The Birmingham age-herald., 1919-06-16
Kahn Discusses
 Capital and Labor
# R x

II NDER the caption, Capital anC " Labor-a Fair Deal,"" Otto H Kahn recently discussed before the Carnegie Institute, a subject that is more vital now than ever. No banker, perhaps, has made profounder study of sociology from a practical point of view or with a more sympathetic at titude toward the wage earner than Mir. Kahn. He is an Illuminating writer and the truisms he utters ring with the note of sincerity and his gen. eralizations are convincing.
 He begins his address by saying:
 The principle on which all concerned should deal with the labor question ap- pears to me plain. It is the principle
 of the Golden Rule. I think the for
 mula shoul1 be that, first, labor is entitled to a living wage; after that,
 capital is entitled to a living wage;
 NN' ital and labor. in such proportion as
 fairness and equity and reason shall
 determine in all cases.
 The application of that formula is, of
 course complex and difficult, because
 there are so many different kinds of
 labor, there are so many different kinds of capital Not infrequently the
 laborer and capitalist overlap and
 merge into one. You have skilled labor and lnskilled labor and casual
 labor, you have the small employer,
 the large individual employer, the cor
 porate employer, the inventor, the
 prospector. etc. And then, circum-
 stances and conditions vary greatly,
 of course, in different parts of the
 country and in different industries
 It is impossible to measure by the
 same yard-stick everywhere, but the
 principle of fairness can be stated,
 the desire can be stated to do every
 thing possible to bring about good
 feeling and good understanding be-
 NN@SOA
 ly and freely to cooperate so that
 labor shall receive it's fair share in
 the fruits of industry, not only by
 way of wage return, but of an ade-
 quate return also in those less tangi-
 ble things which make for content
 ment and happiness.
 Mir. Kahn calls attention to bit of industrial history-the advent of the machine period in industry over cen- tury ago. It brought about "funda- mental and violent dislocation of the relationship which had grown ur through hundreds of years between employer and employe." In conse- quence of long continued maladjust- ment, he points out, it must be ad- mitted labor did not secure a square deal. Society, he says, failed to dc anything like its full duty by labor Much has been done of late to remedy that maladjustment, the origin ot which dates back to the beginning o1 the nineteenth century. The process of rectification has not yet been com pleted, but it is going on apace. Mean while, laboring men should take heec that, in their rightful resentmen against former practices of exploita tion and in their determination to ob tain the redress of just grievances they do not permit themselves to b, misled by plausible fallacies or self seeking agitators. They must not giv, credence, for instance, to the absur, preachment that practically all wealtl other than that produced by the farm CT, is the product of the exertions O the workingman."
 MT. Kahn takes as an example Hen ry Ford:
 ! Through the organizing genius and | enterprise of this absolutely self-made l man (not by monopoly, but in keen
 competition), the automobile, instead
 o6 being a luxury of the few, has been | brought within the reach of those of i modest means
 l The cost of the product has been | vastly cheapened. The margin of {, profit on each automobile sold has
 been greatly diminished Wages have
 been very largely increased, the liv- ing conditions of employees greatly
 improved. Work has been found for a
 great many more men than were em- l ployed before.
 1 In other words. every single human ' factor concerned in either production <, or consumption has been advantaged.
 New wealth has been created at the expense of no one. It cannot be said
 that it was created by the working 1 man. except in the physical sense. It
 was not created by either monopoly 1 or privilege. It was created mainly | out of MT. Ford's brain and at his l risk
 l By far the largest percentage of this
 new wealth goes to pay the wages
 of workingmen and other expenses of 1 the business, but out of what is left,
 Mir. Fords share is, by common re-