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30 THE COAL TRADE BULLETIN.
THE SYSTEM OF JOINT TRADE AGREEMENTS. *
By Herman Justi, Commissioner Illinois Coal Operators Association.
The system of joint trade agreements, while
never generally adopted by the great industries
of the world, is not a new system, it having been
used for many years here and there, at home and
abroad, with varying degrees of success. When,
however, the system has been a success, this suc­
cess was due to the strict observance of business
honor and of correct business methods, and if the
system is ever the universal one to be observed
by capital and labor, it will be when the parties or
interests thereto strictly observe these fundamental
business principles. The system in the future,
therefore, will be anything from a gratifying suc­
cess to a mere make-shift, and from a mere makeshift
to a failure, in the exact degree in whicli
we adhere to or in which we depart from essential
fundamental virtues.
The advocate of almost any system usually,
quack-like, bestows upon it his unqualified praise,
and claims that it is perfect in both theory and
practice. This is extremely unfortunate, for the
reason that any system that is really meritorious,
or that in theory, at any rate, is essentially cor­
rect must suffer. It is unfortunate because those
he seeks to convince, having knowledge of whole
or partial failures, naturally conclude that the
whole system is wrong, because its advocate, either
in his too great zeal or in his too great reckless­
ness of statement, does not tell the whole truth.
Nothing else helps a good cause so much as candor,
or hurts it so much as does extravagant claim
or deception.
In my advocacy of the system of joint trade
agreements, I want to make it perfectly clear that
while I have found, as has been often charged,
that the system was at times one thing in theory
and another thing in practice, this discrepancy
was not due to any fault of the system itself, but
was due to the fact that the parties to these joint
trade agreements were themselves at fault.
I.AMOR Nor Til UK IGNORED IX BUSINESS.
It has always been incomprehensible to me that,
as business men, we should persist in ignoring the
element of labor under the ordinary rules of business.
We contract for our raw material after a
friendly conference with those who have raw materials
for sale, and, in turn, we dispose of our
products by friendly agreement with the buyer.
Why should we not treat labor, so far as the wage
question is concerned, as a commodity, and agree
to buy so much of it at such a price after a
friendly, business conference with those who have
labor for sale?
Now, this idea underlies, as I comprehend it, the
whole system of joint trade agreements. This
seems to me a good foundation—a solid basis—for
a wise, comprehensive system, through the medium
of whicli. employers and employes can best
determine the value, according to commercial or
competitive conditions, of that commodity which
the one class desires to buy and the other class
desires to sell.
I do not know who, in modern times, is entitled
to credit or honor for suggesting the system of
joint trade agreements, but the idea was no doubt
borrowed—and it is just as good even though it
was borrowed—from an ancient prophet.
More than 2,700 years ago, the Prophet Isaiah
said: "Come now, let us reason together." All
of our misunderstandings, all of our wars between
nations, and our industrial wars, without excep­
tion, are. I am confident, due to a failure in doing
what Isaiah proposed, and no misunderstanding is
ever settled, nor is any war ever ended, until the
disputants settle down to reason with each other.
Say what you will on the subject of labor disputes,
the fact remains that the great conflict be­
tween the forces of capital and labor can be
settled finally, only in one way, and that way is
by mutual agreement. You can settle its conflicts
temporarily by fighting—by whipping somebody—
but somehow they don't remain whipped, for no
sooner has that somebody been whipped than he
tomes again.
Right now the war between Russia and Japan
cannot be settled liy fighting—it will be settled according
to the plan of Isaiah, by "reasoning together."
This system of joint trade agreements is a common-sense,
practical and reasonable system, and
foi' no other people in the world is it so admirably
designed as for the citizens of a great democracy
like our own. But the opponents of this system
;'.re accustomed to offer many reasons for refusing
to recognize or adopt it. Indeed, some of the
friends of the system—friends who have operated
their industries under it for years—seem reluctant
to continue it.
Till: FAULT NOT WITH THE SYSTEM.
Again. I insist that the fault is not with the
system, but, as I have already observed, with those
doing business under it, and yet I can readily
understand the reluctance of the one class to adopt
it, and of the other class to continue it.
No one wishes to do business with an individual
•Address delivered at Joliet, III., Labor bay, Sept. firm, 4,1905. conipany, organization or community that