552 INDUSTRIAL INSTITUTIONS. 



it is tolerably certain that employers are now prevented 

 from doing unfair things which they would else do. Con 

 scious that trade-unions are ever ready to act, they are more 

 prompt to raise wages when trade is nourishing than they 

 would otherwise b.e; and when there come times of depres 

 sion, they lower wages only when they cannot otherwi.se 

 carry on their businesses. 



Knowing the power which unions can exert, masters are 

 led to treat the individual members of them with more 

 respect than they would otherwise do: the status of the 

 workman is almost necessarily raised. Moreover, having a 

 strong motive for keeping on good terms with the union, a 

 master is more likely than he would else be to study the 

 general convenience of his men, and to carry on his works in 

 ways conducive to their health. There is an ultimate gain 

 in moral and physical treatment if there is no ultimate gain 

 in wages. 



Then in the third place must be named the discipline 

 given by trade-union organization and action. Considered 

 under its chief aspect, the progress of social life at large is a 

 progress in fitness for living and working together; and all 

 minor societies of men formed within a major society a 

 nation subject their members to sets of incentives and 

 restraints which increase their fitness. The induced habits 

 of feeling and thought tend to make men more available 

 than they would else be, for such higher forms of social 

 organization as will probably hereafter arise. 



