THE CIVIC FEDERATION OF AMERICA

Otago Witness, Issue 2915, 26 January 1910, Page 87

THE CIVIC FEDERATION OF AMERICA

By Hugh H. Lusk.

The history of the last 50 years, when it comes to be looked on with something of the philosophical aloofness with which we now look at the events of 200 or 300 years ago, will almost certainly be regarded as the period of industrial warfare. The historian will, of course, have other things to mention. There have been wars, in the ordinary meaning of the word—some of them involving great issues, and, like other wars, causing great suffering, and giving occasion to great deeds of heroism. Kings and emperors have been born and have died, amd the progress of the world of civilisation has gone on in a thousand ways at a pace unknown before; but when all has been said on these subjects that can be said, the real history of the time will not have been told—the part, that is to say, of the world's story which marks its difference from all the half-centuries that went before it. The rise and fall of kings is certainly no new thing, and to-day it is probably of less real importance thon ever before since histories began to be written. Wars are events which, if not as old as the hilk, are at least as old as the earliest consolidation of society into separate associations, in which the feeling of combined strength supplied no check on individual ambitions or selfish greed "of gain at the expense of their neighbours. It may be feared that the change which has been characteristic of the last 60 years has been one rather of circumstances than of principle. Kings and emperors are no longer th» great features they used to be in the life of the civilised world. Wars are no longer popular, as they once were with any class of society. The discovery has been made that sovereigns are comparatively trifling figures in the arena of the world's work, and nearly everybody is coming to the conclusion that hardly any war is in the long run worth what it costs, even the winning side. These discoveries, however, have not, so far, put an end either to men's personal ambitions, or to warfare being organised bodies of men. So far, indeed, is this from being the ca6e that it may fairly be said that during the last 50 years organisation, primarily for purposes of attack or defence, has become far more extensive than ever before among civiliswd races, the campaigns h?tve been more continuous, ancl probably the material losses and human suffering they have caused have been greater than those experienced in the wars of any former period of the same length. This has been true of every country in which industry under civilised conditions has been much developed, but it has been most true of all in America, where the development, both of population and industry, has been greatly more rapid than elsewhere. This development in both directions has, until the last few years, been almost confined to the United States, and there, as a consequence, the organisation, both of workers and employers, has been most complete, and the great campaign most keen and unaemitting. Very few persons not f amilia* personally with the country and its people can form any idea of the industrial situation in the United States as it existed during the last few years of the ninete&nth century. To people at a distance it was represented as a sort of paradise for workers, especially for skilled workers of all kinds. Wages ware high, work was plentiful: there, alone amongst the world's civilised countries, there was a hope—nay, almost a, certainty, that the steady and intelligent workman would rise til], in the end, he became a millionaire. There was just enough truth in'the picture, too, to deceive people at a distance into believing it, and acting on the belief by throwing in their lot with the workers of the great Republic. Wages were really high, in some places and trades, and nominally high in almost all; a good worker could as a rule get work to do in some part .of the country; and here and there an instance occurred of a man of unusual ability who did rise to wealth. There was another side to the picture, and it was one which was kept carefully in the background and which " could not be at all appreciated by a mere visitor to the country. Nothing was said for the information of people at a distance of the fact that the rates of wages depended on the power of the workers to enforce them by refusing to do any work on lower terms. No hint was given that the hours of work were generally long«r, the conditions of work in mines and in great manufacturing cities fully as bad, and the cost of living everywhere very much greater than in most other civilised countries. It need hardly be said that the discovery of these things, which very speedily followed on his arrival in the country, was not an agreeable one to the new-comer, or that he very soon began to look about for some means of improving matters from his own point of view. This is, in short, the history of the rapid growth and remarkable energy of the labouir organisations in the United States during the last 15 years of the nineteenth century. The fact that the inducements held out to skilled workmen in. nearly every trade to emigrate from. Europe were so great had the effect of securing a great influx of the most energetic and ambitious of the younger •generation of tradesmen, and, while this went far to cause the rapid development of every branch of industry, it also provided a large class of workers who brought the most advanced ideals of unionism with them from Europe, and who had sufficient intelligence to adapt them to the conditions of the new country In the hands of such, men as these trades unionism as understood in Europe soon became firmly established, while its mechanism, as a system of industrial asso-

ciation on military lines, and mainly for purposes of aggressive industrial warfare, was carried to a pitch of perfection which at that time was unknown in any European country. The idea there, as it was. and stiJl is, in England, France, and Germany, was. that the world of indietry must of necessity be divided into two hostile camps—that of those who had the capital which tney wished to make the most of for themselves by industrial operations, on the one side: that of the skilled workers, without whose help these enterprises could not be carried out. The idea, practically on both sides, was that the interests of the two parties were essentially hostile to one another, and that a condition of warfare, either open or secret, was the only condition possible. It was in pursuance of this estimate of the situation that in America every effort was made to make the labour organisations as complete and effective as possible, and there can be no question that on the whole it was admirably done. The strike was, of course, the weapon looked to by Labour as the means of fighting Capital, and wresting from the employers from time to sme in the form of wages a greater share of the profits, and every energy was directed towards the object of making the strike effective. Consolidation, by means of which the united force of Labour could be used at any point to ensure the demands of the workers in some particular trade, or in some special district or State of the Union, wrts provided by the establishment of a Federation of Labour, the council of which should exercise a controlling influence over all organised unions. As a general rule strikes were not to take place without the previous knowledge and consent of this council, and it, on the other hand, was to bring financial or other assistance to the aid of the strikers. The result p,f this more perfect organisation was quickly felt. During the last 10 years- of the nineteenth century the increase of every kind of industrial enterprise in the country, which was enormous,, was itself exceeded, to an extent which increased year after year, by the number of strikes which occurred in nearly every department of industry. The record sounds gigantic when it is recorded that in a ©ingle year more than 3000 strikes and look-outs took place in different parts of the country, every one of which involved the work of many hundreds of mechanics, while not a few involved that of many th<»sands. After this had gone on for some ytars, without any change, a-t least in the direction of improvement, it began to dawn upon the practical minds of a good many persons in the party of the employers of skilled labour, as well as on many of the leaders among the unionists, that this system of warfare had many of the same objections as any other —that, in point of fact, it was too expensive. The employers of labour beg~an to see that the aggregate loss, caused by the stoppage of work for a month or two in a year, fell _ heavily on them, after all, as tiieir capital was locked up, and the expense of keeping things in readiness for the time when the strike or lock-out would come to an end was going on all the time. The workers felt, perhaps still more keenly, that even the concessions which they might hope to wring from the capitalist employers hardly made up for the present loss and suffering they called for in the getting; while in "case of non-success in the strike their case was bad indeed. It was true that since the coming in of the «w organisation the proportion of successes had been greater, and the sufferings of the actual strikers and their families somewhat less ; the percentage of failures was still serious, however, and the suffering was not a thing to make light of. even now. The first practical suggestion of the "Civic Federation of America" came from Chicago, which had for some years been a sort of storm centre of industrial disturbance in the country. As is generally true in such cases, nobody can say with any certainty to whom the credit is due of the original idea of forming a council of conciliation out of the ranks of labour and capital in equal proportions. The idea, at anyrate, was taken up by a few leading man, who were fortunate in securing the assistance of the man who has ever since, in the' position of general secretary, practically directed the operations of the society. Mr Raloh Easley is an excellent example of the tvnical administrative American, and his efforts in the work of starting the new federation were worthy of the higbpt appreciation. It was no easy undertak; ing to bring about » friendly conference between the leading men, both of industrial capital and organised labour, with a view to such an object, yet he succeeded in {fathering such a meeting at Chicago in December, 1900. as had never before met in America, and one that fully and fairlv represented the best elements both of Labour and Capital. _ The whole question was discussed by representative men on both sides in a friendly soirjt, with the result that a really national association was formed, to be named the Civic Federation of America, for the numose of acting as a mediating hodv in all dispute? between Labour and Caoitnl. Its functions _ were intended to be those of a conciliation board of an entirelv voluntary character, and its first council, elected at the great Chicago meeting.- was chosen in eaual numbers from the representatives of the two parties who were present. To these were afterwards added half as many more members, all of whom were men whose reputation for philanthropy was national, and whose snecial influence was likely to be great owing to their position and refutation