The Industrial Conflict in the Light of Revelation.
By Geo. W. Rine
FEDERATION; OR, TRUSTING IN THE ARM OF FLESH.
The distinctive spirit of our age is the spirit of unionism, of federation. Gone is the age of economic individualism. Neither the ordinary employer nor the ordinary wage-earner is any longer a complete and distinct economic entity. He is only a fixed cog in one of the many gigantic wheels that go to make up our mammoth industrial machine. “Individualism,” said the great German thinker, Richter, “is everywhere to be guarded and honored as the root of all good.” It would seem, however, that at least in the industrial world, individualism is esteemed the root of all evil. The “individualist” among employers is driven out of business by the trust; the “individualist” among wage-earners is driven out of employment by the union. Whether capitalist or workmen, the man who does not selfishly protect his business interests by sinking his individuality, and often his manhood, in the mass of some organized combination, is almost certain to end up in bankruptcy or mendicancy. The richest “captain of industry” can no longer hope to stand alone against the Wall Street communism of wealth, which is straining every nerve to conquer the commerce of the world. Mr. Herbert N. Casson tells us that a few years ago a New York financier, whose wealth was rated at $20,000,000, withdrew from the sugar trust, in which he had made his money, and struck out on his own account. He antagonized the great railway syndicate and other trusts, and the result was that his millions melted away like snow under a tropical sun. So thoroughly was he bankrupted that he was obliged to turn over to his creditors his home, his gold watch, and even his chickens. The mountain-like wave of industrial federation that is submerging the economic world to-day has hopelessly engulfed the individual capitalist as well as the individual wage-earner. Magic Evolution of Trade-Unionism.
The startling rapidity and suddenness which marked the growth and extension of capitalistic consolidation, were described in the sixth paper of this series. Trade and labor unionism has arisen and developed with an impetus equally abrupt and irresistible. The American Federation of Labor has on its roll approximately 1,750,000 members at the time of this writing. It is now the strongest non-military organization in the world. During the year 1903 the Federation spent $75,000 in effecting organizations by 68 organizers, who created 1,747 new unions, adding 442,100 members. The receipts from all sources were $247,803, and the expenditures were $196,016, leaving $60,788 cash on hand. The strikes during the year were 1,620, costing the unions $2,768,312. These statistics make an imposing exhibit of the power and resources of that gigantic organization. The San Francisco Chronicle characterizes the Federation as “the most formidable organization of labor ever known, tho its membership is still a minority of the total labor of the country.” It must not be assumed, however, that this organization embraces all the labor unions of the country. The Western Federation of Miners and a number of other federations are wholly distinct from the American Federation. All the labor federations in the United States have an aggregate membership of 2,700,000. In truth, it may be said that the process of “unionizing” labor has, since 1901, swept over the country like a furious gale. Unskilled workers, like freight-handlers, building janitors, grave-diggers, street-car employees, messenger boys, bootblacks, street-sweepers, and the like, who as a mass have hardly yet grasped the first principles of unionism, have rushed into organized “unionism.” Most of these are raw, undisciplined organizations, easily manipulated by “bosses” and driven to all manner of excesses by unprincipled leaders. The Aims of Organized Labor.
With regard to the whole body of federated labor, Mr. Jack London recently said: “All these men are banded together for the frank purpose of bettering their condition, regardless of the harm worked thereby upon all other classes. They are in open antagonism with the capitalist class, while the manifestos of their leaders state that the struggle is one which can never end.” Mr. London avers that the conflict between labor and capital is over the division of the joint product. Applying themselves to raw material, capital and labor convert it into a finished product. The difference between the value of the raw material and that of the finished product is the value they have added to it by their joint effort. This added value represents what Mr. London calls the joint product, and it is over the division of this joint product that the struggle between capital and labor takes place. “Labor takes its share in wages; capital takes its share in profits. It is patent, if capital took, in profits, the whole joint product, that labor would perish. And it is equally patent, if labor took, in wages, the whole joint product, that capital would perish. Yet this last is the very thing labor aspires to do, and that it will never be content with anything less than the whole joint product is evidenced by the words of its leaders.” It must be remembered that Mr. London is a typical Socialist, and that he really means that through the medium of organized labor capitalism will be abolished, and that the Socialist régime will thus triumphantly supplant what the Socialist is pleased to regard as the “effete economy of Individualism.” He significantly asserts that because man is man and a long way short of the angels, the quarrel over the division of the joint product is irreconcilable. This sweeping statement is not hard to believe when we call to mind that during the last twenty-five years, there has been in the United States an average of more than a thousand strikes a year, and that year by year these strikes grow in magnitude and the “front of the labor-army grows more imposing. And it is a class struggle, pure and simple. Labor, as a class, is fighting with capital, as a class. The same writer prognosticates that labor5will continue to demand more pay, and employers will continue to refuse to concede such demand. The individual has passed away and the group has come, for better or worse, and the struggle has become a struggle between groups, and not between individuals. Mr. London puts this suggestive query:— Has the individualist never speculated upon the labor-group becoming strong enough to destroy the capitalist-group and take to itself and run for itself the machinery of industry? And, further, has the individualist never speculated upon this being still a triumphant expression of individualism, of group individualism, if the confusion of terms may be permitted? Socialism Leavens Organized Labor.
During the last three years union labor has become infiltrated with the doctrines of Socialism. In 1900 the Socialist Party in this country cast 150,000 votes; by 1902 they cast double the number, 300,000; and in the present year they will doubtless cast more than 500,000 votes. A very large majority of these Socialist voters, it must be remembered, are also members of labor and trade unions. They have behind them what a noted writer on Socialism is pleased to call “a most imposing philosophic and scientific literature.” They have illustrated magazines, a large number of daily and weekly papers, some of which have subscribers by the hundreds of thousands; and they literally swamp the working classes in a vast sea of tracts and pamphlets. They propagate their tenets with a zeal and aggressiveness unknown to any other organization, political or religious. They work and sacrifice for the “Cause” with a religious ardor, “and would die for it with a willingness similar to that of the Christian martyrs.” These men, declares Mr. London, are preaching an uncompromising and deadly class struggle. In short, they are organized on a basis of class struggle. Note one of the party’s own manifestos:— The history of society is a history of class struggles. Patrician struggled with plebeian in early Rome; the king and the burghers with the nobles in the Middle Ages; later on, the king and the nobles with the bourgeoisie; and to-day the struggle is on between the triumphant bourgeoisie and the rising proletariat. By proletariat is meant the class of people without capital, which sells its labor for a living. That the proletariat shall conquer (mark the note of fatalism), is as certain as the rising sun. Just as the bourgeoisie of the eighteenth century wanted democracy applied to politics, so the proletariat of the twentieth century wants democracy applied to industry. As the bourgeoisie complained against the Government being run by and for the nobles, so the proletariat complains against the Government and industry being run by and for the bourgeoisie; and so, following in the footsteps of its predecessor, the proletariat will possess itself of the Government, apply democracy to industry, abolish wages, and run the business of the country in its own interest. Their aim, they say, is to organize the working class, and those in sympathy with it, into a political party, with the object of conquering the powers of government and using them for the purpose of transferring the present system of private ownership of the means of production and distribution into collective ownership by the entire people. The difficulty with the American people is that they have been disseminating and diffusing the learning and science of the schools, and at the same time centralizing the wealth of the nation. A democracy of intelligence and an aristocracy of wealth are incompatible. The press has recently told its readers that by their tireless efforts the Socialists have already come within an ace of capturing the great American Federation of Labor, with its million and a half of members and representing a population of six millions. They have declared their conviction that to win the trade unions is well-nigh to win the war. In order to conciliate the unions they sent to their own members this significant dictum: “Let every good Socialist join the union of his trade.” Another edict sent forth was, “Bore from within and capture the trade-union movement.” Mr. Cunniff, who has made an intimate study of trade unionism, writes: “All through the unions Socialism filters. Almost every other man is a Socialist, preaching that unionism is but a makeshift.” From his unique experience Mr. Cunniff was forced to confess, “I lived in a world that showed our industrial life a-tremble from beneath with a never-ceasing ferment.” The Western Federation of Miners, the Western Hotel and Restaurant Employees’ Union, and the Pattern-makers’ National Association, are already completely within the fold of Socialism. Capital Organizing to Oppose Unionism.
The head of one of the largest business houses in Chicago recently affirmed: “Some day the unions and the business community will have to fight it out to see who owns Chicago!” It was not in excited argument or in the heat of a labor conflict that this statement was made. His firm was then at peace with the unions. He said further: “The property interests of this city are not going to sit calmly by while it is surrendered into the hands of the unions.” No other man in Chicago had more experience with unions than this man. He has pleaded for industrial peace, served on arbitration boards; but he is convinced that a radical spirit is growing among the unions and that a contest is inevitable. He declares that employers must league together in opposition to the tyrannous encroachments of unionism if the industrial future of Chicago is to be made secure. This conviction is obtaining everywhere, and employers’ associations have sprung up in all parts of the country. The president of the Manufacturers’ Association recently said: “The task of the employers’ associations is to pull up, root and branch, the un-American institution of organized labor as at present conducted.” From Dayton, Ohio, where the first employers’ association of the country was organized in 1900, a score of similar organizations have sprung into existence. The Citizens’ Industrial Association, which originated in Chicago, has branches in a half-dozen other large cities. It has placed permanent organizers in the field. The Manufacturers’ Association and the Anti-Boycott Association ramify, by their branches, the whole United States. The employers are everywhere convinced that union domination in the shops and factories means union men, union rules, and a vastly-increased cost of production. Most of these employers assert their willingness to pay high wages, but vehemently object to the placing of their own industries under union domination. Mr. D. M. Parry, the president of the largest employers’ association in America, declares boldly: “We aim at federating employers in order that we may meet with a united front all issues that affect us. . . . The work immediately before the National Association of Manufacturers is, first, keep the vicious Eight-hour Bill off the books; second, to destroy the Anti-injunction Bill, which wrests your business from you and places it in the hands of your employees.” Like the Socialist Labor Party, he does not mince matters, but states unequivocally that the object in federating employers is to subjugate the opposing class. Mr. London says piquantly, “That President Roosevelt has smelt the smoke from the firing-line6of the class struggle, is evidenced by his words.” He then quotes these “words” of the President: “Above all, we need to remember that any kind of class animosity in the political world is, if possible, even more destructive to national welfare, than sectional, race, or religious animosity.” Does not President Roosevelt here tacitly admit the fact that class animosity in the industrial world actually exists, and that he fears it is destined to spread to the political world? A noted author expresses the object of the Socialist propaganda thus: “This is the very policy which the Socialists have announced in their declaration of war against present-day society—to capture the political machinery of society and by that machinery destroy present-day society. . . . The leaders, with the carelessness of fatalists, do not hesitate for an instant to publish their intentions to the world. They intend to direct the labor revolt by the capture of the political machinery of society. With the political machinery once in their hands, which will also give them control of the police, the army, the navy, and the courts, they will confiscate, with or without remuneration, all the possessions of the capitalist class which are used in the production and distribution of the necessaries and luxuries of life. By this they mean to apply the law of eminent domain to the land, and to extend the law of eminent domain till it embraces the mines, the factories, the railroads, and the ocean carriers. In short, they intend to destroy present-day society, which they contend is run in the interest of another class, and from the materials to construct a new society which will be run in their interest.” We here have a very clear and direct statement of the aims of socialism in its alliance with organized labor. Organized capital, on the other hand, is equally determined that the ends sought by socialistic trades unionism must at all hazards be circumvented. So, then, we have federation pitted against federation, organization against organization, in what, to all appearances, will be a fight to the finish. The one has numbers, enthusiasm, and oneness of purpose; the other has money, culture, troops, and the machinery of government. Both are resolute. Both are sanguine. Most union men believe that the whole scheme of federation on the part of capitalist employers is nothing more nor less than a giant conspiracy to crush labor organization. There can be no doubt, however, that the unions themselves are largely responsible for this sudden and ubiquitous movement on the part of capital. By the abuse of their power, by their excesses, their domineering tactics, their tyrannous exactions, the unions inevitably goaded the resisting class into revolt. Futility of Human Federation.
The paramount tendency of the present age—the tendency toward organized federacy—was foreseen and described by the prophet Isaiah. Verses 17 and 19 of the eighth chapter of Isaiah make it evident that the prophet, in this chapter, is dealing with events peculiar to the days when the trusting child of God shall declare: “I will wait for Jehovah, that hideth His face from the house of Jacob, and I will look for Him.” Compare this statement with 1 Thess. 1:10 and with Heb. 9:28. Let us now briefly study verses 9 to 13 of Isaiah 8. “Associate [federate] yourselves, O ye people, and ye shall be broken in pieces; . . . gird yourselves, and ye shall be broken in pieces; gird yourselves and ye shall be broken in pieces. Take counsel together, and it shall come to nought; speak the word, and it shall not stand.” How emphatically this inspired forecast shows that the girding, the associating, the federating, will all be in vain; that it will not avail; that it will utterly fail of its purpose. Each class in the struggle organizes for the express purpose of securing itself against the oppression and injustice of the other class. The object is safety, protection, defense. But their bands of union, of organization, will snap like cobwebs when the supreme crisis will have come. Now those whose hope is in God, He counsels not to look to human alliances for protection and security. Note verse 11. “For the Lord spake thus to me with a strong hand, and instructed me that I should not walk in the way of this people, saying, Say ye not, A confederacy [or conspiracy, R. V.], to all them to whom this people shall say, A confederacy; neither fear ye their fear, nor be afraid.” Observe that the last part of this quotation virtually declares that it is “fear,” anxiety, painful apprehension, that constrains both classes to resort to “confederacy.” Of course we all stand in dire need of protection and safety. But we must look to an entirely different source for the needed refuge. Note the divine counsel given in verses 13 and 14: “Sanctify the Lord of hosts Himself; and let Him be your fear, and let Him be your dread. And He shall be for a sanctuary.” “Sanctuary” is here used in its original sense of a place of security, a refuge. These human federations, the Lord declares, will “be broken in pieces.” They will prove a snare. But they who put their trust in the eternal God, they shall stand, they shall be gloriously delivered in the day of violence and battle. “A thousand shall fall at thy side, and ten thousand at thy right hand, but it shall not come nigh thee. . . . Because thou hast made the Lord, which is my refuge, even the Most High, thy habitation [tower of defense]; there shall no evil befall thee.” If we receive Him as our sanctuary, our refuge, then we may triumphantly exclaim with the psalmist, “The Lord is on my side; I will not fear; what can man do unto me?” Ps. 118:6. With David we may trustfully declare: “For in the time of trouble He shall hide me in His pavilion: in the secret of His tabernacle shall He hide me; He will set me up upon a rock.” Ps. 27:5. It is true that men should all be united, but united by the ties of divine love. Our Lord prayed that we might all be one—one in Him. In the last chapter of the prophecy of Daniel, the divine Spirit declares that when Michael (Christ) shall stand up, that is, to take His kingdom, “there shall be a time of trouble, such as never was since there was a nation even to that same time.” But He then adds this blessed promise: “And at that time thy people shall be delivered, every one that shall be found written in the book,” that is, the book of life. Would you, dear reader, be delivered in the “day of trouble,” in the “day of darkness and gloominess,” in the day of God’s judgments, when He will come to take “vengeance on them that know not God”? Then do not look for deliverance and refuge to man-made unions or federations—in short, do not trust “in the arm of flesh,” but look unto Jesus, who is “mighty to save,” and, having your name written in the Lamb’s book of life, you shall share in the glorious deliverance, and have endless life in the City of God.