ORGANIZATION OF MANUFACTURERS 277 



tions of authority over others, and by recognition not only in 

 money, but in position, which often counts quite as much as 

 coin, and not seldom much more with the ablest. There re- 

 mains still receiving the fixed wage the great mass of ordinary 

 workmen ; but we see in the history of the relation of employer 

 and employed that these have not failed to rise greatly also. 

 The movement tending to improve the position of the worker 

 has not passed over even the humblest, but has reached and 

 benefited all. 



To-day we have reached the stage of perfect equality be- 

 tween the two contracting parties. Each is free to demand 

 terms or to terminate agreements. Labor is worthy of its 

 hire and is now paid this in coin, the law in many lands going 

 so far as to make its claim a first charge upon the employer's 

 property — a great advance. But the irresistible pressure 

 which has forced change after change in the relations of capi- 

 tal and labor still operates unchecked — a sure indication that 

 the final stage has not yet been reached. We have evidence 

 of this in another important advance, the sliding scale, which 

 provides not a fixed wage but in some degree settles by re- 

 sults. Increased demands bring higher prices and profits to 

 the employer, which in turn bring workmen higher returns, 

 so that as the employer's profits rise and fall, so do the work- 

 man's rewards. If I were asked what was the best service 

 the Carnegie company were ever able to render the wage 

 earner, next to giving steady employment of wages equal to 

 any, I should answer, by persuading them to adopt the sliding 

 scale, with a minimum insuring living wages, at their works 

 at Braddock fourteen }^ears ago, which has given perfect 

 satisfaction from that day to this and is still in force, and has 

 produced undisturbed harmony between capital and labor. 

 The sliding scale is a great advance over the fixed wage, not 

 only by securing the workman a prompter and more certain 

 share of the profits, but also because it raises his status. He 

 is something akin to a proprietor when he shares varying 

 profits instead of having merely a fixed wage. He has risen 

 in the scale and is more of a man, and the more of a man the 

 better and more valuable the workman. 



