464 THE POPULAR SCIENCE MONTHLY 



penalty in case of disaster. No one may complain against this; it is 

 absolutely just. But at once the question arises, who is the employer ? 

 The prevailing impression is that those who pay the wages are the em- 

 ployers and compensation laws accord with that belief. The conception 

 was correct enough fifty years ago, but in most industries it is very far 

 from correct now. 



In what may be termed unionized industries, the wage-payer is an 

 employer in only a very limited sense. The trade union is the employer, 

 the only employer. The chief strife between capital and the unions con- 

 cerns this one matter. The many recent strikes in non-unionized indus- 

 tries were not to secure higher wages or shorter hours, but to secure 

 recognition of the unions. Betterment of the workmen's conditions was 

 always mentioned, but that was a secondary matter. The result of such 

 recognition has always been transfer of control from the wage-payer to 

 the union officials. The owners of industrial concerns assume all risks 

 while others control the workers and the methods. Eailroads are de- 

 nounced in congress, in legislatures and in the press because they invite 

 disaster by retaining incompetent servants. Mining and manufac- 

 turing companies receive similar treatment. Yet nothing could be 

 more unreasonable. Commercial enterprises are undertaken to secure 

 a fair return on the investment and competition is so severe that the 

 margin of profit is narrow. Owners and managers have no desire to 

 invite disaster and to reduce dividends ; but they are helpless in union- 

 ized industries. The unions permit employment of only their own 

 members; they determine the rate of wages, the hours of work, the 

 manner of working and, in some cases, even the materials to be used. 

 They demand oversight of discipline and the right to decide whether 

 or not an employee should be dismissed. A superintendent, determined 

 that men must give honest service for the wages received, is denounced 

 as tyrannical and his removal is called for with a strike as the penalty 

 for refusal. In all essential matters, the trade union is the employer, 

 with power to stop work or to begin it again. It regards itself as actual 

 owner of the property and the owner of record is to be tolerated only so 

 long as he obeys the rules. It justifies seizure of the property during a 

 strike; it justifies violence, destruction of property, assassination and 

 resistance to officers of the law in case its demands are refused; it de- 

 nounces as murderers the men who defend their property against an 

 attacking mob ; and it proclaims that its crimes are political, not moral, 

 because the strife is a warfare for human rights. 



Labor unions should be incorporated that they may be made respon- 

 sible as the real employers, as dealers in human labor. Under existing 

 conditions, agreements can be enforced against the wage-payers, but not 

 against unions. When the law has recognized that the union is the 

 employer, disasters on railroads, in factories and in mines will be re- 

 duced to the minimum. Reckless engineers, careless switchmen and 



