Their highest ambition has even been to attain the
Supreme Court, where the salary is a mere pittance compared to what they
may earn as private citizens.
Thus we may review all the groups in the nation, but the most significant
transformation of all is taking place within the business group,--where
indeed it might be least expected. Even before the war there were many
evidences that the emulative spirit in business had begun to modify the
merely competitive, and we had the spectacle of large employers of
labour awakening to the evils of industrialism, and themselves attempting
to inaugurate reforms. As in the case of labour, it would be obviously
unfair to claim that the employer element was actuated by motives of
self-interest alone; nor were their concessions due only to fear.
Instances could be cited, if there were space, of voluntary shortening of
hours of labour, of raising of wages, when no coercion was exerted either
by the labour unions or the state; and--perhaps to their surprise
employers discovered that such acts were not only humane but profitable!
Among these employers, in fact, may be observed individuals in various
stages of enlightenment, from the few who have educated themselves in
social science, who are convinced that the time has come when it is not
only practicable but right, who realize that a new era has dawned; to
others who still believe in the old system, who are trying to bolster it
up by granting concessions, by establishing committees of conference, by
giving a voice and often a financial interest, but not a vote, in the
conduct of the corporation concerned.
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