Denver labor bulletin., 1918-08-10
DISCHARGING employees Is A WASTE
CHARLES W. WOOD in New York World

Discharging employees is one Of the
most expensive luxuries that an en-
ployer can indulge in.
"A mans job should be considered
sacred and he should not be deprived
of it without due process of reason.
"The labor turnover in many
American industries is an amazing
waste. It is but a phase Of the great
human problem in industry which
American employers have blindly neg
lected. No ones mind can work at
Of insecurity; no one can be at his
best where his job is uncertain"
These startling sentences did not
come from a college economist or an
agitator in a trade union congress.
They came from an executive head of
one of New York's leading industries
in discussing the commercial outlook
for America after the war. The
speaker was Arthur Williams, active
in Americas safety first movement
and known everywhere as a great cleo
trical engineer-and more. He is an
engineer of big business projects as
well, and it might not be out of place
to call him a social engineer. Social
currents are as real to him as electric
currents and their laws must be
equally respected. In none of his
plans does he forget that he is deal
ing with human factors, and he has
gone deep into psychology to ascer-
tain their exact values.
IF America is to retain her in
dustrial supremacy after the war;" he
said, "the human factor of the labor
problem must be met and solved at
,u .N -
business necessity. This country has
outstripped Europe for many years in
mere production of commodities. We
have led the world in administrative
and executive skill, in the organization
and financing of material projects. In
salesmanship, also, Europe has little
to teach US, and in the problems of
delivery and transportation our meth
DDS have easily been supreme. And
yet, in the sum total of efficiency, we
have found it difficult to compete with
many European countries, simply be-
cause we have neglected the human
side Of the labor problem.
/ IF America is going to hold her
present supremacy" he repeated,
American employers must learn that
they cannot afford to waste human
life. We can't afford to have sick
workers. We can't afford to have
dead workers. We can't afford to
have resentful, discontented, under
nourished or underpaid workers, and
we can't afford to have unhappy work
ers.
we must quit sentencing men to
death for the crime of carelessness.
Carelessness is criminal, to be sure,
but capital punishment is too severe.
So are our other common penalties. If
I rnTlld nv frran An,~
for being careless it might not be SO
bad, but cutting off their arms and
legs because they are careless is in
human"
The words were rather cryptic, but
no employe who is acquainted with
Mr.. Williams campaign for safety
first" will fail to grasp his meaning.
Mr.. Williams is president of the Amer
lean Museum of Safety, an organiza-
tion which has almost forced thou
sands Of employers to install safety
devices in their plants. 1t is not
enough, says Mr.. Williams, to have
a shop where workers life may be
safe If it is possible to have one
where he can't get hurt. II a man
is killed thru his own carelessness on
a machine which might have been
protected so that even careless man
could operate it, isn't it, he says, a
form of capital punishment for care
lessness
"a great many employers used to
argue" he said, that danger would
make the workers careful Fortunate
ly We know our psychology better
now. Constant danger either produces
state of panic in their minds, or
else they grow used to it and take
chances. Only where there is a max
imum of safety will there be a maxi
mum of efficiency.
But If we are to solve the human
side of the labor problem-and let me
say again that we are doomed to lose
our position in the worlds markets
unless we dove must think of much
more than mechanical safeguards. We
must see to it that our factory condi-
tions are never such as to undermine
the health Of employees. Sick men
cannot compete with healthy ones.
II Germany has general health insur-
ance in all her industries we must
have it, too. II her factories are made
so safe and light that disease does
not enter them, so must ours. Any
move, no matter how radical or So
| cialistic it may seem, which in ac-
| tual practice tends to conserve the life
and health of the working people must
not be ignored by American employ
crs.
"And we should go further into the
consideration of their physical health.
We must not ignore their comfort,
their self-respect and their ambitions.
Not for their sakes-for self-respect-
ing American workingmen do not
want employers to be nice and kind
fn t,,,t q. 10