Omaha daily bee., 1920-02-11

Councils system providing for the
reconstruction of industry upon
democratic basis. While large
proportion OF our employers and
labor leaders, through lack OF un-
derstanding, is still opposing the
whole idea, large proportion OF
! both organized capital and organ
lied labor in Great Britain has ac-
cepted it. Already Al national in
dustries, including many hundreds
of individual plants employing over
100000 workers, are operating un-
der the rev system.
The Germans have sought the
same end in their mcthodical and
formal way by passing, on January
II of this year, SHOPS council
law which will apply to all factories
or plants where more than five
men or women are employed" 1t
is called zone of the most radical
pieces OF economic legislation since
the war" 1t means the gradual re-
construction of German industry
| upon a cooperative and democratic
basis.
Compared with the sweeping
changes contemplated in both Great
Britain and Germany---our economic
mpetitors-the American move
ment is still tentative and experiment
tai. Although more than ESQ sep
arate enterprises are trying out the
SYSTEM this represents very small
proportion OF the tens of thousands
of employing establishments i'll
America. 1t Is as yet mere crack
in the surface of the old system.
Get Together Spirit.
The new method was adopted
wholeheartedly during the war by
our own War Labor Board, and
through that organization applied III
many industries where labor dis
| turbances were threatencd-great
concerns, like the General Electric
company at its Pittsheld and Lynn
plants. the Bethlehem Steel corpora
ton, the American Cash Register
company, and several important
plants st Bridgeport. Conn. And
the Presidents Industrial commits
sion now sitting at Washington. is
likely to recommend the adoption
OF the new system as one of the
main features of its report. There
is this to be said about Americans.
they are quick learners. and, once
they understand the enormous pos
sibiities of industrial democracy"
there is no doubt that the system will
be swiftly applied. The atmosphere
of American life is peculiarly favor
able to the growth of such demo-
cratic movements, and we have al
ready demonstrated during the war
an extraordinary ability to get to-
J., gether,' to infuse industry with a
spirit of cooperation" and to. ac-
complish gfeat results in short
time.
Many System" Here.
De Toqueville long ago called at
tention TO the peculiar genius OF
| Americans for forming associations
of all kinds, for all purposes--in
short. their ability to work together.
wherever at the head OF some
new undertaking you see the gov
crnment i'll France or a man of ranl,
in England, in the United States
you will be sure to find an associa-
ton. The English often perform
great things singly, whereas the
Americans form associations for the
smallest undertakings"
The American approach to the
! new system is by the American
method. through encouragement by
volunteer associations and expert
mcntation in actual enterprises 1t
lacks the regularity Of German
system prescribed by law or a Brit
ish system carefully studied by
governmental body and adopted
from above, but what it loses in uni
tormity it may gain through variety
| of creative experimentation; the at
tempt by many. individual brains to
apply the principle to specific cases.
This method cannot fail to produce
a greater degree of fexibility and
closer adaptation to actual needs
than any prepared plan. The Gre
| ative impulse thrives best where ex-
| perimentation. is frccst.
i. So it is that when we endeavor in
America to define exactly what the
new system of industrial democ-
racy' really is, we find large num-
Der of different "plans" or "sys-
TENS" varying widely in detail and
still more widely in spirit. We have
the Colorado Fuel and Iron plan,
the Bridgeport plan. the Leitch plan,
the Amalgamated Garment Work
+; ers' plan and others, and as yet no
comprehensive governmental plan
at all. 1t is movement which has
grown more or less spontaneously
from within.
Now. shall not enter here into
discussion of the details of these
various plans. | have illustrated in
a former article exactly how the
system was applied in one small in
dustry, but there are certain broad
general principles which M,derlie
the entire movement. Fundament-
ally, the effort is to do away gradu-
ally with the old autocratic and
militarstlc organization of industry,
and substitute for it new cooper
ative ard democratic organization.
Labor a Partner Under Plan.
Under the new system labor is no
longer regarded as a mere part of
the machinery, but as partner with
a definite share in the management.
The essential structure is very sim
pie. 1t consists of committees Sc
cretly elected by the workmen of
shop or an industry (hence the