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Problems of Humanity - Chapter III - The Problem of Capital, Labor and Employment
Labor and Labor Unions have done noble work. Labor has been elevated into its rightful place in the life of the nations and the essential dignity of man has been emphasized. Humanity is being rapidly fused into one great corporate body under the influence of the Law of Supply and of Demand which is a point to be remembered. The destiny of the race and the power to make national and international decisions, affecting the whole of mankind, is passing into the hands of the masses, of the working classes and of the man in the street. The inauguration of the labor unions was, in fact, a great spiritual movement, leading to the uprising anew of the divine spirit in man and an expression of the spiritual qualities inherent in the race. Yet all is not well with the labor movement. The question arises whether it is not sorely in need of a drastic housecleaning. With the coming-in of labor governments in certain countries, with the growth of democracy and the demand for freedom, with the uprising of the rule of the proletariat in Russia, and the higher educational standard of the race, it might well appear that new, better and different methods may now be used to implement the Four Freedoms and to insure right human relations. If there is a realization that there should be right human relations among nations, it is obvious that such relations should exist also between capital and labor (composed as both groups are of [78] human beings) and between the quarreling labor organizations. Labor is today a dictatorship, using threat, fear and force to gain its ends. Many of its leaders are powerful and ambitious men, with a deep love of money and a determination to wield power. Bad housing, poor pay and evil conditions still exist everywhere and it is not in every case the fault of the employer. Power in the future lies in the hands of the masses. These masses are moving forward and by the sheer weight of their numbers, by their planned thinking and the rapidly growing interrelation now established between labor movements all over the world, nothing today can stop their progress. The major asset which labor has over capital is that it is working for countless millions whilst the capitalist works for the good of a few. The norm of humanity lies at the heart of the labor movement. We need to grasp somewhat this picture of a worldwide condition of misery, based on both the capitalistic and the labor movements, to see this entire picture realistically and fairly. In some form or another the interplay between capital and labor, between employer and employee and between the monied interests and the exploited masses has been present. With the steam age, the scientific age, the age of electricity and the age of planetary inter-communication, this evil grew and spread. Capital became more and more potent; Labor became increasingly restless and demanding. The culminating struggle was presented in the world war and its aftermath, a thirty year war in which capital implemented the war and the efforts of labor won it.
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