The Arizona copper camp., 1919-09-20
Wages and Profit Sharing

lieve the day is coming when the
workmen, themselves (this includes
the work-women) will not permit us
to put a poor, inefficient, Indifferent
worker into our business; they will
help us get good, faithful, loyal work
ers into our business; they will work
| together to make success, and as
great a success as possible
"The natural labor leader is the
employer. If he fails to recognize this
fact, and cannot impress ii upon the
minds of his working people that this
is fact, they will secure leaders Of
another sort and ind-self-elected
and self-appointed, rank outsiders who
could not possibly be well enough ac
quainted with industrial arrangement
wisely, even though perfectly honest
and sincere; hence, We should say the
safety of industry in future lies in a
closer relationship between those who
direct, and those who do the work"
Mr.. Johnson's company is the only
large shoe concern in the country
which has never had a strike!
These cases are extreme, and could
hardly be duplicated by the ordinary
owner, but this much can be dupli-
ao+od ,,,,,+,,o1 o,,,nbacfc CON he. mt
upon work, and discussion of wages
may be in terms of work and skill in
stead of only in dollars. That real
work is always rewarded is an eco
nomic fact never to be forgotten.
Something for Nothing.
The popular appeal is always to de-
sire to get something for nothing. OBJ
lection among fair-minded employers
to unions as such rarely originates in
dislike for organization among en-
! ployees, but because the purpose is
seldom to discover ways to increase
wages by increasing efficiency but
usually to increase wages, by decreas-
ing efficiency. Unions have been
forced to be destructive because they
have had to fight employers. The mo-
ment that union leaders become con-
structive and tell their people work is
necessity, they lose their jobs or
lose their members. English union
leaders, after years of steadily preach
ing that wages have nothing to do
with work, suddenly find that unless
they change their teachings, there will
| be no work in England. The more
fearless, such as J. c. Clynes, are sug-
gesting that the people work. what
result? Craft unions are losing mem
bership and the All Workers Union
/ is gaining. The proletarian argu-
! ments attracting members are simply
the older union arguments with ruff
file or two to effect that if only you
organize tightly enough, you never
will have to work.
The American worker mas been con-
yinced for the moment he can get
wages or profits without work. With
few executions, he is not producing as
much in eight hours as in four before
the war. A man who made, eight
articles in 1914 will make, four, and
those. four will probably be represent
cd by third at least more dollars
than the eight. Expression of produc-
tion in dollars is now meaningless.
We. have stopped thinking of work III
:! terms of production We are thinking
in dollars, and that gets us into trou'
BILE with profits.
Finding that wages paid in excess
of value of services rendered, do not
! suffice, and seeing that most compan
les are exhibiting balance sheets con
tanning large surplus and profit items,
the mind of the worker is turning or
being turned to sharing in those prof
it's. Wages are expressed i'll great
sums, and the wage looks small be-
side the profit Well meaning persons
often suggest that a share of profits
of industry belongs to the worker. NO
two groups quite agree on that share
Some would confuse wages which are
part of cost of doing business, with
profits which are result of successful
business, and add an indetermlnate
part of profits to the wage. Others
advocate profit-sharing as step to-
ward the workers ultimate control OF
capital. There is a reason for the sec
ond position, but none for the first
when urged by those who are CON
vinced the capitalistic system is the
best.
Profit-Sharing a Failure.
That profit-sharing does not offer 9
solution for proper wage payment is
proved in practice. Arising out of a
delusion. as to what profits are, it falls
down. when the workers discover the
great sums they thought they would