The Pacific commercial advertiser. [volume] (Honolulu, Hawaiian Islands) 1885-1921, 1899-07-19
Grand System Organized Under
the Golden Rule.
OBJECT LESSON IN CLEANLINESS
National Cash Register Company
Makes Money and Happiness
at the Same Time.

IN Il description OF remal kdble
twentieth century factory. contribu-
ted to The Independent. Rev. Edgar
Whitaker Work, DID. says:
The optimist who feels that his vo-
cation is slipping away would do well
to take a train to Dayton, Ohio. and
visit the works of the National Cash
Register Company, as a preventive OF
encroaching pessimism.
A great factory system organized
upon principles of brotherhood openly
protesting the Golden Rule as its doc
trine, advocating the care and train
ing of mems minds and spirits. while
employing their hands. is so unique
$50 altogether captivating that it
would require not above half
an hours inspection most effectually
to silence for the time being the loud
est grumbler at modern industrial con-
ditions. Quite the most unique thing
about it all, too. is the naive confess
sion by the company that they find
business profit in what they are doing
for their people. Enter the women's
dining hall on the upper floor OF the
administration building or the rest
roOm," or the bath rooms. or bicycle
sheds, or the working-rooms. kept as
clean as your mothers kitchen. paint
ed in colonial yellow TO be easy for the
eye-everywhere the same frank plac-
ard greets you-'It Pays"
The company pays good wages and
gives unusual attention to matters of
sanitation, cleanliness, light. ventila-
ton, heating and ornamentation. The
health of the employees is made a
first consideration. Several years ago
the president found young woman
heating coffee in a tomato can on a
heater for the noon lunch. He prompt
lily furnished a stove for heating
lunches, and from this has grown the
| generous noon lunch provided TO the
young women. at a cost of one cent.
| The dining room contains flowers.
rugs, pictures, a piano, and rest
room adjoining with touches and
medicines. The lunch is estimated to
cost three cents. but the company fig
ureS that the. increased efficiency of
this department amounts to five cents
per person. The young women are re-
quired to wear white aprons and cuffs.
which are furnished and Numbered at
the company's expense. They go tn
the morning, and leave ten minutes
earlier in the evening. There is ten
minute recess each morning and after
noon for calisthenics or rest. They
also have regular holidays. They re-
ceive ten hours pay for eight hours
work The chairs have high backs
and foot rests. The young women in
the binderies and at the machines look
as neat as high-school girls. The OBJ
| ject lesson in cleanliness is too plain
to be mistaken. The men work nine
hours and a half with ten hours pay.
Weekly baths are granted to all, on
| the company's time.
1t is believed that pleasant surround
| ings are conducive to the economical
| production of good work. while. they
attract a much better class OF work
men.
The young men in the offices have
the air of college students. Courtesy
is exacted of all.
Suggestion boxes are found here and
there. and the best suggestions receive
generous prizes. The employees receive
! full information by bulletin boards of
| the work of the company. The Ad-
vance Club is composed of officers.
heads of departments. members of va
riouS committees, and all foremen and
their assistants. This club meets reg
ularly to consider complaints and sug-
gestions. The factory has no superin
! tendent but is managed by a factory
committee of five experts in various
lines of factory work. The system of
prizes for suggestions calls forth the
individuality and originality of each
Iemployee. Only high-school graduates
are employed for Office departments.
and manual training is a prerequisite
for some departments. 1t has been an
nounced that after the year 1915 no
one will be employed who has not at
tended kindergarten in childhood.
| When visitors of note are expected
| the bulletin boards announce their
names. to promote the personal inter-
est of the employees. The attention
paid to pleasant surroundings is not
a mere matter of taste. but a matter
of business policy; hence here and
there a waving palm among whiIring
wheels and belts. The lawns and
grounds were carefully planned by a
Landscape gardener. One of the
streets near the factory has been pro-
nounced in summer time the most
beautiful street in the world The sec
ton of the city in which the factory
lis located was formerly "Slidertown.'
ldisreputable and unsightly. Now il is
South Park and is rightly named.
The employees themselves have
formed the South Park Improvement
Association" For many squares about
the factory the effect of the factory's
attention to beauty is seen in the
Ihomes. in a window-boX of flowers. a
Ivine-clad porch, a well-trimmed lawn.
or well-kept back yard.
The company keeps a landscape gar
-bT s,,e-- r..- Il No 10 In, "a
best methods of planting trees and
training vines, and the company Of
fers prizes, for example. for the best
kept back yard. Realizing the Difficult
Ity of occupying boys and of teachin"
them usefulness. boys garden has
been furnished. Each boy has plot