The Next Step: A Plan for Economic World Federation Part 8

8. _The Selection of Leaders_

The situation is far more complicated when it comes to the selection, of the executive. He is the keystone of the social arch--the binding force that holds the various parts of the group apart and together. Upon his decisions may depend the success or the failure of an entire enterprise, because, tie him with red tape as you will, he still has a margin of free choice in which he registers his success or failure as an executive.

The executive is put in office to do the will of a const.i.tuency and to carry out a certain policy. But what is the will of the const.i.tuency, and which one of a half dozen lines of action will most completely and effectively carry out the policy in question? The executive must find an answer to those questions, and he must find it hour after hour and day after day.

Society has striven for ages to devise a successful method of picking executives, and of keeping a watchful eye on them after they a.s.sume the reins of government. There are three general ways in which the selection may be made:

1. Through heredity--the leadership descending from one generation to the next in the line of blood relationship.

This is the method practiced in all countries that have kings, aristocrats, plutocrats or others who automatically inherit power from their ancestors.

2. Through self-selection--the leadership being a.s.sumed by those who are the quickest to seize it.

Primitive, disorganized or unorganized societies or a.s.sociations pick their leaders in this way. The strongest, the most courageous, the most cunning, press to the front in an emergency, and their leadership is accepted as a matter of course by those who are less strong or courageous or cunning. The leaders of a miscellaneous mob are apt to be thus self-selected. The leaders of new activities, like the organized business of the United States and Canada, have been, for the most part, self-selected. Seeing opportunities for economic advantage, they have grasped them before their fellows realized what was happening. The great acc.u.mulations of economic power that were made in this way during the past generation are now being pa.s.sed from father to son, and the leadership in American economic life is therefore tending to fall into an hereditary caste or cla.s.s. There is still, however, a considerable margin of self-selection of American economic leadership.

3. Through social selection--the right and duty of leadership being a.s.signed by the group, after some form of deliberation to a designated individual.

This is the method common to all highly organized and self-conscious societies that are not dominated by a system of hereditary caste rule.

Public officials in most of the countries of the world, officials of trade unions and other voluntary a.s.sociations are usually selected in this manner.

The selection of executive leadership in any organized society must be through heredity or through group choice. Self-selection is necessarily confined to new or temporary or loosely organized groups.

9. _The Details of Organization_

These general principles of economic self-government may be applied to local, district, divisional and to world economic groupings. To be sure the application, in each instance, will be varied in accordance with the peculiar needs in question, but a general scheme of procedure may be suggested somewhat as follows:

1. SUGGESTIONS FOR THE ORGANIZATION OF A LOCAL ECONOMIC UNIT IN A GIVEN INDUSTRY--A MINE, FACTORY, STORE--

a. The entire working force would meet at regular intervals, in a shop meeting, or colliery meeting, or store meeting, to transact general business.

b. At such a meeting a shop committee selected by those present, would be charged with the responsibility of directing affairs in the shop that had selected it. The shop committee would consist of a small group, varying in size with the size of shop, under the chairmanship of a person selected by the workers at the same time they elected the committee.

c. This chairman of the shop committee would be called the shop chairman. His duties would correspond roughly with those of the present-day foreman, or with those of the shop-steward or shop chairman in some of the more advanced of the British industries. In reality this shop chairman would be the shop executive, holding office while he could retain the good will of his shop-mates, and while he could give a satisfactory account of his shop in the way of production and discipline.

d. Where there were a number of departments in a large factory, store or other establishment, there would be a plant committee made up of the chairmen of all shop committees in the plant.

e. Where plant committees were organized, it would be their duty to designate one of their members as chairman. This plant committee chairman would therefore be what, under present conditions, is the general manager of the plant, with his fellow committeemen as his executive committee or board of managers.

f. Each economic unit, whether shop or plant, would have its engineers or experts, picked, like other workers, by the shop committee or the plant committee, and responsible to that committee for the particular tasks a.s.signed to them.

All partic.i.p.ation in the activities of this basic economic unit--hiring and firing as it is called--would be determined by the shop committees and by the plant committee, each with final local jurisdiction, subject, of course, to a referendum of the workers in the department or the plant concerned. By this means, the members of each basic economic group would be made the sole judges as to those with whom they should work. Each group would therefore have an opportunity to set its own group standards and to build up its own group spirit.

The individual worker, in order to secure a job, or work place, must therefore subject himself to the scrutiny of his prospective shop-mates, perhaps even to work for a time on probation, and this to prove his fitness to join the group and thus to partic.i.p.ate in its activities.

Such a plan would provide a self-governing and self-directing economic unit, capable of adaptation to the various phases of economic life, and at the same time capable of generating its own social steam, and thus driving itself forward on the path of its own activities.

Farming, hand-craft industries, and other occupations in which the worker owns his own tools, and is worker, manager and business-man combined, would be forced to organize a local unit more nearly approximating the medieval guild or some of the modern organizations for producers' co-operation. The general principles of organization would be the same in the one case as in the other, power and control being held locally by self-directing, autonomous groups.

This plan for the organization of a local self-governing economic unit represents an attempt to apply the best principles of economic and political science to the working out of an intelligently directed society.

2. SUGGESTIONS FOR THE ORGANIZATION OF AN ECONOMIC DISTRICT IN A GIVEN INDUSTRY.

a. The district would consist of a number of economic units in the same or in an immediately related field of industry. For example, it might be formed of steel mills alone, or of machine shops and steel mills, or of machine shops, steel mills, and foundries. The decision on the matter of membership in the district would rest, first with the local economic units that united to form the district, and second, with the industries immediately concerned. The purpose of the organization would be to link together those economic units that were most dependent upon one another, and that therefore had the most interests in common.

b. When formed, the organization would apply for recognition to the divisional organization of its particular industry. If the district comprised manufacturing industries, it would apply to the divisional organization of the manufacturing industries; if the district comprised coal mines, it would apply to the divisional organization of the extractive industries. It would be to the interest of the divisional organization to recognize only such district organizations as did not involve the divisional organization in jurisdictional disputes.

c. After securing recognition from the divisional organization, the district organization would be the judge of its own membership, and would be in a position to add such local economic units as were to its advantage in pursuit of its general policy.

d. The control over the affairs of the district would be in the hands of a district committee, elected directly by the workers of the district, each group of workers voting by ballot in its own shop.

A. When the elections for membership of the district committee were held, the members of the plant committees, or of the shop committees where there were no plant committees, would be the candidates. By this means, only those of recognized standing in a local group could become candidates for the higher offices. At the same time, the local group, when it elected to local office would be nominating for higher office.

B. When a plant committeeman was elected to the district committee, his position in the plant committee would be filled by special election.

e. The district committee would be a large body, consisting of at least one representative from each of the plants or shops in the district.

f. The routine work of the district committee would be handled by the district executive committee, picked by the district committee from its own membership, and responsible to it as a board of managers.

g. Each district would have its staff of engineers, experts or inspectors, whose duty it would be to check up on the technical side of the activities in the district, very much as a county agricultural agent or a district sales manager checks up on the work of those who come within his jurisdiction. These experts would be selected by the district executive committee, subject to the approval of the district committee.

h. Where possible, important issues confronting the district would be brought to the attention of the workers in the district through one or a series of ma.s.s meetings. Where this proved to be impossible, newspapers, leaflets, and other forms of printed information must suffice.

i. The district would therefore be a self-governing group of economic units, engaged in activities that fell within one of the main divisions of industry. It would be the judge of its own economic affairs and would be autonomous in all matters affecting only the district.

3. SUGGESTIONS FOR THE ORGANIZATION OF A GEOGRAPHIC DIVISION WITHIN A GIVEN INDUSTRIAL OR OCCUPATIONAL GROUP.

a. The division would consist of a convenient geographic area, in so far as possible contiguous and closely bound together by transport facilities, related economic interests, etc. North America, South America, South Africa, and Mediterranean Basin, Northern Europe, Northern Asia, Eastern Asia, Southern Asia, and Australia might be agreed upon as such divisions.

b. The organization of the division is, in the main, a replica of the organization of the district, with two exceptions:

A. The scope of the organization is limited geographically to the division in question, and covers all of this division, whereas the district organization includes a group of local economic units, which are not necessarily contiguous, and are in no particular geographic relation to one another. While the district organization is strictly industrial, the divisional organization is industrial and geographic.

B. The organization is definitely limited to the major occupational groups, each of the groups covering the whole of the division. Hence there would be, in each division, a division organization of transport workers, a division organization of agricultural workers, a division organization of those engaged in manufacturing and so on, making a divisional organization for each of the major industrial groups. A district might comprise only one branch of an industry such as textile manufacturing or electric transport. All of these districts would be included, however, in the particular divisional organization with which they would logically affiliate. Thus there might be a district organization for the textile workers of Lyons and vicinity, and another district organization for the metal workers of St. Etienne and vicinity. Both districts would be included in the divisional organization of the manufacturing industries of the Mediterranean Basin.

c. The control of each industry within a division would be vested in a divisional congress, elected directly by all of the workers in the division who were engaged in that industry.

A. The members of this congress would be elected by districts, with a minimum of at least one member from each district, and an additional member from each district for each additional quota of workers over a specified minimum. The details would necessarily vary with the division, but if there were 100 districts in a division, with a million workers in all of the districts, each district might be allowed a minimum of two members in the divisional congress, with one additional member for each 5,000 workers in excess of 10,000.

Under such an arrangement, a district with 25,000 workers would have five representatives in the congress, and so on.

B. The members of the district committees are the candidates for election to the divisional congresses.

d. The divisional congress meets at least once in each year, and within thirty days of its election.

e. The divisional congress picks from its own membership a divisional executive committee, which meets at intervals through the year, and is responsible for the affairs of the division when the divisional congress is not in session.

f. The divisional congress selects from its membership a divisional executive board which sits constantly. Its members are members of the division executive committee, and it is responsible to the division executive committee when the division congress is not in session.