The Barre daily times. (Barre, Vt.) 1897-1959, 1919-10-21
Dr.. Butler on Industrial Unrest.

Nlcnolas Murray Butler in his ad
| dress before the Institute of Arts and
Sciences at New York Monday, put
the American labor problem fairly:
Can the nations industries be so
organized and administered as to bring
to the service of industry the well.
tested principles and ideals of political
democracy without overturning the
foundations of the republic and with.
out destroying the only guarantees on
which order, liberty and progress can
possibly resti"
This passage has immediate perti-
nence in the fact that labor is showing
q most sdisquieting tendency to reck-
less disregard of the fundamental dem
ocratic principle of respect for law
created by process freely agreed upon
VI the essence of such law are the con.
tracts arrived at by collective bargain
ing between employers and employees
and the awards of arbitration tribunals
to which disputes have been mutually
submitted. Dr. Buffers passage, on the
other hand, suggests a point of view
from which the old autocratic manage
ment of industry is seen as no longer
tenable--no great captain Of industry
claiming to rule by divine right or
directing that 'the public be damned"
In word, forward step in industrial
democracy is called for and it must
be taken by frank acceptance of the
newer order by the employer and by
good faith by the employee. As DR..
Butler puts it, "reasonableness9 and
corporation" are the means to be EN-.
ployed in realizing an affirmative an.
sWer to the question which he raises.
Concretely, DIR. Butler advocates par
ticipation by labor as well as by CAPT
tai in the organization and direction of
industry, and system of profit shar-
ing after payment to those who work
with their hands a thoroughly salts
factory wage, to those who work with
Their brains an appropriate salary, and
to those who work with their savings
a definite minimum return based upon
the current value Of money" His class
ification raises some interesting aues-
tions. He is, of course, not unaware
that much of the work requiring the
greatest intelligence, technical knowl.
edge and training is done by the wage.
Garner, while much of the work Of the
salaried employe is of a quite mechani.
cal nature 1t would be difficult in
most establishments probably TO say
with real accuracy Just who are the
brain and just who the hand workers.
it may be useful to distin-
guish group actually engaged in the
Of the business, including
in the group those whose work necessi-
tates their intimate acquaintance with I
details of such management Possibly /
such classification would separate the |
workers actually or potentially mem
bers of associated organized labor from |
hose who for one reason or another 1
were regarded as ineligible to it's ranks. |
Any industrial system based on /
Of the separate, though mu.
.ual, interests of classes OF. groups en-
gagged in it is thereby based to de- |
gree upon good faith and good feeling. |
Il is essential not only that each group /
hall act justly and honorably, but /
hat when its actions are Just and hon
lrable they shall be so recognized. The |
American democracy proceeds upon the
heory that the vast majority of the
'itizens are ION the level" II cannot
succeed If this is not true nor if con
aggressive minority persists
either in believing that it is not or in
reaching that it is not, Such destruc-
i've cynicism is the father of lynch
aw, sabotage, contract breaking, unau-
horized strikes, arbitrary suppression
# free speech and free assemblage, vic.
ence in the name of law and order, and
he Pandora's box of related ills on
whichever side of whichever labor con
lict they ppear.--Springfeld Repub-
lean.