Page:Popular Science Monthly Volume 84.djvu/468

464 penalty in case of disaster. No one may complain against this; it is absolutely just. But at once the question arises, who is the employer? The prevailing impression is that those who pay the wages are the employers and compensation laws accord with that belief. The conception was correct enough fifty years ago, but in most industries it is very far from correct now.

In what may be termed unionized industries, the wage-payer is an employer in only a very limited sense. The trade union is the employer, the only employer. The chief strife between capital and the unions concerns this one matter. The many recent strikes in non-unionized industries were not to secure higher wages or shorter hours, but to secure recognition of the unions. Betterment of the workmen's conditions was always mentioned, but that was a secondary matter. The result of such recognition has always been transfer of control from the wage-payer to the union officials. The owners of industrial concerns assume all risks while others control the workers and the methods. Railroads are denounced in congress, in legislatures and in the press because they invite disaster by retaining incompetent servants. Mining and manufacturing companies receive similar treatment. Yet nothing could be more unreasonable. Commercial enterprises are undertaken to secure a fair return on the investment and competition is so severe that the margin of profit is narrow. Owners and managers have no desire to invite disaster and to reduce dividends; but they are helpless in unionized industries. The unions permit employment of only their own members; they determine the rate of wages, the hours of work, the manner of working and, in some cases, even the materials to be used. They demand oversight of discipline and the right to decide whether or not an employee should be dismissed. A superintendent, determined that men must give honest service for the wages received, is denounced as tyrannical and his removal is called for with a strike as the penalty for refusal. In all essential matters, the trade union is the employer, with power to stop work or to begin it again. It regards itself as actual owner of the property and the owner of record is to be tolerated only so long as he obeys the rules. It justifies seizure of the property during a strike; it justifies violence, destruction of property, assassination and resistance to officers of the law in case its demands are refused; it denounces as murderers the men who defend their property against an attacking mob; and it proclaims that its crimes are political, not moral, because the strife is a warfare for human rights.

Labor unions should be incorporated that they may be made responsible as the real employers, as dealers in human labor. Under existing conditions, agreements can be enforced against the wage-payers, but not against unions. When the law has recognized that the union is the employer, disasters on railroads, in factories and in mines will be reduced to the minimum. Reckless engineers, careless switchmen and