Page:American Journal of Sociology Volume 11.djvu/156

 140 THE AMERICAN JOURNAL OF SOCIOLOGY

Morals and Practical Morals I would refer anyone who cares to know my opinions more in detail than they could be presented in these few sentences. JOHN K. INGRAM.

Discipline in Industry. The bloody strike at Limoges has caused justi- fiable apprehension throughout France. Not only on account of the violence which accompanied it, and the blamable weakness of the local authorities in dealing with it, but much more by reason of the cause of the strike itself, it has afforded occasion for a serious inspection of industrial tendencies.

Limoges has always been a radical city ; its mayor is a socialist, and it is hardly to be expected that socialist leaders creatures of the crowd whose every passion they flatter servilely should be able to restrain the crowd in times of crisis. But, however deplorable the incidents which have occurred, we repeat that they do not constitute the most disturbing element in the situation at Limoges. The question is rather one of the very organization of industry itself : Shall that discipline which is indispensable in any long series of operations involving the co-operation of large numbers of workmen, be left in the hands of the employer, whether he be an individual or a company ; or shall the manage- ment of the shop, the hiring and discharge of foremen and superintendents as well as laborers, the general administration of industry, be made dependent upon the choice, or at least the ratification, of the employees ?

This was the principle at stake at Limoges. Here, as in many other quar- ters, these anarchistic claims were advanced that the employees had the right to pass upon the superintendents and foremen chosen by the employer to guide their work. Of course, it is desirable that these agents of the employer should be men possessing in a high degree the sense of justice and of humanity, as well as technical and executive ability ; but it is true, at the same time, that the firmness and energy which are after all indispensable in the industrial superintendent, will always be offensive to a portion of the personnel of the factory, notably the thoughtless, the idle, and the insubordinate ; and to sacrifice the superintendent or the foreman or other agents to the susceptibilities or the rancor of this portion of the employees could have no other effect than to put an end to all industrial discipline. The delicate organism of industry would speedily fall into the most fatal slackness and laxity of management ; production would become insufficient, poor, and expensive, and certain decadence would follow.

Unskilled labor, as M. Tarde shows, is only the repetition of an example set by some inventor, ancient or modern, and it is clear that it is not entitled to the choice of the agents of direction, of oversight, or of control of industry.

The socialists, while waiting to confiscate capital, are seeking to propagate the idea that it ought to be merely the sleeping partner of labor. Kantsky, the leader of pure Marxian socialism in Germany, writes that it is necessary that labor should become the master of the factory : These last words are characteristic ; that the proletariat should be master of the factory is the end agreed upon by socialists of all shades of belief. Kantsky continues : If the workman has his maintenance assured even in times of the stoppage of production (and it is to this end that municipal grants during strikes are tending), nothing will be easier for him to do than to put a check to capital. Then he will have no need of the capitalist, while the latter without the workman will be unable to continue his exploitation. When this shall be the case, the entrepreneur will be under a dis- advantage in all conflicts with his workmen, and will be forced to yield. Capital- ists will still continue to direct their factories, but they will no longer be the masters and exploiters. But if the capitalists recognize that there remain for them only risks to be run and charges to be borne, they will be the first to renounce capitalistic production, and to insist that their enterprises which yield them no profit should be purchased and taken off their hands (that is, by the state or the municipality). This is the socialist program according to Kantsky, and he is doubtless correct in maintaining that entrepreneurs would renounce capital- istic production under such conditions; but will collectivism take their place? Here Kantsky may deceive himself ; what will result from this situation will be simply the discouragement of the capitalists, the gradual closing of the factories, general impoverishment, and the return of society to primitive poverty.