I THE PROBLEM HE American "labor problem" is quite as THE vital a problem as the American " "trust problem." Its claim on the attention and the deepest thought of all right-minded people is becoming more pressing with the continued growth and development of our country. As a result of present-day economic conditions, the industrial world is divided into two opposing camps. Their banners are waving in every breeze and the press reports their daily movements. On the one hand, American capitalists are uniting, factories are being combined, and the consolidation of forces is the steady, growing movement among the employer class. Corporations with millions of capital are of weekly origin. There are in active existence in the United States 850 industrial combinations having a total capitalization of $15,000,000,000, besides thousands of corporations which practically include all business of profit. These giant corporations dominate and control the markets of the country. Their organization is soulless, while greed is the prime factor in their management. Their officers are men placed in power to produce results. How, is too often unquestioned. As a result of this condition, the officers and managers, as a rule, will go to any length to hold their positions and to obtain an increase in their salaries. If the price of the finished product can be raised without losing the market, this course will be adopted; if the wages of labor can be forced down, that will be done. "Do everything to increase the dividends," is the order given by the stockholders. On October 30, 1903, "The Citizens Industrial Association of America" was organized. This is an association of manufacturers organized to oppose what they claim are the exactions of the labor unions. This association asserts that it has a membership of three thousand manufacturers, each contributing fifty dollars a year toward creating a fund to be used in industrial battles. Since 1900, the progress of the movement for the organization of employers of labor into strong associations, having for their primary purpose the treating with, or resistance to, the claims of labor unions, has been so rapid that almost every important feature of trade-union organization finds its counterpart in employers' associations. On the other hand, labor unions are being organized, federations of unions are being formed, and the laborer's dream of the working men of America being united in one confederate body is rap idly becoming a fact. A federation that can stop for five months the mining of anthracite coal is a power greater than the founders of the American Commonwealth could picture. In one federation there are more than twenty thousand unions, and these unions cover every trade. It is estimated that the unions in the United States have in the neighborhood of 4,000,000 members. Not only are trade-unions strong in numbers, but their financial strength is large. On January 1, 1903, the United Mine Workers had in the treasury $1,027,120.29. Its members gave to the relief of the anthracite coal strikers, in 1902, $258,343.94, and they raised by assessments $1,967,026.34, making a total of $2,225,370.28 raised with reference to the anthracite coal strike by the United Mine Workers of this country. The aim of working men in uniting is to obtain shorter hours of labor, better conditions under which to work, and an increase in their wages. Their leaders are retained in office only so long as they pluck the golden fruit from the tree of capital. "Get more for us in shortness of hours and increase of wage" are the daily commands of the working men to their leaders. That employers have a right to unite their capital and to consolidate their efforts in the form of corporations, the courts have repeatedly held. That the employees should have the right to unite ΤΟ |