ompetition he is more likely to force the lowest wage that is
possible and to compel the workers to accept less favorable conditions
than if he were in more personal relations with them. Where the
immediate direction of an establishment is intrusted to paid managers
who are responsible to stockholders, the managers' success is judged
almost exclusively by the dividends they succeed in earning. Hence
they are under stronger and more persistent temptation than are active
owners to drive hard bargains with their employees. Many examples
might be found where managers and resident directors have wished to
pursue a more liberal policy than absentee shareholders would permit.

Sec. 2. #Need of common action among wage-workers.# These same industrial
changes caused employers, even earlier than it did employees, to have
something of a "class-conscious" feeling, which tempered the spirit
of their mutual competition, especially in bidding for the services
of workers. The smaller the number of employers the easier it is by an
understanding to suppress competition on their side. If there is only
one factory of a kind in a town the employer is able at times to drive
a harder bargain with his employees. Especially in times of industrial
depression is a change of employment difficult for the laborer,
involving for him much trouble and loss of time and money in moving.
But it is possible to exaggerate the degree to which competition among
employers of labor is weakened to-day. In the long run and at many
points competition must be felt in all such cases. The notoriously
unfair employer will find his workmen drifting away, his working-force
reduced in number and quality at times of greatest need, and his evil
reputation going abroad among workmen. A better realization of this
fact has led many employers to pursue a farther-sighted policy that
fosters a better understanding and a kindlier feeling on both sides of
the labor-contract.

Another effect of the growing size of business units is to give the
workers less personal acquaintance with each other. When they are
unorganized they have less unity, common opinion, and power than the
workers in the old-fashioned shop with its close personal acquaintance
and ready interchange of views. In the wilderness of a great modern
factory a worker may be unknown in name and interests to the man
touching elbows with him. Moreover, in America, differences in
nationality and in speech among immigrant w