THE SUNDAY OliEGONIAN, PORTLAND, JUNE 29, 1913.
TA
C2M
o a n i
"Constitutional Factory" Plan. Put Forth in Germany Offers Method That Does Away With All Cause of Strife.
BY STEPHEN1 ASPDEN".
TIB constitutional factory la the
latest vision of Europe's Indus
trial reformers. It Is a vision
which was first realized with suocess
by a great master of Industry 30 years
ago, and It Is now being- put forward
as the only way of mitigating the
growing opposition of capita,! and
labor.
It Is In particular recommended as
an effective way of abolishing strikes,
and, therefore, of adding considerably
to the productive power of Industries
and the earning power of labor.
The notion of the constitutional fac
tory, and the phrase Itself, first came
to the brain of Herr Heinrich Freese,
when pondering on the way in which
political constitutionalism has solved
the Becular opposition between rulers
and the ruled. Herr Freese has the
means of putting his theories to the
test. He is a wealthy man, the largest
manufacturer In Germany of Venetian
blinds and of wood pavements, and the
employer of 13,000 men In his fac
tories at Hamburg, Breslau and Nied
erschoehhausen. In this country his Industry Is a
very Important one, as practically
every German window has Venetian
blinds. Herr Freese reasoned that the
vice of the present relation between
employers and employed Is that the
employer Is still practically an auto
crat. Against the autocrat employer the
worker has no resource. Striking or
throwing up one's job are unsatisfac
tory expedients which help the work
er no more than the right to emigrate
to a free country helps the population
of a despotically-ruled state. Real po
litical stability, says Freese, was first
attained by a self-limitation of mon
archical power. The factory and the
workshop must be pacified on this
principle. The employer must pledge
himself to do certain things and not to
do certain -other things.
But he must go further. By analogy
with the constitutional state, he must
create machinery which will guarantee
the keeping of his pledges. A work
men's parliament Is necessary In
every factory, and it must not be a
mere debating society, but must havej
exeoutive and prohibitory powers In
certain matters of moment concerning
workers and masters.
Freese declares that the analogy be
tween the state and the factory must
be carried out in all respects. Eu
ropean constitutionalism and not pure
democracy is what he alms at. Just
as in the state certain branches of
governmelnt, such as diplomacy and
national defence, are reserved to the
monarch, so in the constitutional fac
tory the employer must retain his au
thority in several domains.
Among these are technical questions;
the control of sale and purchase prices,
also everything connected with the ac
countancy. But the general relations
of employer to employed, wages, hours
of labor, overtime, provisions against
acoldent and fining, are matters on
which, by analogy with the state, no
ohange should be made without con
sent both of the employes' parliament
and of the employer.
Freese says that he makes no at
tempt to deny the natural conflict of
interests between employer and em
ployed. The constitution exists to
regulate matters of common interest,
and in matters of natural opposition
to bring about compromises and to
prevent breaches.
Freese , "granted" a constitution to
his Breslau factory In 188 by giving
the decision on certain matters to a
committee partly elected by workers
and partly nominated by himself. This
succeeded well, and, In 1891, Imperial
legislation helped the Idea on. The
imperial ordinance of 1891 provided
that a workmen's committee must be
elected by the majority of employes in
every factory employing more than 20
men. The committee must be consult
ed before any changes are made in the
"arbeiterordnung."
The "arbeiterordnung" Is a code of
regulations concerning hours of work.
notice, overwork, calculation and pay
ment of wages, and other internal fac
tory concerns, and the law declares
that such a code must be displayed in
every factory. By giving the work
men a right to be heard as regards the
"arbeiterordnung," the state to a cer
tain extent recognized the constitu
tional factory principle. But the I
workmen wore given only an advisory
voice. Freese's proposal is to give
them an absolute veto. Together with
his "arbeiterordnung," he issued a fac
tory constitution. By this charter he
pledged himself not to change any
rules without the consent of the em
ployes, it being understood that the
workers, on their side, should not in
sist on changes without his consent.
To represent the employes, the
Freese constitution provided a parlia
ment of 11 elected workmen, and four
workmen nominees of the employer.
Soon afterwards Freese relinquished
the right to nominate, and henceforth
the worker's parliament consisted of
12 members, all eleoted.
Freese's workers' parliament re
sembles In detail a political parlia
ment. It holds regular sessions to dis
cuss matters concerning conditions of
employment, and when special matters
arise it convokes extraordinary ses
sions. The general election is annual,
and it is preceded by the rendering of
a report by the chief officers of the
expiring parliament. The sessions are
publlo, so that non-members may at
tend and see what their representa
tives are doing.
Non-members have the right to send
in complaints and petitions, but the
parliament ia free to discuss what it
chooses and cannot be terrorized or
dictated to by the workmen outside.
Freese has published an account of
200 sessions of his Parliament, at all
of which he was present as sovereign
or Minister, The Parliament proved a
success. without In any way injur
ing the employers' Interests it enabled
agreements to be made which ' ma
terially Improved the lot of the em
ployes. It practically did away with
the system of fining, a system very
common in German industry.
It legislated on proposals to work
overtime when business was good, and
on proposals to shorten hours when
business was bad. It came to a com
promise with Freese providing for a
general rudctlon of hours; and today
the Freese factories have an eight
hours' working day. This, except in
one class of coal mines, is absolutely
unknown in German Industry. The
financial position of the factories did
not suffer.
The question of wages and methods
of payment of wages repeatedly came
up before the Parliament, and the op
position between the "monarch" and the
"legislators" was usually smoothed
down.
The constitutional system enabled
Freese to enter upon a practicable sys
tem of profit-sharing. Freese had been
in the habit of giving bonuses to his
official and clerical staff. He now
agreed to extend the bonuses to the
men. Five per cent was given to the
officials and the same sum to the men.
The workmen were here given the
the -usual constitutional "power of
the purse," inasmuch as the parlia
ment was allowed to satisfy Itself
through an auditor that the bonuses
were paid on the real profits. Finally
Herr Freese made his periodical
"speeches from the throne," in which
he expounded to his parliament the
position of the factory, of business
generally and the prospects for the
future.
Freese's parliament has unlimited
control over all the factories, oclal
and charitable institutions. Under
such management the factory's insti
tutions defeated the competition of ri
val institutions run by outside organi
zations. The substitution of the un
paid parliament for paid officers and
agitators led to an enormous saving
in the-administration of funds.
Before the parliament was founded
workmen paid 25 cents a week for
benefits of from 75 cents to $1.60 a
week in time of sickness. Under par
liamentary control they pay from 6
(o S cents a week, and in time of sick
ness draw from $2. SO to $3.75. Similar
good results were attained with the
death, widows and orphans funds, the
savings bank, the Christmas funds. The
parliament further runs with success
the factory baths, sport grounds, and
fire brigade, and It organizes the
factory's annual festival.
The trouble of the - Constitutional
factory, as experience soon showed, is
not in the notion itself but in the sus
picion and dislike which it awakens
outside. Herr Freese has had trouble
with both the organixations of em
ployers and the organizations of em
ployed. Both are well organised, combative
and distrustful. Dr. Bydow, Prussian
Minister of Trade, praised the consti
tutional factory as one of the most
fruitful social initiatives of the present
generation; it was further backed up
by the Reichstag member, Frederlen
Kaumann; by the leading economist.
Froressor Brentano; ana uy rroressor
Sering. But reactionaries everywhere
have opposed the plan.
In the Prussian Diet the opposition
was led by Dr. V. Roechlingr. who char
acterized industrial constitutionalism
as "one of the most dubious and slip
pery notions which ever entered the
brai-n ' of man." The fact that the
granting of a constitution did. not di
minish Herr Freese's profits proved
no consolation to his frightened fel
low employers; and the Arbeitgeber,
the organ of all German manufactur
ers, began a campaign against Freese's
schemes. But Freese has experienced
that a greater danger still comes from
the side of alleged friends of the work
tng man.
The trades unions, which are nearly
all in the hands of the Social Demo
cratic party, began a campaign against
the constitutional factory. Their cam
paign was natural enough, because
Freese s wish is to spread content, and
the Socialists admit that they do not
want content even if it is brought
about by An amelioration of the work
er's lot. Freese is assailed as a dis
honest man whose aim is to bribe his
men out of their "healthy dissatisfac
tion." The Socialist Reichstag member,
Heinrich Heinse, leads the assault. So
cialism, he affirms, does not want a
constitutional factory; it wants a dem
ocratic factory; a factory which. In
stead of a division of power, shall have
all power with the workers. "The con
stitutional factory," says Heinse, "lets
the subjects share power with the
King; that looks a big thing; but when
we examine it closer we see that we
can do without the King." The So
cialist assault has had some success.
The Hocialist organizations captured
one of Freese's factory parliaments.
and from that day compromise was at
an end. The Parliament declared war
on "the so-caller reformer," Freese; a
strike ensued; and in the end Freese
adopted the expedient of refusing em
ployment altogether to members of the
Social Democratic party.
Freese has this month published a
new book on factory constitutionalism.
In which he declares that his projects
"must be carried through, not in union
with the Social Democrats, but in col
lision with them. The constitutional
factory requires as condition of suc
cess a constitutional frame of mind."
-
Desplte his one bad experience,
Freese is continuing his constitutionalism-
He boasts that for 28 years It
has succeeded, and has enabled him to
pay higher wages, to reduce the work
ing day to eight hours and to divide
profits. All these concessions must
have Increased rather than diminished
the efficiency production. because
Freese's own profits have not declined.
This fact is having Its effect upon
manufacturers elsewhere. The bulk of
employers and their official organiza
tions are still distrustful, but last year
two Westphalian manufacturers fol
lowed Freese's example by converting
the advisory workmen's committee,
which is made compulsory by the 1891
law, into a prenulne parliament, with
powers to veto and approve. The same
experiment is beinp: tried in two fac
tories in Silesia. Herr Gellius, one ex
perimenter on a small scale, has fol
lowed Freese's example inasmuch as
after a struggle he drove the opposi
tional Socialists out of his parliament.
Gellius reports that "the principle of
a sharing of authority between em
ployer and employed is one of the most
fruitful.
"In four years it enabled me to cre
ate general content, to reduce the
working day by 14 hours, to increase
daily wages by 17 per cent, the piece
work pay by 21 per cent." All this
was done wlthcut any sacrifice of prof
Its. Naturally other manufacturers ar
being shaken by these results In their
opposition to industrial constltutional-
' ism.
Colonel's Own Story of His Life
(CONTINUED FROM PAGE TWO.)
brought his cattle, the Hashknlfe
brand, up the trail Into our country.
He and I grew to be great friends. I
can see him now, the first time we met,
grinning at me as, none too comfort
able, I sat a half-broken horse at the
edge of a cattle herd we were working.
His son. Sloan Simpson, went to Har
vard, was one of the first-class men
In my regiment and afterward held my
commission as postmaster at Dallas.
At the stockmen's meeting In Miles
City, In addition to the big stockmen,
there were always hundreds of cow
boys galloping up and down the wide,
dusty streets at every hour of the day
and night. It was a picturesque sight
during the three days the meeting
lasted. There was always at least one
big dance at the hotel. There were few
dress suits, but there. was perfect de
corum at the dance, and In the square
dances most of the men knew th
figures far better than I did. With
such a crowd in town, sleeping accom
modations of any sort were at s
premium, and in the hotel there wer
two men in every bed. On one occasion
I had a roommate whom I never saw,,
because he always went to bed much
later than I did and. I always got up
much earlier than he did. On the last
day, however, he rose at the same time
and I saw that he was a man I knew
named Carter and nicknamed "Mod
esty" Carter. He was a stalwart, good
looking fellow, and I was sorry when
later I heard that he had been killed
in a shooting row.
(The next installment of Mr. Roose
velt's "Chapters of a Possible Auto
biography" is entitled "The Western
Spirit." It will appear In The Ore
gonlan next Sunday).
r lift' JNNY EN '
Among the Poets of the Daily Press
THE BED.
Hung though It be with linen or bro
cade. Sad as a tomb or joyful as a nest.
Here man is born, here mated, here
takes rest.
Babe, husband, grandalre, grandam,
wife or maid.
Be It for bridal or for burial sprayed
Under black crucifix or palm branch
blessed.
From the first dawn till the last can
dle dressed.
Here all things made beginnings, end
ing made.
Low, rustic shuttered proud of a pa
vilion Victorious in gold leaf and Vermillion,
Hewn from brute oak, cypress, or syca
more Happy who lies without remorse or
dread
In the paternal bed. Immense and hoar.
Where all his folk are born, where
all lie dead.
Sandys Wason, in London Saturday
Review.
CEOOSI.VQ HIS ASSISTANT.
The devil found he needed aid
And advertised for an assistant;
And, knowing they would be well paid.
Folks came from places near and dis
tant. They came from stations high and low.
Clerks, doctors, lawyers, merchants,
teachers.
Clowns, paupers, kings, and do you
know?
I understand there were some preach
ers. "I could promote an imp," said he.
"But there's more devil In a human."
He scanned his callers carefully.
And finally he picked a woman
A lovely woman, coy, demure.
With lashes long and ready blushes.
With scarlet lips that held a lure.
And voice as sweet as any thrush's
A woman with bewitching ways
And swishing 6klrts and ribbons fly
ing. Not Satan's self, so clear her gaze.
Knew when she was or was not lying.
"You'll do," said he. "No more I'll seek.
Tou suit me best for many reasons.
Tou'U help me more in one short week
Than any man could In ten seasons,
Walter G. Doty, In Life.
the: scent of spring.
Within my apartment, besieged by
Spring cleaners, .
There wafts a glad odor that lifts my
heart high,
I put on the best of expectant demean
ors.
And, doubtless, you'll ask me to tell
you Just why.
With feasting of lampreys and sack
and anchovies
Lucullus et al. made the olden world
stare.
(If you haven't yet seen these gour
mands on the "movies,"
Tou'U find all about them In your
Lempriere!)
But my tastes are simple, my palate Is
placid.
To tickle it none of the ancients need
try.
For I much prefer that most generous
acid
Contained in the season's first rhu
barby pie!
La Touche Hancock in New Tork Sun.
THE MAN VKDERNEATB.
To find a man beneath one's bed,
Most likely bent on crime.
Will freeze the marrow in one's bones
Worse than the Klondike clime.
In traveling many miles afar
I this experience had.
And wakened suddenly to hear
A man beneath my bed.
What could I do? I must defend
My life by action bold.
My every hair stood on Its end.
My very blood ran cold.
Useless it seemed to rail and hoot.
For all that I was worth.
And it were criminal to shoot
He'd bought the lower berth.
A. M. S., in Los Altos Lookout.
Quips and. Flings
George Mabel and Jack's marriage
seems n ideal one such a pretty uni
son of hearts!
The Girls Yes; he adores Mabel, and
so does she. Truth.
He Are you uperstitious? I shall
put you to the test.
She Not at all.
He Then would you consent to
marry me on the first Friday in June?
Puck.
"Papa," asked Willie, "what is phe
nomenal?" "It is phenomenal, my son," explain
ed Mr. Wisepate. "when a lawyer is
content with a nominal fee." Truth.
-
Sibyl Let's cross over to the other
side of the street.
Tipple No; let's stay on this side.
The pavement is wet over there.
Sibyl That's all right. Mine are
silk. Life.
Jack Makelt How can we marry?
I'm only worth fifteen thousand dol
dars, and that wouldn't buy your
clothes.
May Spendlt Oh, yes. It would. Jack,
for nearly five years! Puck.
Tlllle Cllnger says that the only
reason she has for suspecting her new
landlady Is a suffragette Is because she
arsons the biscuits about half the time.
Dallas News.
"I shouldn't cry If I were you, little
man."
Must do sumflng; I bean't-old enough
ito swear." Punch.
We haven't much use for the quitter.
The most of us hate him like sin;
But another chap makes us more bitter.
The chap who's afraid to begin.
Teacher Do you know, Tommy, when
shingles first came into use?
Tommy I think when I was between
5 and 6 years old, ma'am. New Tork
Evening Post.
"I didn't see anything funny in the
story that fellow just told. What made
you laugh so over it?"
"Do you know who he is?"
"No. Who is he?"
"He's the head of our firm." Life.
Job Lett One never loses anything
by keeping his engagements punctu
ally. Kirby Stone My experience Is he Is
apt to lose half an hour's time waiting
for the other fellow, Puck.
Little Minnie Oh, mamma, what's
that dreadful noise?
Mamma Hush, darling, papa's trying
to save the price of & shave. Puck.
Madge Who helped you make such
a fool out of that poor young man?
Marjorie He did. Judge
Terse Tales From Humorous Pens
LINCOLN'S CHIN-FLV STORY.
A certain amount of trouble is a good
thing.
Lincoln used to Illustrate the point
with a story about a "chin-fly," says
Judge.
It seems that once a man was plow
ing with a very lazy mule. Suddenly
the mule lifted Its head, switched its
stump of a tail and went across the
field at a rapid walk and with most un
usual energy.
Reaching the end of the row, there
was a man on the fence. When the
mule and man came up the fellow got
down, walked over to the mule and hit
him a slap on the Jaw, remarking.
"Well, I killed him that time!"
"Killed what?"
"Why. that chin-fly!"
"Well, you Interfering fool. I wish
you would mind your own business.
That chin-fly was the only thing that
made the mule go!"
COLLECTORS PASS ON.
"During the recent epidemic of spinal
meningitis in Dallas, Secretary Paul
Casey, of the Health Department, and a
sanitary Inspector went to the shack of
a negro to raise the quarantine," says
Representative Buleson, of Texas, ac
cording to the New York World. "They
started to remove the big Health De
partment sign, when an old negro
mammy came to the door.
" 'No, sho'ly, boss, you all am t gwlne
ter take dot solgn down?" she asked.
" 'Certainly,' answered Casey. 'You
are all well again and we are going to
remove the quarantine. Don't you want
the sign taken away?"
" "No, sah, boss,' 'cause dar ain't been
nary collectah 'round heah sence dat
sign was put up.'
"And they went away without ths
sign."
SORRY HE LEARNED.
The story is told of a farmer's son
who wished to become a famous law
yer, that he went to Springfield, HI.,
and accepted employment at a small
sum from an attorney, according to
stories by George Bruce. At the end of
three days' study he returned to the
farm.
"Well. Bill, how'd you like the law?"
asked his father.
"It ain't what it's cracked up to be,"
replied Bill, gloomily. "I'm sorry I
learned it."
SEVEN WONDERS OF THE MODERN
WORLD.
First T. Roosevelt.
Second Theodore Roosevelt.
Third Colonel Roosevelt
Fourth The Colonel.
Fifth The Bull Moose.
Sixth Teddy.
Seventh T. R. Cincinnati Enquirer.
v
"Is your father much better my
child?"
"Yes, sir; so much that ma don't
have to pray for him no more."
"How are you getting on with your
auto?"
"Fine. Can almost tell what's wrong
now when the thing won't run.'
Wife I'd never married you if I'd
known you would leave me alone so
much.
Hubby In that event you would
bav0 been even more alone.
"I'm so unhappy."
"What's wrong?"
"I've been trying to follow instruc
tions in a magazine on 'How to Be
Happy.' "
"But why do people say 'Dame Gos
sip?' " "
"Too polite, nay son, to leave off
the e."
"How many people work In your
office?"
"Oh, possibly a third of them."
1