The labor world. [volume] (Duluth, Minn.) 1896-current, 1922-01-28
CHURChMAN HOLD S DEM0CRACYIN
INDUSTRY IS next STEP T0TAkE
BY w. u. KING.

industrial democracy Is an uncX
plored field. We have had variou:
experiments in political and eccles'
iastical democracy, but we have NJ
past precedents to go by in work
ing out on large scale industrial
democracy.
Moreover, the difficulties have
been increasing by the theorizing Of
mere parlor philosophers. There Is
given a statement of some elements
Of industrial democracy which ap.
peal to our sense of fairness and
justice.
There should be a reasonable lin.
itatiOn of working hours. Every &C.
tivity of body or mind uses up some
physical tissues. which must be re-
moved from the body and replaced
by new tissues. In employlnents
where the labor is monotonous and
strenuous, the hours of labor should
be fewer than in the more pleasant
occupations.
Investigations have shown that
some steel workers have worked
twelve hours a day and seven days
in q week. In some instances, there
were twenty-four hours of continu-
Gus service when the change from
day to night work takes place.
Excessive toll results in fatigue
and the perils that accompany IA
tigue. 1t has been abundantly dem
onstrated that fatigue weakens both
physical resistance against disease
and moral resistance against vice.
1t has been proven by actual eX-
pertinent that men have produced
more products and better products
in fewer hours. There is likewise
the tendency at least to produce bet
ter men.
1t is claimed that the average life
of a stoker on an ocean liner is nine
years.
Democracy demands that labor
shall be so regulated as to lengthen
human life and not shorten it.
The women workers of 491 stores
which were investigated testified
THAT it took them so long to make
q living they had no time to make
a life" There arc some who live
without working and others who
work without living. Life to some
is (rudgery and bare subsistence.
When the granite cutters union
reduced the work day from eleven
hours to eight hours, instead Of an
economic loss, there was more and
better work.
The standard soy by the Federal
Council Of Churches in America is
1.-The gradual and reasonable reduc-
ton of hours of labor, and that de-
gree of leisure for all, which is a
condition Of the highest life"
II.
There must be regard for the con-
ditions in which labor is performed
These conditions should be safe
sanitary and comfortable. There
should be the utmost safeguard
against both tho ordinary and occu.
pational diseases.
Some misunderstanding conditions
have been endured with remarkable
patience by the laborers.
The death list Of American indus.
tries from accidents is $4,000 a year
many of which could be prevented
by safety devices.
III.
The worAmen should have some
share in the profits. Industry as it is
organized today is dependent both or
the capitalist and laborer, and upor
one fully as much as the other
When'the profits justify there should
be profit-sharing above wages Thi:
gives interest to the laborer in the
quality Of the finished products a:
well as the quantity. Mr.. George w
Perkins testified some months age
that the result Of profit sharing has
been to make the men interested ir
the industry.
The Federal commission on indus
trial relations divides the popula
ton into three sections:
First, the rich, with two per cen
Of the population, owns 60 per cen
of the wealth.
Second, the middle class, with 8;
per cent of the population owns 3;
per cent of the wealth.
Third, the poor constitute 65 pei
cent of the population, with 5 pei
cent of the wealth.
At the top of the social scale luxu
ry produces the same waste as pov
erty does at the bottom. disease, de-
generacy, and false standards O.
living.
1t is a case in which extreme
meet in similar forms of viciousnes
and De- avity.
Sociotv wh ic1 nrn6rooe +Loe
extremes cannot be said to rest OF
a just basis
In all this there is no cheap appea
to class prejudice. There is Away
the rage Of envy on the part of tn
down and outs. The man who make
his money honestly and spends i
generously is worth more than al
his envious detractors
But the industrial autocrat pro
duces the Bolshevist, the I. w. w
and the selfish profiteer.
Anything is beer than the re,
flag, but the only way to avoid it i
to place business on just basis
Chaplain Tiplady makes the peril
nent statement, "Bolshevism is ram
pant in the world today, and can
not be destroyed by repression. I
, must be stamped out by the appli
cation Of Christianity to bushes
and industry. The church must de
eide whether the social wrongs O
the present age are to be dealt wit
by religion or revolution"
There should be given to labo
some part in tho management O
the enterprise.