PAYING PROPOSITION.

Waipukurau Press, Volume XXII, Issue 48, 28 October 1925, Page 5

PAYING PROPOSITION.

IDEALS IN BUSINESS. “Does the ideal in business pay?’’ was the question asked and answered by Miss Nellie M. Scanlan, of the staff of the “New Zealand Free Lance,” in an informative and convincing address in the Hastings .Assembly Hall last week (states the “Tribune”). The speaker was well versed in her subject, and this, together, with her fluent and attractive delivery, enabled her to hold the attention of her audience to the end. SMOKY PITTSBURG.

Miss Scanlan said that she proposed to take her hearers by the hand and lead them through. some of the great industrial concerns of- Aemrica, where the ideal in business had paid. Early in her stay in the United States she had visited Pittsburg, the great steel manufacturing centre, where Andrew Carnegie’s fortune and many another was made. It was a city covered by a constant pall of smoke and lit only by the glare of the coke ovens —a dirty city where men laboured from 6 a.m. to 6 p.m. An attempt had been made to reduce the working hours to eight, but this had been strongly opposed-by both employers and employees, the former because it would reduce the output, and the latter because it would reduce the wages; so to-day Pittsburg was still working a twelve-hour day. tTyc conditions under which the work was carried on were hideous and unhealthy. In fact they were so terrible that Miss Scanlan was refused permission to inspect the factories. Strangely enough, among the people who toiled in this grimy city, music and art received more than their share of attention. IDEAL FACTORIES. Just across the river, a few miles away from Pittsburg, was the Heins pickle factory, one of the businesses which was run on idealistic lines. The whole factory was Ike a model kitchen with white tiles and shining nickle ad the work was done by cheerful-looking girls dressed in clean print dresses whose hands were regularly manicures by the factory manicurists. Moreover, noue of the food was touched by hand, and everything was scrupulously clean. The idealism entered not only into the putting up of the product, but extended through the general conditions and the treatment of the employees. The next city to which Miss Scanlan took her hearers was Dayton, Ohio. This city was the homo of aviation, being the scene of the first flights ol the brothers Wilbur and Orville Wright. Dayton was called the city or a thousand different factories, and the principle one of all these was run by one of the greatest of business idealists, James aPtterson, the head of the National Cash Register factory. Among other things, Patterson had found out that ill people could not work so well as healthy ones, so he had every one of his employees weighed regularly and those who were underweight were provided with hot malted milk twice a day. A picture theatre was provided in the factory, in which employees could spend their lunch hour and every Saturday a free picture show was put on for the children. In addition, a country club was provided, which had a 36hole golf course, a bridle track, and horses for hire for a small sum, excellent catering and provision for indoor and outdoor dancing. The subscription to this club was the dollar per annum. Patterson had welded all his employees together into one harmonious whole; strikes were never known, and any man who had worked for the “N.C.R.” was proud of the fact. FORD’S LEAD. From the unpleasant sights of the Chicago packing houses, Miss Scanlan hurried her hearers to the fresher and cleaner atmosphere of Hollywood, the great centre of. the movihg picture industry in California. Here, in the studies of the Douglas Fairbanks and Mary Pickford, it was again proved that the ideal in business paid, and that it was not necessary, as so many of the film producers unfortunately did. to degrade their art and appeal to the baser side of human nature in order to achieve finanical success. Miss Scanlan concluded her. address with an interesting account of the greatest business idealist of all, Henry Ford. There were two grat Ford plants in Detroit, the assembly works and the basic metal works. Some idea of the magnitude of the operations could be gained from the fact that the basic metal works were two miles long and half a mile fide. Here the pro cesses and materials were, similar to those of Pittsburg, but there was a /marked contrast in thd {scrupulous cleanliness and freshness of the Ford works. The whole of this huge concern was run on truly idealistic principles

and was one of the finest examples of the successful working of the ideal in business.

“What is required in business,” said Miss Scanlan, in conclusion, “is a realisation of the need for seeing everything from all possible angles afcd taking . into account every point of view. The ideal in business will always pay, but it must be practical idealism.”