MICHIGAN ACADEMY OF SCIENCE. 21 



2. Welfare work and profit sharing are highly paternalistic and are 

 viewed with suspicion by the rank and file of industrial workers. The 

 workers' point of view is neglected in nearly all plans for welfare work or 

 for profit sharing. 



3. A recent and promising step has been taken by certain managers of 

 industrial plants. It is an attempt to introduce individuality into industry, to 

 treat the worker as a self-respecting man capable of taking some responsibility 

 upon his own shoulders. "It is our plan," writes Mr. R. B. Wolfe, "to increase 

 his (the workers) responsibility, and we feel that it is our duty to teach him 

 to exercise reasoning power and intelligence to its fullest extent." A definite 

 attempt is made to enlist the creative spark which is the inheritance of all 

 men, in increasing productivity. The desire to do good work which all men 

 possess is appealed to. The personal touch between management and men is 

 introduced. Bonus schemes and premium plans are little used as incentives. 

 This plan is a long step in the right direction. The greatest weakness in it as 

 an adequate solution of the labor problem is disclosed by pointing out that no 

 provision is apparently made for control by the workers. It is not necessarily 

 a step toward industrial democracy ; but it does give some recognition to the 

 psychology of workers. 



4. We are, however, witnessing some of the first steps toward industrial 

 democracy. The joint responsibility of management and employees for the 

 quantity and quality of output is being recognized by the new style of scientific 

 management. William Filene's Sons' Company of Boston give their employees 

 organized into the Filene Cooperative Association a voice in managing the 

 business and in shaping the policies of the company. Up to date this company 

 has found its employees to be reasonable and conservative. In January, 1919, 

 the daily press reported that an ice company in Detroit had given a council 

 composed of representatives of its employees a voice in determining the poli- 

 cies of this company. Under war conditions both the Fuel Administration of 

 the federal government and the National Coal Association of coal mine 

 operators favored a long step toward democracy in industrial control in the 

 coal mines. "In each mine we are now appointing a committee of six persons. 

 Three of them represent the management. The other three are chosen from 

 among the rank-and-file employees. In unionized districts these three represen- 

 tatives of the employees will be chosen by action of the union. And for what 

 purpose? Not to discuss wages and profits. Other committees will deal with 

 the division of the spoils of production. These committees are to deal with 

 production itself, with its technique. We shall have union oflicials charged 

 with a responsibility for getting out more coal. We shall have rank-and-file 

 employees, at the end of each day, apportioning the blame for inadequate out- 

 put, part of it to such and such failures by the working force, part of it to 



