Problems of Conduct: An Introductory Survey of EthicsDrake, Durant
Philosophy
Problems of Conduct: An Introductory Survey of Ethics
Drake, Durant
Ethics
(2) The inconvenience caused the public by strikes has often been very
great, especially where the coalmines or railways have been affected.
Only a few years ago a veritable tragedy was barely averted, when
President Roosevelt succeeded, after the most strenuous efforts, in
ending the general coal strike in the winter season. A strike of
locomotive engineers means obviously a great peril to the traveling
public.
(3) The antagonisms and class hatreds engendered by this sort of
industrial warfare do infinite moral harm, and retard heavily the
peaceful solution of the problems. The class organs always denounce
in bitterest terms the opposing class, and lawlessness always lurks
in the background.
(4) Apart from their conduct of strikes, the labor unions must answer
to many serious indictments. They have endeavored to restrict output,
in order to raise prices. They have sought to restrict the number of
apprentices in a trade, and have opposed trade schools, in order to
keep down the competition for positions. They have insisted on a
uniform wage without regard to efficiency. They have opposed scientific
management and the increase of efficiency in various industries, in
order to retain more workers therein. They have insisted upon the
retention of incompetent employees, thereby directly causing railway
accidents and other evils. They have often antagonized such other
ameliorative methods as profit sharing and government regulation, and
have rejected overtures from employers, because these-to quote from
a union pamphlet-"remove the scope and field of trade-unionism." They
have at times been run in the interests of selfish leaders and seemed
chiefly a moneymaking scheme of a few grafters.
There can be no question, on a dispassionate consideration, that the
militant methods of the trade unions are an unfortunate and temporary
expedient. The grievances which they have sought to remedy are very
real and very bitter; and perhaps, on the whole, the unions have done
more good than harm, and accomplished results that would not so soon
have been effected in any other way. But they have been rather
strikingly unsuccessful. After fifty years of propaganda, seventy per
cent of all industrial workers remain non-unionized; and there has
been a relative loss in their numbers during the past decade. They
have never succeeded in cornering the labor market, and there seems
to be no prospect of their succeeding. In all events, for a permanent
and thoroughgoing solution of labor troubles we must turn to some other
method.
II. PROFIT SHARING, COOPERATION, AND CONSUMERS' LEAGUES?
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