Eddy, Arthur Jerome: The new competition: an examination of the conditions underlying the radical change that is taking place in the commercial and industrial world ; the change from a competitive to a cooperative basis (New York [u.a.], 1912)

THE LABOR PROBLEM

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to the particular industry, but one that is often based upon
returns in other and wholly unrelated enterprises.

Ill
In the labor world wage scales are fixed by conferences
and councils of men who make no pretense to investigate
the ability of an individual enterprise to pay the rate.
Whether an employer is making money or not, he must
pay the union scale. A railroad may be in the hands of a
receiver; it matters not, it must meet the demands of the
unions or they will order strikes.
Labor as now organized cannot do otherwise; it cannot
advance wages on A and lower them to B; it cannot fix
the wages of firemen on the New York Central lines at so
much and a lower scale on the Pennsylvania, the Erie, the
Wabash, although the earnings of these roads and the
work on each differ so much that men may prefer to work
on one for less than they get from another.
Unions are in a difficult and ultimately untenable posi-
tion ; they are obliged to treat with employers on the theory
they have labor to sell, not on the theory that each em-
ployee has an interest in the business.
Collective bargaining is the only form of contract feas-
ible ; the unions cannot deal with individuals; they must lay
down rules and make wage scales for classes; if they at-
tempt to do otherwise the fabric of unionism as now built
up falls to the ground.
The attitude of employers is quite as inconsistent. They
deny their employees have any interest—much less any
voice—in the business, and in the same breath refuse to
meet and treat with the heads of employees’ unions.
If labor is a commodity, like coal, to be bought by each
employer as cheaply as he can, employees not only have