THE PROBLEM OF CAPITAL AND LABOR
By Editor
(By Harrison Gray Otis, President and General Manager of the Times-Mirror Company, Los Angeles, Cal.) [The writer of this article is an employer, but he wishes it expressly understood that he does "not write from that standpoint exclusively," because he believes that the principles he advocates, "if carried out to their logical conclusion, will make for the welfare of all independent workers, whether employers or employees. In other words, industrial freedom is essential to the best interests of all American citizens." We hope that General Otis' letter will be read from this view-point, on its merits.—Editor.] Rev. M. C. Wilcox, Editor of "Signs of the Times," Oakland, Cal.—Dear Sir: I have your letter of October 1, in which you ask for an expression of my opinion upon the following questions, to-wit:— 1. "What are the fundamental and vital differences between capital and labor?" 2. "What is necessary in order to a permanent settlement and peace between these two great forces?" You have not asked your questions in precisely the form that will enable me to give the most effective and satisfactory answers thereto; but, nevertheless, I will informally and briefly answer as follows, referring you, for a more complete exposition of my views, to my frequently-expressed opinions heretofore made public, and particularly to a "Plain Statement of Bed-Rock Facts," and also to my response to the recent "Address of Citizens," published in the "Times," and in brochure form, under the key-note headline of "Liberty and Law. Industrial Freedom. All must have equal right to labor. Evils of striking, picketing, boycotting, idleness, violence, and industrial turmoil." Answering your first question, "What are the fundamental and vital differences between capital and labor?" I have to say that these differences, as they exhibit themselves in recent years, are due directly and mainly to irresponsible labor agitators, and to the disregard on the part of too many "organized" laborers of the old-fashioned steadiness, faithfulness, application to duty, and devotion to the interests of the employer which in former times made the relations between employers and employed mutually trustful, to the great good of both. Thousands of workmen, once well disposed and faithful, have been taught by labor agitators, walking delegates, and "business agents" to be disloyal to the trust reposed in them, indifferent to the rights and interests of their employers, and treacherous in times of need and peril. Peaceful conditions, which once prevailed among employers and workmen, and were accepted by each as mutually satisfactory, have been transformed in recent years into warlike conditions, where the one class is arrayed against the other in antagonism, distrust, strife, and groundless ill-will, to the great detriment of both classes, tending to produce industrial stagnation, commercial lethargy, and mercantile bankruptcy, besides insupportable personal losses to the workmen themselves and suffering and distress to their families. In times of industrial stagnation the ordinary laborer, as well as the skilled workman, is the first to suffer and the last to recover situations lost and losses sustained through idleness. Another cause of difference is found in unjust treatment by some employers, tho this cause is as nothing when compared with those widespread differences which spring out of the vicious teachings of vicious labor propagandists, who are the bane of peaceful industry and a serious menace to the best interests of the country at large. To your second inquiry, "What is necessary in order to a permanent settlement and peace between these two great forces?" (meaning capital and labor), I answer broadly, The enforcement of law! No peace can be had without this; no justice can be had without it; no equality of rights can be secured without it. The law was and is intended to protect all alike in the peaceful and lawful pursuit of lawful employments of whatever kind. And when I say "all," I mean laborers and workmen of all classes, kinds, and degrees, whether those workmen be organized or unorganized, whether they be union or non-union. In the same category are, of course, to be included all employers who are engaged in legitimate and lawful pursuits, whether they be large employers or small, whether they be corporations, companies, firms, or individuals. The term "captains of industry" can not justly be made a term of reproach, for all employers, both large and small, are captains of industry in fact, and all are quite as necessary in the industrial world as are the workmen themselves, the latter class outnumber the former so vastly. Both classes must enjoy their rights under the law; and all who are engaged in legitimate pursuits, whether as employers or as workmen, must have the equal protection of the law, if this government is to be in fact what it professes to be,—"a government of the people, by the people, and for the people." Nothing short of the complete realization of this great truth, uttered by the immortal Lincoln, can be tolerated by his countrymen of this day, if they are determined to be free and to exercise the functions, the rights, and the privileges of free men. The latter-day attempts, made in so many quarters, and made so threateningly, to restrict and destroy the freedom of the individual in the industrial world, constitute the gravest peril that has menaced the country since the War of the Rebellion cast its black clouds across the national horizon. Without elaborating this feature of the general subject (for it really requires no elaboration), I repeat that the enforcement of law, the protection of all honest citizens alike, and the denial of attempted discrimination between classes of workmen as respects their lawful and equal right to labor,—these things are vital to the establishment and preservation of industrial peace. And with industrial peace will come the greatest boon that can possibly come to the country and to all its people. Industrial peace, coupled with freedom of action under the law on the part of all honest citizens, means general industrial and commercial activity, enhanced production, increased wealth, and universal prosperity in a land of matchless natural resources and a not overburdened population, like our own. To use a familiar and potent phrase, it means "the greatest good to the greatest number," which should be the highest aim of honest citizens and wise statesmen. To sum up, I oppose with all my might the strike, the boycott, and the picketing of plants, those favorite weapons of so-called "organized labor." Men may organize for lawful objects, but they may not organize for the purpose of denying the rights of their fellows, of monopolizing the labor of the land, of resisting the law, of disturbing the public peace, or of menacing in any manner the citizenship, the welfare, or the constitutional rights of others, or of interfering with the uninterrupted sway of the government, city, State, or nation. No class has superior rights merely because its members are organized. Very truly yours,
HARRISON GRAY OTIS.