New Britain herald., 1919-02-13

sary by taking it out of existence in "stagnant states" extension of voca- tionaI training and elaboration Of the present experiments in municipa housing and medical attendance were urged as steps toward equalizing the living conditions of the employing and employed clas
 Tpholding the right of labor to or ganize and to deal with employers through representatives, the report urged a gradual recognition of the workers in the mana cement and own erslljp of the industries of which they are a part
 Cooperation Is Urged.
 AS a first step, it suggested admis- sion of employees to the industrial part of the management through forma- tion of shop committees to co-operate with owners of plants. The next phase. participation in ownership, the com 1nittee conceded, was not of gen eral value in program for immedi- ate social reconstruction. It chased private ownership as preferable to q collectivist organization of industry. which it characterized as "a state of socialism which would mean bureau cracy, political tyranny, general so- cial ineff1ciency and decadencc," but asserted that the present system, pro duclng insufficient incomes for a great majority of wage earners and unnecessarily large incomes for a small minority of privileged capital ists,' needed modification and i'm proven ent.
 Tt seems clear" said the commit tee, that the present industrial sys- tenn is destined to last for a long time HI1f fri abilities of increased production will not be realized so long as the major 1 ity of the workers remain mere wage earners. The majority must somehow become owners, or at least in part, of the instrum ents of production. They 1 can be enabled to reach this stage 1 gradually through cooperative pro- 1 ductive societies and partnership | arrangem Tn the former, the i workers own and manage the indus tries themselves; in the latter they own a substantial part of the corpor- ate stock and exercise a reasonable share !n the management. However slow the attainment of these ends, they will have to be reached before i we can have a thoroughly efficient 1 system of production or an industrial ] and social order that will be secure l from the danger of revolution. It is ] to be noted that this particular modi- 1 f1cation of the existing order, though l far-reaching and involving to a great 1 extent the abolition of the wage sys- 1 tenn, would not mean the abolition of ] private ownership. The inStrum ents 1 of production would still be owned by ! individuals. not by the state.''
 To bring about even moderate re- 1 forms, the bishops asserted, both cap ital and labor must get 8, new view point. The 1aborer, they declared. l must come to realize that he owes his employer and society an honest days work in return for 3, fair wage and that conditions cannot be sub stantially improved until he roots out the desire to get a m aximum of re- turn for a, minimum of service. The capitalist needs to learn the long for gotten truth that wealth is steward ! ship; that profit-making is not the basic justification of business enter prise; that there are such things as fair profits, fair interest and fair prices; that the laborer is a human production; and that the laborer's right to a decent livelihood is the first moral charge upon industry. This is the human and Christian. in contrast to the purely commercial and pagan, ethics of industry