AMERICAN WORKERS

Evening Star, Issue 19660, 13 September 1927, Page 14

AMERICAN WORKERS

CO-OPERATiGH EXPERIMENT DECLINE OF ESPIONAGE SYSTEM. A secret service or spy system is ono of the methods used by certain employers’ organisations in the United States to combat trade unions. According to Mr H. B. Butloi, tho Deputy Director of the (uteniar.ional Labor Office, whoso report on _ ‘ Industrial Relations in the Uoiled States’ is now puffiislicd, Ibe use of espionage is said to bo now on the decline, though still* commonly practised. “Its effect upon the relations between employers and workers can scarcely have been beneficial,” says Mr Butler. In the ease of the National Founders’ Association, the department is called tho intelligence corjis. “ Through it the most cautious-agitator and troublemaker may ho quickly delected and removed, and thus strikes muv be prevented.” The United Matos Commission of Industrial Relations found a few years ago that m-aeucaily all the employers’ associations maintained a secret service department, and the United States Coal Oimmis.uouß found that tho use of the spy system was widespread. Regarding the activities of American trade unions, Mr Butler mentions the institution of Labor banks. Ono of tho first was founded in 1920 by tho Brotherhood of Locomotive Engineers, which now owns_ twelve hanks with an aggregate capital of over 4,000,000 dollars, and deposits exceeding 40,000,000 dollars.

Otlicr unions have since followed suit, and tho total resources of all tho labor banks now exceed 120,000,000 dollars. They conduct ordinary banking business on orthodox lines, though they make special efforts to meet the needs of their members. “Itis an experiment which deserves most careful study,” remarks Mr Butler, “ hut ono which has not yet gone far enough to permit any judgment as to its final results.”

A considerable improvement in tlio standard of livincr is reported by Mr Butler, who considers that wages wore on tho average worth about 30 per cent, more in 192.3 than before the war.

Ho considers that an annual income of 1,500 dolhus to 1,800 dollars is necessary in the cities and larger for a married man with three children, while an income of 1,100 dollars to 1,400 dollars represents the “ minimum of subsistence level,” consisting of necessary food and clothing and three rooms, or sometimes four. To reach these annual incomes average weekly earnings of from twentyeight to thirty-six dollars would be required in the first ease, and from twenty-ono to twenty-seven dollars in the second. On this basis the wage figures given by Mr Butler indicate that, if he obtains steady employment throughout fifty-two weeks, the skilled man can bo sure of a very fair standard of living, and in the higher-paid branches can attain to -a considerable degree of comfort and sufficient means to enable him to make adequate provision against sickness, old age, and unemployment. Moreover, in families where there is more than one wageearner—and they arc numerous owing to the extensive employment of women the family income will usually be such as to provide a fairly high standard of life.

Referring to recent experiments of 00-ope ration between employers and workers, Mr Butler says: “If the American pioneers can confirm and extend their success in bringing about real partnership between employers and workers, their example will ultimately spread to the whole mass, with the result that the United States will have secured a further guarantee of supreme importance for the maintenance of its material prosperity and for the progress of its social welfare. “ Any such consummation is not likely to be achieved in any very near future. Indeed, its achievement at nil is still entirely uncertain. But when every allowance is made for doubts and difficulties, tlio promise is sufficiently substantial to make it wise to follow its destiny, ft may be that the present experiments in the direction of a better industrial order will prove to be barren. If so, they are bound to be succeeded by others which will take account of the reasons for their failure, for the problem which they arc seeking to solve is one that cannot be shelved or shirked, if industrial civilisation is to be preserved and developed.”