THE WHITE COLLAR ARMY

...the big stones," rejoined Martin ('alder, who didn't anow much about economic* but had a good heart...

...And at the third meeting they began calling for application blanks Since then letters have been coming to the office from interested people asking additional information, and a few have sent in signed applications Two men working for the same brokerage firm have sent in applications and letters, and it appears as though one does not know that the other has signed up...

...The Captain of Industry walked away, his dignity ruffled, as it had not been since the time when his adherence to the principle of competition had caused his indictment under the Sherman Anti-Trust Law...

...They remarked that it was the str ingest one they had ever encountered...

...8o long as they "worked hard," so long as they were placid and obedient, so long as they tried to please the boss—they got nothing...

...There il one company in this city which employs 6,500 office workers in one |age suite of offices, and many others who employ from 1,000 to J,000 workers...

...Congratulations had come in thick and fast from statesmen, journalists, and economists...

...It is so easy when one has been unable to get his message across to My that the other fellow is stupid...

...He was home getting a compulsory rest...

...J shouldn't wonder," he went on, •jilt there are as many workers |i tome offices as there are workers il sonic good-sized factories...

...1' recall that the union in its early days staged an open-air meeting in Wall street, and because only two application blanks were signed, the leaders became discouraged, and Jive up holding open-air meetings...

...They seem to "eat up" leaflets reading: "Without your skilled aid the executives could not execute...

...Also he began selling stock to his employes on easy terms, deducting the deferred payments in small installments from their pay checks...

...We think it is...

...You must not let the inefficiency of the weak hinder the efficiency of the strong," Everybody i.ad something to say then, nut the big red-headed fellow with the loud voice was the only one whose words were hear I above tha Babal...

...They like to hear some one talk to them in their own language, about their work and their problems...

...the city's intricate aaav marcial structure would go to smash...

...lis looked surprised...

...They'd think differently if they owned some gas stock.' "One day the good wife of the good gas plant owner remarked with sweet simplicity: 'John, why don't you give the customers some stock instead of lower rates, and give the employes so.ne stock instead of highei wages...

...You are right," I said...

...and to succeed you must always have some advantage over your competitors...

...The poor fellow seemed tu be sane about everything, but as soon as the memory of that incident flashed across his mind, l> would begin to talk feverishly about it to anyone who hapnened to be at hand...

...You sometimes give the stockholders more stock instead of dividends...

...Wondering what they were doing there he walked over...

...I'm fainting, Agnes, fetch me some prunes...

...How the devil are wa going toiswim ia it, if we don't use th • length of the whole damn swim-min' hole...

...Or discussing wages: "Manual workers hsve won these scales by juet one mean...

...If the workers controlled the company, I'd he juat their hired man employed to keep up the price of gas...

...These customers and employes of mine seem tc think that earning a dividend is stealing their money...

...I'm just a little peacemaker...

...You shouldn't use the other fellow's, and don't It the other fellow use yours...

...The rest, poor benighted souls, knew no economics, snd therefore had to use their common-sense...

...Remember, young men, that competition is the life of business...

...The work-era will talk more and more about the union...

...There are many people who re-|tid the office workers as a hope-lea lot, and as impossible to organist...

...We eonduct our meetings on an educational basis...

...They snatch it oat of the hands of the committee, and they buy copies of the Office Employees' Journal...

...I have consumers and . consumer owners fighting each other...

...Many more than that," I replied...

...When we started we kso no expectation of getting a single new member until we had hid four or five meetings, on the Principle that "Blessed is he who wpecteth little...

...Blessed is the peacemaker...

...The following is part of this address: fct/^V NCE upon a time," said ^-^ Mr...

...It is true that up to now only a small percentage have organized, hot I am inclined to think that aside from the many obstacles in our path, the trouble has been that the B. S. ? A. U. until now had not learned the lesson that is being preached to office workers on all tides, especially in the success magazines, that the way to win is through persistency...

...They all stopped working...

...At a recent meeting of the American Acadimy of I'olitical Scienee in New York City Mr.' Donald O. Richberg gave some attention to this theory end neatly punctured it in an address which was broadcasted to a radio audience, the announcer declaring it "the cleverest that has ever come to us out of the air...

...not know that there is a union for his group will be rare indeed...

...But as long as 1 control the company, I can play one of my competitors off against another and win from both of them, The Consumor-Producor a Myth " 'Business, my dear, is just competition...

...And you csn rest assured that the same amiable procedure will get you nothing...

...Our present plan is different...

...All kinds of reasons are given—we know them all...

...He decided to take a leisurel) walk through his estate...

...Just show me where the advice I gave those boyi differed from my statements in the article, ff you can I'll admit I'm wrong and change any rilnd about It- j But, of course, tin specialists saw no sense of talking hglc to a maniac, and paid no attention to what ha 'said...

...And as I thought about this man's ¦jawareness of the situation concerning the clerical workers, I won-fared if there were not many more naders of The New Leader who ¦era also in the dark...

...For the first time since he had built his magnificent country home, he was beginning to enjoy it...

...Of these about one-third constitutes the largest group, those employed in manufacturing...

...they asked...

...and now to be flouted by a group of urchins...

...At least once a year the gas workers asked for an increase in wages...

...Soon the hsrrowing snd the seeding will follow...

...The sacral of my success ie ia not letting any (roup with common intareaU own too much stock...

...It la hard to be that way on $30 a week...

...And when the harvest will come it will be to the lasting benefit of the workers themselves snd to the entire Labor movement A MODERN PARABLE By DONALD G. RICHBERG Within the past few month* there has appeared a propaganda to convince many that ownerihip of great corporations is being distributed among millions of owners of stock and (hat this is a form of public ownership which will bring industrial democracy...

...in fact, of everything...

...The sight of some boys moving about in his artificial lake suddenly distracted his attention...

...He cogitated over the matter...

...The lake was on his ground and the water it contained was his...

...That would be Socialism...

...I suppose when the consumers and the employes own all the stock, you won't have any troubles at all.'" " 'Now Isn't that just like a woman?' snorted the gas plant owner...

...The B. S & A. U is ploughing the soil...

...That was because he had studied economics under a famous Harvard professor, and knew all about competition and the survival of the fittest...

...The second largest group is made up of workers, and their limber is more than 400,000, divided about equally between the sexes...

...Then 1 have consumers fighting employes...

...Richberg, "there wan a noble and wise man who owned a gas plant...

...This certainly was not efficiency—where everybody was pitching in to do the same thing...

...The trend of modern industry is In our favor...

...Why," he argued, "it's exactly the same thing I wrote for tha Times...

...Does it pay to hold these meetings...

...A faint memory of boyhood days told him that they were clearing it of sharp stones in order to make it safe for swimming and diving...

...One that we Save heard quite a lot about ff late is, that they are too "dumb...

...Is it worth while to ask them to use some of their brains for themselves instead of entirely for their employers...

...I have employes and employe-owners fighting each other...

...Those of u» who are in the B. S. A A. V. and have pursued our calling, whether it has been as a stenographer, secretary, bookkeeper, hank clerk, or office manager, feel that we are not "dumb," and neither are most of our co-workers...

...Twenty boys —all sizes—all colors—were gleefully picking up stones from the bottom cf the pond and pitching them on the ground...

...Instead of everybody fighting me, everybody is fighting everybody else...

...How many office workers are djre in New York, about 80,000...

...He almost worked himself into a frenzy...

...Since then we lire had two more, and they have keen very encouraging...

...The point is that competition is the life of business, and this plan of everybody pitching in, working on the same job, and using the same product, is Bolshevism, it's un-American...

...One advantage of this popular ownership plan of mine is that I divide my competitors...

...My dear young man, don't you realize that the law of the survival of the fitttest must tske its course...

...Organisation...

...are 400,000...

...The alienists decided that the case was incurable...

...Who's looney now...

...A score of hundred per cent American replies answered him: "Hey, when did they let you out...

...tha bsnker could not operate his bank...

...It is a stupendous task, of course, mil as the first step the union has gndei taken to reach the estimated 100,000 which arc to be found in the huge office buildings in the financial district and along lower Broadway...

...My stock-selling plan is a great success: Whenever the consumers want lower rates, my consumer-stockholders and all my employes create public opinion against lower rates...

...Worried looks soon supplanted their amusement...

...Gosh," said Rusty, "if I do my own and don't help the other fellers, they won't let me swim in their parti...

...How then...

...If the consumers controlled the company, I'd be just their hired man employed to keep down the wages of the other employes...

...Beys," said he, "this isn't the way to do it...

...Every one laudeu his article, which was entitled, "Competition, the Dynamo of Progress...

...Harold Scott, home on vacation, was the only one who thoughtfully pondered over the old man s advice...

...And tha office workers show that they want to learn about this "new" movement We don't hsve to force literature on them...

...he had diverted It from the old swimming-hole in the adjoining woods...

...Well, is it worth while to talk to the "white collar" workers about the benefits of collective bargaining...

...Sneeze, guy, your brains is dusty...

...Nobody knows as wall aa yea da what a joke the boss would often become if It ware sat for tha clerk who kept his flies, anawered his calls, routed hie day, bolstered ap his memory, and tipped him off gen orally...

...But the little fellows couldn't take >iit...

...they realized thst the lellow actually mer.nt what he said...

...Oh, that's beside the point," the Captain of Industry replied...

...They had no business there...

...Whenever the employes .want higher wages, my employe-stockholders and all my consumers create public sentiment against higher wages...

...Yep, that's what we wanna know," shouted the whole gang at once...

...You have so much stock that never cost you anything you could afford to give some more of :t away.' "After properly squelching his wife, the good business man decided that, with modifications, her idea might be of use Some months later the gas plant owner began to sell stock to his consumers on easy terms, adding the deferred payments in small installments to the monthly gas bills...

...One evening a few years later the gas p'.a.t owner came to his dinner table rubbing his hands with glee: "Divida and Conquer" " 'I've got them fighting each other, Mary,' he chuckled...

...Before the union gets through with its work in the coming few months, the office worker who dot...

...Two weeks ago he had written an ai tide for the New York Times expounding the same theories...

...la it worth while to tell them about the accomplishments of organised Labor and to call on them to emulate the example of the organised workers...

...For this reason, I submit the following: New York's working population is approximately 2,500,000...

...Often the good man would say to his good wife: " 'I wish Henry Ford had never been born, so that people wouldn't think a man could raise wages and reduce prices and still make money...

...Boaidos, he was the most .lucrative "patient" in the sanitarium...

...So far noonday meetings have been held only once a week, although on the moat important corner, Broad and Wall streets, but in s short while it is expected that three meetings a week on various corners will be held, and then, perhaps, five open-air meetings a week will be conducted...

...Vast numbers of office workers are congregated in big offices, and they are being further and further removed from contact with the employers or stockholders...

...THE WHITE COLLAR ARMY By LEONARD BRIGHT President, Bookfcespsti, ttmt^ntjktw^ mmd Accountants' Ussiest f1% IpING in the subway the JV other morning on my way tfe* office I met a Socialist kwyer who is usually well informed- Above the roar of the ponding wheels I heard him «I saw by a piece in The New leader that you had a good n-jn atr meeting in Wall "Yes," I shouted...

...His friends noticed his peculiar actions...

...But at the second meeting workers began to ask how •M could join the union...

...tha manufacturer could sot manufacture...

...Smiles passed over the faces of his hearers at his apparent power of tailing a humorous incident with the utmost seriousness...

...Furthermore It gavt tha institution prestige to have a Captain al^Pb* dustry entrusted to their care by his fanxUy...

...He believed nfefflciency...

...And it is this vast army of workers that the Bookkeepers, Stenographers ami Accountants' Union is immediately concerned with, to educate anil to bring' into the fold of the Labor movement...

...It's working splendidly...

...Isn't that lovely?' said his good wife...

...At least once a year the gas consumers asked for a reduction in gas rates...

...Let eacli one of you mark off a portion of the stream for himself, clesr it, snd use it for himself...

...We And they are not as snobbish as they used to be...

...On a matter as important as clearing a swimming-hole, they sre vllling to take idvice—even from their elders...

...He could keep it to himself no longer and Anally related the incident to the household...

...Divide and conquer," is the first law of battle, and that's my motto.' " The Folly of Wisdom By H. DELSON • THE Captain of Industry has been so busy becoming rich in wealth that he became poor in health...