Cooperation between Employers and EmployeesCompany Unions.-The changed economic life described by the three emi-nent men just quoted was acknowledged by several great companies and busi-ness concerns.All over the country decided efforts were made to bridge the gulf which industry and the corporation had created.Among the devices adopted was that of the "company union."In one of the Western lumber mills,for ex-ample,all the employees were invited to join a company organization;they held monthly meetings to discuss matters of common concern;they elected a "shop committee"to confer with the representatives of the company;and periodically the agents of the employers attended the conferences of the men to talk over matters of mutual interest.The function of the shop committee was to consider wages,hours,safety rules,sanitation,recreation and other problems.When-ever any employee had a grievance he took it up with the foreman and,if it was not settled to his satisfaction,he brought it before the shop committee.If the members of the shop committee decided in favor of the man with a grievance,they attempted to settle the matter with the company's agents.All these things failing,the dispute was transferred to a grand meeting of all the employees with the employers'representatives,in common council.A deadlock,if it ensued from such a conference,was broken by calling in impartial arbitrators selected by both sides from among citizens outside the mill.Thus the employees were given a voice in all decisions affecting their work and welfare;rights and griev-ances were treated as matters of mutual interest rather than individual concern.Representatives of trade unions from outside,however,were rigidly excluded from all negotiations between employers and the employees.
Profit-sharing.-Another proposal for drawing capital and labor together was to supplement the wage system by other ties.Sometimes lump sums were paid to employees who remained in a company's service for a definite period of years.Again they were given a certain percentage of the annual profits.In other instances,employees were allowed to buy stock on easy terms and thus becomepart owners in the concern.This last plan was carried so far by a large soap manufacturing company that the employees,besides becoming stockholders,secured the right to elect representatives to serve on the board of directors who managed the entire business.So extensive had profit-sharing become by 1914that the Federal Industrial Relations Committee,appointed by the President,deemed it worthy of a special study.Though opposed by regular trade unions,it was undoubtedly growing in popularity.
Labor Managers and Welfare Work.-Another effort of employers to meet the problems of the new age appeared in the appointment of specialists,known as employment managers,whose task it was to study the relations existing be-tween masters and workers and discover practical methods for dealing with each grievance as it arose.By 1918,hundreds of big companies had recognized this modern "profession"and universities were giving courses of instruction on the subject to young men and women.In that year a national conference of em-ployment managers was held at Rochester,New York.The discussion revealed a wide range of duties assigned to managers,including questions of wages,hours,sanitation,rest rooms,recreational facilities,and welfare work of every kind designed to make the conditions in mills and factories safer and more hu-mane.Thus it was evident that hundreds of employers had abandoned the old idea that they were dealing merely with individual employees and that their ob-ligations ended with the payment of any wages they saw fit to fix.In short,they were seeking to develop a spirit of co?peration to take the place of competition and enmity;and to increase the production of commodities by promoting the efficiency and happiness of the producers.
The Rise and Growth of Organized Labor
The American Federation of Labor.-Meanwhile a powerful association of workers representing all the leading trades and crafts,organized into unions of their own,had been built up outside the control of employers.This was the American Federation of Labor,a nation-wide union of unions,founded in 1886on the basis of beginnings made five years before.At the time of its establish-ment it had approximately 150,000members.Its growth up to the end of the century was slow,for the total enrollment in 1900was only 300,000.At that point the increase became marked.The membership reached 1,650,000in 1904and more than 3,000,000in 1919.To be counted in the ranks of organized la-bor were several strong unions,friendly to the Federation,though not affiliated with it.Such,for example,were the Railway Brotherhoods with more than half a million members.By the opening of 1920the total strength of organized labor was put at about 4,000,000members,meaning,if we include their families,that nearly one-fifth of the people of the United States were in some positive way dependent upon the operations of trade unions.