Evening star. [volume] (Washington, D.C.) 1854-1972, 1931-01-11
JOBS CAN BE ASSURED
SAYS BIG NDUSTRIALIST
Cheering Message Tells How Steps Are
Being Taken in SwOpe's Organiza.
ton to Protect Workers.
Continued From Third Page.)

| ems
| ployes against unemployment. one of
the most significant developments of
modern business: and as he talked
kept thinking back over those IS years
of work from shop helper to president,
of the development Of the man himself
and how his own personal development
had grown and expanded and kept pace
with the incredible expansion and evo-
luton of the modern world through this
incredible generation Of human exper-
fence 1t was just one more illustra-
ton among the strong men have had
the good fortune to meet that wisdom
is the ability to utilize in all you say
and do the experience and education of
your whole life
And it was evident that In his most
| casual remarks as well as in the broad
sweep of his general plans Mr. Swope
was one of those individuals who is able
to Synthesize and utilize the labors, the
thought, the experience of his whole
lifetime. And may digress to say that
| when a corporation finds q man who
possesses that continuity of develop
ment and that habit and capacity of
mind for SyntheSizing and utilizing on
an instant's notice all the best of his
experience and education, whether he
be shoveling coal into the furnace or is
among your directors, there, and there
only, is your future executive.
Outcome Of His Philosophy.
And so it Is obvious that this plan
of unemployment insurance has grown
up as natural and logical product of
Swope'S experience. It Is the outcome
of his philosophy of life. And the most
important thing about a man is his
philosophy of life. It rs for this reason
that that interesting Englishman, G. X.
Chesterton, says that it is more i'm
portant for a landlady to know her
boarders philosophy of life than 1t is to
know his income, for his philosophy of
life will determine whether he pays his
keep or jumps his board bill, whether
he pays as he goes or lets the other fell
low hold the bag
And so it is more important for the
employees and stockholders Of the Gen
eral Electric Co. to know Gerard Swope's
philosophy of life than it is to know his
salary or how much money he has made
or may make in the future; and with
his first remark it was easy to see how
his deep and abiding interest in his
plans for making his employees secure in
their jobs had grown out of his own
philosophy and how he had put into it
his own life Of labor and experience.
Before describing in detail his present
unemployment insurance plan Mr..
Swope discussed the general effect of
pointed out that there is something ter
ribly demoralizing about a man being
out Of job. This grows more serious,
he pointed out, to married man and
even more so to man with children.
Beyond question this keen apprecia-
ton of the whole psychology of the un-
employed man was a reflection of his
own early experiences, for after his
graduation, in 1895, from the Massa-
chuSettS Institute of Technology as a
bachelor of science in engineering he
for several months was q resident of
Hull House, in Chicago, and there i'm
bibed much of the social and economic
philosophy of Jane Adams.
MY feeling" he said, about the in
security of the wage Garner arose very
definitely in my FIRST job after I left
Chicago, when I was transferred to st.
Louis. BY this time had the response
bilfties of a married man and learned
what 1t means to wonder, Can keep
my job?' and to go on wondering day
after day.
If a man feels insecure even when he
has job Mr.. Swope suggested, his de-
moralization and fear become worse
when he has actually lost his job and is
in search of work. Here Mr. Swope
pointed out the extreme difficulty of
man keeping up his morale when he
PAGES the street day after day, espe-
cially when he has family and is COM
PEELED to come home at night and say
to his wife with as much of an asSump-
ton of courage as possible that he has
not been able to find work. There was
little or no machinery in those days
when Mr.. Swope began, for laying q
sound foundation for a working mans
or salarted mans future. It is the flu
ture that most men work for, not for
the present, and when that future has
faoIc AA Dc
just helpless cog in a big machine
over which he has no control, it is
obvious, as Mr.. Swope pointed out, that
he cannot do as effective work and can
not preserve the same integrity of pur-
pose and solidity of character that de-
velops as a natural product when a man
has sense of security in life.
MOtivated by Life.
1t was, therefore, obvious that Mr..
Swope's present-day efforts and atti-
tudes as an executive were both con-
sciously and unconsciously deeply mott
waited by his own life experiences. A
man who had not come up from the
ranks and also all along had developed
those general humanitarian interests
which Mr.. Swope, has always conSpicu-
ously displayed could hardly have origi-
mated this unique plan for insuring his
companys employees against loss of their
jobs. While living in st. Louis he was
active in promoting the public play
ground movement and was appointed
by the mayor of st. Louis as chairman
of the first Public Bath Commission.
Decorated, as he was, at the close of
the World War by the President with
the Distinguished Service Medal for his
foresight, ability, energy ard loyal CO.
operation" in the direction and super
vision OF procurement, storage and issue
Of all commodities and articles of equip
ment and supply needed for the Army;
and also awarded by the French gov
eminent the Chevalier of the Legion of
Honor; a director in at least 20 of the
major corporations of America and Eu-
rope and honored with string of de-
greeS as doctor of science, doctor of
laws ETC., by various universities, 1t was
extremely interesting to discover some
of the fundamental maxims that ex-
press the economic and social philoso-
ply of a man who has lived such an
active, energetic and useful life and
how they have influenced his practical
policies. And of this prefer that Mr..
Swope should speak to you in his own
words:
/ Based on Maxim.
"Out of my experience in trying to
develop practical, workable scheme of
unemployment insurance has come an
increasing feeling of the truth of a very
favorite maxim or motto of mine that
expresses very large part of my
philosophy both as an executive and as
a citizen. That motto is:
I'VE must do things with people and
by people, instead of for people and to
people.
THE value of this attitude was borne
In on me anew by our experience in