men are advised that if they have grievances, or what they regard as grievances, those higher up are only too willing to learn of them, patiently to examine into them, fairly and justly to dispose of them. During a period of over 25 years, as a result of the faithful and fair adherence to this policy, regarded as best for the employes themselves, and wiser for the corporation, it has been borne in on the consciousness of its employes that their well-being, their progress, comfort and contentment, have ever been in the foreground in the minds of those even in highest authority, a spirit that it constantly strives to maintain, from the highest official to the humblest foreWages paid and hours of labor have, necessarily, been largely in the foreground, in dealing with men whose experience with other employers has not demonstrated to the employe's full satisfaction that fairness and justice as far as humanly possible governed. Finally, howFinally, how ever, so unvarying has been the corporation's fairness to its employes, that suspicion gave way to belief and belief to conviction, which is now deep-rooted in the minds of a vast majority of the employes, that their welfare is infinitely better conserved by dependence upon the justice of those in authority, than through the always arbitrary, often merciless and frequently unjust policies of the labor unions, but little concerned with the welfare of their members, but rather absorbed with ways and means of bringing industrial plants under their influence and control.

Corporation Alone Deals with Labor Matters

The United States Steel Corporation has had its "labor troubles", considered and dealt with them from "the inside", and has never allowed outside interests to interfere with or even participate in the consideration of alleged grievances and their final settlement. Taken as a whole, the corporation has been singularly free from strikes or other disruptive disturbances, but, when these have occurred, a spirit of forbearance toward its own employes has always prevailed and the influences, the misrepresentations and the vicious intrigues the employes have been subjected to by astute labor leaders familiar with the tendencies of men's minds, especially when aroused to anger by belief that they are victims of wrongs and injustices, have been clearly understood. When disturbances have been overcome and tranquillity has again reigned, the employes themselves have had ample opportunity to learn that the outcome has been to their advantage rather than to their detriment, conclusions that help to cement between employer and employe mutual feelings of trustfulness and respect. So, as time goes on, and this attitude of the corporation never varies, it becomes more and more difficult, more and more unlikely, more and more impossible, that the men themselves would wish to be under the disquieting and uncertain control of leaders whose ambitions too often are their chief concern, and the welfare of their members a secondary consideration.

The Corporation's Success is its Employes' Success Steadily it is borne in on the minds of employes that the more the corporation does to see that the burden of their work is lightened in every way possible, and that the wellbeing and contentment of employes is a substantial asset of the corporation, rather than discontent and dissatisfaction, that where contentment reigns the best that is in the employes goes into their work, it becomes clearer and clearer that a corporation with a long and unvarying record for fairness to its employes may be depended upon to see that the latter always receive fair and just treat

ment.

Wages and Hours of Labor

There has been an average advance in the wages of employes in 25 years to two and a half times what they were in the beginning, and on this question employes have opportunity to see clearly and unmistakably that the policy of the corporation is steadily to advance them as far as possibly consistent with the competition it has to meet. In the matter of hours of labor, this has been a subject of deep thought on the part of the management of the Steel Corporation so to deal with it as not to impair the It has helped, efficiency and progress of production. mightily, in the solution of this problem, that the men themselves were, as a whole, more disposed than not to continue the 12-hour shift, even when the management was striving to shorten it progressively, equitably and satisfactorily. Happily, that problem has nearly been solved, and its complete solution based upon more humanitarian lines is close at hand.

The Steel Corporation's Welfare Activities Early in the life of the corporation Judge Gary set his mind determinedly to adopt a policy and system that should steadily work to the prevention of accidents, previously all too frequent in what was regarded as a highly hazardous business. This undertaking, steadfastly and determinedly adhered to, has carried the corporation into undertakings and commitments undreamed of in the beginning, but all having a common objective to prevent accidents, to make the work safer and easier, and to make its surroundings hygenic, sanitary, and ever better and better for employes, and, happily, steadily better and better for the corporation in every possible way.

In a report by Charles L. Close, Manager of the Bureau of Safety, Sanitation and Welfare, United States Steel Corporation, and published in January, 1926, his subject was "Safety in the Steel Industry," the intensive movement in that direction having started in 1906. expanding ever since, and inaugurated, Mr. Close explains, through the activities of Hon. E. H. Gary, "based upon sound and broad policies, which were designed to give more concerted study to working conditions, and to those things which would contribute to the happiness, health and comfort of the employes and their families." Note that, in the very beginning, Judge Gary wisely saw that what would make for the happiness, health and comfort of the families of the corporation's employes was sure to react favorably upon the employes themselves. subsidiary companies were directed to "make every effort practicable to prevent injury to employes." Whatever expense was necessary the corporation would meet. "Nothing," said Judge Gary, "which will add to the protection of the workmen should be neglected. The safety and welfare of the workmen are of the greatest concern," not incidental, or passing concern, but "the greatest concern", a policy from which the corporation has never deviated, a policy that has been ever-expanding and never contracting. Mr. Close sums the matter up in the end of his report, as follows:

The

"Since 1906, and up to the end of 1925, 'Serious and Fatal Accidents' in the operations of the corporation were reduced 60.97 per cent and 46,980 men were saved from serious and fatal injury; and since 1912, 'Disabling Accidents' any accident causing loss of time greater than the balance of the working turn-were reduced 78.66 per cent, which means that a total of 322,301 accidents were prevented and this number of men were saved from injury in those thirteen years.

"During the year 1924, 249 plants, mines and other operations, with an average employment of approximate

ly 132,000 men, produced an aggregate of 1511 full calendar months in which no accident occurred. In the first six months of 1925, there were recorded 841 such no-accident months, which record compares most favorably with 695 months for the corresponding period of 1924, and there is every indication that the total of these no-accident months for the year 1925 will be well above that for 1924. In these records some of the largest plants and operations of the subsidiary companies are represented.

"As an illustration of the efforts that are being exerted to eliminate accidents in our operations, I might cite that the Edgar Thomson Steel Works at Pittsburgh, employing 6000 men recently went 69 days without one disabling accident; the entire Universal Portland Cement Company, operating five large cement mills and employing over 3,600 men, recorded a full calendar month in

December 31, 1925, which includes items to be hereafter mentioned separately.

Brief Facts Regarding Corporation's Formation This Silver Anniversary bulletin, briefly reviews the history of the corporation, from which we quote, in part: "The plan of combining several of the large steel manufacturing companies in different parts of the country into one organization under one general management had its inception at a dinner given in New York on Dec. 12, 1900, by Edward Simmons and Charles Stuart Smith. There were present at this dinner several of the most important steel manufacturers and financial men of the United States, among them the late J. Pierpont Morgan, who was prevailed upon to do what had long been urged upon him by Elbert H. Gary, then President of the Fede al Steel Company and one of the great banker's most t: usted associates to undertake the financial arrangements to accomplish the great steel merger.

"The enterprise was a gigantic one. It comprised the consolidation of ten separate companies, engaged in the manufacture of steel and allied industries, each company prominent in its own particular field... ..."

Steel was developing as an industry almost faster than those engaged in it could keep track of it, consolidation became inevitable, destructive methods of competition had to be ended, besides which cost of production could be greatly reduced by wise consolidations, and then the burden of financing had become too heavy for the steel companies as separate entities. And so it was formed, with Judge Gary as Chairman of the Executive Committee, and Charles M. Schwab its first President.

We have seen how wages have been advanced. But the following is most interesting:

"A campaign was started about 1911 to reduce or abolish the 12-hour working day in the steel mills. This was a heritage from the 19th century and the corporation in its attempts to abolish it met vigorous opposition from many sources, principally from the workers themselves. Eventually, in 1922, the President of the United States threw the influence of his high office into the scale in favor of a shorter day and thus helped to make possible the practical abolition of the 12-hour labor period throughout the industry."

It was as long ago, though, as 1903 that the steel corporation urged its employes to become subscribers to the corporation's stock on the instalment plan, by paying annual bonuses to such employes as held the stock so purchased. On Dec. 31, last year, there had become 47,647 such employes registered holders of 162,802 shares of preferred and 501,999 shares of the common stock of the corporation. In addition there were 6,327 additional employes who had in force open subscription accounts covering the purchase of stock but who were not registered holders of shares.

Some of the Benefits Accruing from "Welfare Work" The record shows that in 1925 the number of serious accidents per 100 men employed was 60.22 per cent less than in 1906 when this work began, and disabling accidents were 87.07 per cent less than in 1912. Says the Bulletin:

"This means when stated in round figures that 46,863 men have been saved from serious injury and 322,408 men have been saved from any injury which resulted in loss of time.

"In addition the steel corporation has established communities, schools, clubs, educational facilities of various kinds, playgrounds, and a number of other conveniencies and benefits for its workers and their families. From 1912, when the records are available, up to the end of

1925, it has spent on these various activities a total of $158,188,043.

"Benefits Have Been Twofold"

"These expenditures for labor have not been, as might appear, at the expense of the stockholders. For instance, calculations show that had accidents continued at the 1906 rate the corporation, under various State compensation laws, would have paid those who would have been injured or to their families, a sum far exceeding the amount spent in preventing accidents. The steel corporation is not an eleemosynary institution. All its activities for the good of the workers, apart from considerations of humanity, have been amply justified by plain business reasons-they paid eventually. The men who direct the policy of the corporation have never lost sight of the fact that the first object of any company is to make money for its stockholders."

This it has done, as the following brief but graphic tabulation very plainly shows, covering a period from April 1, 1901, to Dec. 31, 1925:

Aggregate Gross Business Done
Total Earned for All Stock

Total Earned for Common Stock

Average Annual Earnings on Common Stock.. Average Annual Earnings a Share on Common Stock

Total Dividends Paid on Common Stock. Average Annual Payment on Common Stock.... Average Annual Dividend a Share Paid on Common Stock

Present Annual Dividend on Common Stock Per Share

Spent for Property and Plant Additions and Betterments Since Incorporation

$23,440,752,894

2,178,912,403 1,531,202,619 61,866,772

12 17

631,544,001 25,516,929

5.02

7.00

1,359,498,100

The steel making capacity of the country, nevertheless,

has outdistanced that of the steel corporation, which in 1901 had a capacity representing 65 per cent of the country's business, and has now but 45 per cent, although it has enormously increased its capacity.

Welfare Work Directed from New York The Safety, Sanitation and Welfare work of the steel corporation is conducted through a department in the corporation's New York offices, and various committees composed of representatives of the large subsidiary companies, each company having its own committees, consisting of members from the rank and file of the mill, plant, departmental and special committees. They all have first aid and rescue crews provided with the latest type of apparatus, who are trained by the company's doctors; 21,731 employes having received such training, and 396 now being in training, with 58 training stations maintained for this purpose.

There are at present maintained by the subsidiary companies 383 completely equipped emergency hospitals, with competent surgeons and trained nurses in attendance, as well as 13 base hospitals.

Everything conducive to the health of employes and their families is provided. There have been installed in the various operations 2,130 comfort stations with adequate toilet facilities including 24,030 washing faucets and basins; 4,810 showers; 179,581 lockers; and 4,689 sanitary drinking fountains. The corporation sees to it that pure, wholesome drinking water is provided its employes, and from time to time it is tested and analyzed, to preserve its purity. These and the abudance of washing facilities have raised sanitary conditions to a high standard, minimizing occupational diseases and ordinary illnesses. The subsidiary companies maintain 39 club houses for the use of their employes and members of

their families and their friends. This, in addition to good fellowship clubs that have been organized by the employes in many plants. It will be surprising to learn that employes are encouraged to cultivate vegetable and flower gardens, in 1925 there being 14,356 of these, covering 1,700 acres of unoccupied company lands adjacent to plants. The teaching of gardening even extends to the school children of employes, cultivating thrift, as well. There are 32 practical housekeeping centers, fully furnished and equipped, with special instructors, and visiting nurses, for the benefit of the wives and children of employes, which conduct classes in food preparation and cooking, and especially care and feeding of infants. The ramifications of these are amazing. Few would believe the extent to which playgrounds are maintained for the recreation of employes' children. In the summer these recreational facilities are used by upward of 25,000 children a day, and they include every kind of game children. are fond of. There are, for example, 99 tennis courts, and 114 fully equipped athletic fields, containing baseball diamonds, running tracks, with ampitheatres for spectators. Picnics are encouraged, guided and assisted, and the pleasure enjoyed at them cannot be even expressed in words. Christmas is a revel of good times, good cheer, and good things for the wives and children of employes. And the crowds they draw! Musical talent is encouraged, bands and orchestras, and choruses being numerous. In the South the same spirit is shown to colored employes, their families and children, as to the whites. Men are encouraged to advance their educational acquirements. by the educational assistance offered. Design and plans. of houses are studied and employes' comfort and greater happiness enhanced thereby. Over $12,000,000 had been loaned employes on Dec. 31, 1925, to encourage house

owning. Fathers are urged to instruct their sons in safe

ways of performing their work.

And yet the steel corporation, last year, did a business. aggregating $1,400,000,000 in value, the scrapping of machines and tools necessitated by improvements being enormous. Judge Gary may well have said in one of his numerous recent addresses: "In the world's history labor. so-called, was never heretofore more highly respected nor treated as liberally as today." And he could have added that the steel corporation is in the forefront in such treatment of its employes. No wonder he was able to say, on another occasion: "The management of the steel corporation has steadfastly striven to cultivate a feeling of amity with the workmen and has been very successful." Why? Because by its works is the corporation known, and has it been tested, over and over again. On another occasion Judge Gary said:

"At least 90 per cent of, the men today directing the works of the United States Steel Corporation began in minor positions."

He believes, and frequently says publicly, that capital and labor are dependent upon each other for successful business enterprise.

Who

No wonder the United States Steel Corporation is a highly successful and progressive and profitable enterprise. It deserves to be. And no wonder Judge Gary is prise. serene, happy, busy and contented. No man can take for his guide through life the Golden Rule and not himself become the beneficiary of it in countless ways. can measure the good that he has accomplished? It hasn't been the result of mere chance that he has for over twenty-five consecutive years guided and directed the greatest industrial entity in the world; guided it wisely and prosperously. As Joseph Addison so truly says: 'Tis not in mortals to command success, But we'll do more, Sempronius-we'll deserve it.