January 8, 1904.] 



SCIENCE. 



55 



This general condemnation of the practice 

 makes it extremely difficult to determine 

 its extent, but no one doubts that in one 

 way or another it is a characteristic of 

 most unions. It can not, however, be said 

 to have originated with them. Whenever 

 two men work side by side, for an em- 

 ployer, there is a decided tendency to limit 

 the labor of both by the capacity of the 

 less skillful and energetic. As the number 

 of workmen increases the tendency in this 

 direction is inevitably strengthened, and 

 while there may be some increase, through 

 example ajid emulation, in the labor of 

 those who would do the least if working 

 alone, the net result is always expressed 

 in an average that is much nearer the ca- 

 pacity of the least capable than that of the 

 most efficient. All this will happen in any 

 establishment without the aid of a labor 

 union. "What, then, is the consequence, 

 in this connection, of organization? 

 Usually its first effect is that the restric- 

 tion which was formerly tacit and some- 

 what irregularly enforced is reduced to a 

 set of definite regulations that are syste- 

 matically enforced. It may not become 

 greater in amount, although it is not un- 

 likely that it will. There is some evidence, 

 however, that the improved economic per- 

 ception on the part of labor leaders is 

 causing the older organizations to abandon 

 their efforts in this direction. Yet the re- 

 cent growth of the unions in numbers and 

 power, and the reluctance of employers to 

 resist their aggression in this particular, 

 during a period of such tremendous gen- 

 eral prosperity that nearly every produc- 

 tive establishment was taxed to its utmost 

 capacity, have unoubtedly led to an exten- 

 sion of the practice of restriction which 

 must be checked. The unit of production 

 per employee per hour has suffered a very 

 considerable decrease in almost all Amer- 

 ican industries during the last six or seven 

 years, and this diminution of effectiveness 



has placed a more severe burden upon in- 

 dustry than the enhanced wages by which 

 it has been accompanied. The record of the 

 United Mine "Workers in the Anthracite 

 region is probably an extreme one, but it 

 can be more advantageously studied than 

 any other on account of the elaborate 

 investigation prosecuted last year. The 

 testimony taken by the Strike Commission 

 contained instances of probably every con- 

 ceivable method by which the output of a 

 body of workmen can be kept down to the 

 level fixed by the least able and indus- 

 trious. Those who dared to rebel against 

 rules restricting their earnings were sub- 

 jected to the ill-will and the systematic 

 oppression of their less intelligent and en- 

 ergetic comrades, until they either became 

 less efficient or were driven from the mines. 

 It is necessary to be patient with folly that 

 springs from ignorance, but there is little 

 excuse for leaders who, knowing the. truth, 

 do not use all their tremendous influence 

 to spread an intelligent understanding of 

 the simple economic principles which 

 would at once destroy this most vicious of 

 self-limiting practices. 



STEIKES. 



That recourse to the strike should ever 

 be necessary is wholly deplorable, but the 

 condition of men whom the laws deprived 

 of the use this industrial weapon of last 

 resort would be indeed pitiable. Freemen 

 must have the right to work and the right 

 not to work, and they may not be impelled 

 to choose the former by any command 

 more imperative than that springing from 

 their own desire to enjoy the fruits of ex- 

 ertion. The whole fabric of industry and 

 commerce rests on bargains toward which 

 there is no compulsion stronger than this. 

 Between the buyer and seller of commod- 

 ities there are successive offers and coun- 

 ter-offers until a point acceptable to both, 

 but less satisfactory to either than his orig- 



