SYSTEM OF LABOR PENSIONS AND INSURANCE 513
in favor of applying a system of life insurance and pensions, dependent upon faithful and continuous service, is conclusive."
It is interesting to note that a plan very similar was devel- oped quite independently by President J. M. Ashley, of the Toledo, Ann Arbor and North Michigan Railway, and adopted by that company in 1887.' While, on account of the financial condition of the road, this plan has been abandoned without any- thing resulting from it in the way of dividends, and at the same time the advantages to the employes are much less definite, yet the underlying principles are identical. These are, first, the right of the workman to a share in the industry which he has helped to create, and, second, that of trade or industry respon- sibility.
The Dolge plan, or some modification of it, fulfills all the considerations dwelt upon in the first half of this article. It is an application of cooperation, which is as pronounced an embodi- ment of the principle of mutuality as our industrial system will permit at its present stage of development. The significance of such individual enterprises is great. The extension of this plan is largely independent of the efforts of the laboring man him- self. The laboring man can do much to help himself, but he cannot and should not be expected to do all. Improvement in industrial conditions depends not only upon the intelligence, industry, and foresight of the laborer, but upon the attitude of the employer as well. If the employer does not recognize his responsibility to his employes and to society, does not recog- nize that the cash nexus is not the only one, and that the employe" has claims that cannot be commuted for immediate wage payments in other words, that both the laborer and society as well have a right in the industry that cannot be abro- gated, there are no hopes for betterment under the present sys- tem. For as Carlyle has said, "The leaders of industry, if industry ever is to be led, arc virtually the captains of the world. If there be no nobleness in them there will never be an aristocracy."
r particulars vide. AMERICAN JOURNAL OF SOCIOLOGY, May 1896, pp. 707-9.
