ility the general policy roughly sketched above will please
one side to the labor controversy as little as it does another. Union
leaders might compare the recognition received by the unions under the
proposed conditions to the recognition which the bear accords to the man
whom he hugs to death. They would probably prefer for the time being
their existing situation--that of being on the high road to the conquest
of almost unconditional submission. On the other hand, the large
employers believe with such fine heroism of conviction in the principle
of competition among their employees that they dislike to surrender the
advantages of industrial freedom to the oppressive exigencies of
collective bargaining. In assuming such an attitude both sides would be
right from their own class points of view. The plan is not intended to
further the selfish interest of either the employer or the union.
Whatever merits it has consist in its possible ability to promote the
national economic interest in a progressively improving general standard
of living, in a higher standard of individual work, and in a general
efficiency of labor. The existing system has succeeded hitherto in
effecting a progressive improvement in the standard of living, but the
less said the better about its effects upon labor-quality and
labor-efficiency. In the long run it looks as if the improvement in the
standard of living would be brought to an end by the accompanying
inefficiency of labor. At any rate the employers are now fighting for an
illusory benefit; and because they are fighting for an illusory benefit
they are enabling the unions to associate all sorts of dangerous
conditions with their probable victory. The proposed plan does not do
away with the necessity of a fight. The relations between labor and
capital are such that only by fighting can they reach a better
understanding. But it asks the employers to consider carefully what they
are fighting for, and whether they will not lose far more from a defeat
than they will gain from a successful defense. And it asks the unions to
consider whether a victory, gained at the expense of labor-efficiency,
will not deprive them of its fruits. Let the unions fight for something
they can keep; and let the employers fight for something they will not
be sure to lose.

The writer is fully aware of the many difficulties attending the
practical application of any such policy. Indeed it could not be worked
at all, unless t