The Republican journal., 1917-11-08
CLOSER kINSHIP IS
THE new IDEAL IN
AMERICAN INDUSTRY
Harmony Between Men and Man.
agement Recognized as a
Desirable Factory Asset.
IS NOW AN INVENTORY ITEM
Modern Manufacturer CuItivates Good.
Will Of Workers-His Interest Nc
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 are many things which go
into the composite body of inventory
beside personal property. There is
the question of good will There is
the item of the contentment of en-
ployees. There is the question of the
relation of employer to employee.
There is 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. If
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, 1t ought to go
out of business.
Industrial conservation means mobi-
lzing industrial forces, both internal
ly and externally. 1t means 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 eco
nomc changes to follow the Euro
pean confiagration cannot be worked
out by a group of men. The test OF
democracy depends upon the contri-
button of everybody interested in the
maintenance of democracy, independ-
ent of political, sectional or racial
considerations.
Just as sometimes industrial plants
are reorganzed, so now American in
dustry is undergoing process of re-
organization. 1t is no longer an age
of the brutality of competition, but OF
skill in bringing about coordination.
Business now means making better
| men and better conditions for labor,
more highly specialized vocational
training, and non-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 and 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
er problems are all part and parcel OF
industry today-Industridl ComserUd-
ton, Ne,o York.