The Washington herald., 1918-04-11
OTHERS WILL
FOLLOW 0.
Holland Says New Labor
Policy VIII Be Widely
Adopted.

The two Influences which are to be
so exerted and. in fact. have already
been 80 exerted as to demonstrate
that a new attitude between employ
ers and employees Is inevitably to be
generally adopted are the tnhuences
Of which the United States steel Cor
poration and the Standard Oil Com
pany Of New Jersey have made OF
late impressive demonstration. The
steel corporation began to undertake
a new relation involving co-operation,
Just treatment and the creating OF an
impulse which would lead the en-
ployes to DO their best to bring pro-
duction to the high-water mark, two
or three years after the corporation
was organized. The directors accept
ed cordially the simple plan, although
with difficulty perfected. which was
worked out by George W. Perkins,
whereby the employees could have op-
portunfty every year to apply some
part Of their savings to the purchase
of stock in the corporation. This was
not pront-sharing in the former
meaning of that term. The corpora
ton looked upon Il as returning to
the employees, in addition to the wages
which they received, a proportionate-
- TAR SNARE IN IAlo earnings OF Inc
corporation. In addition other plans
were adopted, such, for instance, a.
insurance, payment OF wages or q
part OF the wages, IN case an en-
ploye was incapacitated by accident,
and also old age pension. Further
more the corporation has, even In
times of stress, steadily increased
wages
( At the time when the corporations
business was at its lowest, a few
. weeks after the outbreak of the Euro
pean war, the question arose, "Shall
We pass dividends and maintain wages
or shall we cut wages so that we may
be able to pay dividends." Without
the disapproyal Of q single member
OF the corporation the decision was
made to pay wages and to pass the
dividends. On the 18th OF this month
the corporation will increase the
wages OF its employees by l5L. AL
though there were increases of l0% on
May 1 and October / respectively OF
last year and furthermore there were
three increases Of wages in the pre-
ceding year. The result was that the
1871 wage rate was on December 81
% above the rates of 1915 for un-
skilled labor and So for all employees.
What Standard OIL Did.
Almost coincident in point of time
with the announcement that the
United States Steel Corporation had
increased wages by as much as Is per
cent. President Teagle. Of the Stand
ard Oil Company OF New Jersey, which
Is the greatest Of all the corporations
identified by the Standard Oil name,
announced an increase of 10 per cent
in wages as well as the perfecting of
plans for granting annuities, accident
insurance, old-ags pension, and fur
thermore the establishment of a COM
mission or board OF arbitration on
which the management as well as the
employees were to be represented, so
that before this board all questions
respecting which there were differ
encese might be brought and -satisfac-
'torily adjusted. This resembles the
plan adopted by John d. Rockefeller,
IT.. whereby the long-continued labor
troubles in Colorado might be mended.
what Is Said OF This
: The able men in the financial dis
trict and many or the business lead
ders are strongly persuaded that
this leadership which is represented
by the action Of the United States
Steel Corporation as well as the ac-
ton recently taken by the Stand
ard Oil Company, of New Jersey,
as announced by President Teagle
few days ago, will sooner or later
compel the managers OF all the
great industries of the United
States to adopt this new attitude
towards labor. This disposition
will be strongly supported by the
action OF the Federal government
at Washington in establishing the
labor commission. Some of the
ablest business men in, New York,
who have recently talked with
Samuel Gompers and have been sur
prised to learn that in his private
conversation he Is far more con-
servative than he has sometimes
been in his addresses to members
of his labor organizations, report
that Mr.. Gompers is greatly pleased
at the attitude of the government
as well as that recently assumed
by the United States Steel Corpora
tion and the Standard Oil Company,
of New Jersey. He is inclined to
think that these are the first steps
toward the constant ideal he has
always had in mind, which is the
establishment of a just and salts
factory relation between so-called
capital and so-called labor.
Others VIII Follow.