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THE COAL TRADE BULLETIN. 27
RELATIONS BETWEEN EMPLOYER AND EMPLOYED DISCUSSED
BY MR. F. L. ROBBINS.*
In this greatest workshop of the world there is
no subject in which we are more vitally interested
than in the relations existing between the employer
and the employed.
The people of this community, taking Pittsburgh
as the center, and including the Monongahela,
East Liberty, Chartiers, Beaver and alahoning
valleys and the Connellsville coking field, are
dominant in the manufacturing, coal mining and
coke producing industries of this country, and
must assume the responsibility, whether they duesire
it or not. of setting the pace for the whole
eountry by their treatment of each other in their
relative positions of employer and employe.
When your committee invited me to speak to
you and asked me to choose my subject, I felt that
as an employer speaking to a body composed of
employers I should like to present some thoughts
on this subject so near my heart, and one in which
we are all so deeply concerned.
The interests represented by capital and labor
are reciprocal, and I Delieve each has an equal
right to organize, subject to the laws of the United
States. Combinations whose values are equal to
capitalization, their acts open to government inspection,
their results made public by published
yearly statements, managed by fair-minded conservative
men, are of benefit to their employes and
the public at large.
Labor unions founded upon right principles.
under the leadership of honest, conservative officers,
are necessary for the protection of employes,
and often an aid to the employer who is willing
to pay just wages and establish fair conditions.
but is hampered by employers who are not.
Every now and then yon hear a man say I am
going to run my own business and not be dictated
to by my employes, and as like as not he is asso
ciated with his competitors in an organization or
pool where the majority makes the prices at
which he sells his commodity or restricts his
product. His position is thoroughly inconsistent,
and you cannot successfully deal with labor and be
inconsistent. Fair treatment from both sides.
recognition of each other's natural rights and absolute
adherence to contracts are essential. It
is only through such means that prejudice and
opposition will give way and confidence between
employer and employe can be established. Labor
cannot be enslaved, neither can capital be intimidated
without conflict and loss to each.
•President F. L. Robbins of the Pittsburgh Coal Co., spoke on
this topic at the dinner, October HI, given by the Merchants and
Manufacturers Association, at Pittsburgh Country Club. Ihe
speech is given herewith in its entirety.
Mutual agreements are much better than compulsory
laws or arbitration, and more satisfactory
to both the employer and employe, but if capital
and labor do not unite in making joint trade agreements
a successful method of settling wage question,
compulsory laws will become a necessity.
Sympathetic strikes are an abomination and a
menace to organized labor, and national lalior
leaders are opposed to them. They should be
fought by employers and employes and frowned
upon by the public.
In the interstate agreement of bituminous
operators and miners, which is such a conspicuous
example of joint trade agreement as affecting the
greatest number of people, it is expressly agreed
that no sympathetic strike shall be permitted,
and experience has shown us that a wage agreement
is regarded by the miners as binding and
must be observed during the term of contract. All
labor organizations should do the same.
My experience with labor leaders is that responsibility
tends toward conservatism, and I have
never known a successful labor leader who did not
become more conservative as his experience and
responsibility increased. Experience and reason
teach them that labor's best interests lie in harmonious
relations with capital, and that they
must control, direct and guide their less intelligent
fellow men into such relationship wherever
it is possible.
It is the duty of employers to become personally
familiar with trade conditions, and not dele
gate to others their responsibilities in the matter
of establishing wages and conditions under which
the labor is performed. Too often employers
trust the establishing of wages entirely to subordinates
whose recommendations are accepted
without personal investigation.
In the Pittsburgh Coal Co. we have endeavored
to show our interest in the welfare of our employes
in a practical manner. Shortly after our
organization we inaugurated a method to enable
the employes to share in the profits. We formed
an Employes' Association through winch the employes
could purchase the preferred stock of the
company by the payment of one dollar per share
per month, the company carrying the loan at five
per cent, interest. This plan has been the means
of permitting a great many of the company's employes
to make saving that otherwise they would
not have made. The plan has interested them
also in the success OL tne company, and its direct
benefits are shown in the friendly feeling existing
between the officials of the company and its em-