The labor advocate. [volume] (Cincinnati, Ohio) 1912-1937, 1916-09-30
Labor Is Not a Commodity
Eight Hour Day Right and Do Not Regard Question
Arbtrabl Said President Wilson Business
Men-He Told Them That Their Employees We're the Pro-
ducing End of Their Partnership With Labor-7reat a
Man Right and He Will Glue You Good Service


But the chief cloud that is upon the
domestic horizon is the unsatisfactory re-
lations of capital and labor. There is
only one way, gentlemen, in which the
relations of capital and labor can be
rendered satisfactory. That is by, in the
first place, regarding labor as human
relationship of men with men; and, in
the second place, regarding labor as part
of the general partnership of energy
which is going to make for the success
in this country. SO long as labor and
capital stand antagonistic the interests
of both are injured and the prosperity
of America is held back from the tri-
umphs which are legitimately its own.
'Have Been Legalistic People,"
"You know that we have been legal
istic people. | say with all due respect
to some men for whom | have a high
esteem that we have been too much un-
der the guidance of the lawyers, and that
the lawyer always has regarded the rela-
tions between the employer and the en-
ployee as merely contractural relation
ship, whereas, it is, while based upon
contract, very much more than contract
ural relationship. 1t is relationship be-
tween one set of men and another set of
men with hearts under their jackets and
with interest that they ought to serve in
common with persons whom they love
and must support on the one side and
on the other.
Labor is not a commodity. 1t is a
form OF cooperation, and if | can make
man believe in me, know that | am
just, know that l want to share the
profits of success with him, can get
ten times as much out of him as if he
thought | were his antagonist And his
labor is cheap at any price. That is the
human side of it, and the human side eX-
tends to this conception, that that labor
ing man is a partner of his employer.
IF he is mere tool of his employer
he is only as serviceable as the tool
His enthusiasm does not go into it. He
ter be DONE He does not look upon
the aspect of the business or enterprise
as whole and wish to cooperate to
the advantage of his brains and his in
vention to the success of it as whole.
Human relationships, my fellow citi-
zens, are governed by the heart, and if
the heart is not in it nothing is in it.
Relates His Experience.
81 have recently been through an eX-
perience which distressed me. | tried
to accommodate difference between
some of the employees of the American
railways and the executives of the
American railways, and the distressing
thing | discovered was that on the one
hand there was unlimited suspicion and
distrust of the other side, and that that
suspicion and distrust was returned by
the other side in full measure.
"The executives did not believe in
the sincerity of the men, and the men
did not believe in the sincerity and
fairness of the executives, and while
arbitration was being discussed | had
this sad thought: Arbitration is word
associated with the dealings of hostile
interests. 1t is an alternative of war.
There ought to be no such thing as the
contemplation of hostility as between
men whose interests are the same and
who should cooperate together.
"And, therefore, it came upon me
with force that it had never had be-
fore that the real problem of capital
and labor was to bring the two sides to
understand and believe in one another;
that the problem of the next genera
ton, if America really were to release
IlCI CIlcISy, Was 10 DC llllS real, SSIullC,
fundamental Cancellation between cap
ital and labor. / did not realize until
| held those conferences just how far
apart they were in that particular and
indispensable part of our national life,
the transportation of the country, and
when | did realize | saw that there
was great task that was worth any
mans while ahead of us to bring the
minds of the country together to see
that men understood one another to
see that they had some assurance that
they were speaking the truth to one
another. | never had franker con-
hdence in my life than / had with the
representatives of the two sides.
Looked Into Future.
"You know that when the public began
to notice this controversy it already had
been going on for some time. | had been
watching it with great anxiety, and when
it became evident that an accommodation
was not going to be reached, / thought
it my duty to try my hand at the diff
cult task of accommodation because
knew how much was involved, not only
in the immediate effects of great strike
such as was threatened but also in the
ultimate effects, the soreness left, the re-
sentiment that would remain, the feeling
of hostility that could be accentuated,