Real News for New HOUSE PAINTERS Painters and decorators have long felt the need for a reliable varnish which would dry quickly enough to allow two coats in one working day. FOUR-HOUR After extensive research Valentine & Company has perfected two remarkable new varnishes that dry hard in VARNISHES three to five hours and are tough and durable besides being highly resistant to soap and water. Four-Hour Floor Varnish: A tough, elastic varnish remarkable for its wearing qualities Pale straw in color, easy to work and flows freely Superior to the average product used for the purpose, Valentine's Four-Hour Floor Varnish doubles the efficiency of the house painter's day. Four-Hour Interior Varnish: A Varnish especially adapted for interior woodwork and which dries in four hours to a tough hard surface On interior trim and cabinet work its remarkable drying speed allows for rubbing down to a dull finish or for the application of a second coat the same day. paper machine felts, or huge sandstone grindstones from Scotland for the pulp grinders. If another mill tried to hire away a desirable man it might pay better to raise his wages rather than to break in a new man. Labor unions were anathema; collective bargaining was a usurpation and an interference with traditional and constitutional rights of contract. I continued to have this opinion regarding "collective bargaining," or what we now call "industrial democracy," until early in the year 1919. But during all the sixteen years prior to that time during which I employed men in our paper mill operations, we had no strikes or labor troubles and the relation between labor and the Company was very pleasant. We were what may be called "paternalistic" and at the beginning of the war, instead of raising wages, we gave certain bonuses to offset the rising costs of living. In the fall of 1916 we purchased a sulphite pulp mill where 600 men were out on strike. They had been striking for six months and the feeling throughout the town was most bitter. Among the things the men were striking for was the eight-hour day as against the eleven and thirteen-hour day then in vogue. We disposed at once of the several hundred strikebreakers that were being housed and fed on the ground. Then we let it be known that we would take the strikers back without discrimination and that the eight-hour day would go into effect at once, but we said nothing about recognizing the union. The men came back immediately and work was resumed. I would like to tell the full story but it would occupy too much space and I only refer to it to show that we for many years belonged to that class of employers known as benevolent anti-union and open-shop employers. In the spring of 1919 food prices and rents had increased so much that the cost of living was out of proportion to the wages received by working men. We recognized that fact before a demand for higher wages was made and decided to make a general advance in pay of all workers. This proved to be quite a problem. We felt that an immediate increase was due to every worker, but what percentage of increase should be made to each group was a question. Our paper was selling at higher prices, and we knew that the men were entitled to a share of this money. Unions had been formed or were forming in paper mills throughout the state, and in one large mill nearby a determined strike was prevailing; a wave of enthusiasm for collective bargaining was spreading over the country and receiving support at Washington. It was finally decided that we would recognize the right of our employees to bargain with us in the making of the new wage scale. Union leaders among the men were called in and told what we had in mind and that we would consider meeting with them for discussion of the wage situation, and were requested to furnish a copy of their constitution and other information regarding their union. The upshot of the matter was that we entered into a contract with the unions for a year from the first day of May, 1919, which provided a mutually satisfactory wage scale, did not call for a closed shop, but did call for our encouragement of the union and for our recommendation to all workers that they join the organization. This contract, it might here be stated, has been renewed annually since that time. In the beginning of our relationship with the union, we were naturally afraid of the union and the men were afraid of us. We did not know how much they would demand. We were told that if we gave them any advantage they would demand more and more, until their demands would become intolerable. That made us suspicious of them and as the first demands of union labor were necessarily a taking away of some of the authority of the employer, we felt that we must go very conservatively and carefully in making any concessions from our old established customs. We have found that we were mistaken in many respects. The union has what is pleases to call its "grievance committee," composed of some fifteen men. It is through this grievance committee that all our collective bargaining is carried on. Meetings are held regularly once a month. The company is represented by its mill managers and the general personnel manager. Any complaint or suggestion that the workers may have is presented at this meeting. The company men are very careful to have the meeting conducted in a clean, frank, truthful and business-like manner. No sarcastic remarks are made and no bitter utterances. Sometimes the subjects brought up are quite controversial, but they are met squarely, and we have found that common sense always prevails in the end. Minutes of these meetings are carefully recorded and read at the succeeding meeting, and at that time reports of progress are made on the various points at issue, if any. Thousands of matters of very small importance and perhaps hundreds of other matters of larger importance have thus been handled over a period of more than eight years between us and our workers. Any man who things that he is not getting a fair deal in his work may present his case for consideration at this meeting, and no one thing, no matter how small, is regarded as insignificant. The outcome of these conferences has helped to solve what is probably the greatest evil in our industrial system today, namely, the insecurity of a man's job. Men are constantly in fear that something will happen to lose them their work, and they dread the hour when they must go home to their families and say that they are out of employment or that they are fired. By careful planning and management this evil can be reduced to a minimum. Men will accomplish more if they are not haunted by this worry, and for this reason alone it pays well to make the job as secure as possible to the worker. It costs money to train new men to perform labor, no matter how common that labor may be; but I know it to be true that also a great saving can be made by having the workers feel that their jobs belong to them and that they cannot be easily discharged or laid off. In the first place, our relations with the union have made us more careful in the employment of men. We have an employment agent at each mill, whose duty it is to receive all common labor applications, and with the assistance of the mill manager at each mill he employs all the men in the ordinary ranks. No foreman has authority to discharge any man, and men are not discharged for a cause without having their cases passed upon by the mill manager and the general personnel manager. In addition to this, every discharge for cause is brought before the grievance committee, and in that way we have a practical guarantee of a square deal to every man. It is the fixed policy of our company to promote men to the higher positions whenever vacancies occur. We do not go outside and employ men from other paper mills to fill, the better positions. This would discourage every man in our organization. We train our own men, bringing them up from the ranks. Promotions are always in line, the oldest employed gets the next job unless there is some special reason. This is in line with the union's request for promotion, based on seniority so far as possible. Courtesy and kindness toward men is the rule in every department. Discipline is not lacking. We have strict rules which serve as the basis of control, and every man understands them and the unions agree to them. But loud talk and harsh words are not heard in our mills. A spirit of goodwill is a great asset in any industry. We believe that the good will of our men is fully as important as the goodwill of our customers. When men are happy in their work, when they have courteous and decent treatment from their superiors in authority, when they are free from worry of discharge and when full freedom is given to them to discuss and plan for their own immediate economic interest, there may begin to be some hope of securing their hearty co-operation inside the plant in all the services necessary to good conditions. Employee participation and responsibility is vital and amazing interest can be aroused. For many years our principal objective has been to establish a feeling of confidence in us on the part of the men. We have stressed the great importance of truth in all statements to the men. There is no doubt that in the beginning of our relationship with the union there was suspicion on the part of the men that we did not intend to carry out our promises. But after five or six years of slow but steady progress we were pleased to find that we had established in the men a feeling of confidence in our sincerity of purpose. I think I can now truthfully say that our men are practically unanimous in the conviction that the company really believes in the union. The men in the mills feel free to demand their rights. They do not want charity in any form, but everything to which they are entitled for the work they perform. They feel secure in their jobs, but only in so far as they perform their duties reasonably well. They do not expect anything beyond fair treatment and they believe now that they are receiving it. They do not now think of the union as being there to fight the company, but rather to work with it in a sincere attempt to harmnoize any conflicting interests. They recognize that there are conflicting interests, wages and profits, which each must demand. We believe that the men are loyal to us and we feel confident that they believe in our loyalty to them. This loyalty is not of a personal or sentimental type, but of a self-interested type, and loyalty to an industrial relations system in which they believe. We have not regretted signing that contract. PAYS $250 FOR A TWO-BIT SECRET John J. Leary, labor-editor of the New York World, who covered the recent convention of the American Federation of Labor for his paper, discussing the stool pigeon who sells "secrets" to union-fighting employers said: "Whether the fellow who sells the secret proceedings of the convention—the proceedings are as open as the Bronx-was there or not, I do not know. "But I do know that an agency of more than local note did for years collect large sums for the open secrets. "And I have known of a broker of world-wide fame paying $250 for the printed proceedings of a convention any person might have bought from Frank Morrison for 25 cents, postage 5 cents extra. "Of such are the union busters largely made up." Porto Rico has nine times as many automobiles as it had seven years ago. In a Watery Grave Seventeen Fathoms Deep YING hopelessly, as this is written, in a tomb enveloped by water, at a depth of which was rammed by the Coast Guard Destroyer, Paulding, and the horrifying details of which are, and will be in all history in the minds of the people as one of the most distressingly unfortunate marine accidents of modern times. The fates must have been before Walter Bishop, of Washington, D. C., radio man on the Submarine, who though seemingly fascinated by his perilous occupation, yet had time for sober thought of what might be expected at any time of the men who gave of their brave service to our Government. Shortly after the deplorable accident occurred, the Associated Press carried a news story, and with it a poem, which is here printed that we, especially, who have not the experience of coastwise residence or contact may be able to visualize the things which must have come into the minds on frequent occasions of the constantly lurking danger to the men in our Naval and Coast Guard service. Prophetic in its recital of the dangers braved aboard a "pig boat," a poem written some time ago by Bishop has come to light as a self-sung requiem over those who went to their death with the S-4 off Provincetown, Mass. Entitled "The Submarine," the poem fits particularly well into the story of the S-4, with its description of those close quarters of an undersea boat. One verse voices a mild challenge to naval regulations giving a $5 bonus to submarine men and an extra dollar for each dive of the ship. Another describes as "a deadly spot" the torpedo room which, in the S-4, was the prison of six men fighting against suffocation. Opening with the observation that many "rave of battleships, spotless and clean," but that not much is said of "life on a submarine," the poem continues: LABOR SUPPORTS THESE Labor is not only in sympathy with, but will support all movements for the conservation and betterment of humanity. In fact, a compelling sense of responsibility for human conservation and the desire to protect individual interests are among the causes for organization among the workers. In labor's economic platform are demands for a shorter working day and a living wage two conditions absolutely essential to physical well-being. Organized labor insists upon safety, sanitation, compulsory education, and many practical educational developments and advantages which aid the individual to reach the fullest development. We would have the children develop sound bodies and strong, healthy minds, would fit them for productive living and would enable them to do the best work of which they are capable, and then assure to them a just compensation. "That's true, Jim" MORE and more painters and decorators are using Rutland Patching Plaster for their wall-patching jobs, because those who have tried it like it so well that they pass the good news around. Does Better Work Rutland is absolutely white and ground to a fineness unequalled by any patching plaster. You can get perfect results with it on the most particular class of work. Easier to Use Sets slow enough for you to work easily but not too slow for time-saving purposes. Makes a More Lasting Job Guaranteed not to crack, crumble, shrink or fall out. Takes hold of the broken edges and will not swell. Only 5 Cents a Pound The special Painter's Package contains 15 pounds and costs only 75c (price slightly higher west of the Mississippi and south of the Ohio River). Your regular dealer can supply you. Free sample package sent on request; please give your dealer's name. RUTLAND FIRE CLAY Dept. E-38 Rutland, Vermont Rutland Patching Plaster |