Page:American Journal of Sociology Volume 6.djvu/299

 NOTES AND ABSTRACTS 285

the business world of today can doubt. In the consideration of this situation there are several noteworthy principles involved : (i) The progress of industry evidently rests in large measure, though not by any means entirely, upon the freedom of the undertaker of industry to arrange his workmen, to direct their efforts, to give orders and prohibitions to realize the aims of the particular form of production, to discharge the heedless, and replace the worthless with better hands. This freedom, naturally, must not be alienated nor abridged. In this sense, i. <?., so far as is necessary to the attainment of the peculiar aim of his kind of business, the employer must remain " lord in his own house." So far, however, as he gives commands or prohibitions which are not so necessitated, he acts not as employer but as tyrant, in a capacity which the law, based upon the equality of citizens, does not recognize. On economic grounds, of course, it is necessary to allow the employer summarily to discharge work- men who display both discipline and skill in their work, in case of changes necessi- tated in the methods of production, natural shrinkage in business, and alterations'- in the conditions of labor. The employer is not responsible for the great fluctuations of the market, in so far as his attitude toward his men is determined strictly by the con- crete necessities of maintaining and developing his business in the interest of all con- cerned. (2) The more extended an employer's business, and the more he controls the labor market and the place of work and special preparation of the workmen, so much the greater is the damage which the workman suffers through arbitrary discharge. The smaller the business and field of labor controlled, the easier it is for the discharged workman to find employment with another manager. In the small business the rela- tions of employer and employe's are much more personal, in the large business much more mechanical. The larger the business, therefore, the more scrupulous and exact are the methods needed for insuring that serious injustice shall not be done. (3) The conditions which really justify discharge are naturally very diverse. The fundamental principle is that the employe must be economically ineffective in the place given him. The adequate control and insurance of able and willing employes in their work can come only when private business is more a matter of public concern and public law than it is at present. FLESCH, " Der Schutz der Arbeitswilligen," in Jahrbucher fur Nationalokonomie und Statistik, January, 1 900.

German Labor Laws. The development of labor legislation in Germany, in which Prussia has chiefly taken the initiative, seems to have had two distinct aims : the first, to liberate industry from old restrictions, and to determine the sphere and functions of the old guilds so as to bring them into harmony with modern conditions ; and the second, to meet the new demands of manufacturing upon a large scale, and redetermine the methods and conditions of labor contract, the arbitration of labor dis- putes, the right of workingmen to form organizations, etc. The former relates solely to the handicraft trades, fixing the conditions that workmen must fulfill in order to be apprentices, journeymen, and masters, and defining the character and powers of their organizations, the guilds. The latter relates to employe's working in factories and mills, and deals with some problems, such as that of the right of association, which are of a general nature.

The starting-point for the first movement or phase of this legislation is found in the edict of October 9, 1807, which abolished serfdom, and made free the right to possess land. This was followed in the next year by the circular of December 26, 1808, which proclaimed the right of citizens freely to engage in such occupations as they desired. Exclusive privileges to conduct certain trades and industrial monopolies were gradually abolished by subsequent orders. During the last thirty years there has been a determined, and to a considerable extent successful, agitation for the enact- ment of laws giving increased powers to the guilds. On July 18, 1881, a law was enacted giving voluntary guilds a very privileged position. It constituted them organizations of employe's and journeymen carrying on a trade on their own account, with an authority of their own, and power to enact certain regulations, especially as regards apprenticeship, which should have all the force of law, even with respect to journeymen not affiliated with the guilds. They were empowered to create and maintain aid funds, trade arbitration tribunals, technical schools, and others institu- tions for the advancement of the interests of their trades. The restriction of the law of 1869, that each guild should embrace only members of the same trade, was removed,