TRADE UNIONISM 53 



good things, but to the methods of bestowing these good things. Many 

 thoughtful employers, having been beset by labor difficulties, have con- 

 cluded to make conditions of work pleasanter, in the hope of banishing 

 dissatisfaction. The plan has been successful in some cases. Sometimes 

 these employers are poor psychologists, inasmuch as they fail to under- 

 stand why blissful content does not follow on the heels of some gift. 

 The young women asked, perhaps, for higher wages, and were given 

 rest rooms and free lunches. Why, forsooth, should they not be happy ? 

 Chiefly for the reason that a sop never satisfied anybody. However, 

 many who have grown to distrust union methods are looking with 

 hopeful eyes to employers' betterment schemes as the final solution of 

 labor difficulties. Capital and labor working together for mutual bene- 

 fit is undoubtedly the ideal condition. But they must really work 

 together if the most desirable results are to be obtained. 



Having before us the main features of trade unionism and welfare 

 work, let us now discuss these two agencies. As was stated before, the 

 final test of the value of an institution is the type of citizen it produces. 

 When we seek to improve an individual, we have in view not only the 

 present comfort of that individual, but his future usefulness to society. 

 We feed a hungry boy, not only to keep him quiet and make him fat, 

 but to make him a man. So in all ameliorative work we must keep ever 

 before us the final purpose of it all. The work in itself is of value only 

 in so far as it helps to make better men and women of those whom we 

 would help. 



Our duty is toward society at large, and we can discharge it only by 

 helping to promote good citizenship. Now in order to be the best type 

 of individual one must have ever before him an ideal, and an instiution 

 which would elevate any class in society must present to that class a 

 definite ideal ; it must give it something for which it must strive, for I 

 am bound to believe that no individual or group will advance very far 

 without this inspiration. "Without a vision all the people perish." 

 Now if we accept this doctrine of social righteousness based on ideals, 

 let us see how far these two industrial betterment agencies under con- 

 sideration are in harmony with it. 



The trade unions in all their bickerings, and turmoil, and failures, 

 and successes, have never lost sight of their goal of better working and 

 living conditions. The union holds up to its members the ideal of class 

 betterment. They are stimulated to further endeavor by this. We must 

 therefore concede to the trade unions a place in our scheme of industrial 

 regeneration. The principle for which the union stands is sound. 



Let us now enquire into the social value of employer's undertakings. 

 Here we come to an entirely different situation. The employer is the 

 active force, the employee the passive agent at the outset, and if this 

 condition changes it is owing to the tact of the employer. Welfare work, 



