The Capitalist Manifesto

"Labor is not merely a commodity, to be bought and sold, used and discarded . . . Even if men are well fed, clothed and housed, it will not be enough . . . [Man] must feel that he is more than an automaton, a cog in a machine." In these forceful phrases last week, 48 business, labor and religious leaders issued what might well be called a Capitalist Manifesto.

Out to the President of the U.S., Congress, state governors and 7,000 editors, educators, clergymen and rabbis all over the U.S. went free copies of the remarkable document--a 52-page book, Human Relations in Modern Business (Prentice-Hall; 80-c-). The work that went into the book had been started three years before by Robert Wood Johnson, chairman of Johnson & Johnson (surgical dressings), wartime vice chairman of WPB, chairman of the Smaller War Plants Corp. and longtime spokesman for enlightened business policies.

Johnson had talked his ideas over with such men as the Rev. John F. Cronin, assistant director of the National Catholic Welfare Conference, A.F.L. Economist Boris Shishkin, C.I.O. Secretary-Treasurer James B. Carey, Libbey-Owens-Ford's President John D. Biggers, RCA's President Frank Folsom, Macy's President Jack I. Straus, and U.S. Chamber of Commerce President Herman Steinkraus. Their final report called for nothing less than revolution in the basic approach to labor-management relations.

Not Bread Alone. The manifesto set forth that the root of labor's past unrest and dissatisfaction was management's own failure, all too often, to "meet the needs of man's moral and social nature." His needs went far deeper than a good wage. They included the need of recognition of his dignity as an individual, his desire for the esteem of others, and the assurance of a decent living and a secure future.

How could such needs be met? A start could be made, said the report, at the employment office: applicants should be "welcomed, not merely tolerated." Once hired, an employee should be educated, beyond the narrow limits of his own job, to the broad aspects of company policy, thus giving him "pride in his job and pride in his company."

Employees' opinions should be sought in advance on any important changes, thus giving them a sense of participation. Though workers had joined unions to get this sense of participation, the report said: "There is no basic conflict between workers' loyalty to their company and their allegiance to the union."

Certain Inalienable Rights. Business has not done a good job in making its case to labor, the report implied, and must do much better. Management must convince labor that "both are concerned that employees have good jobs and a constantly improved standard of living." This could be achieved only by increased productivity, even though labor was "frequently suspicious and even hostile" to such plans. "If business can convince workers that higher production means an increased standard of living for all . . . we can look forward to ever-increasing prosperity."

Part of the workers' opposition to plans to increase productivity arose from their fear of insecurity, i.e., technological unemployment. Thus, as a fundamental concept, management must recognize the right to a job at a "moral wage" (i.e., enough to keep an entire family on a decent living standard), and the right to security of employment. Such things as pensions and annual wages were "obviously desirable from the psychological and ethical points of view," whatever practical difficulties lie in the way.

For both business and labor, said the report, the threat of another depression is the chief cause for a feeling of insecurity, since it would bring ever-increasing control of business by government. The remedy is for business and labor to get together now and try to stave off a depression by formulating their own plans to preserve a stable economy.

The alternative was plain: "In great areas, the state is supreme and absolute, imposing its rule upon its subjects without their consent. We believe that free men can achieve more than slaves. But to implement this ideal, we must accept the responsibilities that go with freedom . . . This is our challenge and our opportunity."

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