ndustrial
difficulties lies not in expert machinery, however perfect, for the
adjustment or avoidance of troubles. "Industrial peace must come not
as a result of the balance of power with a supreme court of appeal in
the background. It must arise as the inevitable by-product of mutual
confidence, real justice, constructive good will."[3]

[Footnote 3: From Constitution of Industrial Council for the
Building Industry, England.]

Any improved industrial condition in the future must take as its
foundation the past one hundred years of American industry. The fact
that this foundation was not built of mutual confidence, real justice,
constructive good will is what makes the task of necessary
reconstruction so extremely difficult. Countless persons might be
capable of devising the mechanical approach to peace and
prosperity--courts of arbitration, boards of representation, and the
like. But how bring about a change of heart in the breast of millions?

It is a task so colossal that one would indeed prefer to lean heavily
on the shoulders of an all-wise Providence and let it go with the
consoling assurance that, as to a solution, "the Lord will provide."
But the echoes of recriminations shouted by each side against the
other; the cries of foul play; the accusations of willful injustice;
the threats of complete annihilation of capital by organized labor, of
organized labor by capital--must reach to heaven itself, and
Providence might well pause in dismay. Constructive good will? Where
make a beginning?

The beginnings, however, are being made right on earth, and here and
now. It is a mistake to look for spectacular changes, reforms on a
large scale. Rather do the tendencies toward mutual understanding and
this all-necessary good will evince themselves only here and there, in
quiet experiments going on in individual plants and factories. The
seed will bear fruit but slowly. But the seed is planted.

Planted? Nay, the seed has been there forever, nor have the harshest
developments in the most bloodless of industries ever been able to
crush it out. It is part and parcel of human nature that we can love
more easily and comfortably than hate, that we can help more readily
than hinder. Flourishing broadcast through all human creation is
enough good will to revolutionize the world in a decade. It is not the
lack of good will. Rather the channels for its expression are
blocked--blocked by the haste and worry of modern life