their trade and with their men, employing from one to ten men, and are in constant personal relations with their help. We think we can safely say that the number of employers in the larger concerns is not greater than 300,000. Moreover, of the 12,000,000 workmen, 5,000,000 at the most may be set aside as salaried employees and as persons working in the smaller establishments. This leaves us an army of 7,000,000 wage earners, who may be said to be working for 300,000 employers, and the majority of these employers are not human beings, but corporations. as is every member of society, and, in a earners. Such figures for 1910 as are available show no very material alteration in these proportions. With one significant exception: the number of individual employers is growing less, the unit employment is growing larger. In 1905, the figures show that 11.2 per cent. of the total number of manufacturing establishments controlled 81.5 per cent. of the capital invested in manufacture; employed 71.6 per cent. of the wage earners That is to say, of our whole population engaged in manufacture; and produced in 1900, about one third, or 29,000, 000, were "engaged in gainful occupations," and of this number, the militants may be said to be 7,000,000 wage earners on one side, and 300,000 wage distributors on the other. This computation eliminates the farmer and his help, because there is practically no wage war on the land. The domestic servant, the employee of the little establishments, and the salaried employee is likewise eliminated A STRUCTURAL IRON WORKER A MEMBER OF A UNION THAT HAS AN UNSAVORY REPUTATION FOR VIOLENCE from the controversy. A salary somehow is an industrial sedative. The "black-coated proletariat," clerks, bookkeepers, etc., often earn less than mechanics and brick layers, but they wear boiled shirts and are meekly content with their neat jobs. We have, then, narrowed down the forces that make the "labor problem," and they are only a minor portion of the population. There is the large, unorganized, more or less weak, more or less soft and complaining mass, to which you and I belong, called vaguely the public. We are consumers, 79.3 per cent. of the total manufactured product. One tenth of all the business units control eight tenths of the manufacturing business of America: and seven tenths of our factory workers are dependent upon this handful of corporations for their daily bread. The transportation systems are even more centralized. There are many hundreds of railways in the United States employing 1,700,000 men. But you can count on your fingers the number of systems that control every mile of this marvelous net-work of steel that binds our country into an industrial unity. The reports of the Interstate Commerce Commission show that every year the number of "independent operating roads," is diminishing. There are no authentic figures, but those best qualified say that there are 500 "trusts" in the United States. These virtually control the leading industries: iron and steel, coal and coke, cotton and clay products, farm machinery and ship building, salt and sugar; whatever you wear, whatever you eat, whatever you E A TRADE IN WHICH THE UNION FORCES ARE OFTEN BADLY DEMORALIZED BY THE INFLUX OF CHEAP, FOREIGN LABOR The rest of the 2,000,000 employers are smaller corporations, partnerships, and individual business men-whose capital ranges between $100,000 and $1,000,000. The corporation world is thus organized, and becomes yearly more centralized not only for controlling the markets but also the National Metal Trades Association, organized to embrace only one trade. There are such associations in several trades; stoves and furnaces, metal foundry work, machine construction, publishing and printing, marble cutting, and clothing. Some associations bargain with the unions, aggressive set of officers and counsel, who fought the Danbury Hat case and the Bucks Stove case through the courts. The Bucks Stove case will be of far-reaching effect upon labor legislation, public opinion, and judicial procedure. It may be the Dred-Scott case of American industrialism. The great "trusts," the omnipotent 500, are averse to trade unions and are trying various ways of conciliating their workmen and keeping them out of the reach of the organizer. It will be interesting to see how they will succeed. The Steel Trust is now trying to ward off the mesmeric passes of Samuel Gompers and the fiery apostles of the International Workers of the World. So great is the influence of the powerful trusts that, if they are sincere and wise, they can be helpful in pointing a way out of a perplexing situation. Opposed to this group of employers is the army of labor, the 7,000,000 who are dependent upon their daily toil for their like the garment workers and the newspaper publishers. Others have dickered with the unions but have come to no agreement and are now fighting like the National Founders Association, while still others are hostile to every form of trade agreement or union recognition and want. only the "open shop," - like the Metal Trades Association. The Metal Trades Association and the National Founders Association have labor bureaus, which furnish men "without cards" to such of their members as are in need of help; they have expert strike breakers, they scout every skirmish line, know everything that is going on in their shops, have every resource of treasure and clever brains, and are full of fight. These hostile forces have also organized the Anti-Boycott Association to conduct the legal battles against the unions. The list of members of this organization is not published. They have a vigilant and Copyright by Paul Thompson MR. JOHN WHITE PRESIDENT OF THE 300,000 MINERS IN THE UNITED MINE WORKERS OF AMERICA. IN 1897 THE MEMBERSHIP WAS ONLY 10,000. ITS ANNUAL INCOME IS $900,000. AFTER SPENDING $1,890, 000 IN BENEFITS IN THE ANTHRACITE STRIKE, IT HAD $750,000 LEFT IN ITS WAR CHEST THE MONUMENT TO MARTIN FOX, THE GREAT LEADER OF THE MOLDERS WHO SIGNED THE FIRST COLLECTIVE TRADE AGREEMENT WITH AN ORGANIZED EMPLOYERS' ASSOCIATION IN THIS COUNTRY. FROM LEFT TO RIGHT, JOHN P. FREY, EDITOR OF THE "INTERNATIONAL IRON MOLDERS' JOURNAL"; FRANK MORRISON, SECRETARY, AND SAMUEL GOMPERS, PRESIDENT, OF THE AMERICAN FEDERATION OF LABOR, WHICH HAS 2,000,000 MEMBERS; AND JOSEPH F. VALENTINE, PRESIDENT OF THE MOLDERS' UNION |