share and share alike, which means that the highest paid and lowest paid worker, and all between, receive the same amount either in common stock or cash, at the option of the directors. Divisions made once a year. Plan commences as of January 1, 1919. First division as soon as possible after January 1, 1920.

"It will be noticed in the careful study of this plan that no worker receives a share of profits in January, 1920, who was not on the payroll January 1, 1919, and this method of figuring length of serivee will apply each year thereafter.

"Any worker wishing to buy preferred stock in the new corporation paying 7 per cent. dividend, may apply before April 14, 1919, at Workers' Trust Company, Johnson City. There is no obligation on your part to buy this stock, nor will it affect your share in the profits. We consider it to your interest to purchase as much stock as you can.

"We have today the strongest and best leather and shoe business in the world. We shall continue to build and develop this business with your co-operation as rapidly as good conservative business judgment permits. We congratulate our workers that they are connected with EndicottJohnson Corporation. We congratulate the corporation that it has such a splendid organization of loyal workers. When we have good years you will share them with us; when we have poor years you will share the disappointments also. As time goes on and you save money and wish to be larger owners of the Endicott-Johnson stock we will always give you as working partners the preference.

"This plan, the result of years of study, hard work, careful and conscientious consideration, is offered as our best

conception of what industry really means. Just as long as this plan works satisfactorily to all concerned, it is our intention to continue it.

"In this announcement all our partners and the directors of the new corporation are in hearty agreement.

"During the first year of the corporation H. B. Endicott, Geo. F. Johnson, H. L. Johnson, Eliot Spalding, C. B. Lord, Geo. W. Johnson and H. W. Endicott, the former partners, will accept no salaries.

"H. B. ENDICOTT.
"GEO. F. JOHNSON."

"ENDICOTT-JOHNSON WORKERS

"THE SQUARE DEAL

"JOHNSON CITY, N. Y., March 11, 1920.

"We feel that the keynote of whatever success we have had in our business is due to the fact that our general manager started work at the bench about twenty-five years ago, and being a worker himself, has had the interest of the workers always in mind, and has never lost their viewpoint. The business has grown from 300 workers to 13,000 workers now employed, and during all these years there has been no labor trouble.

The men in charge of the different departments are not called foremen' or bosses,' but are called 'directors,' thus taking the right of discharge away from them. If we find the worker not fitted for the job he is on, he is transferred to another job which he is better suited for, and only in the last extremity is a man dismissed from the company.

"The open door policy' gives the worker the right to take any complaint that cannot be satisfied by the director or superintendent to the general manager, and each case is considered carefully and straightened out to the satisfaction of all concerned.

"In an effort to bring about a fair division of the profits of the industry between capital and labor, we have branched out into many activities, all of which tend to make this community a better place in which to live and work.

"In connection with our factories, we have seven or more restaurants where good, substantial meals are served three times a day for fifteen cents each.

"Our swimming pools, tennis courts and playgrounds in connection with the factories are used extensively by the workers and also by their families and the rest of the townspeople.

We have a medical department with a staff of seventeen doctors and twenty nurses and their services are free of charge to the workers and their families, and this service is being constantly enlarged. In connection with all our factories we have a first-aid hospital where all medical and injury cases are attended to. We also have a maternity hospital with services of doctor and hospital for any of the workers and their families.

"For the sum of ten cents each week, taken from the envelopes of the workers, they are made members of the sick relief association, and in case of sickness they are paid benefits of $15 each week during a period of ninety-five days and longer, if necessary. In the case of factory accident, 100 per cent wages are paid.

"Our recreation department has charge of our swimming pools, parks and playgrounds. Musicals are given each Sunday at the libraries in the two towns and during the summer band concerts are given in different parts of the towns. At Endicott, they have a park which contains dancing pavilion, band pagoda, a merry-go-round which is operated all during the day free of charge. Also has a half-mile race track which is the scene of many horse races. Community Hall located in Johnson is the scene of many dances and social affairs given by the different departments of the factories.

Our athletic association is in charge of all the factory ball teams and numerous athletic events which are held throughout the year, and by Spring of next year we expect to have two new clubhouses fully equipped with everything that goes to make up an athletic club house.

"We are enclosing you herewith clipping which explains our profit-sharing' plan which took effect March 1st of this year, of which 10,500 workers each shared $237.90. Each worker had to be in the service of the company for a year.

"We are also sending you a copy of the workers' magazine which is edited by our workers each month. This will give you an idea of what we are trying to attain.

"All of these activities are only incidental to the one big one which is that the workers who make possible the creation of the industry are entitled to a larger share of the returns from the business than they usually receive in the majority of other industries.

"We are also enclosing you herewith a little booklet which will describe what we are trying to do in the way of housing our workers. In further reference to the information contained therein, wish to say that at the present time we have about thirty houses ready for occupancy on this one tract and have built at least that many in different parts of the town. "We are also enclosing you a pamphlet containing an article on Capital and Labor' which we think might inter"Very truly yours,

est you. (BM.)

"ENDICOTT JOHNSON."

CHAPTER X

Labor's Solutions

COLLECTIVE BARGAINING

The principle of collective bargaining is by this time universally recognized. The only difference of any importance is a difference in interpreting the term or in applying it. The National War Labor Board adopted the following policy:

"The right of workers to organize in trade unions and to bargain collectively through chosen representatives is recognized and affirmed. This right shall not be denied, abridged or interfered with by the employers in any manner whatsoever."

A similar statement was made in 1913 by the British Industrial Council:

"The desirability of maintaining the principle of collective bargaining which has been so important a constituent in the industrial life of this country cannot be called into question, and we regard it as axiomatic that nothing should be done that would lead to the abandonment of a method of adjusting relationships between employers and work people, which has proved so mutually advantageous throughout most of the trades of the country."

The other side of the question is taken by the United States Supreme Court, in connection with the right of an employer to discharge a man because he joins a union. Judge Harlan stated in the Adair case (208 U. S. 161):

"The right of a person to sell his labor upon such terms as he deems proper is, in its essence, the same as the right of the purchaser of labor to prescribe the conditions upon which he will accept such labor from the person offering to sell it. So the right of the employee to quit the service of the employer, for whatever reason, is the same as the right of the employer, for whatever reason, to dispense with the service of such employee. It was the legal right of the defendant Adair . . . to discharge Coppage because of his being a member of a labor organization, as it was the legal right of Coppage, if he saw fit to do so to quit the service in which he was engaged, because the defendant

.

employed some persons who were not members of a labor organization. In all such particulars the employer and the employee have equality of right, and any legislation that disturbs that equality is an arbitrary interference with liberty of contract which no government can legally justify in a free land."

The particular phase of collective bargaining that came to the front in connection with the steel strike of the autumn of 1919 was a difference of interpretation. In this case the question of collective bargaining was inextricably mixed with the question of the open or closed shop. Judge Gary insisted that he was perfectly willing to acknowledge the right of his employees to treat with him collectively, but that he would not recognize the right of any individual or groups of individuals who did not belong to his plant to undertake to represent the employees of his plant in presenting claims on their behalf. This was also connected with the problem elsewhere discussed as to the rights of outside influences to intimidate the workmen of a plant into joining a union. The majority of employers are perfectly willing to negotiate collectively, provided there is no interference with the right of individual workmen to negotiate individually with the company.

This question is so inextricably interwoven with that of the Open and Closed Shop that we defer further consideration of it to Ch. XII. The attitude of the American Federation of Laber is that the recognition of collective bargaining is illusory without the recognition of the union as a party to the arrangement.

CO-OPERATIVES

The co-operative movement is at last taking root in the United States. As early as 1917, the American Federation of Labor, at its annual convention, went on record as advocating Consumers' co-operation, and the subject is to come up again at the next annual meeting.

The First National Co-operative Convention of the American movement was held at Springfield, Illinois, in September, 1918, under the auspices of the Co-operative League of America. Delegates and representatives came from all parts of the United States, including many representatives of labor. The papers and discussions were largely by workingmen. There were 185 delegates from 386 co-operative societies. A single labor delegate represented 285,000 railroad men. Another delegate was the president of an