I have read the various contributions to your symposium on the work
before the new Commission on Industrial Relations. In my opinion it
is the duty of the employer to provide the necessary safeguards and
protection for his employes, such for instance as good light and air,
sanitary surroundings, protection against fire and other dangers,
reasonable hours of labor, adequate wages, no child labor, facilities
for education and self-improvement, healthful living quarters,
opportunity for recreation, etc. These and other advantages should be
supplied under all circumstances, and there should be co-operation and
good feeling between employer and workingman. It seems to me quite
probable that the better results which would thus be obtained through
the greater efficiency of the employes would more than compensate the
employer for any extra outlays which he may have to make to provide
such protection, so that in the end it would cost him nothing. The
hearty co-operation and friendly spirit which would thus be engendered
between the employer and his workingmen would be apt to prevent
strikes and other troubles and would decidedly be to the interest of
both employer and employe. Any excuse that a manufacturer or other
employer of labor might make that if he had to provide this protection
to his employes he could not make his business pay seems to me similar
to the excuse of one who contemplates putting up a building but says
he cannot afford to make the necessary expenditures to provide for
the safety of those who will occupy it because with such extra cost
the income from the building would not be sufficient to pay a good
interest. If he cannot make it pay he should of course not undertake
it, but under all circumstances he must build safely. In the same
way an employer should see that his employes and workmen receive the
necessary protection and he should provide for their absolute safety
and do the right thing by them all the time.
ADOLPH LEWISOHN.
[President General Development Company.]
New York.
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