Browning chief. [volume] (Browning, Mont.) 1941-1953, 1948-08-27


~ ~ 50 so hours a week,
2&$3@e with from to 10
hours of overtime,
for which workers
'''' received no pay.
Cylinder presses were fed by wom-
en-. Their pay was $3.50 week sub
Ject to deductions for failure to put
a prescribed minimum number of
sheets through press. There was
no printing trades union in the city.
Such were conditions, 81 years ago,
that provided nourishment on which
organized labor grew and thrived.
Labor was a commodity.
1904 Chicago newspaper
1O// syndicate, where
was an editor, employed union
stereotypers. A union committee
called on the management asking
for more pay and a reduction in
working hours from 48 to "A per
week. To that committee the COM
pany manager said: Because I
eat beefsteak each day you fellows
think you should have beefsteak.
You should, and must, be satisfied
with stews." Management insisted
on making a marked distinction be-
tween management and worker.
The worker was selling his time, as
a commodity, at the best price he
could get.
SlZ-of union stereotypers
and electrotypers, held at Atlanta,
Ca, demanded increased wages
and a working week of 40 hours. I
asked the president of that union
organization if they realized they
were putting the price of their prod
uct so high that it would not be
possible for industry to use it.
"What we want" replied that
president, "is not SO much more
pay and less work, but some
thing we do not know how to
Understandings express. We
want a recognized place in in
dustry; partnership in the
business of productions; not to
be considered as merely COM
modify"
| Management would not then, or
does it now, consider the possibility
of recognizing such demand.
1910 On my return from
I/l' Europe during the
final months of World War I, Chi
cago employer called to ask about
conditions and especially industrial
labor in England. l explained the
attitude of English labor and it's
demands. Labor should be given
nothing" he said. Labor has no
brains. If l should turn my business
over to my employees in six months
there would be nothing left"
Possibly true" l replied, "but
if tomorrow you had no labor to
man your plants and should get
none, it would take six minutes, not
six months, for your business to
die" Management could not see a
| light nor the handwriting on the
wall. Labor was but a commodity
to be purchased at the lowest pos
sible cost.
1Q27- In conversation in
l|O/ Minneapolis with the
president of large national indus
try I was expressing concern over
the increasing sentiment for social
ism and communism, and the need
for American business to present
an Understandable defense for the
good of the nation.
"What management must
do" said that executive, "is
to think of the workers it en-
ploys as human beings who are
entitled to recognition as hu-
Los
passed a CHEEKY good morning {.
and smile TO the janitor of
our Offices, and it pleased him."
That statement marked begin
hing of labor's recognition as some
thing more than a commodity, but
the time, if it ever existed, that
CHEEKY greetings and smiles would
satisfy the demands of labor for
recognition has passed.
It is the job of capital and man.
agement, and especially manage
ment, working collectively, to find
a solution to the problem. Capital
recognizes management as a part
ner in industry, merchandising and
transportation. Two other partners
are knocking at the door. One is
labor and the other is consumers.
Labor is not willing to continue as
commodity.
A FEW YEARS AGO, when in
come taxes were comparatively
mail item, congress in magnani-
NOUS gesture, voted all govern
ment employees, including them
selves, into the tax paying lists.
When income taxes grew into a
staggering sum congressman want
ed as much take home pay" as
they previously had enjoyed. To
get it, representative and senators
raised their salaries. Like the con-
sressmen, workers demand the
same "take home pay" but many
must live on fixed incomes.