A QUESTION OF DISCIPLINE.
By George F. Baer
(Mr. Geo. F. Baer's Letter to Mr. John Mitchell, "Bulletin of the Department of Labor," May, 1903.) We will always receive and consider every application of the men in our employ. We will endeavor to correct every abuse, to right every wrong, to deal justly and fairly with them, and to give to every man a fair compensation for the work he performs. Beyond this we can not go. The experience in the past year has not been satisfactory. There can not be two masters in the management of business. The objection to your proposition is not alone the impracticability of forming a uniform scale of wages, but it is to the divided allegiance it creates. Discipline is essential in the conduct of all business. It is of vital importance in mining operations, where the disobedience of one man may endanger the lives of hundreds of his fellow-workmen. You can not have discipline when the employee disregards and disobeys the reasonable orders and directions in the conduct of business of his superior officer, relying on some outside power to sustain him. Two or three unreasonable men can, because of this divided allegiance, stop the operations of a colliery, in the belief that their organization will support them, whether right or wrong. Your organizations have no power to enforce their decrees, and thereby insure discipline, and we have no power to maintain discipline, except the power to discharge. The moment we exercise this power, we would be subjected to an inquisitorial and ineffective supervision, without any certainty as to how or when it will be possible to reach a righteous decision or to enforce that decision when reached.