trouble there in 1892 could have arisen. The scale at the
steel-rail mills, introduced in 1889, has been running up to the
present time (1914), and I think there never has been a labor
grievance at the works since. The men, as I have already stated,
dissolved their old union because there was no use paying dues to a
union when the men themselves had a three years' contract. Although
their labor union is dissolved another and a better one has taken its
place--a cordial union between the employers and their men, the best
union of all for both parties.

It is for the interest of the employer that his men shall make good
earnings and have steady work. The sliding scale enables the company
to meet the market; and sometimes to take orders and keep the works
running, which is the main thing for the working-men. High wages are
well enough, but they are not to be compared with steady employment.
The Edgar Thomson Mills are, in my opinion, the ideal works in respect
to the relations of capital and labor. I am told the men in our day,
and even to this day (1914) prefer two to three turns, but three turns
are sure to come. Labor's hours are to be shortened as we progress.
Eight hours will be the rule--eight for work, eight for sleep, and
eight for rest and recreation.

There have been many incidents in my business life proving that labor
troubles are not solely founded upon wages. I believe the best
preventive of quarrels to be recognition of, and sincere interest in,
the men, satisfying them that you really care for them and that you
rejoice in their success. This I can sincerely say--that I always
enjoyed my conferences with our workmen, which were not always in
regard to wages, and that the better I knew the men the more I liked
them. They have usually two virtues to the employer's one, and they
are certainly more generous to each other.

Labor is usually helpless against capital. The employer, perhaps,
decides to shut up the shops; he ceases to make profits for a short
time. There is no change in his habits, food, clothing, pleasures--no
agonizing fear of want. Contrast this with his workman whose lessening
means of subsistence torment him. He has few comforts, scarcely the
necessities for his wife and children in health, and for the sick
little ones no proper treatment. It is not capital we need to guard,
but helpless labor. If I returned to business to-morrow, fear of labor
troubles would not enter my mind, but tenderness