Joseph H. Willits

The Labor Turn-Over and the Humanizing of Industry

While the social and economic doctors are holding clinics over the ills that have flowed in the wake of the industrial revolution, some attention may profitably be given to the question &dquo; Wherein will industry humanize itself?&dquo; While we are pondering over the whereabouts of the dividing line that separates those industrial evils which can only be eliminated by a greater degree of paternalistic government regulation, from those other evils whose eradication is so profitable that it can safely be left to individual initiative, it may be worth while to point out some spheres in the industrial field where more eflicient management is just beginning to realize

Possibilities of United States Collaboration with the International Labor Organization

THE uses which we in the United States can make of the International Labor Organization-and it of us-must grow out of understanding of the character of the Organization itself. That character has been described elsewhere in this volume. One object of the International Labor Organization is to secure substantially common minimum standards of labor conditions throughout the world and thus to minimize unfair competition in international trade through exploitation of labor. The value of the Organization, therefore, should be greatest to the countries in which conditions of labor are higher than in the so-called backward nations. From this point of view it would be to the interest of the United States to join the Organization in order to strengthen that group of countries in the Organization which have high labor standards, and to work for the improvement of labor conditions in the countries which at the present time have a great competitive advantage through low labor costs.

The Conclusions and Recommendations of the U. S. Coal Commission As to Labor Relations in Bituminous Coal Mining

dustry, even though many parts of the paper might apply equally to anthracite. The Commissions study of labor relations consisted mainly of an inquiry into the day-to-day relations between operators and miners, the factors that more immediately affect those relations, and the procedure that governs them. It is, in addition, a study of some of the larger issues between employer and employe that come up in connection with the renewing of agreements and give rise to the danger of a national strike. To present the whole of that study would require much more time than is available for this paper. I shall, therefore, have to limit myself to general statements concerning the conclusions and recommendations from

PATTEN, SIMON N. Mud Hollow. Pp. 384. Price,

helpful suggestions concerning the ways by which the management of small shops may obta.in adequate but economical health service, which in the past they usually have failed to get. The statement of the routines to be followed in case of physical examinations and sickness, of the minimum equipment required for various situations and purposes, of estimated proper cost for different sized enterprises, and of other similar matters are very much to the point and very welcome. They should be of real aid to a plant physician trying to develop standard equipment and standard practice in his department. Dr. Clark also shows a grasp of the ethical responsibility of the factory doctor, when he says, &dquo;It is considered advisable that the

1.90. Philadelphia: Dorrance and Company, 1922:

T HE last ten years have witnessed a phenomenal growth in interest on the part of employers in ideas of personnel and the problems connected with personnel work. The war stressed these problems as they never before had been stressed. The assembling and organizing of an army, the development of large munitions plants, the shutting off of the stream of immigrantsthese factors alone caused a sudden shifting of workers to new centers; absorbed the surplus labor; and resulted in the barest industrial period America has known since the Civil War, if not before.

War's Challenge to Employment Managers

as forecasting a final ‘solution of the labor problem.’ &dquo; &dquo;Because of the desire of many employers for exact information on the workings of these plans, and public interest in the claims made for profit sharing as a general remedy for labor difficulties, The Welfare Department of the National Civic Federation has made an extensive investigation and analysis of more than 200 plans in the United States, embodying the idea in one form or another of extra payments to labor.&dquo;