THE FUTURE OF TRADE-UNIONISM AND CAPITALISM.*
Dn. Emox, of Harvard University, has published in the form of a little brochure two lectures delivered in 1909 on Trade- Unionism and Capitalism. The views expressed are such as one would anticipate from a Professor in an American University. There is no sympathy for any of the devices by which Trade-Unionists vainly attempt to improve their own position by doing less work than they have bargained to do. Dr. Eliot equally condemns the practice of fixing a uniform rate of wages. Where this practice prevails, "no amount of personal merit can secure for the young member of the Trade-Union an advance of wages. He receives at the start the uniform wage, and the veteran who is a member of the same union is receiving no more." With both these evils we are familiar in this country. but Trade-Unionism in America has developed, to an extent unknown here, the principle of the Trade-Union boycott and of the Trade-Union label. The general principles laid down by Dr. Eliot go far beyond the question of Trade-Unionism and Capitalism in relation to one another, and the following passage may well be commended to our English Tariff Reformers :—" A nation protected from competition will soon prove itself unpro- gressive, sure to decline when its progress comes to depend not on undeveloped natural resources but on the trained skill and capacity of the population." Our progress in England already depends mainly on the trained skill and capacity of our people, and each year brings America nearer to our economic condition, and consequently renders her less able to depend upon the artificial aid of Protection.
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