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cial economists and they formed e, grave question
to be met and answered. Hundreds and hundreds
of men and women serve in factories, foundries,
mines and laboring centers of all kinds—are these
men and women given half the intelligent atten
tion which is accorded to the machines which
they guide from day to day? Are their physical
needs half as skillfully met or half as carefully
considered as are the needs of the inanimate ma
chine which would be useless without the guid
ing human hand? It has been said that men and
women must meet and fill their own needs and
wants—but can they? Is it within the power of
the ordinary working factory hand who begins
his day at 5 or 6 in the morning and labors for
twelve or more continuous hours, to consider his
own physical needs, however urgent they may be?
Is it in the power of these hands to rest when they
will, to breathe the fresh air of heaven whenever
human lungs demand it or to seek food, maybe,
during the busy hours of a busy day? We well
know how detrimental such individual seeking
would be to anything like system in shop or foun
dry or factory, and we know, too, how often the
cruel need of food and rest and air is felt, and is
denied. The remedy? There can be only one—to
incorporate into a working day a full measure of
consideration for the worker—to make this consid
eration a part and parcel of the routine and to
make it so much a matter of discipline that the neg
lect of physical alleviations, -would be regarded as
marked a breach of discipline as would now the
seeking of these same alleviations.
Commercialism and Humanitarianism.
There are thousands of men and women today
who -would resent being considered heartless and
careless toward their fellow men, and to this class
it is easy to present the demands of the working
man—merely to hear is to heed and to help. But
there is another and we fear a larger class who
■would question the expediency of “helping the la
boring class during working hours.” It was to
this class, composed mainly of employers and their
representatives, that “The American Institute of
■Social Service” directed its best efforts. Then fol
lowed the most convincing and perhaps, the most
surprising results, for it was clearly proven on
purely commercial grounds that the investment of
the outlay required to give increased comfort and '
sanitation to the working men and women result
ed not only in better products and larger outputs
for these particular industries, but what is of more
vital importance it has created a more harmonious
relation between employer and employed. With
the consideration shown the workers there grew
steadily a sense of kindliness and personal gratitude
to the employers which is in striking cotnrast to
the old time feeling of resentment and also of
bitterness which, we fear, was engendered by
Trades Unions and their train of attendant evils,
due to ignorance and perverted social standards.
“The Personal Note.”
One of the chief difficulties in the way of pro
viding increased comforts to the working class was
first, to know what was needed and then to fill the
need without absolute re-organization, or without
endangering the whole working system of the fac
tory or shop. To accomplish the best results, there
fore, it was found necessary to have some individ
ual—preferably one who knew the special indus
try under consideration—and through the sugges
tions made by this person to gradually institute re
forms in the working day. It was found that this
office was often best filled by a woman, and hence
there has arisen a new field of work in that of the
“social secretary.” The duties, of this secretary
are mahifold. To be mediator, as it were, between
the hitherto warring factions of employer and em
ployed; to gently suggest the “reforms,” to enforce
the fact that they were not charities—which the
American working man and woman would quickly
resent, but merely “economic measures” which
would result in good to both employer and employ
ed, are some of the difficulties which a pioneer in
this new field has to combat.
Some Successful Cases.
As “Social service” includes everything that
tends to the development and advancement of the
working classes, not only physical but mental ben-
The Golden Age for November 15, 1906.
efit is often considered and always with the result
that better workers are provided and better work
is done.
There are hundreds of cases that could be men
tioned but we have only space to speak of a few
business enterprises in the north and west which
are today practicing helpful influences for their
hundreds and hundreds of workers. For instance,
the J. H. Williams Drop Forging Co., of Brooklyn,
New York, have established a perfectly equipped
surgical room where the many cases of unavoid
able accidents which occur in the foundry, are
skillfully and instantly cared for; this same firm
has also a large room devoted solely to individual
lavatories for use of the men, and these together
with individual lockers for his clothes, sanitary
spray baths and also club rooms and a library have
resulted in a cordial spirit of fraternalism which has
greatly increased the usefulness of the men to the
company they serve.
The Work Used for the Worker.
A yet more significant case is that of the Edison
Electric Company of New York City. As a step
in the right direction this company has a plan by
which the men who serve for a year or more are
steadily though slightly advanced in salary with
each passing year. To these men also, is given
a technical reading room (which is largely patron
ized) ; as well as a lecture hall and club room.
There is also a Monthly Bulletin published which
covers in a concise but simple way the very latest
attainments regarding electricity in all its bearings.
As a sort of object lesson, also, there is provided a
perfectly equipped kitchen where electricity alone
is used as fuel and where inexpensive meals are
served to the men.
het another instance of training men along high
er grades of work than that in which they are
engaged is shown by the classes given in electric
ity, physical culture, civil engineering, as well as
writing amt arithmetic, which are tendered to the
men of the Brooklyn Rapid Transit Company. At
eight of the car barns are club rooms with read
ing rooms, barber shops, circulating library, etc.
A Great Daily Paper Adopts “Social Service.”
The “Brooklyn Eagle,” one of the greatest
American dailies, has become a strong advocate
of Social Service and strange to say its offices
are as cleanly, sanitaary and well kept as any in
the country. There is also a club room for employ
es, mutual benefit societies, a rest room, emergecny
medical closets and many other heretofore unknown
helps for the “pen and pencil pushers.”
Women Who Work.
Perhaps the most urgent need for help which is
heard by the social service worker is the unvoiced
plea made by the thousands and thousands of wo
men who each day go out into the busy world to
share with man the burden of bread winning.
We hear much of the excellent service of the New
York Telephone Co. —is it possible that some of
this is due to the fact that that corporation fur
nishes rest rooms for the weary “Central,” and
also that at every station there is an emergency
medicine closet; individual lockers, and that tea
and coffee and hot milk are served to the workers
at any hour of the day or night? Let our local
telephone companies consider some similar allevia
tions when the public protests bitterly yet fruitless
ly against the “Terrible telephone service in the
South”!
One of the most perfect laundries in the coun
try is “The Pilgrim Laundry” at Brooklyn—the
work done there is famous throughout the region
of the Bronx. One hundred and twenty-five girls
are instrumental in creating this reputation; they
go to work at 7:3o—they do not climb laborious
stairs as in the olden time—they now conserve their
strength by having the trip made easy by means of
an elevator; they do not stand until nature rebels
against the unnatural hours—at 9:30 a. m. they
have a recess of twenty minutes when the firm gives
them tea, coffee, milk and crackers; at noon they
can get a lunch in the lunch room at a merely nom
inal cost—during the afternoon there is another
short rest, and despite these “wasted” (?) minutes
by four in the afternoon more work is done than
(Continued on page 5.)
Items of General Interest.
The average age of persons arrested in New York
City is 22 1-2 years, and one out of five is a wo
man.
British India’s government is successfully making
quinine, of which immense quantities are sold by
it through the postoffices.
London Punch suggests as one way of raising
revenue that every “authoress and author shall be
subject to an adjective tax.”
Mrs. Sarah Lamb of St. Pancras, London, re
marked on her recent 104th birthday that she
“wouldn’t mind” living her life over.
An idea of the immensity of the new Cunarder
Mauretania may be gathered from the length of
her cable. This is about 1,900 feet long, and weighs,
with its shackles, 130 tons.
Harry B. Wolf, who is running for Congress in
the Third Maryland district, began his career as a
newsboy and became in succession fire of
fice boy, law clerk, student, lawyer and politician.
He is still little more than 26 years of age, and he
is known as “the newsboys’ candidate” and “the
man with the grip.”
The latest “fellow” of the Royal Botanic Socie
ty of England is Baroness von Eckhardstein, who
for years has devoted herself to the study of botany
and is now a recognized authority on certain phases
of plant life. The baroness, who is a daughter of
the late Sir Blundell Maple, spends most of her
time in the country following her favorite hobby.
The tomb of the late Duke of Hamilton in the
park of Hamilton Palace, near London, is said to
be the finest mausoleum in the world. Its cost is
estimated at about $900,000, and is modeled aff
ter the San Anglo Church in Rome. The coffin is in
closed in an Egyptian sarcophagus of black marble
and the whole structure is one of almost unequaled
magnificence.
“Snakology” is one of the most advanced sci
ences to be taught in the American schools. It is
deemed advisable that children should have a
knowledge of the habits and characteristics of
snakes and specimens of these reptiles are gathered
from all sources and their bodies carefully studied
while facts about their lives are given to the chil
dren as special topics.
The currency of a country is one way of tracing
its history or rather its progress toward a com
plete civilization. It will be remembered that once
tobacco was used as money in Virginia; whale’s
teeth are still used in the remoter Figi Islands, and
nails were once used as currency in Scotland as
were dried cod fish in Newfoundland. Salt
passes for money in Abyssinia, bees wax in Suma
tra, tea in Tartary and hoes in Madagascar!
The highest mountain peak now believed to ex
ist in America is Mt. McKinley in Alaska, more
than twenty thousand feet high. This peak was
discovered by Dr. Fred A. Cook who was surgeon,
of the Peary Expedition in IS9I and of the 'Bel
gian expedition in 1897. Mt. -St. Elias is under
twenty thousand feet -while some authorities give
the height of Mt. McKinley as twenty-three thou
sand, though twenty thousand is a safe estimate.
One of the most unusual and unique uses to which
the phonograph is put is that of a medium to
carry to future generations the voices of grandpar
ents as well as parents who wish to leave a “spok
en” message to their descendants. A maker of
phonograph records in New York is responsible
for the statement that men often come to him and
talk whole addresses, usually those having a suita
ble moral lesson, into the phonograph. They have
individual records made to leave among their as
sets.