AMERICA'S INDUSTRIAL PROBLEMS.

Pukekohe & Waiuku Times, Volume 6, Issue 288, 29 June 1917, Page 4 (Supplement)

AMERICA'S INDUSTRIAL PROBLEMS.

in a work entitled "The History and Problems of Organised Labour in the United States," Mr. Frank Tracey Carlton, Professor of Economics, sets out to "pree=nt briefly the important facts in the history of organised labour in til© United States, to anahse the chief problems which directly or indirectly affect the Labour organisations of the present decade, and to evaluate the functions of organised Labour in the industrial and political world." The writer exposes the opinion that two social forces have, welded wage-earners into the stable and aggressive unions of to-day. These are: " (1) The separation of workers from the means nf production, and (2) the extraordinary increase in the powers of production duo to the use of natural forces aDd machinery." The value of the product is divided by the writer into different funds, including wages, rent, interest, profits, and replacement. Labour organisation is designed to increase as much as possible the fraction which makes up wages. The limit of this 13 reached when the employer pays tho equivalent of the increased productivity of plant due to the employees' efforts. Hut lie points out that unwise action on tho part of the emp'oycrs tends to lower this upper limit. Frequent resort to strikes, undue restriction of output, successful resistance to the introduction of machinery or new processes of performing work, and opposition to the training of apprentices, will sooner or later lower the uppe.r wage limit or retard its upward movement. As an example of the varying interpretations put upon propositions which industrial oontroversies have made familiar, Mr. Carlton quotes the favourite phrase of industrial organisations: "Labour is entitled to all that it produces." Disagreement immediately arises as to the meaning of the word " produce." To iho wage-oarner production is chiefly a process of manual labour and physical force, whilst the employer regards managerial ability and business foresight as tho most important factors. The worker, whose knowledge of finance confists in receiving his pay, and paying tradesmen, cannot he expected to possess us high a regard for tli3 inviolabilty of a contract as the business man whose" success depends upon the genelal recognition of the sacredness cf ' contract and of property rights. Very interesting chapters on the colonial and revolutionary period, down to the present day. convey an explanation why industrial agitation in the United States has not, as in British communities, sought to employ the legislative machine for the attainment of its ends. In an "ephemeral Labour party" appeared in New York, but in 1831 tho "entire organisation disappearsd in the air." With the triumph of Jackson over the United States banks camo a flood of paper money, and with this inflation of currency "prices went -ip by leaps and bounds, but wages lagged behind.'' Tiie wage-earners were caught like rats in a trap; the rise of prices was so rapid that escape was impracticable. Organisation and strikes were the only available remedies. These were not settled when the panic cf 1*37 stopped everything, and the trades r.nons "disappeared when ths wageearners' employment ceased." Descriptions of the various labour organisations include a short history of the Industrial Workers of the World, irhich indicates the difference between that body and the Labour Federation. Tho Federation of Labour, like the British trade unions, "accepts the present industrial order, and is trying to obtain good wage bargains from tin employers'"; the Industrial Workers of the World demand the aWition cf the wages system and the elimination of the employer. To secure this they s. t out to "construct a union by means of which tho workers v.iil be able simultaneously to cease working in one, Fcve. ral, or even all industries." In 1910 the secretary-treasurer stated that the paid-up membership of this union was 5.863. Deal'ng generally with the methods and government of trades unionism, Mr Carlton points out that the policy is purely opportunist. Immediate results "here and now," results which benefit the' little group immediately concerned, arc desired, rather than indefinite and postponed benefits in which workers generally might participate. The average trades unionist may have many high ideals, but tho immediate bread-and-butter logic turns the balance when a concrete situation confronts him. The structures of unions to-day are the products of selfish groups that do not look far into the future; but, while recognising this fact, Mr. Carlton does not overlook existing evils on the employers' side, nor attempt to justify the rapacity of trusts and combines, which have forced American working men into action.