New-York tribune. [volume] (New York [N.Y.]) 1866-1924, 1917-12-23
lake War Trust of the Entire United States

whether Just or unjust, By any mean.
apparently endeayor 70 make il a, IN,
convenient and uncomfortable 10 A..
complainant as possible, 10 make him
feel like 4 criminal and thereby efee.
lively discourage any further com.
plant. With such corporations NOBODY
who once made a complaint will ever
like to make another complaint. bat
neither will he ever have a good word
for the corporation, but can be counted
forever after among its enemies.
Then there are powerful utility
corporations, which make the com.
plant department the careful study o.
their best men, select qualified o.
fcers with considerable social senM
for handling complaints; they en-.
courage complaints, show the com
plainant attention, explain 10 him the
why and wherefore. and in nine cases
ont of ten leave him not merely sat.
isfied, but a friend and defender Of the
corporation, and they find that this
method Of dealing with complaints.
while IL may cost more than merely
discouraging complaints by insttention.
will pay for itself as one Of the most
effective means Of creating friends for
the corporation among the public.
Future Depends on Cooperation
Again, there are corporations. stores.
hotels, etc, whose principle in deal
ing with complaints is that the com
plsinant is always right. their own
employe wrong; it is unfairness In
the opposite direction, unjust 10 their
own employees, often Ineffective toward
the complainant, who, as a rule. is
more satisfied by being given reasons
and explanations than by being told
that the employees will be punished.
The same applies to claims, and 10
practically every activity in which
the corporation comes into contact
with the public; we find all kinds
of attitudes, from the alleged "the
public be id" TO that Of the
modern corporation against which no
justified hostility could ever have
arisen even from the most exseting.
Paternalism Not Wanted
The future success of our country as
an industrial nation depends on the
extent to which cooperation can be de-
veloped within the industrial corpora.
ton and between public and corpora
ton. This is realized more and more
and increasing efforts are made to
bring about cooperation. Thus, in mos,
moaern corporations some work is done
TO establish cooperation, in some muea
time and attention are devoted thereto
by the highest officials.
Unfortunately. due to the strong in
diyidualistic temperament of most cor
poration leaders, many of these actiyi-
ties are paternslism rather than true
cooperation. Cooperation implies two
parties coming together. Thus there
may be cooperation between employer
and employees, cooperation between the
public and the corporation, bat cooper
alton Of the employees with the en-
ployer in plans devised and introduced
by the employer, OF the public with tn.
corporation on a basis established sole
! IL By the corporation, is a misnomer,
and such one-sided attempts at cooper
alton not infrequently lead to the re-
verse, TO strained relations and sntag-
onism, and that naturally in a demo-
/ cratic nation, where everybody believes
/ that he knows best what is good FOR
/ him.
Copyright. 1917, Harper q Bros)