The State and Industrial Conflict

Abstract

The state must lay down the conditions under which industry shall function. At the present time, there are, in this country, no accepted principles for the guidance or regulation of industrial relations. The public, with the exception of some fundamental guarantees, such as the right of a wage-earner to strike, to work for whom he pleases, and for an employer to enjoy property protection and to employ whomsoever he pleases, has not established any course of procedure for the guidance of employers and employees. Capital and labor have been left to themselves-to agree as to conditions and relations, or to fight it out. It has been assumed that the two parties to the labor question could agree, or work out their own basis of procedure. This assumption, however, has been found to be unsound. There has been no agreement, but, on the contrary, more extensive and bitter conflict. The stage has now been reached where there is no hope of agreement. The public must intervene, and, by legislative action, lay down the rights of labor, the rights of capital, and the predominant rights of the public, and establish the machinery for the interpretation and adjudication of these rights. A Magna Carta for industry must be written and sanctioned, in accordance with our democratic standards and ideals.