, they do
reveal a desire on the part of the workers to exert a larger and more
organic influence in the processes of industrial life. They want better
assurance that they will receive a just proportion of their share of
production. I do not believe those desires are to be discouraged. They
should be turned into helpful and cooeperative channels. There is no
surer road to radicalism than repression.

One can only lead up to consideration of these problems by tracing some
features of our industrial development even though they may be trite to
most of you. One underlying cause of these discontents is that with the
growth of large plants there has been a loss of personal contact between
employers and employees. With the high specialization and intense
repetition in labor in industrial processes, there has been a loss of
creative interest. It is, however, the increased production that we have
gained by this enlargement of industry that has enabled the standard of
living to be steadily advanced. The old daily personal contact of
employer and employee working together in small units carried with it a
great mutuality of responsibility. There was a far greater understanding
of the responsibilities toward employees and there was a better
understanding by employees of the economic limitations imposed upon the
employer. Nor can the direct personal contact in the old manner be
restored.

With the growth of capital into larger units, there was an inequality of
the bargaining power of the individual. Labor has therefore gradually
developed its defense against the aggregation of capital by
counter-organization. The organized uses of strike and lockout on either
side and the entrance of their organization into the political arena
have become the weapons for enforcement of demands. The large
development of industrial units with possible cessation of production
and service, through strikes and lockouts, penalizes the public. The
public is not content to see these conflicts go on, for they do not
alone represent loss in production, and thus lowering of the standard of
living, but also they may, by suspension of public service, jeopardize
the life of the community.

But the solution of the industrial problem is not solely the prevention
of conflict and its losses by finding methods of just determination of
wages and hours. Not only must solution of those things be found out
but, if we are to secure increased production and increased sta