Januaey 8, 1904.] 



SCIENCE. 



49 



mination of the rival at whatevei' cost to 

 the survivor. Such competition is crude 

 in its methods; it is destructive in its con- 

 sequences, and it is not, to-day, a means of 

 attaining the highest degree of economic 

 efficiency. Both capital and labor are 

 amply justified in uniting to mitigate this 

 kind of competition. It is to be observed, 

 m. passing, that the capitalistic combina- 

 tion, when fully justifiable, is the means of 

 economies in operation and management 

 which lower the cost of production, and in 

 the face of actual or potential competition 

 are always finally expressed in reduced 

 prices. The labor combination has so far 

 almost always lacked this justification, and 

 the leaders must systematically seek it or 

 their organizations mu.st continue to find 

 their entire economic basis in the mitiga- 

 tion of the evils of unrestrained and de- 

 stuctive competition. 



THE employers' SIDE. 



Enlightened employers do not expect or 

 desire to obtain profits by securing the 

 greatest aggregate of labor, measured in 

 hours or effort, at the lowest cost. The 

 American manufacturer has seen the 

 greatest productive efSciency coincide with 

 the highest wages, and he knows that the 

 countries where workmen receive the low- 

 est real wages are unable to compete in the 

 markets of the world with those whose 

 labor is better paid. He is able to estimate 

 somewhat accurately the superiority of 

 intelligent, well-fed, well-clothed, well- 

 housed and contented workmen over those 

 who do not enjoy similar advantages. He 

 knows that every machine in his factory 

 works better in the hands of those whose 

 standard of living requires a high degree 

 of comfort. Yet in the economic philos- 

 ophy of American employers there is no 

 place, and there should be none, for gra- 

 tuities. High M'ages, liberal wages, are 

 preferred not from any impulse of gener- 



osity, which would be out of place and 

 destructive of its own purposes, but be- 

 cause, dollar for dollar, the return from 

 high wages exceeds that from low wages. 

 When this is not the case, it means that 

 the point of over-payment has been 

 reached. The excess of the wages received 

 by the overpaid group, in such an instance, 

 over the normal amount, is a burden which 

 must be borne by the other indiistries and 

 the other workmen of the same community. 

 Each workman must give in labor a fair 

 equivalent for what he receives in wages, 

 or some other workman will receive less 

 than he gives. The employer who, for the 

 sake of continvied peace during a period 

 of high profits or for any other reason, 

 aids in establishing such a condition, 

 strikes a blow at industrial welfare which 

 in the end will fall most severely upon the 

 wage earners. It is not claimed that the 

 practices of individual employers invar- 

 iably attain to these standards. NarroAV 

 selfishness and unenlightened greed sway 

 their proportions of the members of every 

 industry and every grade in every indus- 

 try. Employers have dealt grudgingly 

 and even cruelly with workmen in far too 

 many instances and always to their own 

 injury. Yet the conditions which make 

 for fair dealing are so compelling, even if 

 we omit the paramount condition created 

 by the force of piiblie sentiment, and they 

 are so easily read, that it is not too much 

 to say that, in the main, American employ- 

 ers desire to deal fairly, and do deal fairly 

 with the men whose names are upon their 

 pay-rolls. 



HOW IT LOOKS TO UNIONISTS. 



The economic philosophy of general ac- 

 ceptance among the members of labor or- 

 ganizations is not so easily grasped. In- 

 deed, there is reason to believe that, except 

 for a few generalizations of the broadest 

 character, there is no economic creed to 



