The Commoner.
JUNE 13, 1)13
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Attitude of the Public Mind Toward Business
Secretary of Commerce William C. Redfield
Address beforo the National Association of
Employing Lithographer, Washington, May
14, 1913.
A tlmo of chango and adjustment to new con
ditions Is always one of peculiar Interest, and
the present hour forms no exception to tho rule.
It is a fact no one will question that in 1910
tho public elected a majority in tho lower
branch of congress pledged to a' reduction of
tariff duties. Measures to this end wero pre
pared and passed, receiving In some instances
tho approval of both houses, only to bo vetoed
by the president, himself a candidato for re
election. The issue was thus clearly joined,
and tho contest of 1912 was fought upon it.
There can bo no mistake about this. In tho
following election a house of representatives
was returned with a majority of almost 200
pledged to tariff reduction, tho former senato
majority was Teversed on the same issue, while
oxecutivo authority fell into the hands of those
similarly pledged.
Yet there are those who seem not to have
known that this was so. Men have come to
Washington to urge that tho thing be loft un
done which the men in authority are by honor
and by instructions bound to do, and have gone
so far in some instances as even to suggest that
it was hardly correct to really mean what one
said. Yet it would not be fair to draw a pic
ture wholly on 'these lines, for at least two
large manufacturers coming hither to have the
tariff maintained have admitted frankly to mo
that they did not need it for themselves, but
sought it for those in their industry less effl
cient than they, and I have on my desk a state
ment from a committee representing 200 fac
tories in one line doing a' yearly business of
about four hundred millions In which the first
words are: "The makers of implements desire
no tariff."
Meanwhile, a Gorman expert has been ex
plaining why American automobiles can be sold
for less than those of German make. A market
has arisen and is growing for American hosiery
in Europe itself, atid the exports of American
manufactures of all kinds sold in open competi
tion in the markets of the world have risen to
an average of nearly five million dollars per
diem for so much of the fiscal year as has
elapsed. The gospel of self-respect and of
American manhood is making its way, and tho
day of industrial fear is passing.
Yet there are those, and perhaps there are
some of them here, that have not grasped the
attitude of the public mind toward business,
and I desire to discuss frankly before this com
pany of business men what I conceive that atti
tude to be. It is proper perhaps to add the
purely personal note that all I have is invested
in American manufactories. It is my hope, so
far as I can, to aid, and not to hinder, Ameri
can industry. I believe that for it a day of
freedom has just begun and that we are shak
ing off the shackles of a real industrial slavery
to enter upon the arena of free competition,
strong, athletic, and vigorous, in which our
business will bo stronger and safer and in which
we shall be happier than before.
The public mind no longer regards business
as a matter chiefly the concern of him who, as
it has long been put, "owns" that business.
Once, I remember, when employed as a boy in
a great factory I .did not like something that
was done, and my superior said to me, "Can not
Mr. So-and-so do as he will with his own?" I
could not answer him at once, but after a day
or two I made up my mind he could not, and
told him so. It is less so today than it was
then. All sorts of restrictions are put by law
and opinion upon business that were not known
twenty-five years ago. The public mind no
longer admits that the so-called owner of a
business is the chief party in interest. It
asserts many obligations contrary to that theory.
Perhaps the first among these is the duty
owed to the operatives in the business. It is
not too much to say that public opinion demands
that operatives shall receive a living wage and,
so far as possible, continuous employment; that
they be freed from arbitrary reductions in the
daily wage or of the piece-work rate. The pub
lic conscience demands that they work under
healthful conditions, with amplo light, without
ovorspeeding, and with tho same provision for
tholr safety at their work that the employer
would desire for himself wore ho so employed.
Furthermore, public opinion is becoming sensi
tive on tho subject of overfatigue and recognizes
that the demand for reasonable working hours
has a sound physiological basis.
The greatest interest in our manufactures,
however, is that of the people, without whose
purchases the factories would close. They have
more at stake than anyone else, and they are
beginning to have very clear ideas respecting
their interest in our factories and how to look
after it. It is chiefly they who refuse to admit
any longer that the head of a great business
concern can do as ho will with what he pleases
to call his property. It is they who insist upon
tho treatment of the operatives as men and
women with minds and souls and not as ma
chines, and it Is they who are insisting now In
no uncertain way that the factory does not
fulfill its proper function unless It supplies at
a' reasonable price and of proper quality tho
goods they desire to buy. For though tho Idea
has been slow In growing It has become nearly
full-grown at last that the user has a right to
efficiency in tho manufacture of tho goods ho
uses. Ho knows now that inefficiency doeB him
harm and he is reaching a point whero ho will
have no more of it. Ho has been told so long
that the rule for him Is "caveat emptor," or in
other words "let tho buyer lookout," that ho
has at last taken tho lesson to heart and is be
ginning to look out. Out of this springs tho
fixed will that there shall be no industrial
monopoly. Out of It comes tho resentment at
special privileges in our industries; out of it
comes the wrath that looks at poverty In tho
mill compared with prosperity in the office. Wo
shall do ourselves injustice if wo do not read
clearly these signs of tho times and if wo do
not recognizo in them a moral purpose as sin
cere as it is mighty and based upon tho definite
convictions of men that their happiness and tho
comfort of their children is involved in tho
matter.
So there is growing up the thought finding
expression in many ways that the manufacturer
whoso methods are ineffective commits threo
wrongs: One toward himself, another toward
his workman, a third toward tho public. Tho
consumer today feels that he has a right to
efficiency, and he looks with small patience upon
those who would disguise inefficiency or who
would condone it. The duty rests upon every
manager of a factory to run an efficient shop.
Ah, but you say, competition looks after this.
There is no need for your urging tho matter,
you say, because the necessity for living and
earning makes men work out this problem for
themselves. But the facts are not so. The in
quiries made by the defunct tariff board into
the woolen, the cotton, and the paper indus
tries showed extraordinary variation in the
effectiveness of factories. Every man who has
had to do with the Industrial world knows that
the number of highly efficient establishments
is relatively small. It can not be successfully
denied that under the shelter of the tariff wall
have cowered many whose methods were archaic,
whose equipment was poor, whose management
was bad, but who have managed to eke out a
living at the public cost, because they were se
cure against foreign competition and could pick
up enough amid the Interstices of trade at home
to get along.
The definite wrath against monopoly, tho
flood tide of opinion against special privilege,
the stern demand for Efficiency as a duty which
our industries owo to the public, these are all
parts of awakened American manhood.
Some days ago a gentleman called upon me
to insist that certain tariff changes would make
it difficult for him .to continue his business
profitably. I said to him that of course I could
not speak for his industry, but that as a manu
facturer one thing did not seem clear to me. It
was this: That I could not see why ray desire
to be prosperous myself gave me the right to
tax him that I might become so. Certainly it
is true that that right does not exist at all until
I, by searching study and painstaking effort, by
keenest self-criticism, have so conducted busi
ness as to have done tho best possible to serve
the public well and cheaply. For in Its final
analysis business has a right to exist only as
It sorves peoplo well and cheaply. Tho public
has a right to such service and knows It and
intonds to get it, and will look with atom dis
approval upon him who claims tho right to tax
it in order that ho may servo It loss well thau
others can do.
Just at this point arises a ranttor of somo
current interest on which a few candid words
may not bo out of place. An investigation has
recently beon undertaken by tho department of
commorco of an industry in this country which
has stronuously objected to the proposed reduc
tion of tho tariff upon Imported products of
tho same kind. Statements have appeared In
tho press to the effect that the inquiry arose
bocauso somo fear oxistod in oxecutivo quarters
as to whether tho proposed revision would do
harm to tho Industry.
This alleged reason oxists only in tho Imagi
nation of certain versatile odltors skilled In'
tho art of coloring. The fact is that tho Indus
try into which inquiry Is now being made in
vited examination to bo made of It on behalf
of tho commltteo on ways and means of tho
house of representatives. Furthermore, state
ments are said to have beon mado in that in
dustry to tho effect that a reduction of wages
would bo tho result of tho chango In tho tariff.
If I grasp the public mind at all clearly, It
holds unfavorable views toward roductlon of
wages except undor the direst necessity. It
would not, for example, approvo them for tho
sako of maintaining profits, least of all as a
means of political menace. Furthermore, thoro
is in existence a belief that tho reduction of
wages Is the oasy resort of tho inefficient and
that it Is the hall-mark of poor management.
I believe this to ho so. As, thoroforo, tho re
duction of wages has direct social offects and
as tho public has tho right to efficiency in thoir
factory servants, tho department has under
taken to find out whether tho facts do or do
not justify tho threatened reduction. Observe
that in saying tho "facts" ono does not mean
morely the facts as they are but also the facts
as they ought to be. Operating with bad equip
ment, with unscientific treatment of material,
with antiquated methods, in poor locations, with
insufficient capital and generally ineffective
management, will not be esteemed a satisfac
tory reason for reducing wages. The public
looks for hotter things to Us producers and for
things that accompany efficiency. Tho investi
gation will not he carried on In a trust-bursting
spirit. There is no desire to destroy any
thing. On tho contrary, while it will be search
ing and thorough, beginning whore somo In
quiries have left off, content with no superficial
facts, it will he directed to the development of
the industry and will ho carried out in a spirit
of helpfulness. Possibly, few people roallzo
how efficient machinery the department of com
merce has for making such an investigation.
For example, on the scientific side of such an
inquiry the great bureau of standards is of
prime use. In tho present inquiry the clay pro
ducts section of this bureau located at Pitts
burgh will take an active part, and if and when
other industries come under investigation well
trained scientific men and good equipment arc
ready In chemistry and mechanics and many
other lines to do similar work. The bureau of
foreign and domestic commerce, under whoso
direct auspices tho present Inquiry proceeds,
has broad powers of Inquiry into the cost of
production, wages, general factory conditions,
and tho like. Tho bureau of corporations has
also broad scope in studying accounting and
cost-keeping methods with tho right of sub
poena, which it has in times past found somo
need to exercise. If these three arc not enough,
tho bureau of labor statistics, in our sister de
partment of labor, has powers of inquiry on the
labor side which can be made effective. Tho
department of commerce exists for tho purpose
of promoting American Industry and commerce
at home and abroad. It intends to do its work
as well as it can with the force and funds pro
vided. As tho head of that department I feel
that while its scope in aiding commerce is broad
and has many phases, one of these phases which
is important is that of turning light upon In
efficiencies wherever they can be found. It
is an old maxim, "Faithful are the wounds of
a friend," and if he is a benefactor who made
two blades of grass grow where but ono grow
before, so also is he who helps ten units of pro
duct to come whero but five were before or
who points the way to the same production at
less expense. The inspiration of this work is
that In its results it should bo pleasant to all
the three parties of interest in our manufac
tures. It should help the manufacturer, for out
of his greater product at a lower cost his profit
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