THE STRUGGLE FOR EQUALITY 57 



of many of the manifest evils of the times, and is, on the whole, a good 

 rather than a bad omen for society. 



I am, of course, aware that the working classes have no monopoly of 

 virtue. Their ranks have their full share of those whom Horace Greeley 

 described as "the conceited, the crotchety, the selfish, the headstrong, 

 the pugnacious, the unappreciated, the played-out, the idle and the 

 good-for-nothing generally." The position of the employer, conse- 

 quently, is not in a bed of roses. His best efforts are ofttimes miscon- 

 strued and rewarded with ingratitude. Harassed by walking delegates, 

 it is not strange that he sometimes concludes that his employees ought 

 to starve till they come to their senses. "Lay a silver dollar on the 

 shelf," an employer of railway labor once remarked, "and it will be 

 there when you come back. Lay a working man on the shelf and he will 

 starve. This is the solution of the labor problem." These words well 

 express the inability of labor to hold out in any contest with capital. 

 None the less, the majority of employers in their calmer moments do 

 not court a contest with their employees. In the first place, the contest 

 may be a protracted one and employers are not unmindful of their own 

 losses. In this age of organized sympathy, those on a strike are often 

 supported for weeks by contributions from those at work. In the second 

 place, there is a better solution of the labor problem. The more en- 

 lightened employers find it good business to manifest a disposition to 

 do the square thing, and to talk over the facts with their men fully and 

 frankly. Because a man is getting a living wage, or one well above what 

 he once got, is no reason for smothering his ambition for one still 

 higher. The suppression of ambition would be fatal to progress. There 

 can be no enduring peace between capital and labor save on the basis of 

 fair dealing by both parties. 



Attention is sometimes called to the fact that the working class, by 

 playing upon the fears of rival politicians, can extort legislation unduly 

 favorable to itself. Instances of such legislation undoubtedly occur and 

 they are a source of danger to the state. It is doubtful, however, 

 whether they are as common as the control of the state in the interests of 

 other classes, especially in the United States where social legislation lays 

 so far behind many European countries. It is true that social legislation 

 is piling heavy burdens upon the state. But it is a worthy object and it 

 is far less expensive than modern military establishments which it helps 

 to keep within bounds. Viewed simply as an investment, the cost of so- 

 cial legislation may more than justify itself. It is said that social insur- 

 ance in Germany has made the working classes more contented and effi- 

 cient and has contributed to the rapid industrial advance of the empire. 

 The world has never been unfamiliar with class rule. But the spectacle 

 of the working class using the state for the advancement of its own in- 

 terests is so modern that it strikes many minds as especially dangerous. 



