The producers news. [volume] (Plentywood, Mont.) 1918-1937, 1927-02-18
GARY SAYS VEL
FARE WORK PAYS

By Robert w. Dunn. Federated Press
Why do American employers blow
in millions of dollars annually on
various types of industrial welfare
work? There seem to be a mixture
of motives. Experts on welfare have
summarized some of them. Leading
tho list is the welfare work pays"
announcement of Judge Gilbert Gary
of the U. S. Steel Corporation, the
most be-welfared corporation in the
| United States
Welfare work pays because it IN
creases productive efficiency, reduces
labor turnover. attracts a desirable
grade Of labor" advertises the bust
ness and gives the corporation an in
calculable boost in public goodwill.
Other conclusions of BOettiger in his
EmpiOye Welfare Work, are that the
practice reduces strikes. and. labor
difficulties, Gull workers into feel
ing Of cOntentment with. conditions
which would otherwise be vigorously
protected" avoids state regulation by
furnishing an argument that it is not
needed, provides palliatives for a
low wage" benefits humanity, re-
duces taxes ON profits by artificially
initiating costs. Finally it "disrupts
the discipline of miOnized labor"
These are a few of the motives,
the reasons, the rationalizations and
the results underlying welfare. And
all these may be reduced to one-the
desire to promote the highest posi-
bic efficiency of the industrial ma
chine under the profit system. In
cidentally the margin of profit out
Of welfare is not the same for all
employers. The big fellows usually
get more out of a unit of welfare
than the small industries. And the
smaller employers are usually COM
PEELED to make the heaviest retrench-
ments on falling labor market when
there is less nee dior welfare.
The range of welfare activities now
current in American industry is sug-
gested by the following miscellaneous
list. The worker can check off the
ones practised in his own plant. And
he may be able to figure out his rel
ative wage level in universal ratio
to the number and extent of the items
served up by the corporation that en-
ploys him.
Social clubs, mutual benefit socie
ties, prizes, pins, buttons and gold
watches for service records, dinners,
cafaterias, company theatres, church
es, boys and girls scouts, sunshine
clubs, Y. M. c. AS. athletic teams,
gymnasiums, ella mbakes, minstrel
shows and dramatics, employee mag
azlnes, field days, thrift clubs, bands,
lorchestras, insurance, pensions, sug-
gestlOn prizes, picnic committees, po-
ny polo games, Christmas boxes,
dances, outings, Village beautifuls,"
knitting circles, veterans clubs, vol
ley ball leagues, booster clubs, hous-
ing associations, employee stock own
ershlp schemes, building and loan as
soclatlons, company gardens and
flower beds, outings, baths, domestic
science matrons, golf clubs, profit
sharing, coffee bars, club houses,
notices on the wall, pay envelope
inserts, bulletins bearing the poetry
of Eddie Guest, camera clubs, ser
vice talks, flying squadrons and open
air talks. There are but a few sam
pies out of several hundred.
All these institutions serve the in
terests of the corporations. Whenev-
er there is a strike, or the threat of
one, the press agents of the "gener-
Ious" corporation begin to trumpet
the benetlcence of the corporation. In
other words the corporation openly
admits that its freewill gifts were
made In the hope and expectation of
getting due "credit" for them in an
emergency. Even Commerce and
Finance, Wall Street organ, admits
that many of the welfare attempts
were made for other than pure and
holy purposes. 1t says "thev were
spurious in that they were substi-
tues for an adequate wage and were
devised principally to tie the worker
! to his job, and were to a great ex
tent empty forms devoid of spirit"
Labor's opposition to the swindle
IS often expressed. Organized Labor,
official organ of the California build
ing trades unions, says "There is no
welfare work that can serve as a
substitute for fair wages. To pro-
vide ornate company swimming pools
Tor employees whose wages do not en-
able them to provide a bathtub at
home, to build recreation centers for
employees who have not enough sur
plus to enable them to choose their
own recreatlons, should be recognized
as pure folly and contrary to the
commonest instincts of self-respect." "
But the American corporations, adj
mlred by all travelling tabor dele
gates" OF European nations, is "sell-
ing more and more of this sort OF
1eudalism to the American workers,
and all the outcry of the trade
unions has not yet been able to stem
the tide. Some of the unions have
decided to try to provide the workers
all, or at least the best of. the bene-
fits they could get free from the
company.