Evening star., 1920-02-03

effort, between manage
ment and men. The Good-Fellow clubs
are instruments for aiding needy
workers. and the joint committees in
of building up public opinion among
workmen In the mills in the matter OF
preventing accidents. In both of these
limited activities committees of the
workers are really acting together
and both are proud of it-and proud
Of the results of 1t.
IF this method works so well in
these small matters" I asked one of
the great steel men, why will it not
work just as we'll in dealing with
other and larger questions-wages,
hours, living conditioner"
why -not?' he asked. but we're
terribly slow to see it,"
Yet this is exactly what Rockefeller
saw-and introduced-in his Colorado
steel plants. 1t is what the Midvale
Steel Company has seen and introduced
in several Of its great plants. Over ESQ
lea are already adopting this new demo-
cratic relationship in the management
Of the labor aspects of their work.
These really remarkable experiments
all SO new that they were practically
unknown before the war-I shall explain
in following articles.
Five Stages in Relationships.
Five stages or epochs in the relation
ships Of labor and capital-since large
scale industry came into existence-are
clearly distinguishable in America:
"a The purely autocratic. individual
istic method. The employer believes
that he can ''do what he likes with his
will Sometimes when the plant is small
and the owner-manager is close to his
men and can preserve a warm human
relationship or when it is larger and he
happens to be great personal---very.
Schwab-this method may work very
well But when ownership becomes sep
arated from management. as IL SO oiten
the case now in America, or the plant
grows so large as to destroy the possi-
bility of close personal Relationships De-
tween management and men, 1t often
works very badly indeed. There are still
many mills and factories in America
conducted upon this plan
(2) The autocratic method temper.
ed by welfare work, as in the United
States Steel Corporation. Judge Gary
is an absolute autocrat, but he is a
benevolent autocrat.
(3) The militaristic method, in which
labor is organized, and often the en-
ployers as well. Employers and en-
ployes are in two more or less hostile
camps; they have frequent wars
(strikes) and sign frequent truces
collective bargains). War is always
wasteful, and military methods inefh-
cient, and always the non -combatant
(the public) is the chief sufferer. Yet
this is the method (and labor has had
in the past no other way of protect
ing itself or winning it's rights) under
which a large proportion Of the indus
tries Of America are now conducted
Some times real cooperation is at
tanned by this method; usually not.
% The new cooperative method,
now beginning to have a wide trial in
America and still wider one in Great
Britain. Here shop committees Of
workmen (whether organized in trade
unions or not) and the management
seek to cooperate. rather than to fight,
over their mutual problems.
(5) A step beyond this we have, at
least, one great experiment-in the
manufacture of mems clothing-in es-
tablishing 9. government for one en-
tire industry in America, a govern
ment based upon cooperation and a
democratic relationship between man
agement and men throughout the in
dustry.
These new schemes are not the mere
suggestions of theorists or dreamers
but are being practically worked out
by practical men, both employers and
employees. as I shall show in follow
ing articles.
Copyright, 1920.)
(XIII by Mr.. Baker will appear in the edi-
torial section Of next Sundays Starr