BAIL WAY MANAGERS AND EMPLOYES. 583 



verbially improvident as a class, and under certain conditions increased 

 payment means only greater extravagance. Therefore, a wise policy, 

 if not higher considerations than those of self-interest, should prompt 

 the managements of large corporations to provide, even at considerable 

 expense or financial risk, not only for the protection of their employes 

 from, or indemnity for the effects of, injuries, but also for their physi- 

 cal, mental, and moral improvement, so as to render them contented, 

 zealous, and forbearing. 



An admirable illustration of this fact is found in an inspection of 

 the cotton-spinning factories of Windisch, near Zurich, the most ex- 

 tensive of this character on the Continent. Educated in England in 

 all the technicalities and ramifications of his business, its present head, 

 Mr. Hans Wonderly, has evidently imbibed and has put into practice 

 many of the most advanced ideas respecting community of interests 

 between employer and employe there prevalent. On the way to the 

 mills one passes the hospital built by the firm, a pretty building healthi- 

 ly situated on a hill-side, near a sharp bend in the river Reuss, surround- 

 ed by flower-gardens and containing accommodations for thirty beds. 

 At present it serves as a dispensary in which the district doctor dis- 

 penses medicines and advice at the expense of the firm. This firm 

 provides neat cottages for over one hundred families of its workmen, 

 conveniently located at short distances from their factories. Though 

 it employs over a thousand operatives, and though it rents these 

 cottages for only four pounds per annum, more than one half of its 

 employes own their own houses, the surroundings of which are mar- 

 velous in beauty and neatness. The work-people remain in the firm's 

 employ from generation to generation, and great kindness is shown 

 their disabled and superannuated. Though at times embarrassment is 

 experienced in providing employment for all who look with natural 

 dependence upon it, this firm uniformly maintains its fatherly protec- 

 tion over all permanent employes. All its overlookers are trained on 

 the spot, and the principle of giving its high positions to its own de- 

 serving people, which is strictly enforced, encourages aspiring young 

 men to look for promotion at home rather than elsewhere. Thus a 

 feeling of clannishness has been established which has kept its work- 

 people united and satisfied, when at neighboring places all sorts of 

 disputes and agitations have been in progress, and a strike has never 

 occurred at any of its factories. This exemption from all labor trou- 

 bles is attributed by the firm not alone to good management and 

 satisfactory wages, but mainly to the great consideration and for- 

 bearance shown by the work-people themselves in times of financial 

 depression. Time-breaking through drunkenness is unheard of in 

 these factories. Well-organized schools for the young people are 

 operated under the auspices of the firm, and there are also excellent 

 night-schools wherein subjects interesting or advantageous to the 

 operatives are taught free by instruction and lectures. The operatives 



