Essex County herald. [volume] (Guildhall, Vt.) 1873-1964, 1917-11-30
CLOSER KINSHIp is
The new IDEAL IN
AMERICAN INDUSTRY
IS NOW AN INVENTORY Item
Modern Manufacturer cuItivates Good.
Will of Workers-His Interest No
Longer Confined to Conversion of
Raw Material Into Finished Product.

Longer Confined to Conversion of
Raw Material Into Finished Product,
No established business can operate
efficiently without inventory. The in
ventory tells the story of whether the
business Is successful or otherwise.
You put almost everything you have in
an inventory, and the value that you
think the article bears in relation to
your business.
But there Ire many things which go
into the composite body OF inventory
beside personal property. There In
the question OF good will. There %
the item of the contentment of en-
ployees. There is the question OF the
relation Of employer to employee.
There Ia the item Of the health n.y.
giene OF artisans. And there Is the
final item. which is always eloquent,
of whether or not the men who work
are better citizens in the community
in which they live.
The time has come and gone when
manufacturers are exclusively inter-
ested in converting raw into finished
product. The time has come when all
employers must be interested in the
quality of manhood of the men who
work.
Industrial conservation means the
preservation and protection of the
lives, liberties and rights of men in
industry as much as it does the pro-
lection of the economic agencies Of
manufacture. 1t spells industrial in
tegrity. The age Of ruthless compe-
tition is relegated to the past. The
interests Of employees and employers
are not necessarily identical, but they
are mutual. If the humblest employee
in any industry is not interested IN
the success of the concern for which
he works he should be eliminated. II
the executive Of any large industrial
concern is not interested in the hum
blest toiler the executive should be
eliminated.
The Meaning Of Cooperation.
The new idea in industry is a closer
kinship and deeper appreciation of the
necessity for mutually and co-opera-
ton. Cooperation means not merely
the physical coordination of industry;
1t means the spirit with which the la
Dor is performed. Cooperation is not
a question Of wage or hours Of labor:
it is an agency for the the betterment
Of employees. stockholders and off,
GERS. If an industrial concern cannot
manufacture good will, it ought to go
out Of business.
Industrial conservation ea mobi-
lizing industrial forces, both Internal
ly and externally. 1t neal protec-
ton, not In the tariff sense of that
word, but in the sense of establishing
an industrial Rock of Gibraltar against
the international trade conditions
which will follow on the termination
of the European war. The vast o
nomic changes to follow the Duro-
pean con1agration cannot be worked
out by a group Of men. The test OF
democracy depends upon the eontri-
button OF everybody interested In the
maintenance Of democracy, ~independ-
ent of political, sectional or racial
considerations.
Just as sometimes industrial piants
are reorganized, 80 now American fr
dustry is undergoing a process Of re-
organization. It Is no longer an ago
of the brutality of competition. but a
skill in bringing about coordination.
Business now means making better
men and better conditions for labor,
more highly specialized vocational
training, and a n~on-provincial outlook
and realization that the eventual great
ness of American industry cannot be
measured in terms OF dollars and
cents, but in terms Of the manhood OF
the men who constitute the fibre inter
woven in our scheme of democracy.
Welfare Of Worker Considered.
Measures designed to reduce the
cost of accidents in industry. the high
est degree OF safety apparatus for
workmen, the study OF fatigue n its
consequences on the operative, the de.
velopment Of the individual efficiency
Of workmen, the problem OF sickness
insurance, either through voluntary
or involuntary plans; the study Of the
economic factors involved in a shorter
working day, the Standardization OF
cost systems-these and dozens Of 9th
or problems are all part and parcel OF
industry today.-IadvstrtoI Co~serv6-
Hon, Heto Ysrk.