The Wallace miner. [volume] (Wallace, Idaho) 1907-current, 1919-09-25
RELATIONS OF EMPLOYERS AND
EMPLOYEES.

whole obligation to their employees
was not contained in the periodical
pay envelope that their interest in the
men on the payroll was not limited
to their physical ability TO do
shifts work. There has been grow
ing feeling of interest on the part
of employers in the welfare of their
employees and this has not been con-
fined merely to improved conditions
on the immediate premises where
they are employed. Progressive en-
ployers have come to realize that their
obligation includes direct and prac-
tical interest in the social life OF their
employees, and an active cooperation
in community affairs which contri-
butte to the betterment of living con-
tltions and therefore to the happiness
and contentment of employees and their
IamllleS. lIlS oplBdtloh eAiStS 'h"o-
pendent of any selfish purpose to OBJ
tain better and more loyal service,
and yet experience has invariably
shown these results follow and that
adoption of this attitude toward en-
ployes not only fulfills moral OBJ
legation, but also as purely business
policy 1t pays
Mine operators of the Occur d'Alene
district have generally accepted this
humane view and to greater or less
extent have carried it into practice,
but there are some who still cling to
the old idea that their obligation to
employees is satisfied when they tell a
committee to go to the Office and get
their time, in response to a request
for a conference over working condi-
lions. But as a rule the mining COM
panies of the Occur d'Alene district
have manifested a comendable in
terest in the welfare of their employees
both while they are on the job and In
their social condition. The most not
able example in this line is the Bun.
ker Hill & Sullivan company at Kel'
legg, The cordial relations that pre-
vail between the company and it,
employees is described by 4. A. Rick
ard, of San Francisco, editor and pub
Usher of the Mining and Scientific
Press. Mr.. Richard is a mining engi-
neer of wide experience and is even
more distinguished as the editor OF
one of the leading technical mining
publications in the United States He
recently spent a week or ten days al
Kellogg inspecting the Bunker Hill 4
Sullivan mine mills and smelter, and
in studying the system long age
adopted by the company in its deal
ings with its large number of en-
ployes Upon leaving Kellogg Mr.
Richard made this significant com
ment:
1T has become fashionable to
talk about welfare work and to
speak benevolently about the re-
lation of the employer to his en-
ployes, but a lot of it Is insincere
and the men are quick enough to
detect the insincerity, therefore
it proves ineffective as means
of creating cordial relations be-
tween managers and men.
"At the Bunker Hill, however, an
experience of 20 years has con-
WINGED the men that the consider
alton shown by the manager and
his staff is prompted not by com
mercial reasons. but by genuine
feelings of the kind that make
democracy something more than
a name by recognizing the obli-
CATION that employers have to
their employees and the helpful
ness that every good citizen owes
to his fellow citizens.
For instance, when the COM
pany sells house to an en-
ploye on periodic payments ana
the man finds it impossible to
complete the deal he can trans
fer it to a second man without
FORGETTING his equity.
'The company has never had a
suit for accidental compensation
because it has always met any
reasonable demand without the
compulson Of litigation
Most of the members of the
staff have been in the employ OF
the company for Is years or more
and ! noticed that the considera-
ton and courtesy shown by the
manager Mr.. Easton, to the men
of his staff is repeated by them in
their relations with each other; in