Man forgets the roughness of the struggles in the ideality
which he hopes to attain. And so in the labor movement of the
past and of to-day, whatever roughness there may be attached
to it, the future will forget and forgive in the ideal to establish
better relations and better standards for the great mass of the
people of our country.
The time has gone by when employers of labor can assume for
themselves the position of absolutism, of autocracy. Industry
and commerce must become more democratic in their initial as
well as their continued operations.
Last night I was honored by being present at a gathering of
organized employers and of organized workers, and found that
as the result of years of experience an entire important industry
has come to an agreement with the workers in their representative
organized capacity. It rarely has occurred that such congenial
companionship and friendship and real understanding of the
position of the other party have been so well exemplified as on
the occasion last evening.
What we aim to do is not, as some people attribute to us, the
overthrow of government or the destruction of anything that is
worth while maintaining. The movement of American organized
labor is constructive, not destructive. It is to make to-day a
better day than yesterday, to-morrow a better day than to-day,
and to-morrow's to-morrow, each of them a better day than the
one that has gone before, not by tactics or policies that are de-



288 LABOR AND THE EMPLOYER

structive but by a constructive, rational and natural policy. If
error occurs during this great, inspiring and constructive work,
who will throw the first stone? — From address by invitation be-
fore Chamber of Commerce, Boston, Mass., January 8, 1920.
