Page:American Journal of Sociology Volume 3.djvu/758

 744 THE AMERICA* JOURNAL OF SOCIOLOGY

hinged th;it the entire sash can be opened, as they are in pleasant weather. An organized force of janitors is constantly at work in all parts of the factory, keeping even the filing and foundry rooms remarkably clean. Flowers are found not simply in the plot in front of the factory, but in every part of the factory. A lar^e machine shop with a vista of palms down the center aisle is a unique sight.

The employes work for nine and a half hours per day, receiv- ing ten hours' wages. This shortening of the hours has produced no diminution of product, and the management has announced its ideal as eight hours per day, an ideal not only attained, but even now surpassed for the female employes. Perhaps it is the little things \vhich best reveal the interest of the employer, and few advantages are more appreciated by the 500 wheel- men among the employes than the bicycle room and attendant furnished by the company. One function of the attendant is to inflate tires so that the workmen may not be delayed in going home. It is the thoughtfulness that prompts such consideration rather than the expense incurred that renders them commend- able and acceptable. But such treatment may go further towards demonstrating the identity of interest of employer and employe than a cash bonus representing a much greater financial outlay.

In no respect is the policy of the management more remarkable or more commendable than in its treatment of female employes, some 300 in number. This solicitude is shown in regard to their moral and intellectual as well as their physical welfare. In the first place women work less than eight hours per day, receiving for this the maximum of ten hours' wage. They begin work fifteen minutes later than the male force and close fifteen minutes earlier. This affords them special transit facilities, since the street railway company has motor cars in waiting at this hour ; and also renders unnecessary mingling with a large body of workmen, attended even among a superior class with at least a minimum of unpleasantness and danger. The advantage of such an arrangement is obvious to all acquainted with conditions in manufacturing towns. In the