The daily worker. [volume] (Chicago, Ill.) 1924-1958, 1927-03-21
Newer Defenses Of Capitalism in America"
The League for Industrial Democracy
BY WILLIAM F. DUNE.

THE League For Industrial Demo-
4 crazy held conference in June
of last year at Camp Tamiment on
Newer Defenses of Capitalism in
the United States
Nina Weisenberg, secretary of the
New York chapter, the largest in
the league, writing in Current His
tory for March, shows that the Lea
que For Industrial Democracy should
have included itself in the list of or
CARNATIONS coming under the head
of newer defenses of capitalism in
the United States. We assume of
course that the lady, as she signs
her article with her full title, is voic-
ing the official viewpoint of the or
ganization.
Under the caption of 'Labor's De-
tense Against Employers Welfare
Tactics" Weisenberg attempts to
show that worker-employer cooper
alton is a weapon of the labor move
ment. No proof is offered to sustain
this contention other than the bare
fact of its adoption by the trade
union leadership and the establish
ment of this system Of relationship
in various sections of industry.
WI EISENBERG looks upon such
w brazen examples of surrender
to the bosses as the B. and O. plan
and calls them good.
Listen to this lyrical description
of the worker-employer cooperation
paradise:
Numerous instances of these uni
ted efforts in behalf industry may
be found. Joint councils of represen-
tatives of unions and Of employers
associations have been organized.
These joint councils work on the ex-
cellent general principles of the I'M
desirability of strikes, the possibility
of the counciliation or arbitration of
all disputes, cooperation for better
craftmauhip, better local union lead
ership, better working conditions and
enlarged production" Emphasis
mne)
1t will strike an impartial observer
at once that the employers benefit
from this scheme at the rate of about
five to one and that euphemistic
phrases fail to get rid of the hard
truth that worker-employer cooper
alton, or "union-emrloyer" cooper
alton is bowling success only in
getting more work out of "the boys"
1t bangles before the eyes of the
workers such will-'o-the-wisps as
steadier employment, "share in any
gain or accrued prosperity that re-
suits from their cooperation" as
Weisenberg puts it, but no one has
proved yet nor will anyone be able
to prove that it strengthens the trade
union movement or the working class
as a whole.
A REPORT made by the officers
"A of the railway employees depart
ment to the Detroit convention of the
American Federation of Labor shows
concretely how the worker-employer
cooperationspolicy works the workers.
Out of 1867 cases handled by the
cooperative council" under the B.
and o. plan 304 dealt with shortage
of material or tools, 204 with repairs
or improvement to equipment, 129
with new equipment, SO with new
methods and devices, 81 better shop
layout, 10 better tools or material,
30 with poor grade or wrong kind
of materials and 207 with better
working conditions.
Assuming that the POT cases listed
actually did deal with better working
conditions lin this connection we
should remember that the advocates
of the plan are trying to convince
workers that it is of service to them
and would naturally be somewhat
liberal in establishing the number of
these cases. we still have the follow
ing proportion:
$3.50 cases for the employers against
20T for the workers.
THE system which produces such
L grotesque contrasts is described by
the secretary of the New YORK; chap
ter of the League for Industrial De-
mocracy as follows:
CAS- a final example of union-em-
ployer cooperation there is the splen-
did work of the Baltimore and Ohio
Railroad mote that Weisenberg, in
advertently probably, correctly calls
the plan the work of the Baltimore