Industrial democracy

“ This is political democracy—"government of the people, for the people, by the people." Industrial democracy is the application of the principles concisely stated in this motto, to the organization of industry; it is the doctrine of wealth of the people, for the people, by the people. In this article I desire to set forth the essential characteristics of this industrial democracy, toward which I believe all industrial changes are tending and will eventually peacefully carry us.
The wealth of the nation is wealth of the people; that is, it springs from the people. ”

“ To democratize industry, so that along with democracy in government there may be a true industrial democracy, is the task that lies ahead.
A New Conception of Industry With the new spirit must come also a wholly new conception of industry. ”

“ The people who understand an industry are those who work in it; and the way to combine democracy with efficiency is to make each industry a self-governing unit, and confine the part of government to supervision, and the regulation of prices. Let us have an industrial constitution and an industrial parliament, and let every man become a citizen of industry, with a voice in the control, and equal rights with all other citizens. ”

“ If the foundations of democracy are thus seen to be sound, how are we going to make democracy effective where it now fails to function—particularly in industry? The Marxists assert that industrial democracy will automatically follow public ownership of machines and materials. Their opponents object that nationalization of machines and materials would not suffice because the mass of people do not understand the industrial process. ”

“ I will not say that our industrial democracy secures all the advantages of each other form of government, and escapes from all their ills. It is a new experiment, not complete nor perfect. Its present form, even in the most enlightened State, is quite imperfect. What the steam-engine and printing-press were fifty years ago, compared with what they are now, that is the industrial democracy of this day, compared with its future glories. ”

“ Industrial Democracy comes only by the desire and with the consent of a conscious class—an organic division of the people—and that class is the machine proletariat; the workers trained in the processes of industry, experienced in social production, living and working on an identical plane of material interest, subjected to the same economic influences, constant, stable, harmonious, and capable of discipline and responsibility. ”

“ Industrial democracy may be quite willing that the ratio of profit between brain worker and brawn worker, between captains of industry and privates of industry, be left to be determined in a free and open market by the law of demand and supply; but it insists, and will insist more and more strenuously, that the wealth which is not the product of individual labor shall not become individual property; that what is by its nature common wealth shall remain wealth common to all the people. ”

“ Industrial democracy carries this evolution one stage further. It is the necessary corollary of religious and political democracy. If the people are competent to govern an empire, they are competent to govern a cotton mill; if they can select servants to administer a treasury department, they can choose servants to carry on banking; if they can conduct a gigantic civil war to a fortunate conclusion, they can conduct civil industries with successful results; if they can select their own captains for a few years of military service, they can choose their own captains of industry. ”

“ It is surprising that, while men and women have struggled to achieve political democracy, so little has been done to introduce democracy in industry. I believe incalculable benefits might result from industrial democracy, either on the coöperative model or with recognition of a trade or industry as a unit for purposes of government, with some kind of Home Rule such as syndicalism aims at securing. ”

“ And as it is our pride to establish before the political world the worth of our political institutions; so should we solve our industrial problems and show to the industrial world the advantages of democracy operating practically in industry. Let us show that the spirit and aroused skill and ingenuity of our loyally co-operating labor will reduce the costs of production while largely increasing its output, to the advantage of mankind and the credit of our nation founded on individual freedom. ”

“ Industrial democracy implies the joint direction of industrial policies by employer and employees, working together harmoniously and in the spirit of equality. When industrial democracy is attained, according to this view, mutual trust and the spirit of friendly co÷peration will enable labor and capital to adjust their differences peaceably and economically, without dictation from any outside source.
QUESTIONS ON THE TEXT 1. Why are we accustomed to speak of labor and capital as the two chief factors in production? ”

“ But the significance of the party's action is the new interpretation which it is beginning to give industrial democracy. It is evident where state ownership is contemplated that the old idea that industry would pass under the administrative direction of government officials, is replaced by the growing intention and desire of labor to assume responsibility for administration whether industry is publicly or privately owned. The Party stands for the "widest possible participation both economic and political ... in industry as well as in government." ”

“ The whole labor movement, with its organizations of workingmen, its labor legislation, its strikes and boycotts, its brotherhood of industry, its demand for shorter hours and larger wages, its rude and sometimes barbaric attempts to exercise control over industrial enterprises in which it has no capital invested, its attempts at profit-sharing and cooperation, its proposed nationalization of land and of industries, is all a movement toward industrial democracy ”

“ The purpose of the "Revolutionary Working Class" is to build and use an "Industrial Democracy"—a form of society based upon man's necessity to harmonize himself with the method by which he produces and distributes his living. ”

“ And in face of the common enemy—now united as an autocratic capitalism—Industrial Democracy is uncertain of itself, and almost blindly groping after a precise adjustment of powers and functions between Associations of Producers and Associations of Consumers. ”

“ It is, indeed, the antipodes of democracy, for democracy assumes in men a competence for organization, political, educational, industrial. The one is founded upon a profound distrust of man, the other upon a profound faith in him. Industrial democracy is not nationalism or state socialism. It does not confound the functions of government and of industry ”

“ From this point of view it is possible that the masters of industry may prove to be not so much an incipient aristocracy as the pathfinders for democracy in reducing the industrial world to systematic consolidation suited to democratic control. The great geniuses that have built up the modern industrial concentration were trained in the midst of democratic society. ”

“ Organized at first upon the outside, it must eventually move the union meeting place into the shop, and function there producing and distributing the living of the world.
Like the bird in the egg, the physical portion of the Industrial Democracy already exists within the framework of modern society. The lands, the tools and the machinery of production and distribution are well nigh perfect, and a working population, trained in the processes of industry, functions at the machines. The quickening of this mass into life is the next necessary step. ”

“ Industrial democracy means giving the wage-workers, through collective bargaining, a voice in the determination of their share in the joint product. It does not mean the domination of the business by the men and the subjugation of the employer, though this is the employer's apprehension, and this is the notion that sometimes gets into the workingman's head. ”

“ The invention of steam, the spinning jenny, and the power loom, created a necessity for organized labor. Individualism gave place to combination, and combination created capitalism. I believe, and it is this faith which I wish to set before my readers in this article, that, as slavery gave place to serfdom and serfdom to the wages system, so in time the wages system will give place to industrial democracy.
What is industrial democracy? Aristotle divided government into three classes—government by the one, government by the few, government by the many. ”

“ The present century is an age of industrial stress and change, and it is possible that the ultimate solution of the disputes between labor and capital has not yet been advanced. From the data now at hand, however, it is maintained by many that labor disputes must ultimately be eradicated through the development of industrial democracy. ”

“ We can bring to birth the new world from the ashes of the old,
For the Union makes us strong.
The present is distinctively an industrial epoch in world history. There can be no democracy in a world ruled by industrial despots. The I. W. W. stands for the only REAL democracy—Industrial Democracy.
One worker on the job is worth a dozen in the jungles. ”

“ But how about the accumulation of goods due to thrift and intelligence—would democracy in industry interfere here to such an extent as to discourage enterprise and make impossible the intelligent direction of the mighty and intricate industrial process of modern times?
The knowledge of what to do in industry and how to do it in order to attain the resulting goods rests in the hands and brains of the workers and managers, and the judges of the result are the public. ”

“ Indeed, in any true philosophy, it must be held that in the economic forces which control the material prosperity of a population lie the real causes of its political institutions, its social class-adjustments, its industrial prosperity, its moral code, and its world-philosophy. If democracy and the industrial system are both products of the economic conditions which exist, it is plainly absurd to set democracy to defeat those conditions in the control of industry. ”

“ We proceed to summarize the advantages that, it is urged, would follow the inauguration of this industrial democracy:
(1) All industries could be organized and centralized. A vast amount of human effort could be saved, and waste eliminated. Business would no longer, as so often now, be hampered for lack of funds to carry out plans. A special staff could be retained to invent and apply new ideas. ”

“ In their keenness to be social saviors the politicians, who usually know very little about industry, fail to realize that the workers must control the industries through their own associations, if the spirit of democracy is to be preserved and promoted. Working class control of the industries means democratic participation and control in all production and in the social life flowing from it ”

“ This is worth remembering when it is urged that the incentive of profit is essential to industrial development, especially in view of the conspicuous success of the experiment. More to our immediate point, however, is that this is a definite experiment in democratic control, for the organisation in which the ultimate control of the woollen industry was vested is composed of thirty-three members, eleven each being appointed by the Government, the Employers’ Associations, and by the Trade Unions. ”

“ Only after we have mastered the principles upon which American industry is based, shall we be in a position to solve the problems which arise directly from the nature of our economic organization.
46. INDUSTRIAL REFORM.—Our industrial life is so clearly based upon certain fundamental institutions, such as private property, free contract, and free competition, that an industrial "system" is said to exist. Certain great evils, notably poverty, have accompanied the development of this system. ”

“ Still confining ourselves to the economic interests, we should find it necessary to secure that the labour unions shall find effective representation in the legislative organisation; and so long as private ownership of industrial plant is permitted, the same thing is true of employers’ associations as well. But it is plain that while industry is subject to this antagonism of interests within itself, it is not likely to minister to the public interest as effectually as we have a right to require of it. ”

“ I do not believe that any formula can be framed which will by the magic of some chemical process convert a purely selfish economic motive into an unqualified public economic benefit. But some such plan as that proposed above may enable an industrial democracy to get over the period of transition between the partial and the complete adaptation of these companies to their place in a system of national economy. ”

“ I expect to see a change throughout the world, which will take the great instruments of production which we call corporations and trusts, out of the hands of their present private owners, and make them the property, either of the entire community, or of those who do the work in them. This change is the "social revolution," and when it has completed itself, we shall have in that society an Industrial Republic, a form of business management which constitutes economic democracy. ”