Omaha daily bee., 1920-02-11
Shop Committee Idea Is
Winning Recognition In
"a, Over ESQ Plants of i. S.
Plan Misunderstood by Workers In Some Places and
Is Looked Upon With suspicon-Applies Demo-
cracy to Operation of Factories-Long Accepted
In Great Brittain-Labor Made a Partner.

genius of the great masses of the
workers.
Hire and Fire"
Under the old autocratic regime
in industry there have been special
lists in financing, in selling, in adver-
tising, in technical processes; but
the last thing of all to be consid-
cred was the most important of all
the human beings, the labor. Any
foreman or boss could hire and
fire" 1t is only very recently that
labor experts, labor managers, labor
engineers have begun to appear as
an essential factor in industrial or
ganizaton, and in only a few Of the
more enlightened industries has the
labor expert risen to anything like
az equality of status with the other
departmental chiefs. | know Of
only few cases in which labor
management is dignified by a vice
presidency or other high official
recognition in the company.
Under the old autocratic regime
everything is directed from above,
according to the will of the en-
ployer or manager, and the ten
dency is toward the suppression of
every form OF creative energy OH
the part OF labor. The United States
Steel Corporation is today the
greatest American example of this
system.
Applying Democracy.
Fortunately, not only i'll the steel
industry but in many others as
well, the new secret for re-
leasing more fully the energies Of
human beings is now being dis
covered and developed. The idea
is spreading with extraordinary
rapidity both in America and in
Europe. 1t is not confined to
thoughtful labor leaders nor to stu
dents or experts in industrial man
agement, but many employers and
employers associations arc, as one
observer said to me, "riddled with
it,"
And this secret consists in ap-
plying to industry. little by little, the
simple machinery of democracy. -
"We do not need a revolution"
said H. L. CAN'T, one OF the true
pioneers of the movement, I'VE do
not need a class war. Most people
will work for the common good if
you give them chance. The trou-
Bile is that we have been clinging
to an autocratic system under the
mistaken idea that it was good. at
least for the autocrat. The fact is
that it isn't. Democracy is far bet
ter for all of us. Industrial democ-
racv will release our energies and
make us the strongest people on
earth"
ESQ Plants Try Idea.
I described in my last article how
this new system had been intro
duced and showed how il worked
in typical industry. Today there
are over 250 mills, factories and
other business organizations, all the
way from huge steel plants like the
Colorado Fuel & Iron company. the
Midvale Steel company and impor-
tant transportation and shipbuilding
companies to little factories with a
few hundred hands, where the new
idea is being tried out. r.
1t is a very new movement. Be-
fore the war it was practically un-
known outside Of a. few hating
pioneer experiments: today. it is
scarcely an exaggeration to say that
it is more the thought of American
industrial leadership than any other
single group Of ideas.
Accepted in Great Britain.
Mr.. CAN'T predicted that its intro
duction would make us the strong
est people on earth"-but we shall
have to push hard indeed if we beat