THE NATIONAL CHAMBER OF COMMERCE
to earn a living at fair wages, to reasonable hours of work and
working conditions, to a decent home, and to the enjoyment of
proper social conditions.
Fixing of a basic day as a device for increasing compensation is
a subterfuge that should be condemned.
Efficient production in conjunction with adequate wages is
essential to successful industry. Arbitrary restriction on out-put
below reasonable standards is harmful to the interests of wage
earners, employers and the public and should not be permitted.
Industry, efficiency and initiative, wherever found, should be encour-
aged and adequately rewarded, while indolence and indifference
should be condemned.
Consideration of reduction in wages should not be reached until
possibility of reduction of costs in all other directions has been
exhausted.
Administration of employment and management of labor should
be recognized as a distinct and important function of management
and accorded its proper responsibility in administrative organization.
A system of national employment offices, with due provision for
cooperation with existing state and municipal systems, can be made
under efficient management and if conducted with due regard to
the equal interests of employers and employees in its proper admin-
istration, a most helpful agency, but only if all appointments are
made strictly subject to the Civil Service law and rules. Policies
governing the conduct of a national system of employment offices
should be determined in conjunction with advisory boards,—
national, state and local, —equally representative of employers and
employees. (Referendum No. 27, submitted April 16, 1919.)
PrINCIPLES OF EMPLOYMENT RELATIONS
Every person possesses the right to engage in any lawful business
or occupation and to enter, individually or collectively, into any
lawful contract of employment, either as employer or employee.
These rights are subject to limitation only through a valid exercise
of public authority.
The right of open-shop operation, that is, the right of employer
and employee to enter into and determine the conditions of employ-
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