Social legislation and social activity : $b being addresses delivered at the sixth annual meeting of the American academy of political and social science of PhiladelphiaAmerican Academy of Political and Social Science
History
Social legislation and social activity : $b being addresses delivered at the sixth annual meeting of the American academy of political and social science of Philadelphia
American Academy of Political and Social Science
Arbitration, Industrial; Child labor; Child labor -- United States; Factory laws and legislation -- United States; Housing -- United States; Juvenile courts; Labor -- United States
The Civic Federation is only two years old, and the Industrial Bureau of
the Civic Federation has been scarcely organized, but seven strikes have
already been settled in three months. It has prevented the occurrence of
two strikes which would have brought from the labor ranks more than two
hundred and fifty thousand people, and that has been accomplished, my
friends, by simply finding out to start with what the differences were,
and who were right and who wrong. When men get together with the
determination to treat each side of the question fairly, and when the
public feels that the men connected with this enterprise are thoroughly
acquainted with details, men of prominence in the country, well known
and well understood, and are men giving their time for the love of the
work and the good they may accomplish, the public realizes that it means
something.
In adjusting the relations of labor and capital, appeal must be made to
the sympathies of the people. Opportunities like this to-night must be
embraced to inform intelligent audiences of the character of the work to
be done and to give them an opportunity to contribute their mite and
influence to help the cause along. I know no city in the United States
where we can look for more aid and comfort than in this great industrial
centre of Philadelphia. Indeed, it was because of this that I was
induced to come here to-night and discuss this question of capital and
labor before people who in every day of their lives can put into
execution and effect the principles for which we are contending.
My experience has taught me, my friends, that the employer because of
his position has the most to do, and it must be expected that the
employers, at least in the beginning of this educational work, should go
more than half way. They provide work, and are responsible for the
conduct of business, and upon them rests the responsibility of seeing
that the men receive their share of its benefits. We must rise to a
higher level, where we can have a broader view of this question, where
we can tear ourselves away from the prejudices which have heretofore
stood between capital and labor.
I believe in organized labor, and I have for thirty years. I believe in
it because it is a demonstrated fact that where the concerns and
interests of labor are entrusted to able and honest leadership, it is
much easier for those who represent the employers to come into close
contact with the laborer, and, by dealing with fewer persons, to
accomplish results quicker and better.
The trusts have come to stay. Organized labor and organized capital are
but forward steps in the great industrial evolution that is taking
place. We would just as soon think of going back to primitive methods of
manufacturing as we would primitive methods of doing business, and it is
our duty, those of us who represent the employers, from this time on to
make up our minds that this question is one that must be heard.
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