Evening star. [volume] (Washington, D.C.) 1854-1972, 1919-06-15
BY EDWARD MARSHALL.
Special Correspondence Of The Star.

HdnuIacturer. NOW his son,
n Charles Edison. in connection
with his fathers vast plants, develops
as a notable sociologist.
At West Orange. N. j., where Is To-
Gated the femaus Edison laboratory,
out OF which so many Of the worlds
wonders have come. there is located
also manufacturing plant, or, rather,
group of plants covering many
acres, employing thousands Of skilled
workmen in the production of things
invented by Mr.. Edison.
Naturally. therefore, the worlds
wizard" and his associates are very
much alive to the big question OF the
future relations between capital and
labor. which just now fills so much
of the worlds thought. And. quite as
naturally, the Edison establishment
Is approaching the question in unique
way.
Under the direction of Charles Edi-
son, who is chairman of the Edison
company's board of directors and head
Of all the manufacturing plants, a
system of cooperation between the
organization and it's employees has
been put into operation which prom
ises to change the old order of things
entirely and set up real partnership
between the workers and the owners
of the property.
The details of this new system were
set out for me yesterday by Charles
Edison himself. 49,, .
That changes OF great moment will
pome in the general relationships ex-
listing between employer and en-
ployed," said Mr.. Edison. must be
manifest to all intelligent observers.
1t is equally clear that these changes
are not to be worked out through
strikes and lockouts or trouble of any
kind, but through application Of in
creased intelligence and consideration
on both sides. -f'
Perhaps industry has not been
very intelligently organized, after all.
1t seems not incredible that more
thought has been given to machinery
than to men in the process of its
modern organization. l mean by this
that industry has managed to get al
most entirely out Of the habit Of in
naturalization.
perhaps it was natural enough that
this should occur. In the pre-machine
days IL the individual worker was any
thing, he was a specialist; If he was
not a specialist he was a failure Then
came the machine, and the pendulum
Of process, Of men in selecting their
employment and Of employers in dis
tributing their men, swung the other
way. Men were sent where work
needed to be done with little IL any
consideration for the personal prefer
ences or special fitness Of the human
individual; men sought that employ
ment which offered, or was highest
paid at the moment, equally disre-
garding natural bent and the thought
OF specialization.
Now. here at the Edison plant, we
are carrying out the interesting ex-
pertinent Of adapting the old system
Of NATURALIZATION to the new sys-
tenn Of machinery and standardized
production. We are trying to find the
round holes for, the round pegs and
the square holes for the square pegs.
We aim to make the man learn for
himself just what kind Of a place he
wants to At into-to make him
think-to make him decide for him
self exactly what he desires to make
OF himself, what he desires his final
status in industry to be.
I'VE aim to make him find out for
himself whether he wants to continue
all his life merely q skillful crafts
man, at the first bench at which he
has CHANGED to find place, or
whether he wants to get finally into
some other department better salts
flying natural tastes, into some posi-
ton more important. Whether, for
example, he wants to become an
executive.
I'm fact, we aim to make him de-
eide what it Is he wants to make Of
himself in the final analysis, we try
to make him think Of his future as
definite, shaped thing: we aim to
make him plan his life just as he
might plan house II he were think
ing Of building one.
"This sounds simple. but, as a mat
ter of fact, it is rather q difficult Job.
Ask each man out Of the average
thousand just what he wants to be.
and very small percentage will give
intelligent answers.
uvrhio IL <ho hondiCan confronting