The daily Gate City. [volume] (Keokuk, Iowa) 1855-1916, 1914-08-28

instructions given to the employees,
said, 1--WE instruct our employees to be
courteous at all. times. We impress
upon their minds that we are serving
the public, that is what We are here
for and if we cannot serve them
properly we might as well go out OF
business. We get our money from the
public and we must give them the
most in return for it. Take the street
car conductor for a concrete example.
We teach them to be patient and
courteous at all times. II an old lady,
with an armful of bundles wishes to
get on the car, assist her on and then
conduct her to a seat. If she wants
a window raised, raise it for her. II
the motorman forgets to stop and
runs past her corner n 1t Is not
too far, have the a back up. II
she is carried too far to back up, take
her around the loop and let her on
at her corner on the way back.
Answering Night Calls.
The company keeps men available
for answering trouble calls at all
hours of the day or night. One night,
not SO very long g a call came in
about 800 o'clock in the morning, but
the trouble man, on duty that night,
failed to hear the telephone when 1t
rang. The superintendent heard OF
the difficulty and got out of bed him
self and went to a Main street bust
ness house and remedied it before the
establishment opened at $500 o'clock
in the morning.
To create a favorable impression on
the people is what Stone & Webster
desire to CO.. This cannot be ac-
complished in a day, a week, or al
month, but when that impression ex-
lists, the people will be getting a bet
ter service than eve before n Stone
& Webster will be making more mon
ey. This set policy, the company has
always pursued. 1t is n reason why
Stone & Webster ear take a hold OF a;
run down property that has been CIV
ing poor service in he past, build up
this property, put men in charge who
are courteous and who are experts in
their respective lines, and make a
success out of a business that had
been a failure before.
Stone & Webster believe that the
closer relationship there is between
the employer and the employees, the
better it is for the service. The
company insists that the best of feel
ing should exist both between the
employees themselves and the officers.
~ A. ~av~ rryhO gd0oo much nf the
hiring and discharging, said he would
generally discharge 2 man for being
gloomy and a knocker before he would
one who was lazy, for there was some
hope for the latter, but none for the
former.
Combine Business and Pleasure.
To bring the employees closer to
one another and closer to the company
many things have been done. In the
first place, clubs have been organic
ed and these have been productive OF
much good. One of the largest is the
High Tension club with nearly three
hundred members. The gas men, the
electric men and the street car men,
all have their individual clubs.
The clubs are both social and edu-I
cational. Socially, the men meet fire.
quently and have good times. The
educational feature Is taken care OF
In the monthly meetings when an ex
pert along some particular line talks
to the men in technical terms and
tells them how to improve their work
and the service that they are sup
posed to give the public.
The company's hobby is to protect
both their employees and the passen-
gers from injury. The company has
experts come to Keokuk to go over
and inspect all the machinery and
other apparatus and show he men
how to protect It SO that the chances
OF accidents are reduced to a mini
mum. Another expert also lectured to
the car men recently on how to handle
their cars safely and how to avoid &C
cidents. Another time a prominent
keokuk attorney addressed the men
on the legal duty owed to a person
riding on a street car. Another time
a prominent physician gave the men
a series of talks on first aid to the
injured"
Better Results for all.
consistent effort is being made to
make 1t as pleasant IS possible for the
mon emnloyed nv this The