26G 
THIRTEENTH REPORT. 
their increased efficiency lias enabled them to produce something addi- 
tional. The results of such exploitation of human toil and its pos- 
sibilities are unlimited. What a man can do under the proper environ- 
ment cannot be estimated. And if the labor unions would set them- 
selves to the task of developing their members and cultivating the 
spirit of saving in them, no one can estimate the result. 
The first probably beneficial result would be the elimination of the 
wage earner, since by saving he would eliminate himself from the wage 
earning class in proportion as he saved. He would then become the em- 
ployer and the employee as he was before the Industrial Revolution; he 
would own industry. The labor problem as we know it now would then 
be solved, as no one would receive wages, all would receive profits and 
interest. All would receive profits, too, in such a way that they could ac- 
cept them. Wage earners now cannot accept profit sharing because they 
are not able to run the chances of uncertain profits; but laborers then 
would be able to run the chances of uncertain profits because laborers 
then would be capitalists with accumulated funds. 
Some labor sympathizers claim that such a scheme would not be practi- 
cable because there is a time in every laborer’s life when he cannot save 
anything, as he is out of employment. Many contend that such a scheme 
as proposed is idle speculation and does not bear on the labor problem 
in any important degree. They contend that the labor problem is 
long hours, poor ventilation, industrial accidents and diseases, 11011- 
employment, etc. I have attempted to give the significance of these 
questions in the first part of the paper and will not comment 911 them 
further. 
I admit that some will not be able to save all of the time nor is 
this necessary. They are not able to save at present for some or all of 
the reasons mentioned in the preceding paragraph. The point of this 
paper is that in the degree that the laborer saves these evils will be 
remedied. 
'Nature of the Saving Scheme . — It is not necessary for me, nor possible 
in this paper, to give a workable scheme for every industry. It is 
sufficient to say that Massachusetts has countered this matter of suffi- 
cient importance to attempt a working scheme in connection with their 
savings banks. The Railroad Trainmen are attempting some things in 
this line in a small and voluntary way. Doubtless many different organi- 
zations have some provisions for industrial saving. The new “postal sav- 
ing bank” might help some, but only in a small way until it becomes 
compulsory. Industrial insurance as now conducted by the insurance 
companies is in the same class as institutions for voluntary savings. 
Labor unions should conduct this institution because in them the com- 
pulsory feature could be carried out with little or no extra expense — 
one objection to the present form of industrial insurance. 
Olivet College, April, 1011. 
