The Washington herald., 1912-03-25
That's the Way the Up-to-date Manufacturer
Treats His Employees, and it Pays.
Wonderful Welfare Work in a Great New York
Factory.
Vorroom Air Washed by New Device and Changed Every
Six Minutes Protection that ProtectsFree Hospital
Service in the BuIdng-Good Food at Cost in Large,
Airy Ktchens-Roof Gardens and Resting
and Recreation Rooms.

cellar inside the building and roomy
enough 20 provide quick shelter and
speedy egress for every occupant OF the
place. The outside fire escapes are pro-
vided with wide, easy stairs-not steep.
narrow steps. In fact. they are the
largest in the city. AS for the fire tower.
none that 1 have seen so nearly ap-
proaches the ideal or gives such a con-
vincing promise Of safety to a panicky
crowd OF people rushing away from a
fire as the one TO be found in this fac
tory. All the exits are marked by large
signs and by red lights, and frequent
drills accustom employees to the use Of
them. Besides these excellent precau-
tions, there is well-drilled fire brigade.
The health OF all the employees in this
factory, who are chiefly women and
girls. is safeguarded in every possible
way. All the air in the immense work
| rooms on the seven factory floors is
let in high above the street through
large ducts, after It has been washed
free from dust by a spraying device
| which bring II to a sanitary humidity.
On being famed into the ducts this
fresh. pure air is warmed to 6S degrees
Fahrenheit in winter, while in summer
lit may be cooled to a temperature 13
degrees lower than that outside the
building. This washing. humidifying. and
tempering the atmosphere produces an
| energiZing effect upon the employees,
heightening their vitality and enabling
| them to overcome that greatest OF all
| factory ailments. nervous debility. The
employees are healthy and cheerful
looking lot OF people may be found
| anywhere.
Air Changes Every Six Minutes.
BY the process described. the air in
each room is changed every six minutes.
| There is probably not an Office in New
| York that Is better ventilated than the
rooms in which these corsetmakers work.
and it certainly is far more sanitary than
that of the tenements from which most of
| them come.
| Formerly the lights in the sewing rooms
| were down on a level with the heads Of
the operatives, which resulted in eye
| strain and headaches. Now all the lights
J are several feet above their heads and
| so well diffused that they cast no shad-
| ows on the work. The headaches are a
| thing of the past.
| A perfectly equipped hospital is pro-
| vided for the workers, and there are
| trained nurses and physicians in regular
| attendance. If girl becomes I'll she is
| at once taken to a cot and cared for. II
| an accident occurs, there is at hand every
facility for a minor or major operation.
| Accidents from machinery, however, will
be rare. because of the minute precau-
| tiOns taken against them. For one thing.
| all shafting is so placed that employees
| will be unlikely TO come IN contact with
it. The machines are operated by elec-
| tric power, let in by wires that are in
cased in steel tubes-as is also the case
| with the lighting wires-thus insuring the
best of insulation and being a further
| safeguard against fire.
| To one who takes a humanitarian in
| terest in working women it is grateful
| to note the means provided for their
| comfort in this factory. On each OF four
| factory floors are a kitchen and lunch
room, the latter planned to seat 800 per-
| sons. Here the girls are served with
good. nourishing food at actual cost.
| They may order and eat a bowl Of clam
chowder. a sandwich. a chop. or other
food, with coffee. tea. or milk. at a less
Price than they can possibly procure IL
for at the poorest restaurant, and the
quality is of the DIR. Wiley standard
The food is all cooked by steam. so that
there are no noxious fumes of gas.
The boon which such a lunchrocm is
to the werking girl will be understood
when one visits the unsanitary eating
places which many of them, not blessed
with such humane employers. are obliged
TO patronize.
Each Of the operatives has her indi-
vidual locker. or closet, where she hangs
her wraps and hat. or slows other things
she brings IN Tor Safekeeplng.
The water supplied for drinking is care
fully filtered and cooled. The unsani-
tsry drinking cup is abolished, the foun-
tain system being in use on every fac
tory floor.
Roof Garden I'm summer.
In summer a roof garden and open
air recreation area will be maintained
exclusively for employees. Here the tired
Irare Of
rest and look down from the top of the
tall building upon the luminous maze of
a great city and over upon the cleaning
hsrbor, popuIous with water craft. Plans
have been made to erect a large perma- |
nent structure on the roof. with library, |
reading, sewing and resting rooms, where |
the employees may pass their winter even |
ings In far greater comfort than in the |
cheerless sbodes and cold hall rooms in
which many Of them are forced to live. |
To thus provide a cheerful evening home |
for hundreds OF lonesome and often |
friendless women and girls is an intensely
practical step in the direction of moral |
uplift and protection against the pitfalls |
of great city. A special elevator service |
from the street to the roof will be main |
tanned for the sole Use Of the employees |
until 10 o'clock each night. 4
This establishment has been visited by /
many factory owners, who have been /
impressed to the point of initiating soma
Of its features. Managers Of municipal
workrooms are also taking II as a model 1
In time factory operatives all over the |
country win be feeling the beneficial in
huence OF this wonderful example of
what can be done to ameliorate the con-
dition OF those who are paying the Sc
we're tribute Of toll in places where II |
would seem that the last things consid-
cred were their health. comfort, and se-
curity.
And II a sordid skeptic asks, with the
cotton mill proprietor. Does this one
big family idea pay?" 1t may be con-
hdently answered that It not only pays
but that IL pays we'll Good ventilation, /
for example, has a high cash value. This
fact has been well proven by q firm of
shirt manufacturers in Berlin, Ontario,
where in Your years after a perfect sys-
tenn OF ventilation was adopted the
amount of business was doubled, the ab-
sence Of employees on account of sickness
was reduced one-third. and $50 opera
tives did 30 per cent more work in one
year than was done by s22 operatives In
a similar period four years before
Good ventilation is only one of me
"one big family ideas. The others, as
found in the conspicuous example of the
factory I have described, are profitable