13. Wage relationship.—The tendency in the pay ment of wages is at present to adjust them more closely to the work performed. This is a primary purpose of piecework. The reduction of the term of service in time-work from a yearly, monthly or daily basis to an hourly basis points in the same direction. One result of this method of measuring work against pay is that the laborer is secure in his income only from hour to hour, while the shortest lay-off means a loss of income. This tendency in the payment of wages has. made the factory laborer feel that he is not a fixed part of the organization, and that his wages, both in amount and in regularity, depend upon the bargain ing power of his union. It is not surprising that his loyalty should be to the union rather than to his em ployer.
Here is the weakness of modern administration. Without loyalty there can be little cooperation, and without cooperation there can be no great advance in the science of administration, under our present com plex system of industry. The loyalty which the worker should give to the business is given to the work ingman's union. If the union iss strong, the worker can exercise thru it some influence upon the conduct of his employer's business, even tho he is denied any share in the control of the latter. The growing influ ence of the labor-union upon management policies is second to none in the realm of business administra tion. With the increasing influence over private enterprise that the working class is gaining thru union ism, the laborer is demanding a voice in the regulation of questions of administrative detail within the firm. The relations that the unions involve, include not only the fixings of standards of pay, but also questions of the output of the individual worker, the. conditions
and the regularity of employment, the proportion of apprentices to the number of adult workmen and the methods of procedure on the occasion of any disagree ment. All this means that the manager must share the administration of his business with an outside body in regard to many questions of internal organization.
14. Democracy and industrial freedom.—Every step in the solution of problems of employment rela tionship must tend toward democracy in industry. The manager who does not get this point of view is not taking advantage of the natural channels of pub lic opinion in his search for greater business efficiency. Professor Carver of Harvard University says: Two things and two things only are essential to real democracy ; the first is an open road to talent ; that is to say that every man shall have an opportunity to rise to positions of power and responsibility in proportion to his ability, regardless of birth, privilege, caste or other social barriers. The son of a peasant may become the ruler in government or the employer in business, by the sheer force of his own merit, if he happens to possess merit. The second essential of pure democracy is that they who are in positions of power and responsibility shall be made sensitive to the needs and desires and the interests of those over whom they exercise power and responsibility.
The opportunity to "make good" is the reward that modern methods emphasize as to be preferred to the bauble rewards of the older school. Such a policy means constant watchfulness on the part of managers but keeping the road open to talent can be made a practical working principle.