JUDGE GARY
LEADIiR OF AMERICAN CAPITALISM
"BENEVOLENT DESPOTISM AT ITS BEST"
America is heading straight to-day for tho urcatest industrial conflict the world has ever seen (wrote l'. A. M'Kenzio from >iew York to the "Daiiy Mail" in October). . Tho man who made tho conflict inevitable was Judge Elbert Henry Gary. He is head of one of the greatest industrial ureanisations in tho world, the United States Steel Corporation, ile is in many respects an efficient administrator. lie represents benevolent despotism at its best. But American Labour to-dav has made up its mind that despotism. benevolent or otherwise, must cease. He is a farmer's con who liSs mnde his own ivav in life. He studied law at ChicaßO University, started at iC2 Ills, a. week, served for a tiipo as a county Judee, and afterwards bccame attorney for various steel corporations. Kext, the Judue came to New York at a salary of ii'2o.ooo a year as head of tho Federal Steel Corporation. When the United States Steel Trust was formed he manipulated the deals.
In his' cuioL office in 01, Broadway ho spends his days receiving visitors, presiding '.-ver committees, and "putting it. over" diverse interests. But lie will have nothing to'do with organised Labour. v , The United States Steel Corporation, with its industrial army of over a quarter of a million men, its own railway svstein. its own fleet of a hundred steamers. its own mines, and its vast industrial plants, has been the leader in tho refusal .to recognise trade unions or trade union methods. It has deliberately substituted a plan of' mutual co-operation between employers and men. It has established a system of co-partnership by encouraging employees to subscribe for shares on which special bonuses, are naid It spends £1,400,(100 n year on welfare work to improve the conditions and' tho health of the men employed by ' Last summer tlie American Fcderition of Labour- at its great convention at Atlantic Citv resolved to challenge the Steel Trust's position. The Federation of Labour has greatly risen in American public esteem during the last few years because of its sobriety, moderation, and statesmanlike conduct of affairs. Its organisers reported that in some steel towns their agents were not even allowed to hold nublic meetings. It was determined to bring the matter to an- issue "This is notice lo the autocrats of tho steel industry," tho Federation stated, "that their autofl-acy must removo itself from the face_ of tho fearth or be removed. As. political autocracy has cone, so must industrial autocracy tro. Steel in Amcrica must be democm tisod." , The American Federation sent a deputation to New York to interview Judge Garv 'The Judge refused even to see them. The steel kings and the financiers behind them believed that trade unionism had delivered itsolf into their hands. , , I discussed tho situation at tlio time vi<h many representatives of capital. They wolfed at the idea, of tho trouble being serious. "Only a small pvonoi--tion of the'men aro trade unionists, they said. "Tho Steel Corporation has dono so much for its people and. treated them so .well that thev will never go out at the order of any union. lne American Federation .will meet its "Waterloo." As one financier nut it to me: "There's got to, be'a ficht with Labour. The sooner the light conies the better. We'll have it right now. Thev admitted that there must be tro-iblo m the coal trade. That fa.yj w ; Street regarded as serious, but (lie steel striko would bo the biggest fiasco in history, So the employers thought. Ihey have boon wrong. ■ But it would bo a mistake to put nil tho blame of the present situation ni men of the type of Judge Gary. Labour, like Capital, is heady at the present moment. The working man in the United Slates has had such amazingly goocl times that he has lost Ins sense of perspective. Despite the increased cost of living, he is better paid then he has ever been before. He lives m a condition of greater comfort. Ho has more leisure aiid ho can save more. Ihe Now York mechanic accounts it aii average vpti when he makes ,£U. One has ceased to bo surprised at office hnvs earning 13 a week (which is .about Hie equivalent of M a week in England). The six-hour day or tho . thirty-hour week has already been talked about. Ihe fortv-hour week —that is eight hours a day" for live days a week for labouris now considered a reasonable programme. The men who are content with it are surprised at their own moderation. Labour demands recognition and authority. It refuses to recognise any inferiority. .Tudee Onry represents an extreme as dijnferous to American peace on. the <"ne hind as 1.W.W.-ism—industrial revolu-tionism-en the ether. 'We liavo yet to c ee Tvhether moderate and- sane men M-o John D. Rockefeller, Capital, and Samuel Gompers, for labour,, have influence enough to savo the situation. If not, we are face to face with a Avar so far-reaching that effects can only at present be imagined.
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Dominion, Volume 13, Issue 81, 31 December 1919, Page 8
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845JUDGE GARY Dominion, Volume 13, Issue 81, 31 December 1919, Page 8
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