Management Helps Workers

Until businessmen show heart and sympathy as well as ability and show a genuine desire to reduce the anxieties and, problems of the workers in this country they will continue to be distrusted and ignored on the public questions for which their experience and judgment is peculiarly suited. And they will be voted out of influence accordingly in a democracy that only requires 51% to name its officers and pass its laws.

These soberly humanitarian words were spoken last week, not by a New Dealer but by the U.S. Chamber of Commerce chairman who was Herbert Hoover’s right-hand man in fighting the depression 13 years ago. Julius Howland Barnes is 69 now, and long since retired from the grain business in which he was once the biggest U.S. exporter. But last week he came back > into the news again with a plan for improving labor relations by giving first call on jobs to the neediest workmen&#151and paying them the union scale of $51 for a 60-hour shipyard week&#151even if they had never before earned half that much. To prove his theory, he had made a place in his shipyards for 169 men who were almost down &amp; out, and he was well pleased with the result. As for his labor force, the A.F. of L. local leaders said there was not a plant in the U.S. with a better cooperative spirit. </p><p>Good Heart. When Julius Barnes went back to Duluth from Manhattan to reopen his old shipyard last November, 3,000 men lined up for jobs. Many were hired for their special skills, but to pick his other labor he enlisted the aid of the Junior Chamber of Commerce and gave them a professional investigator. </p><p>The C. of C. members went all over town talking to grocers, butchers, relief agencies, dredging up down &amp; outers. The paid investigator tracked applicants to their homes to see if their wives knew how to keep clean and thrifty house. Practically none of the 169 finally hired in this way had ever earned more than $25 a week; one had twelve children; another had been hospitalized for so long he had lost touch with any jobs. </p><p>Good Head. &quot;Only two or three proved disappointing,&quot; Barnes reported last week, &quot;the others have taken a new lease on life. Many of them have been upgraded into semiskilled jobs; others have won bonuses for ideas for plant improvement. They are all working hard and are happy, and we are functioning without labor trouble.&quot; He has a closed A.F. of L. shop in his 800-man shipbuilding plant in Duluth, a closed C.I.O. shop in his nearby Klearflax Linen Looms, Inc. (which not only makes linen rugs but, for three years, has enriched itself with a new process for treating coarse flax fiber for cigaret paper). What's more, he believes the closed shop is the best way for an employer to avoid &quot;a fighting, quarreling type of labor leadership.&quot; </p><!–pagebreak–><p>For long-legged, business-wise Julius Barnes to be making ships is like old times&#151though it was as a grain man, a Chamber of Commerce president (1921-24) and chairman (1929-31), and a frequent trouble shooter for Herbert Hoover in war and depression, that he became Duluth's &quot;first citizen.&quot; In the last war he turned out 44 merchant ships in two years. This time he has twelve Maritime Commission tankers on order, the first two of which were launched last fortnight. He also has a $9,000,000 contract from Standard Oil of New Jersey for seven tankers so big (362 ft.) that the Welland Canal cannot float them. These whoppers are to be sailed to Chicago, their specially designed upper works dismantled to squeeze them under Chicago's low bridges, then reassembled and sailed down the Mississioni into the Gulf.</p> <!– Begin Buttons –> <ul class=”button”> <li class=”lt”></li> <li class=”icon”><a href=”#”><img src=”https://content.time.com/time/i/btn_print.gif&#8221; width=”15″ height=”15″ alt=”” /></a></li> <li class=”ct”><a id=”print2″ href=”#”>Click to Print</a></li> <li class=”rt”></li> </ul> <!– End Buttons –> <!– Begin Find this article –> <ul class=”find”> <li><span>Find this article at:</span></li> <li><a href=”/time/magazine/article/0,9171,773298,00.html”>https://content.time.com/time/magazine/article/0,9171,773298,00.html</a></li&gt; </ul> <!– End Find this article –> </div> <!– End Tout1 –> <!– Begin: Footer –> <div id=”footer”> <div class=”copyright”>Copyright &copy 2014 Time Inc. All rights reserved. Reproduction in whole or in part without permission is prohibited.</div> <dl id=”links”> <dt></dt> <dd><a href=”/time/documents/privacy/”>Privacy Policy</a>|<a href=”/time/rss/”>Add TIME Headlines to your Site</a>|<a href=”/time/contactus/”>Contact Us</a>|<a href=”https://secure.customersvc.com/servlet/Show?WESPAGE=td/home.html&MSRSMAG=TD”>Customer Service</a></dd> </dl> </div> <!– End: Footer –> </div><!– End Content Main –></div> <script type=”text/javascript”> window._taboola = window._taboola || []; _taboola.push({flush: true}); </script> </body> </html>