acting on the same principle as the trade unions. It is true that trade unions may be antagonistic to certain individual associations of employers on account of their expressed or covert hostility, but it is merely because of this hostility and not because of the organization or mutual insurance itself, that the unions feel resentment. Anything which aims to make employers act harmoniously in labor matters and to assume moral or even financial responsibility for each other's action, is a step in the direction of a final settiement of the labor problem. I do not believe, however, that a general association of all employers is any more practicable than a general association of all workingmen. On the contrary, I believe that the most effective organizations of either employers or employees are those which limit their membership to a given trade or industry; and I do not regard general insurance of employers against strikes as any more practicable than general insurance of workmen against lockouts or reductions in wages.

In the case of employers, organization will have the same tendency to widen and strengthen moral responsibility as it has had among workmen. It frequently happens in a strike that some of the employers struck against are men who have always treated their employees fairly and for whom their work people entertain the highest feelings of regard and affection. This is unfortunate, but in many cases inevitable. The position of the employer who thus suffers for the transgressions or omissions of his fellow-employers, is identical with that of the workman who may be locked out on account of the actions of other workmen over whom he has no direct control. In many cases a strike or a lockout to be effective must involve the whole industry. The good employer who suffers thereby cannot secure relief because of his having treated his workmen fairly, but is held responsible by the course of cvents for the actions of other employers. In industry, as in life generally, it does not suffice that a man keep his own skirts clean. The tendency of such strikes, however, is to create among employers a recognition of the necessity of united action and a feeling on their part of solidarity and of responsibility for one another, as well as a determination upon the part of

good employers that their fellow-employers shall maintain the same fair conditions that they themselves maintain. In the agreements between the bituminous coal miners and operators, every effort is made by employers to raise the standard of fellow-employers and by employees to raise the standard of fellow-employees. The trade union and the association of employers, the representatives of organized labor and organized capital, acting together in a trade agreement, thus work for a higher and broader justice than could be attained by a series of independent and separate contracts between individual employers and individual workmen.

The attitude of organized workingmen should not be, and as a rule is not, hostile to the organization of employers. True, rare instances occur of trade unions, generally in the hey-day of their youth and inexperience, assuming a superior attitude, refusing to have anything to do with associations of employers, and insisting upon treating with their employers “as individuals." Nothing could be more subversive of union ideals, nothing more contrary to union traditions. Workingmen in asserting their right to combine are obliged, by the logic of their own demands, to concede an equal right to employers. The associations of employers have resulted from the formation of unions of workmen, and each organization should be of benefit to the other. Harmony in the industrial world will be best obtained by the creation and strengthening of labor unions and employers' associations, and by the inculcation of a permanently friendly feeling between organized labor and organized capital.

One of the most potent influences in establishing amicable relations. between organized labor and organized capital has been the National Civic Federation. This Federation, composed of the leading public-spirited citizens of the country, has, through its industrial branch, attempted with much success to create friendly relations between employer and employee. The Federation has upon its various committees members representing the employers, the workmen, and the general public, so that the interests of all are conserved and the interests of none, sacrificed. The Federation has

been eminently successful in a number of attempts to create better feeling and to avert strikes, and as long as it pursues its present policy, it will undoubtedly continue to deserve and receive the hearty support of the community.

Of late certain sections of the public have scented danger in the possibility of this friendly feeling leading up to an offensive coalition of organized labor and organized capital against the general public. If, it is claimed, the unions agree to work for no other than employers organized into associations, and if these employers agree to hire none but union men, the inevitable result will be that non-union men and independent employers will be crushed out. As a consequence, competition, which is the life of trade, will cease to exist, and a reign of extortionate prices and unreasonable charges will be inaugurated. It is claimed that such coalitions already exist and that by means of combinations between furnishers of raw material, manufacturers of the finished product, and organizations of workmen, the public is forced to pay higher prices than are reasonable or just.

Notwithstanding these fears, combinations of labor and of capital are not fraught with danger to the public. There may occasionally arise coalitions which temporarily extort undue and unusual profits, but such a policy cannot be permanently successful. The mutual recognition of the employers' and employees' associations and the agreement by these associations not to employ or be employed by any except members, are not dangerous, but are actually beneficial as long as both the union and the employers' association keep their doors open to the admission of new members. In the coal industry any man who has a mine may open it and may join the coal operators' association, and any man who wishes to become a miner may join the organization and obtain employment. Where a different policy is pursued it will sooner or later be broken down. If employers cannot enter the associations on fair and equal terms, and if workmen cannot get into the unions under reasonable conditions, the result will be a building up of new associations of non-association employers, operating

with non-union men, who will be able to compete upon equal terms with the closed corporations employing union labor.

I do not believe, however, that this policy of extortion will be tried upon any large scale. While, to further their own ends, officials of the union may consent to a plan of this sort, the great body of union members will not willingly lend themselves to a clique of employers, and any attempt to create and perpetuate a monopoly of this sort will be quickly frustrated.

It is my firm conviction and, what is more important, it is the conviction of a great majority of the workmen of this country, that no such coalition of organized labor and organized capital can or will permanently exploit the public. The ideal of trade unionism, however, will be attained when a strong organization, supplied with an ample reserve fund and embracing every workman in the trade, will find itself face to face with an equally strong association of employers embracing every employer in the trade. The two will then meet upon the basis of absolute equality. The result of such a state of affairs, which we are now rapidly approaching, will be that without incorporation, whether of the trade union or the association of employers, the agreements arrived at will be kept inviolate; and thus strikes and lockouts, with their attendant sufferings and losses, will be reduced to a minimum, and peace and prosperity firmly established in American industry.

CHAPTER XXIII

THE UNION AND THE TRUST

The Growth of Trusts. Their Origin and Nature. Industrial Combinations. Trusts and Public Opinion. Trusts from the Standpoint of the Consumer, the Investor, and the Workingman. The Trust and the Cost of Production. Trusts and Workmen. Trust Prices and the Cost of Living to the Poor. Trusts and Wages. Trusts and the Organization of Labor. The Phantom of a "Labor Trust." Are Trade Unions Monopolies? The Anti-Trust Law. Trusts and Publicity.

THE

'HE most striking feature of present day industry is the trust. During recent years there has been a sudden, rapid growth of industrial combinations upon a scale wholly unprecedented and hitherto unimagined. These gigantic corporations, with capital stock aggregating, in some cases, hundreds of millions or even a billion of dollars, have completely transformed and revolutionized industrial conditions. The competition of former times has given way to combination, consolidation, and "community of interest," and for good or for evil, the old order has changed, giving place to the new.

This rapid development of gigantic corporations, controlling a large proportion of the output of industry, has given rise to the wildest fears and the most sanguine hopes. Upon the one hand, there are regrets for the passing of a former period of competition and fears of what the new era may bring forth. The trusts are assailed because of their largeness and their power. It is alleged against them that they adopt secret and unscrupulous methods, that they secure rebates, mercilessly crush out rivals, deprive thousands of their livelihood, indulge in wild-cat financiering, charge extortionate prices, defraud and mulct investors, corrupt legislatures, and in every way imperil the rights and liberties of the American people. On the other hand, there is unbounded hope and unlimited confidence in the new combin