New-York tribune., 1919-05-23


q have had in the last few months with
leaders of American industry
would conclude that the reaction of the
American employer to the world wide agi-
tation for the reorganization of industry is
not much along schematic lines. Instead of
laying out a comprehensive plan on paper,
where it looks perfectly workable, the aver
age employer is undertaking some imme-
diate concrete improvement in the relations
between himself and his employees He is
first trying to find out what the men are
thinking seeking to get their inner point
of view. He is very skeptcal of the labor
organization point of view as really repre-
sentng that of the men themselves In
fact, there is no use camou1aging the fact
that the average employer thinks that labor
unions are barrier to real reforms in re-
ations between capital and labor How
ever am not trying to write an essay but
merely wish to record some notes of what
employers are thinking and doing.
WhGt WOrkingmen Wnnt
A Middle West manufacturer Of strong
altruistic leanngs remarked that the only
way to get better conditions is to get better
employers and better men--more education.
more culture, more refinement SO far as
his establishment is concerned he regards
the unions only as source of irritation
Indeed, he says that the labor leader with
whom he has to deal frankly told him that
his object was to keep the men always in
mild state of irritation. If the men we're
fully contented they would stop paying
union dues. On the other hand, a crisis re-
sulting in a strike was to be avoided, for
strike also meant loss of dues. This en-
ployer believes in doing all he can to i'm
prove the material conditions that surround
his men, believing that such improvement
will lead to a higher standard of life and
living. He considers that good home in
good locality, owned by a workingman,
is better than a membership in the company
directorate Likewise, he thinks that it is
moro important to teach workngmens
wives how to prepare a dainty, nutritious
meal than to give much time to shop COM
mittees. SO he builds homes-always with
bathtubs-for his and sells them to
them on the instament plan for cost or
less. Also, he tactfuly, through his visit
ing nurses, gives the wives hints now and
then in domestic science.
The visiting nurses are utilized as
regular means of maintaining a human
touch in his relations with his men. If
man fails to report for work he is i'm
medlately communicated with by telephone
or messenger. If he reports that he is not
feeling we'll but expects to return to work
the next day. nothing is done unless he
falls to report as expected Then COM
pany nurse goes out to his home, gets him
the medicines he may need, gives him the
care he may require, suggests to the wife
how to prepare the right kind of food, etc
No charge is made for this service, and the
men do not resent it, for they are educated
to expect it part of the company's pro-
gramme of keeping them fit, just as it cares
for its machinery
Medical Harpies
Speaking of the work of the nurses, the
employer in question made the surprising
assertion that most of the workingman's
woes are due neither to poor pay nor un-
pleasant relations with his employers, but
to the "harpies' that prey on him and
mulct him out of his earnings. Chief
among these he rates the doctors who at
tend the men. Investigations he saws,
showed that next to rent and food the chief
outlay of his average employe was for
medical attendance. He charges that these
doctors deliberately "string" along the
treatment of minor ailments for the pur-
pose of adding to the number of 81 fees
they can collect The real cstatcr" is an
other pest of the workingman, he says.
lie means the real estate man who sells a
worklngman shack of a house at two or
three times its real value. The purchaser
usually fails to keep up his payments, and
loses all he has invested. So this employer
carries on constant warfare in behalf of
his men against the preying doctors and
real estaters
Generally speaking, he has no patience
with any sort Of scheme for altering rela-
tlons between labor and capital or for