The Washington herald., 1919-05-06
URGES CLOSER
UNITY OF TRADE
Holland Says This Is One
Thing Necessary for
U. S. Prosperity. :.

Within a week four communications
have been publicly made by men who
have achieved industrial and financial
success in such large measure as to
cause them to be numbered among
the leaders in great affairs. These
four were Judge f. II. Gary. chair
man of the board of the United States
Steel Corporation: Otto II. Kahn. an
international banker of wide repute;
George v. Perkins and Fred /. Kent.
It has been observed that all of these
men made special reference to the la
Dor situation. calling attention to what
they believe should be hereafter the
relation between those who are en-
ployers whether corporations or indi-
viduals and those who receive wages
as skilled artisans or common labor
ers. 1t has been apparent for soma
time that many believe that the future
relation between capital and labor
should be that of community OF in
terest and already steps have been
taken to secure a relation of that
kind.
John d. Rockefeller, jr., has estab-
lished satisfactory cooperation be-
tween the great industries in Colorado
of which he is the executive head.
This corporation SO far has worked
admirably. Word comes from Colo
RADIO that the friction, the i'll feeling
and the losses occasioned in the past
by labor and capital differences are
no longer to be observed. Those who
have recently visited Colorado report
that the State is now enjoying a sea-
son of prosperity such perhaps as 1t
las in the past not known.
Judge Gary's IntImation.
Then again the Standard Oil Com
pany of New Jersey has adopted a
plan similar to the one which Mr.
Rockefeller worked out in Colorado
1t involves community of interest be-
tween those who receive pay from this
oil company for their labor and the
corporation itself as represented by
its directors. Behind this plan is a
recognition of the common humanity
which characterizes all whether they
pay wages. or which should charac-
teriZe all.
In the recent address which was
made by Judge Gary to the stock
holders of the United States Steel Cor
poration there was a clear intimation
that it is. In his view. of the highest
Importance if prosperity is to be main
tained and increased and if the Unit
ed States is to be free from the dang
ers which the word Bolsheviki repre-
sents, that there should be intimate
and cordial relations between all of
those who work for the corporation
whether they be salaried executives,
skilled artisans or those occupied with
more mental labor.
George w. Perkins. who since De-
cember l and until yesterday has been
in Europe or upon his way thither and
back. endeavoring to perfect relief
agencies in Europe. said upon his re-
turn that he believed that there should
be larger and larger cooperation be-
tween employers and employees. Mr.
Perkins does not regard with favor
the plan formerly adopted by some
manufacturers which is called profit
sharing. In his view the workingman
should be able to earn enough or to
receive such proportionate share in
the earnings of the corporation for
which ne works as will make it DOS
sible for him 10 take some part OF
those earnings and invest them in
such way as to give them a personal
interest in the business. When n
skilled artisan buys a few shares of
the United States Steel Corporation
and pays for them with money he
has earned and saved. then he feels
a sense of pride as a part owner of
the corporation.
Old-fashioned profit sharing meant
the hestowal of a gift at the end of
a year of a certain amount of money
to the employees. The modern way
enables the wage-earner, by reason OF
satisfactory wages. to earn enough
| to pay his way and support his FAM
lily and leave something for invest
ment What he secures in this way
he has earned, and his money is not
bestowed upon him as a form of dis
guised charity or a kindly benefac-
ton. In the case of the steel cor
poration this relation or community
of interest has made it possible to
secure a very high degree of efficiency
and yet at the same time to maintain
! wages. In that way the cost of pro-
duction is greatly reduced without
, cutting down the wages of the work
ingmen.
Otto Kahn's View.
No man of foreign birth, certainly
no man of Prussian birth, has taken