PROMOTING THE
HAPPY FAMILY PLAN IN
AMERICAN INDUSTRY
How One Corporation Works In
Harmony With Its Men.
AN INDUSTRIAL DEMOCRACY
All Grievances Presented by Men
Through Representatives Reach Head
of Company and Are Honestly Inves
tigated.
For more than a year a large and
progressive industrial corporation with
plants scattered over a large territory
in several states of the southwest has
been improving its relations with its
employees through the medium of a so
called industrial representation plan
an industrial constitution drawn on a
basis of democracy and mutual confi
dence between the head of the corn
pany and the workmen 'vno number
from 10.000 to 12.000.
To deal with the diverse interests
of such a vast body of men is a serious
task involving stern responsibilities.
Nevertheless the company, through its
representation plan, has not only car
ried on social and industrial betterment
work on a comprehensive scale but has
succeeded in settling all grievances
without friction and without interfer
ence from the outside. During the
year several increases in pay have
been made upon the initiative of the
company.
Altogether the plan has demonstrat
ed itself to an important forward step
in the establishment of amicable re
lations between all the factors in in
dustry. A more widespread adoption
of such schemes in plants and fac
tories is heartily recommended by the
broad-minded manufacturers of the
country who have started the National
Industrial Conservation Movement for
the purpose of getting employers and
employees together. The supporters
of the conservation movement realize
that the captain of industry and the.
workingman must light shoulder to
shoulder to protect American industry
against conditions that are sure t<>
prevail after the War.
Workers Elect Representatives.
The industrial Representation plan
was adopted in its present form by
the directors of the company and by
a referendum vote of the workmen.
By secret ballot the workmen in the
company's various plants select repre
sentatives who act as their authorized
agents in all matters pertaining to em
ployment, living and working condi
tions. the adjustment of differences
and other matters of mutual concern
and interest. On the other hand, the
president keeps in direct touch with
the workmen through officers known
as presidents industrial representa
tives.
Employees have been made to under
stand that they are absolutely free to
present all their grievances even
though they involve charges against
the foremen or superintendents under
whom they work. Through the work
men's representatives the complaints
are referred to the presidents' industri
al representatives, who in turn investi
gate them carefully and report their
findings in detail to the president.
In every case the grievances have
been investigated fearlessly and im
partially and adjustments have been
made on a strict basis of fairness, ir
respective of whether the award was
in favor of the workman or the com
pany official. The workman, dissatis
fied with the decision of the presi
dents' industrial representatives, can
appeal to the higher officers of the com
pany in consecutive order up to the
president. Then, if he still feels that
he has not received full justice, he can
carry his case to the joint committee
on Industrial Cooperation and concilia
tion. comprised of both employees, rep
resentatives and the company's repre
sentations, and finally to the State In
dustrial Commission.
Confer on Wage Increases.
Under the industrial constitution
drawn up matters of wages, hours of
service and other vital factors in the
company's relations with Its employees
are settled by a written contract. In
creases in wages are worked out in
conference between company officials
and the workmen's representatives.
In all matters of industrial better
ment the employees' representatives
play an important part. They are as
signed to joint committees on which
they serve with representatives of the
company. The names of these com
mittees—Safety and Accidents. Sanita
tion. Health and Housing, and Recrea
lion and Education—give an adequate
Idea of the broad scope of the compa
ny's interest in its employees. To
carry out the schemes endorsed by the
committees the company has spent
money and effort unstintingly, although
it has always avoided any semblance
of paternalism.
Since the inauguration of the plan
the company has enlarged its previous
programme <>f providing model homes
for its employees who live on company
property. The company is fencing, free
of charge, ach employee's home. A
series of prizes is given every year for
the cultivat >n of lawns and gardens.
Many of the workers own their own
automobiles. At the plants garage*
have been ] vovided. with sralls rentoJ
to employe at a moderate rate.—
Industrial Conservation, A 7. F.
UNITY NEEDED TO HOLD
TRADE AFTER THE WAR
Labor Must Join In Effort to Meet New
Competitive Spirit In Europe.
"Employers and workers must unite
to meet the conditions that the restora
tion of pea<e in Europe will bring."
says Eugene H. Outerbridge. president
of the New York Chamber of Com
merce. "I think there is no single ele
ment in industry before this country
today of such vast importance as the
matter of bringing these two constitu
ents into mutual confidence and under
standing in a real spirit of co-opera
tion.
"In the world conditions now pre
vailing the peoples of the belligerent
nations have, under the stress of a
compelling necessity, developed a de
gree of co-operation and efficiency in
production of which they never be
fore knew themselves capable and
which has never been approached any
where else in the world.
"The war has produced many un
precedented conditions. This is only
one of them. After it is over there
will be many we shall have to meet
and many changes to which we shall
have to adapt ourselves. Some cannot
be foretold or foreseen, but it appears
to me inevitable that the conscious
ness of the efficiency and productive
power that has been developed in the
European peoples will lead them not
to turn to previous methods or lives
of indolence and ease, but that they
will turn their newly developed pow
ers to production in peaceful pursuits
and that we then shall have to meet
in foreign fields, and perhaps in do
mestic trade, the force of a competitive
production organized on a degree of
efficiency which we have never before
had to combat." — Industrial Conserva
tion, N. Y.
Don't Rock the Industrial Boat.
After the European war is over the
prosperity of the country will depend
on the willingness of labor to co-oper
ate with capital in fighting destructive
competition from abroad. This is the
consensus of opinion among men of
affairs who have made a close study
of conditions in the industrial and eco
nomic world.
During the reconstruction period
that must follow the termination of
the war, these men say. labor and
capital will be shipmates, and if there
is going to be any mutiny among the
members of the crew the result will
affect the wage earners' income. In
this connection George Roberts, vice
president of the National City Bank of
New York, says:
"I cannot get rid of the conviction
that there will have to be a period of
readjustment for the general business
situation soon after the war. There
is only one way to maintain high
wages, and that is by increasing the
efficiency of industry. We have to
convince our own people of the advan
tages of large scale, economical pro
duction, and we have to satisfy our
wage-earners that they are interested
not in restricting production, but in
increasing production. They must be
brought to see not only that wages are
dependent upon production, but that
an increasing supply of all the com
forts of life for the masses of the peo
pie is dependent upon \t."—lndustrial
Conservation, N. Y.
WITHOUT AGITATORS
INDUSTRY FLOURISHES
Figures Show Big increase In Wages
and Factories In Queens.
Wherever labor agitators are few,
there industry flourishes and workers
are prosperous. This is the lesson to
be gleaned from the remarkable indus
trial growth in the Borough of Queens,
New York City, as shown by the fig
ures recently compiled by the Bureau
of Census for the year 1914.
The figures record a decided gain
not only in the number of new facto
ries, capital invested in manufactur
ing, and the' value of manufactured
products, but also in the sum total of
salaries and wages and the number ot
salaried employes and wage earners
since the taking of the last census in
1009. From a percentage standpoint,
the increase over the several items
was as follows:
Salaried employes, 62.7 per cent; sal
iries, oO.S per cent; wages, 35 per cent:
wage earners, 30.7 per cent; capital in
rested, 29 per cent; number of facto
ries, 2G.G per cent; value of products.
3.8 per cent.
While complete figures have not been
published as yet for all the cities and
States, still from the figures that are
now available it is evident that
Borough of Queens for the year 1914
exceeded in the value of its manufac
tured products many States of the
Union, such as Vermont, Delaware.
Oregon, Florida, and Wyoming; it ex
ceeded, also, in this respect every city
in New York State, with the exception
jf Buffalo. In fact, there were not
more than fifteen or sixteen cities in
the United States which produced man
ufactured products greater in value
than those made in Queens for the
the year 1914. — Industrial Conserva
tion, N. F.
Beat Your Own Record.
Don't gauge your own efforts by the
activity or output of your fellow work
ers. Never mind how little the man
next to you does. That is his own
funeral, and he will be chief mourner
some day. Compete with yourself each
day. striving to beat your record of
the day before.
AN OVERWORKED INDUSTRY!
CURBING INDUSTRY; OR THE
FABLE OF THE BUSY LEGISLATOR
A Lesson In Practical Politics, Outlining the dest Course to
Pursue When the Welfare of Industry
Interferes With Political Ambition.
One dark, stormy day there was bom
to otherwise happy and respectable
parents an embryonic legislator. He
made his debut in the midst of a thun
der-clap. This fact may or may not
have been prophetic, but in after life
he manifested a decided fondness for
applause.
With no connivance on his part, the
infant Solon was named Thomas Jef
ferson Monroe Miller. His mother di<l
the naming, while his father, a suc
cessful retail butcher, stood by in mute
protest, thinking of the day when his
son should leam the meat business
from the bottom up. Thomas Jeffer
son Monroe, the elder Miller knew,
would find the delivery baskets heavy
enough without carrying any excess
baggage in the way of a name. But
the maternal "boss" had decided that
her son was cut out for better things
than constant association with steaks
and chops and, in the end she had her
way, thus depriving the world of an
other perfectly competent butcher.
At the age of eighteen Thomas Jef
ferson Monroe Miller began to fee.
that his mother's confidence in him
was more than justified. The vista
of his ambition included a front ele
vation of the Presidential chair.
During his college course, the pro
spective statesman was so busy set
tling the affairs of the nation in ora
torical contests and debates that hf
had no time to spend on the problems
of trigonometry. At the end of four
years he had developed a magnificent
rush of words to the face and. although
he was somewhat puny in mathemat
ics, the faculty decided that the best
way to get rid of him was to hand
him his sheepskin.
By this time our future legislator
had grown a wonderful crop of back
hair that curled gracefully over his
collar, and had acquired the habit of
posing for his photograph with a cor
rugated look about his brow and his
right hand in the breast of his coat.
By comparison with the most authori
tative portraits, he was every inch a
statesman, so he returned to his na
tive State and offered his services to
the "boss" of the Party in Power.
The hard-hearted political czar
would have none of him. however, and
Thomas Jefferson came to the conclu
sion that the Party in Power was cor
rupt. Therefore, he joined the ranks
of the Reform Party and lent the
crushing weight of his oratory in an
effort to convince the "plain peepul"
that the Predatory Pilferers in office
had stolen everything but the brass
hinges on the Capitol door.
After several years of incessant ora
tory. the promising youth was sent to
the legislature on the Reform Ticket
He won instant recognition bv propos
ing a bill to prevent employers from
speaking harshly to their employees.
That was the first of a series of spec
tacular laws which he managed to
have enacted to curb the iniquitous
tendencies of "Big Business."
With the naked eye the busy legis
lator could not have told an invoice
from a petty cash account. A high
powered ear trumpet would not have
enabled him to distinguish the song of
the loom from the chant of the buzz
saw, but his six-cylinder, self starting
oratory had to have some kind of a
road to run on and the avenue of in
dustry was the most inviting to his
hectic eye. In other words the busy
legislator consecrated his lung power
to the work of helping the various leg
islative bodies of the country maintain
then* record for enacting an aggregate
of 12.000 new statutes per annum deal
ing with production, distribution, em
ployment and organization. Like most
industrial reformers, he possessed the
rare genius for managing other peo
ple's affairs.
As a result of his active legislative
campaign, several of the biggest man
ufacturing houses in the State were
curbed into bankruptcy, but the jobless
employees gathered 'round the remains
and gave "Three Cheers" for the
"Friend of the Workingman."
In a few years Thomas Jefferson
Monroe Miller had "Big Business"'
gasping on the mat and pleading for
help. There was apparently nothing
left to curb, but by that time he had
contracted an insatiable thirst for reg
ulating things, so he turned his atten
tion to the liberties of the individual.
He made it a crime for a man to put
his feet on the desk while dictating to
his stenographer. Next he put through
a statute forcing restaurants to have
on hand a stock of Maxim silencers for
diners whose audible fondness for soup
interfered with the orchestra. Thanks
to him, the proprietors in hotels must
now furnish their guests with bed
sheets of statutory length or run the
chance of being fined or imprisoned.
Meanwhile the Busj Legislator
not reduced the height of his youthful
ambitions. He has been standing
around with his hat in his hand, ready
to slip into the first vacant seat in the
United States senate, and his constitu
ents are convinced that he will not
have to stand much longer. A commit
tee of his townsmen recently visited
a sculptor with a view to having the
hero's facial facade perpetuated in th.
purest marble. The statue will t
placed in the town square after Millc
has gasped his last speech.
Moral: They all look good in tl
"Hall of Fame." — C. A. Rieser, Indu.<
trial Conservation, N. Y.
CONSERVATION TRUTHS.
Sow while you are young and you'll
reap when you are old. This applies
to grains of industry as well as to
wild oats.
Never be fearful of doing more than
is required of you. If you wait for
more pay before you do more work
the millennium will probably find yon
on the same old job.
Remember that an agitator never
yet filled a pay envelope, although ho
has helped to keep many a one un
filled.
It takes three forces to run a busi
ness or factory—labor, capital and e>.
ecutive management.
Men who betray their country are
not the only traitors. There are also
men who betray their employers, their
families and their friends.
Safety first—lndustrial patriotism al
ways.
Industry is of the people, by the peo
ple, for the people. Let us all get to
gether.
The average reformer Is only op
posed to capital so long as the other
fellow has it. Let him get a slice of
the melon he condemned and his rad
icalism will be cured for all times.
Success In Industry: Of 2G0.000 cor
porations in the United States engaged
in manufacturing and mercantile busi
ness over 100,000, according to the
Federal Trade Commission, are mere
ly existing. They do not earn a penny
of profit The 22,000 failures annually
in the United States show that busi
nesses cannot run along at a loss im
definitely.
Business success depends on good
management; efficient loyal workers,
from the head of the firm down to the
messengers; and lreedom from outside
interference.
Where Do You Stand?
Someone has divided mankind into
four classes—those who consistently
do less than is expected of them;
those who do what is expected of them
but no more; those who do things
without having to be told, and finally,
those who have the magnetic power of
inspiring others to do things.
All the failures in this world are
recruited from the first class. The
second class comprises those who
scrape along in some form of drudgery
or hackwork. Men of the third class
are always in great demand in the fac
tory and in the office, but the four J
class represents the highest rung ;.i
the ladder of success.
In the world of industry the fourth
class is attained by the diligent few
who have caught the spirit of their
task and are able to impart it to the
men under them. They are the men
who, without being slave drivers, are
able to increase the output of an in
dustrial plant- Industrial Conserva
tion, N. Y.
MANUFACTURERS
INSURE MEN RY
THE THOUSANDS
Some Policies Provide For Pay
ment ol DIG Age Pensions.
GROUP PLAN FAVORED
Part of General Campaign For Indue
trial Betterment Some Concern®
Adopt Plan to Give Their Employees
a Share In Prosperity.
A striking: evidence of the willingness
on the part of manufacturers as a class
to do something material for the bene
fit of their employees is to be found in
the growing popularity of the group in
surance plan. Industrial concerns all
over the country are insuring their
workers against death, sickness, acci
dent and old age under the group sys
tem, and insurance companies are gar
nering in millions of dollars in pre
miums.
This new manifestation of the em
ployer's concern for the members of
his industrial family may not be found
ed entirely on altruism. If it were it
would probably revolt the self respect
ing worker. It is better than that how
ever; it is indisputable proof of the em
ployer's willingness to go more than
half the necessary distance to meet his
employees on the common ground of
mutual helpfulness, and thus help to
wipe out any misunderstandings that
have existed between them.
The group plan has had a remarkable
growth since its inauguration about
live years ago and has recommended it
self not only to industrial concerns but
to banking and mercantile establish
ments in all pats of the country. Many
of these establishments adopted it in
stead of giving a bonus at Christmas
time; others gave both bonuses and In
surance.
Policies Total Millione.
During a few weeks before Christ-
I mas the Traveler's Insurance Com
pany wrote group insurance policies
aggregating $0,000,000. Both the Trav
eler's and the Equitable Life Assur
ance Society did a larger business in
group insurance during the year 191 IX
because of the willingness of manufac
turing and other concerns to grant
their employees a share in their pros
perity. Among the manufacturing
concerns insured within the past few
months by the Travelers are:
Bullard Machine Tool Company,
Bridgeport, Conn.—ssoo and upward;
750 risks; about $500,000.
Raybestos Company, Bridgeport,
Conn.—ssoo and upward; about 300
employees. totaling $200,000 of insur
ance.
James S. Fuller, Inc., Kingston, N.
Y., shirt manufacturers.—lnsurance
according to length of service; 150
risks for about $lOO,OOO.
Benton Harbor Malleable Foundry
Co., Benton Ilarbor, Mich.—lnsurant-*
on unmarried men, $500; married men»
$1,000; total insurance of $-100,000 on
450 risks.
Buffalo Gasoline Motor Company,
Buffalo, N. Y.—loB risks for sllo.ooot
F. E. Byers & Brothers, pump manu
facturers, Ashland, O.—According to
length of service; 050 risks for $325,-
000.
Faultless Rubber Company, Ashland,
O.—According to length of service; 440
risks for $220,000.
Sperry Gyroscope Company. Brook
lyn, N. Y.—Each man insured for ono
year's salary; 750 risks for $700,000.
Kellogg Toasted Corn Flakes Com
pany, Battle Creek, Mich.—According
to service; 400 risks for $250,000.
L. Barth & Son, hotel fixtures, New-
York City—loo risks for $lOO,OOO.
Neptune Meter Company, water
meters, New York City.—According to
salary; 400 risks for $300,000.
Michigan Lubricator Company, De
troit, Mich.—27s risks for $150,000.
Adams & Westlake Company, Chi
cago, 111.—According to service; 450>
risks for $250,000.
Frank L. Hall Company, Buffalo, N.
Y.—According to service; 100 risks for
$75,000.
.» Many Other Policies Written.
Among many other industrial con
cerns the Equitable insured the fol
lowing:
William M. Crane & Co., New York.
-From $5OO to $3,000. covering ai>-
proximately 1,000 employed.
Favorita Silk Company, Paterson,
N. J.—Life insurance to all employees
in amounts ranging from $5OO to sl,ooot.
Garner Print Works and Bleachery.—
Life insurance aggregating over $1,000,-
000, covering thousands of employees
at the plants at Gamerville and Waj>-
pinger Falls, N. Y.
Sohmer & Company, Piano Manufac
turers.—Life insurance of $5OO for each
employee.
Other manufacturers who have adopt
ed the group system of insurance for
their employees are Montgomery Ward
6c Company of Chicago and Kansas
City; the B. F. Goodrich Company,
Akron, Ohio; the Standard Cloth Com
pany of New York; Robert Gair Com
pany of Brooklyn; the Studebaker Cor
poration of Detroit and South Bend;
Roos Brothers of San Francisco; the
Union Oil Company of California and
the Simmons Company of Kenosha,
Wis.
The group insurance policy as offered
by various companies covers death,
disability, ill health and even superan
nuation. Each policy is arranged to
suit the particular cas e.—lndustrial
Conservation, V. T.