Wood County reporter. [volume] (Grand Rapids [i.e. Wisconsin Rapids], Wis.) 1857-1923, 1922-03-16

vision has officlated IN nearly 5000
industrial disputes brought to the gov
eminent for settlement. He holds that
man and manager can be friends and
in complete sympathy if they will take
the trouble to consider the problems
of one another around the council
board.
The question of the relationship be-
tween the employer and employee is
nothing more or less than the ques-
tions of mans relationship to man,
and as far back as history records the
worker and the man for whom he
works have been troubled in arriving
at a solution of this greatest of all
economic problems.
In the early days Of our Republic,
when industry was in formative
stage and the population for the most
part located within confines of what
is now but small portion of our pres
ent domain, labor troubles were few
and far between, the reason being
| that our industrial enterprises in
those days consisted all together of
small shops or factories under the
personal supervision and management
of the owner. On the other hand me-
chanics employed at these establish
ments were generally workers skilled
in their trade or calling and able to
perform all or any part of the work
| in the building of whatsoever the
plant turned out. From the tree in
the woods on through the various
stages until the wood in the tree came
out through the doors of the little
shop or factory in the form of wag
on, every man who had to do with its
manufacture had contributed his part
in the making Of every part of the
wagon, and the essential thing-the
fine spirit that existed between the
employer and employee grew out of
the fact that the owner of the plant
worked side by side with his workers,
knew all of his people, and thereby
contributed that personal touch which
in later years has been lost to Ameri-
can industry. AS our population in
creased with it's increasing demand
| for the output from mill and factory,
| both for the use of our own people
and for export trade, these industries
grew-slowly at first, it is true-but
| in later years with a rapidity which
made necessary a complete revolution
lin their conduct and management.
With the American inventive genius
continuously at work perfecting ma
chimes to simplify and increase the
output in all branches of industry,
there came the specialist-the worker
who is now forced, for reasons of in
creased production, to confine his Ia
Dor to making a particular part OF the
wagon or other product of the plant
until the finished article in later
! years is the combined effort of scores
of workers, each making the small
parts, perhaps in plants situated many
miles apart, these units being brought
together and assembled into the COM
Ipleted product.
The Personal Touch
The personal touch which contrlbut-
| ed towards the fine feeling between
/ the worker and his employer IS no
longer possible. Great manufacturing
/ plants with thousands of workers,
with managers, superintendent, and
] foremen, have destroyed the spirit of
association which obtained in the past.
Associations Of manufacturers and
trade unions, increasing as the years
go on, present new problems to be
solved, such as wages, hours Of ser
Vice, output, and many others too nu-
merous to mention.
Many of the present day employers
object to and will not deal with labor
unions; others recognize and deal
with trade unions, while still others,
though having no direct dealings with
unionized workers, yet have no OBJ
iections to their workers afiliating
with such unions. All sorts of condi-
ltions are met with in the conduct,
from managerial standpoint, of our
great business enterprises-many and
Icomplex are the agreements in ex-
listence between the workers and the
employers. Agreements in modern in
ldustry in America are generally for a
Istated period. Contractual relations