Twin city review. [volume] (Champaign, Ill.) 19??-1929, 1922-05-19

New York, May l7-Workers strike
/ primarily because they do not like C
| be bossed and they dislike TO be
bossed because experience has shown
/ that no man is wise enough to have
autocratic power over another man.
| So said Edward A. Filene, director OF
/ the International Chamber of Com
merce and Boston department store
owner, addressing the Economic Club
of New York.
Men strike" said Mr.. Filene, "be-
cause they are injured by real mis-
takes or because they believe them
selves TO be injured by the terms oil
their employment. In such strikes
they are often unsuccessful and the
grievances remain. For these reasons
they sometimes dwell upon the OBJ
jectionable features of their employ
ment until they become tense and
bitter. There grows up in consequence
distrust or hate of the whole pres
ent system. irresponsible leaders who
voice and trade on this discomfort
easily get following. There is also
reaction towards socialism or COM
munism which are presented as pana-
ceas for the ills that are complained
of.
81 am forced to the conclusion that
as men are constituted at present
socialism and communism are not
practical remedies.
Il am just as firmly convinced
that the present wage system is not
infallible or final, but is only step
ON the road from serfdom and slavery
to improved forms of just and effec-
tive cooperation that the experience
and wisdom of men will evolve from
generation to generation"
Extracts from Mr.. Filene's address
follow:
Four Fundamental Principles.
My study of industrial relations has
convinced me of four things:
l. That In a political democracy
such as ours the autocratic control of
industry by employers is fruitful
breeder of strikes and is in the long
run impractical;
2. That we often pay counterfeit
wages when we intend to pay real
wages, thus causing discomfort, con-
flict and strikes;
3. That the present so-called CAPT
talistic system has accumulated and
is still using, outgrown ideas and
customs that are needlessly offensive
to our employees, and that it needs
to be brought up to date;
4. That the basic remedy for the
evils of industrialisin and hence for
strikes lies in making business pre-
fession-that is, in realizing, in act
as we'll az IN thought, that business
has no right to make q profit except
as it serves the community.
1t al. comes to this, that autocratic
control whether by employer or en-
ployee, is bad-the one almost as
Objectionable as the other; and that
men are striking today as a protest
against autocratic control by capital,
and as the most effective way of ex-
pressing their demand for an ade-
quate voice in the conditions under
which they work. They are vita,ly
interested. They will continue to
strike until provision is made for
giving them adequate representation
in boards of directors or in those
shop committees, by whatever name
they may be called, in which employ
ers and employees work hand in hand
to advance both the business and the
legitimate interests of the human be-
ings who put their lives into it and
get their livelihood from it. This is
largely recognized by employers now
and the growth of these joint COM
mittees has for some years been
marked.
Counterfeit wages is term that
have nvented-whether good or bad
you must judge-to characterize this
inadequate wage that comes about
from some of the many causes that
reduce the purchasing power of
money. Counterfeit wages are any
wages however large they may be in
dollars that will not buy the necessi-
ties of life and enough luxuries to
make working for necessities de-
sirable thing and also to enable the
recipient to make modest but ade-
quate provision for sickness and old
age. Counterfeit money has no
value. Counterfeit wages have too
little value when measured against
the purposes which wages must
serve. 1t is not question of how
much a man receives but of what he
can buy for what he gets. Wages may
double, but if prices are more than
double then wages are counterfeit ~
the extent that prices have outrun
the increased wages.
The return for paying genuine
wages rather than counterfeit more
than makes up to the employer and
to society for the extra money ex-
penditure. The genuine wages tends
to provide happy, healthy, contented
and loyal employees.
If their wages are adequate to pro-
vide the necessities of life for their
families and allow also for recreation
and provision for illness and old age
they are increasingly freed from
worry and are thereby made more
efficient employees. If their wages
enable them to buy freely, the value
of the American market is main
| tanned, to the profit alike of the manu-
facturer, the farmer and of the work
man who makes and the merchant
who sells the product of the factory
mine and the farm. Best of all, il
will remove one of the most fertile
causes of strikes.
An important part of the RESPONSE
bility for the adequacy of wages must
be assumed by us employers. We are
sometimes little schooled in theories
of social welfare, have little magma
4 ton outside of our own immediate
/ field of business management and ale
prone to think of our duties in terms
of money, success or failure to the
exclusion of terms of human welfare.
1t is most often members of our own
employer class, also, who turn real
wages into counterfeit. This being
the case we cannot easily justify our
selves in taking a position of ire
sponsibility in the premises. The
responsibility for reducing the excess