF modern In
dustry is toward form OF organization
which will require the wage worker to
remain a wage worker. The railroad
/ hr-al l. tn hannn1a
president or general manager, but in
stead to become a conductor. In the
same way, section hands make section
foremen, and locomotive firemen make
locomotive engineers. The railroad man
ager is not looking for an engineer who
will make general superintendent, but
for an engineer who will be and will
remain good engineer.
Traditions, aphorisms, proverbs and
successful men to the contrary notwith-
standing the room at the top is
myth. When all is said, the organiza-
ton of modern industry is such that in
the absence of some outside influence
such as education, or pull" the wage
worker is almost necessarily condemned
to life Of labor. Receiving in most
cases not more than a subsistence wage,
he is unable to do more than make ends
meet, except by living under the most
abject conditions, or by exceptional
management. Lacking, capital, and sur
plus energy, the wage worker may neith'
er rise in industry, nor may he begin an
industry of his own. Until recently
free land and farm ownership offered
him an alternative. Today free land is
gone. Even tho land were still free,
the amount of capital necessary for the
proper management of modern farm is
prohibitive to the man without means
or credit. The wage worker may not
change his lot by rising, or by striking
out for himself. Barriers appear in both
directions which are surmountable by
the man of unusual ability and Of great
energy alone. To the ordinary man,
the limitations which they prescribe arc
absolute.
The worker will remain a worker, ex-
cept in the rare instances when he joins
the ranks of professions, or secures
foothold on the narrow ledge of indus
trial leadership. Quite irrespective of
his abilities, the form of modern in
dustrial organization compels most men
to keep their places on the lower rungs
of the industrial ladder. Therefore Their
real immediate problem is to make the
runps as comfortable as possible.