Fantasy fiction; Utopian fiction; Utopias -- Fiction
leisure time as best suited their tastes. If they were given a share
of the profits, they complained because it was so small a share, and
thought they were being cheated when the proprietors would not let
them inspect the books to see if the profits were not larger than
represented. Then as partners they claimed the right to be consulted
in the management of the business. Such demands brought on disputes, of
course; and the natural result was that strikes were not unknown even in
these humanitarian establishments. As the labor organizations were then
in full blast the better class of men were drawn into the strikes, which
sometimes became so serious that the owners were compelled to give up
their philanthropic efforts and go back to the old system of giving what
they were obliged to and getting what they could in return.
“In general, employers found they had still an unanswered problem on
their hands. An undue spirit of independence had been fostered among a
class of uneducated, ill-natured, and thick-headed workmen, and society
was rocked to its foundation in the effort to keep them within bounds.”
“Will you let me make another suggestion, Thorwald?” asked the doctor.
“Why did not all classes approach this difficulty in a businesslike way
and work together to remove it? Why did not the state see that the right
of private contract was a safe and useful one for all sides, and
cease to infringe on it by law? Why did not the public teachers make a
combined and continued effort to instill a conciliatory spirit into both
sides, and to show how peace and brotherly feeling would be a mutual
blessing? Why did not the employers--not one here and there, but all of
them--treat their men as they would like to be treated in their place,
make friends with them, talk reason even to unreasonable men, speak
kindly to the unfriendly ones, urge the value of sobriety upon the
intemperate, teach the incompetent, sympathize with the unfortunate, try
to reclaim the vicious instead of turning them off harshly, and in every
way strive to prove themselves to the men as beings of the same flesh
and blood with them? And why did not the workingmen receive what
was done for them with the right spirit--give up their envious and
suspicious feelings, improve every precious chance of getting knowledge,
work for their employers as they would for themselves, cease to use
the power of the unions unjustly, cultivate amicable relations with
everybody, and try in all possible ways to make true men of themselves?
If the men had worked along this line they would have found they were
bettering themselves in every way faster than they could by strikes and
conflicts.”
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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