ing having been recognized, and existing wage agreements confirmed by the Director General, all employees on roads under federal control were placed on an equality with employees on most of the roads where a more liberal policy has heretofore prevailed. The fact that the Division of Labor was created with the Director of that Division on full equality with Directors of other Divisions indicates the general attitude of the Director General. It may be said that for the first time "labor" is recognized on an equality in solving the problems of railroad administration. No doubt, there has been impatience among railroad employees because of delays in adjustments of matters affecting their well-being, but it should be remembered that all that has been accomplished has been the result of the first eleven months of federal control. Having regard for the fact that approximately 2,000,000 employees. have been involved; that varying conditions existed on many railroads; that much of the work has been created, and that it must take time to solve such problems, I feel sure progress has been made with unusual rapidity in the settlement of most questions. Under the existing congressional act, the railroads will pass back to private control on or before twenty-one months after the declaration of peace. Under private control, as under federal control, the labor problems are of great importance, and should have the serious consideration of those who are to re-assume control. If Congress decides to enact additional legislation affecting the railroads, I sincerely hope that the rights and aspirations of labor in the operation of the railroads will receive due consideration. What has been done under federal control may serve as an illustration of what may be done under any form of control. But so long as the roads are under federal control, it is evident that labor problems will be dealt with along different lines than was the practice when the roads were operated by private corporations. One effect of federal control on railway labor has been the inspiration for better things-for a life really worth living. I have said this with full knowledge that federal control of labor produces effects in keeping with the peculiarities of temperament of those who govern. I speak of the present and not of the future. What the future has for the well-being, contentment and consequent efficiency of railroad employees rests with those who are to dictate policies of the future. I have before me official circular No. 84, issued by the Railway Employees Department of the American Federation of Labor. I presume that department represents approximately 600,000 railroad employees, and I am going to assume that those who are speaking for these 600,000 railroad employees have a right to make such a demand. I find on the first page a copy of a resolution addressed to the President of the United States in which the most kind expressions of regard are made for the man who has been responsible for the policy adopted by the government in its attitude toward labor. They express regret that he is leaving the position which he has occupied since the railroads were taken under federal control, and even suggest methods by which possibly he can be induced to remain in the service. I suppose you know the reason assigned by him for going. These workingmen go so far as to want to divide their salaries to create a fund which will make it possible to pay the DirectorGeneral of Railroads an adequate salary. Under the present law however he is not entitled, or cannot, I understand receive a dollar of compensation so long as he is Secretary of the Treasury. Another resolution of similar nature was addressed to the President of the United States by what is known as the Schedule Committee of the 350,000 shop men. I am going to read this. It is dated November 27, 1918, and is addressed to Honorable Woodrow Wilson, President of the United States. It says: We as delegates representing railroad shop men throughout the United States now in convention at Washington do not feel that the operation of the railroads under government control has had a fair trial during the short time they have been so operated, realizing that the act of Congress provided that the government should retain control of the railroads for a period of 21 months after the termination of the war; but we now see by reports through the public press that plans are under way to return the railroads to their former owners. We are of the opinion that the question is of such vast importance that it should not be hastily disposed of. As the representatives of 600,000 railroad shop men we are very much in favor of continued government control of the railroads. 46 English words do not mean the same thing in all Englishspeaking countries. When we speak of the "government," we often mean the machinery of government. If we speak of the United States central government we say "the Federal Government," or "State Government" in matters affecting the state. In other English-speaking countries the word government" means administration." In this country there is a vast difference between the "government" and the "administration." In England the government means the administration, and it does in Canada also. When we speak of governmental control it means federal control. Notwithstanding my optimism I want to confess to you, after many years as a railroad employee, since I was a boy in fact, and many years as an active worker in trade unionism, I have never yet persuaded myself that "government ownership" was good for railroad employees. Do not forget the difference between the meanings of the word, for if the government, or rather an administration is reactionary, God help the working people. If the administration, or the government, as you may call it, is liberal, if it is sympathetic with labor, then I think all railroad employees would like to have government control. But, what creates a government or an administration in this country? Public opinion. Now, what creates public opinion? Publicity. Those who control the channels of publicity control public opinion, and public opinion controls the government. We hear much ado about a discovery that the brewers have loaned money with which to buy newspapers, and we have heard a great deal about what certain foreign ambassadors spent in this country to control public opinion, and we are shocked. That has been a common practice for years, only we have not heard so much about it. It has been said that in the old days elections were won by giving a man here and there two dollars, but that has been changed by law, and votes are bought no longer for two dollars; but for perhaps two thousand dollars you can undertake a campaign of education, as it is called, through speakers and through the press, and control a thousand votes. Now, which is the cheaper method? The danger in a democratic country is that the channels of publicity are controlled by people who are able to pay the cost of publicity, and through their contribution to that expense they control public opinion, and public opinion elects governments. I fear that the day is not so distant when somebody's campaign fund will be huge enough to convince everybody that railroad employees ought to be sent to the penitentiary, rather than to be treated right. The greatest danger that confronts American democracy is the control of the channels of publicity by private interests. [210] COLLECTIVE BARGAINING THE DEMOCRACY I OF INDUSTRY R. J. CALDWELL President, R. J. Caldwell Co.; Vice-President Connecticut Mills Co., N our American Revolution we accomplished in theory a democracy of government. In the 140 subsequent years we have endeavored, as we have gained experience, to acquire in fact a political democracy. We have not yet attained perfection. During that time the world has made the greatest material progress history has known-the railroads, steamboats, electric telephone, telegraph and lighting, trolley cars, the wireless, the automobile, the moving pictures, the phonograph, airplanes, steel ships and buildings, labor-saving machinery—and what not? We have lived in a machine age, the dazzling progress of which has engrossed our attention to the detriment of the human element. The war has brought us back to a consciousness of the human factor. I venture to prophesy that we stand today on the threshold of a new era of worldwide recognition of the rights of mankind. It will embody results which no one can now have the vision to comprehend. The power of right is going to be more and more the dominating influence in the world hereafter. Our Declaration of Independence states that all men are created equal. But all men do not equally share in the opportunities which this great country affords. The commercial agencies state that 95 per cent of all business ventures fail. This is evidence of two things-first, that our commercial structure is reared on a plan too difficult for most people to master. Second, our commercial scheme does not generally educate employees in a way to prepare them for the higher degrees of usefulness of which many are capable. The commercial management of the country is in too few hands because too few are capable of administering it. It is not against the interests of either the present administrators of commercial activities or of the country, to have a greater |