The evening world. Newspaper, November 22, 1919, Page 9

How G RCo ¥ » A Om B 4. rea _—— ee t Co Company Who Had Faith In Industrial Democracy ~ Method Breaks Up Strike Long Island Pipe Manufacturers, When Con- - fronted With Strike of Radical Workers, Maintained Confidence in “Federal Plan” and Won Out—Agitators Were Discharged —With 25 Per Cent. of “Strange” Help They Resumed Operation and Succeeded in Gaining Increased Output and Profits— Workers Received a 15 Per Cent. Wage Bonus — Employees Pay 1 Per Cent. of Their Bonus as Premium and Their Lives Are Insured for Sum Equal to Year's Salary. The Evening World to-day prints the twelfth article of a series deal- ag with profit sharing and co-operative plans of big companies of the @ountry which are worning on the problem of industrial unrest. The articles are written by Martin Green, a staff correspondent of The wholly different in scope and application and should prove of interest to all employers and employees. The Evening World believes that there @re many omployera of labor whose methods of sharing profits with their employees are not generally known. The paper would like to hear from these employers. | | Bvening World, after c thorough investigation. The experiments ure By Martin Green Goprright, 1919, by The Press Publishing Co, (The Now York Brening World.) AKB it from Miss B, A. Martin that “Industrial Democracy” is the most practical plan of employees’ representation which has as its object the education of the worker, because we all know disagree- ments arise from misunderstandings, misunderstandings from lack of knowledge, and the spreading of information and the woful waste arising from disagreements are bound to diminish, It cements closer relationship between employer and employee, who enjoy mutual benefits of such a plan. Miss Martin knows. She is secretary to Leopold Demuth, President wt Richmond Hill, L. 1, and is in @harge of the Department of Indus- trial Democracy of that institution which gives employment to almost 1,000 men and women. ‘The Demuth plant is operated under the Federal plan, originated and in- @talled by John Leitch, which has been explained in this series, But it 4s worth further explanation in con- meotion with the Demuth factory, be- pause a number of employees of the Plant, inspired by outside influences jwrent on cstrike last September and he management closed down for two ‘weeks for readjustment purposes. jg the first instance I have trike in a plant ted for any length of time un- Ger any sort of co-operative system. "The Federal plan was installed in the ‘Demuth plant in April, 1917, The fact that there was a strike illustrates f industrial democracy plans are “strike-proot” bred soneinens ‘witch are likely to arise in any in- dustry in these days of radical agita- ‘How this strike was made pos- gible by a labor situation growing gut of the war is interesting and in- @ to all factory managere who thinking of taking up and aj ha 4 ome sort of partnership with employees for the purpose of etabilizing their working forces. to the Demuth man- LA utset that perien: jeral plan, together jend — by whieh loyees have ag’ Mee ut 18 per cent. cash dividends atop of their wages, js still in operation in the plant. The strike taught the Demuth man- agement a lesson. If the lesson can be carried on to other employers who are interested in the steady growth of industrial democracy, Mr. Demuth And bis associates will consider that their experience was worth while. ‘The value of an experiment ts often enhanced by obstacles met and over- ‘Now. to the underlying causes of the Demuth strike. In the first place the manufacture of pipes and smok- cre articles is a highly specialized industry. ‘The Demuth concern is the leader in production, and there are only half a dozen factories turning out pipes in any quantity in the United States. WAR BROUGHT INCREASED BUSINESS. : h the outbreak of the war in jerire the importation of pipes, cigar and cigarette holders ceased, Natur- ally there was a tremendous increase in the demand for smokers’ articles of American manufacture. And when the United States went into the war the Demuth concern was confronted with a constantly increasing call for their product, and a constantly de- creasing supply of tried and skilled labor because of the enlistment or drafting of their men. aha company was compelled to go into the general labor market, and the ‘eral labor market in 1917, 1918 and forthe greater part of this year was, : Th ‘ Sith a div to a considerable extent, of foreign birth and foreign language. The ex~- actions of production compelled the ment to take what labor it could get, and the summer of 1919 found the management confronted with the need of employing men who could not speak the English language and were ignorant of American insti- tutions. The Demuth Company con- ducted within their organization an English and Americanization class, but had not had sufficient time to eduoate its employees, education is the foundation of all seful efforts et working out of industrial co-operation. aps the apparent weakness in case wae the partial ignor- ance of some of the workpeople of the fundamentals of “industrial and they could scarcely expect them to know everything about a system of fac- tory operation conducted the lines of the Governm: the United States when not fully con bab all big inery of th in which they earn the | liRood. if COMES A FLY IN THE OINT- | MENT. ‘There appeared in Richmond Hill in the late summer an irresponsible and radical organizer of the L W. W. type who had taken upon himself the organization of the employees of the Pipe factories of this country, He had organized other factories and in some instances had obtained recog- nition of the union and establish- ment of the principle of the closed shop. tahe, employe @ in. product agreed to submit all qu f wages, hours ons to their through the House of tatives whi thi janagement ay committees. There w rule to prevent any people joining unions, but one of the principles of the Demuth plan and every other plan | have investigated is that demands and Suggestions must come from in- side the organization, The agitator was a man of energy and personality. It was easy for him to get acquainted with foreign lan- guage workmen and instil into their minds, which were still functioning as they had functioned under ty- ranny and oppression in Europe, the sort of revolutionary ideas ‘that William Z. Foster spread among the foreign language speaking and foreign think! workmen of the United States Steel Corporation. He talked the language of his listeners. The management of the Demuth factory heard of the activities of the union organizer, but not until agita- tion had made footholds for revolt. The agitator worked among those who did not speak English, or those Who preferably, in their daily rela- tions with their fellow men used, in- stead of English, with which they were but remotely familiar, the tongues and dialects of their plac of birth, Our soldiers who have r turned from France, Germany, Ita and Russia can tell of the natural drift of men in a foreign land to group conversation based upon lan- guage understood by any particular group. He assured the Demuth employees, to whom his appeal was directed, that he could do wonders for them, and his work was profitable for he was collecting initiation fees and dues from those who were joining hig union. In the complete personnel of the factory force the response to the ini- ual strike call was, in numbers, com- paratively small, but on the morning following the management found that about 60 per cent. of the workers bad not shown up for work, The manage- ment also found that the agitators had followed on the previous day and evening and were following the plan which has proved effective in strikes in recent years. Visits were made to the women of the family of @ worker and the threats conveyed to the women of the things that would hap- pen to their man if he did not join the strikers. The factory was thor- oughly picketed and intimidation was thoroughly exercised, . When the Demuth Company found that their people were intimidated to @ dangerous degree they closed their factory for a,period of two weeks and paid to all those who remained loyal up to the closing hour a loyalty bonus covering the time the plant was closed, alls In the mean time the ee . rpor OPERA AND ITS WARBLERS Opera Is Grander Than Ever This Season—$1.10 Grander; Lead- ing Tenner at the Opera Is Now a Bill With an X on It; Girl Choristers Have No Lines to Speak—and None to Show; at the Opera the Big Fishes Are in the Boxes; It’s the Little Fish That Are in the Boxes at the Delicatessen, but That Only Shows the Big Diff Between Sleeping and Eating. By Neal R. O'Hara, Goprright, 1919, by The Prom Publishing Co. (The Now York Bening World.) PERA is grander than ever this sea- eon — $1.10 ‘grander. Metropolitan now gets $7.70 for am evening's per- formance, the same as the night watchmen are striking for, Only difference is that the night watch- men have to keep awake for their $7.70. Leading tenner at the opera is now « bill with an X on it. Highest notes are all in the box office, At+ tack of Verdi-go is more expensive than appendicitis and a guy that’s born with an ear for music should also have a gold spoon in hig mouth. . Funny how opera pulls ‘em in, though. Opera house in New York is the same as the opera house in Shamokin, Pa., this season—standing room only. Metropolitan's 60 crowded the conductor has to stand up every night Shimmy and jazz are the reason they pack the opera house in Shamokin, but-that don't explain New York. There's nothing like the shimmy in New York's grand opera—Rigoletto is still Rigoletto and not Wriggletto. Madame Butterfly’s still being shaken, but not by a Jazz dancing partner. And when Carmen rolls her own, it's her smokes, not her shoulders, Opera chorister has to have a good pair of lungs, and that’s all, Girls have no lines to speak and none to show. No opera composer ever laid his plot at Palm Beach or Atlantic City, so there ain't any Big Bathing Scenes in grand op. Opera girls still wear stockings on the stage—-so far as you can see. At thie opera the hig fish are in the boxes. It's the little fish that are im the boxes at the delicatessen, but that only shows the big diff between eating and sleeping, Boxes cost dearly, too—they even did in Pandora's day. Whole string of boxes at the Metropolitan fs called the diamond horseshoe, Call it that because you're lucky if you can get into it, Nobody understands opera except the guys that write ‘em. Best operas are in foreign languages, and so are the worst ones. A few American pieces are in English and all the Gernian operas are in Dutch—very much 60, American operas are as hard to understand as the others. G. O, singers figure operas are to be seen and not heard, Reason they pull off the same operas each year is that nobody understands ‘em yet. If a guy understood what it meant the first time, he’d never get stuck for a season ticket. We know a bird that’s seen Faust twenty- ing the working staff. New hand were attracted by advert Many of the ha HH strikers ap- plied for their old jobs and w turned down, An mi to take into the had served in t three or four wei tion the factory resumed tion with practically ing force, of which were old employees. time the plant h. production nearl agitator and his a fa ay mond Hill, One itu: on only is necessary to show that the Demuth plant, adhering te the industrial democracy principle, has pushed.aside the temporary hazard builded by the strike. That illustra- tion relates to dividends for employees. When the Federal plan was in- stalled—with the consent and co- operation of the employees, not all of whom understood, us afterward de veloped, even the fundamentals of their agreement—the management, after a careful survey, decided upon what had been the production cost of the factory for a reasonable period; what labor, material, depreciation and all other factors in actual production amounted to as a charge against the output. This production cost was established as a standard, It was announced that all extra profits accruing thereafter, by reason of cutting down of production cost and increase of output would be mutually divided between the workers and their ment bureau had been reorganiz- nds Ladies and Gentlemen: one knows his neighbor. himself. will assemble, ch inte! what interes Bess they attend to. We are met here to-day tion. Brief Speeches for Busy Men By Matthew J. Epstein Copyright, 1919, by The Press Publishing Co, (The New York Evening World.) At a School Meeting to Protest Overcrowded Conditions. It is net | look at the education they are receiv- often that we men and women of the neighborhood come together. It is not like the country, where there are town meetings and the people come together every so often to discuss the affairs of the village and make plans for its bet~ terment. We live in @ great city, and though we see crowds everywhere no There are people living in houses years and years and they have never spoken one word to their next door neighbors. The life of our city tends to keep each one for But there are times when even the people of a crowded neighborhood like ‘There 1s one cause ta everybody, no matter they have or what busi- in the cause of the children. The country has prospered because in the early days of the republic we Wisely recog- nized the need of compulsory educa- We all pay our taxes so that our boys and girls may be educated. But seven times, and he don’t know what the devil it’s all about, Barber of Seville’s so old it's got whiskers on it, but nobody’s been sharp enough to dope out the plot. Opera customers get so discouraged trying to translate the lyrics they come late and quit early, Late ar- rivals and early departures disturb everybody but the chauffeurs, There's just one opera WE can understand, and that’s Samson and Delilah. That's the show where Samson falls for Delilah and the temple falls for Samson. Sampy fever fails to bring down the house. French operas are more popular than German this season. Difference between the two is that French opera's @ hit and German opera a riot. French singers get curtain calls and the Dutch kind get cat- 2c. calls. Only place it's safe to play Wagner this year is at shortstop! America’s a tough place to raise opera singers. Only way they raise ‘em here is to import ‘em from Europe and jack up their salaries, Only American music the foreign songbirds ever hear is the eagle screaming on our $20 gold pieces. Average mother in the U, 8. has no incentive to make her children musical anyway. She's too busy raising her boy to be a milkman. A guy don’t have to cross the water to be a milkman—he bas only to mix it. ‘ Im the foreign songhirds don't help te keep down price of tickets though. Two thousand bucks for one 's singing is the reason for $7.70 for one night's Us is There are few native-borns that can grab off $2,000 for a night's work outside of a yeggman, And there are few yeggmen outside of the jails, Every note is a fifty to an opera singer. But do the songbirds loaf daytimes? Yes, they DON’T! After singing all night an opera star goes after more dough the next morning if his register is perfect— that is, his cash register. The $2,000-a-night thrush will spend his afternoon at a phonograph factory trying to make a record for $2,000 more. And if $4,000 in a night and a day ain't @ record, tell US! We'd like to know what is. No wonder these songsters are careful of their throats. A guy that picks off $2,000 at night OUGHTA be careful of his throat—especially when walking through dark alleys. GOING DOY them down as ASSETS? ing. Our schools are overcrowded. It is a crime to huddle hundreds of chil- dren in the buildings such as pass for schools, Hundreds of the children are on part time, that is to say, they go to schoo! only part of the time that they ought to attend, Why should this be? Why should the children of this locality be discriminated against in this manner. They are the equal of any other children in the city and they are entitled to the same opportunities to acquire an education as childron of other parts of the city. It is time that our children receive proper accommodations for schooling. Long enough have we put up with inconveniences. Long enough have the mothers had to prepare dinners at different times of the day to feed their children. It is time that we rotest. Let us bring our case be- es so that before an- ’ we may gee our children the facilities for which you and I pay taxes. Bet- ter accommodations fo! hildren is our slogan, and we will hot cease to agitate until we have obtained them for every boy and girl of school age in the neighborhood. I thank you. VICE, was it not? not true? day—every week? Try. the corner, make him, one smiles at you out a well-wishing thought, God bless you! Good luck! Sincerely yours, tributed every to employees, have mentioned before article, they have aver- aged 15 per cent. For instance, if John Jones finds in his pay en- velope at the end of two weeks the sum of $50 for his routine the strike. result is full of meaning. in the Demuth plant insurance jong the labor, he finds in addition §7. on a 15 per cent. basis—as his share of the efforts factory personnel to improve the uality of merchandise d cut it. Sometimes John's Demuth production been in excess of 15 ers who y their workers amount pay. ting at my illustration, but the illus- tration ls worth the space. At the mectings of the House, the Senate and the Cabinet on Tuesday, Nov. 18, dividend of 14% per cent, for em~- yees Was declared, means that a factory starting | ¢ premiums and they do not extra profits. insurance, but the employees pa: up after a shutdown caused by a rike, with 25 per cent. of strange 1p, has been able in two month; resume profit sharing based on ployee effort at a rate of return proaching the average reached before I should say that such a Related to the profit sharing feature the group life lan which is conducted ine of allowing the em- loyee to pay for what he gets. ave talked to a number of employ- for life insurance for and say they do not believe they gain appreciation, The Demuth employees, after three months of service, are insured for an approximating one Tho management handles the the the OULgo becalise It comes out of their year's Take John Jones, cited above. he draws $50 every two weeks. ldend, which he gete in to| was 14% 1| get# & raise his heirs get more insur- t ec! comes with his pay envelope. The last dividend, as I have pointed out, per cent. of his pay. But John doesn't draw down 14% per cent, He cashes in 13% per cent. and th other 1 per cent. goes for insurance If John, while in the employ of the company, dies, his heirs receive from the insurance’ people around $1,300, hig income for a year, and he has paid for the insurance only one of the per- centages of his extra profits. If he shall have been in coming one. The quired are part of by the strike, of the Public the meetings not mado ance money at his death, the has received a higher percentage of profit, based on his salary, and his insurance premium has always remained one of the percentag of his extra divi- dends. The employeds of the Demuth ny conduct their own sick fund. The company main- in at cost restaurant whick was installed by employees and is conducted by employees. Following the strike a special elec~ tion was held to fill out the member- ship of the House of Representatives, ‘The, House has adopted # ruling for posted in the factory from the minutes will ed in an internal which is to be established. meetings. Experience has ey ployees read bi PEALE AA ELIDA ET Have you ever taken stock of your friends? Have you ever pat The way you won these friends was by personal SER- Then you must have won them by what you did for them, and their value to you is based on the service you performed—ie that How many NEW friends are you making every Would you be willing to make a new friend every day? Start with the policeman on does he smile at you every morning? Try to Every time some he sends ALFALFA SMITH, _ rT lished that a» not all of the em- and understand the minutes those who cannot or will not read them will inquire about and curiosity is a stimulus to qualifications of members which pro- vides that any candidate for election employ of the company one year or more, shall be able to speak and understand the English language, and if not @ citizen shall have declared intention of be- jualifcations re- © lesson taught Prior to the strike the minutes of House were to the workers. From now on the minutes will be and excerpts prin shop maga: It has been found that the representatives have not the time and some have not the ability to explain to their consti- tuents what has taken place in the SATURDAY, NOVEMBER 22, 19 Do Women Go to Business To Search for Husbands?” ANNE HIRST CURRY ANSWERS Does Business Make Wome Here Is an Answer to the Declaration of Mra. 4 G. Vere Tyler, Essayist, Who Said “the | Business Woman, Success at All, Is a Sex Success”—Neces- — in So Far as She Is @ i sity First Drove the Woman Into Busi- — ness to Earn Money Outside the Protection ~ of Her Own Home. By Marguerite Mooers Marshall Copyright, 1919, by The Press Publishing Co, (The New York Srening World.) “She is the eternal huntress—using new weapons.”—Mrs. G, Vere . the business woman in business to catch a husband? ‘Tyler, “From pine to five she is earning @ livelihood as men earn {t—she ts no transparently Hirst Curry. Past 15th Street, recently declared in The Evening World that the business woman, in so far as she is @ success at all, ts & sex success; that, tired of waiting at home, she simply has gone into office highways and byways to find a husband—I assured her there would be pointed protests from business women as interested, amused and un- convinced by her theories as I am myself. Out of all the defenders of the girl who works against the charge that she is a mere husband-hunting fe- male, I have selected Miss Anne Hirst Curry of No. 260 Fifth Avenue as in- telligent champion of the typical woman in busi: to-day. That she “means business” rather than matri- mony and that business life makes her a better wife when she does marry these are M Curry’s two lines of defense for her client. “Is Mrs. Tyler serious in her belief that women have invaded business for the purpose of hunting husbands on their own preserves?” Miss Curry asked me. “Surely she must know that a large proportion of women who have gone into business have deen forced to go becausa of the fatl- ure of some man to provide for their support, and because there weren't enough so-called ‘lady-like’ jo¥s to go round! It was necessity that first drove women to earning money out- side the protection of their homes— and some of us have families who have not yet recovered from the shock of seeing one of their women ‘down- town’ in offices with men, “It is unfair to judge the great world of business women by 4 few who do not represent it. Nowadays there are women who deliberately clad husband hunter.”—Miss a ; When Mrs. Tyler, who is well known as essayist and short story writer and who lives at No. cyte wh eet Ree More apt to know me, too—and course that has its danger!) Business does not unfit a for home-making, I know women who run a business the day and an apartment, who do both well They housekeeping the principles of Neus and they find the plan I beard a high executive remark if he discovered that a son of contemplated mafriage with og woman who had NOT bad at a two years of business, he'd have boy shanghaied—his chances of haps? piness would be greater. + “From the man’s point of view" isn't he safer im marrying & womam who has had business whose mind has marched alo ® man's mind, who knows wi man is “up against” during and appreciates the necessity for entire immunity from worry? A woman in bysiness @lready learned that a man do his work if he’s bothered things at home, if the coffee’: that morning, or his lunch-time oo cupled with shopping—or any’ else that clearly her job. knows that after a big confi be Dust downtown, he's in no mood to hauled off to a stupid reception eyes? though she thinks they ‘ought te peal better take him to hear good music, or of por that rena an aioe Nai “Business makes a woman late the solidness of home ly than she might otherwise year of train themselves for business because | » 494; they have got to do something; they face the facts and they look at busl- ness a9 men look at It—as a profes- sion, &@ means of livelihood. “Women take business too seriously when they take it seriously at all. Apropos of which, a physician sald to me, ‘You business women either work too hard or you play too hard; you don't seem able to place your work where it belongs in your lives. When you do, you won't need a doctor—but now you won't do anything I tell you to do because it interferes with your work.’ “I do not find many women in busi- ness for the purpose of hunting a hus- band. Women who are in business know that a man's mind is apt—praise be!—to dwell on other subjects from nine o'clock till five, After five o'clock the woman herself is apt to ‘revert'— if it is reverting—to the temptress that Mrs, Tyler claims is her one business, and she can be juccessful a Cleopatra as the lady herself. The woman who ecountenan romance during her business day shows as bad taste as the socially-inclined female who discusses the subject before tea- time." “There are those who assert thi the business woman, far from hunting @ husband, is a shirk and a failure, matrimonially speaking,” I reminded Miss Curry. “I do not find that business unsexes & woman or influences her against marriage unduly,” she replied. “I do believe that she is far better able to judge a man as 2 potential husband than her social sister, Per- sonally, if I were considering a mi as ® husband, I should much prefer to work beside him in his office for six months than to have him call upon me for, twice that time. I'd be more apt © lo—and I fucw bim ae mother that she always wag; has ‘iscovered, and of . @ pew field for her talents, cultivating It to the limit perience and the knowledge comes so high. In doing that serves at least the recognition high purpose that she has.” VERY little while we hear question asked, “Is life living?” Books have been ten upon the question and We ask ourselves whether of & life many poople live worth while, In thelr eagerness to amass @ tune, in their money madness, in life and lose their the things which make mentality, a completer, happ! When men become ao ebeorbea a one ttle they think on that subjest day night, wheh their minds are upon it practically ail their hours, is it strange that the should become un cod, as quently happens, or that their souls become paralysed? ‘The miser “heapeth up ricl knoweth not who shall enjoy except that he is sure he will not. Hiy mind is never ex] beyond the circumference of i almighty dollar. There are thousal our large cities who see do not a 4 5 i il ee