584 THE POPULAR SCIENCE MONTHLY. 



are supplied with food, clothing, and other necessaries, and with luxu- 

 ries, through excellently organized co-operative stores, and a savings- 

 bank and building association are also in operation under guarantee 

 of the firm. The work-people are reported to be remarkably cleanly 

 and well dressed, and to show in a high degree the effects of comfort 

 and civilization, which, considering that, as compared with the English 

 and American standards, their incomes are very small, is gratifying 

 evidence of the beneficial effects of such a system (vide vol. i, " Sec- 

 ond Report of the Royal Commissioners on Technical Education "). 



Another exemplification of the practical wisdom of what would 

 by some be classed as Utopian ideas can to-day be found nearer home 

 in the town of Pullman, near Chicago, where proper provision for the 

 comfort and welfare of the attaches of the great works there located 

 has secured for this manufacturing company the most skillful work- 

 men in their respective departments probably to be found in the 

 country ; that without any marked increase of current wages has made 

 a most satisfactory return for invested capital, and built up a town 

 surrounded with influences that refine and elevate the minds and 

 character, and permanently benefit alike the company and its work- 

 men. Abundant evidence is furnished by manufacturing and other 

 corporations abroad that paternal care and solicitude for their opera- 

 tives are not thrown away, but tend in no small degree to establish 

 good feeling and community of interest, and that, instead of conflict- 

 ing with the cold calculations of business economy, such care is in 

 reality the prompting of self-interest best understood. While rail- 

 roads nor other corporations employing large masses of labor can with- 

 hold their employes altogether from improvidence and recklessness, 

 from the consequences of which the employer must generally suffer, 

 they can, by means kindred to those above suggested, compel their 

 people to provide for their future welfare, and in other ways elevate 

 their standard of efficiency ; and neither the lukewarmness nor oppo- 

 sition of the servant releases the employer from an obvious duty to 

 himself, his ward, and the public. Railroad corps especially are, like 

 armies, amenable to rigid discipline judiciously applied, and where the 

 necessity for self -protection is so obvious the justice of the employer 

 inaugurating and enforcing measures promotive of their mutual inter- 

 ests will always be early recognized, and opposition will be sporadic 

 and short-lived. Arguments and statements illustrative of the great 

 necessity for the employer securing a closer affiliation, if not copart- 

 nership, between his interests and those of his employes through other 

 and additional means than are now operating among our American 

 railways, manufactories, etc., might be multiplied ad nauseam but, on 

 the assumption that the foregoing, if not within itself convincing, 

 will at least suggest what will be conclusive upon this point, let us 

 consider the manner in which substantial gain may be effected at 

 least cost and w T ith less risk to capital, premising the discussion with a 



