, 1923-08-23
The Better Day

BEFORE the day Of the large industry and big
business" manufacturing plants we're small ana
the forces employed were small. They were large
w family affairs, that is the owners OF the Dust
ness and the men who worked for them were thor
ourhly we'll acquainted. They worked side by side
and therefore became associates both In daily ton
and in the hours of freedom from toll.
With the coming OF the mammoth industrial con-
Germs of the later period and the complexities they
brought with them, the owners of the business and
the men drifted apart and knew little of each other.
Then came the brutality of the steel age when
men who worked were driven to the last ounce OF
endurance in the rivalries and competition OF the
great captains Of industry. 1t was slavery and re-
bellion came and bloodshed.
Another era came in the grouping Of individual
competing plants into one centrally administered In
dustry, abolishing waste and performing wonders
in economy, stabalizing price and diversifying out
nut. Better order and success ensued under this
regime. Still. those who worked and those who
owned were far apart. They did not know each
other. The workers associated together and their
unions became strong. The owners and directors
mixed only with themselves with the bosses of
departments as the buffers. And thus 1T went.
Questions and differences arising, they were fought
out by main bull-strength and awkwardness. There
was neither profit nor nourishment in this. only
misery and increased n-feeling.
Came another day, a day Of awakening. A day Of
realization of whittier they were drifting. And in
that day employers OF men discovered tnat they
were not machines. That they were valuable, and
that the great institutions could not operate Il
day without them, and further that efficiency could
only be secured by many reforms on the part of
those who employed
From that day on things have improved for en-
ployers, employees and the business. The owners
discovered all over again what their ancestors had
known and ~practiced. A business or industry never
reached such proportions in magnitude that the
owners and directors could not work side by side
with the men who were sustaining the character
and prestige of the institution and work also I'M
derstandingly and in harmony.
Some of the philosophy Of an older day filtered
through and then began the new order, when cor
~porations began to look more to the welfare of the
men who work, their housing, their physical we'll
being, their recreation, their education both gen
eral and technical. The family idea has returned
with hundreds OF the biggest and best corporations
in the country. 1t is exemplified in the big indus
trial corporations in Casper, both at the plants
and in the field camps. The spirit of humanity
is growing and expanding with each successive
year. Christian names are being used in relations
between the men and the bosses. Facilities are pro-
vided by the corporations for the men who work,
never dreassed of in the older and unhappier day.
Corporations are growing bigger and better and
more considerate, the men are growing more salts
fled and contented. Both have learned that the new
err and friendlier relations pay greater dividends
to both parties.