256 W. R. LAWSON 



American employers are to-day fighting for independ- 

 ence — or, as they call it, "for the management of their own 

 business." It is the same fight that British employers had 

 to go through with the unions a few years ago, and from 

 which they emerged if not complete victors with at least a 

 moderate degree of success. They are now masters in their 

 own homes, which many American employers are not. In the 

 United States it is to be a harder battle than it was here, be- 

 cause on a larger scale and with a more doubtful prospect. 

 The stake is also much greater in the United States than in 

 our own case. It involves political as well as industrial mas- 

 tery. The fact of their having their workmen so well in 

 hand has been undoubtedly of great value to American em- 

 ployers, not only in the workshops but in other connections as 

 well. It made them good voters as well as good workmen. 

 But if they are going to break away in one capacity they may 

 do it also in the other. There may be an electoral revolt com- 

 bined with a labor revolt. In that case the reign of the boss 

 would be over. With "walking delegates" coming and going 

 all the time, and union rules drawn tighter every year, "boss- 

 ing" as hitherto practiced would soon become impossible. 



The change when it arrives will be bad for the masters, 

 and in many ways for the men themselves. It will destroy 

 the wonderful discipline and method which are the glory of 

 American industry and the secret of its exceptional results. 

 Neither the boss nor "Pinkerton's man" will have an easy 

 life in the teeth of an organized labor party sending their own 

 representatives to congress and having laws made for them- 

 selves instead of helping to make laws to suit their employers. 



