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SIR ROBERT HADFIELD

The Leading Steel Maker of Great Britain Who Is Promoting Edwin Markham's Philosophy of Beauty and Brotherhood Among his Workers

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By HELEN R. McDONALD

Author of "The Impelling Force in Sir Thomas Lipton's Life"

IR ROBERT HADFIELD is known as the Prince of Industry in Great Britain. To me it was pleasing that a man with such principles as he holds should exist. In his capacity as employer of some fifteen thousand workers, one might have been forgiven for supposing that such a man would represent the employer in his most indifferent and cruel position. For, curiously enough, it has been noticed that the larger the number of workers an employer controls the less real are they to him. Count them by thousands and they cease to move and live and have their being; they become like atoms in the universe, ants toiling in intense effort, responsive only to the blind instinct which compels them to work. To the big employer his workers frequently cease to represent individual men and women with human passions and loves and cravings. They become merely "hands." They unify into the mass; and that mass represents not human souls but labor.

But Sir Robert Hadfield discovered in England that the greater the number of workmen, the more multiple the employer's powers for doing good. Employing thousands he found it possible to upset existing vicious conditions of labor and to institute reforms which would react, not only for the benefit of the employee but for the benefit of the employer.

No industries can cope with the two basic industries-iron and steel-in national importance.

We were met there for discussion. The talk was exclusively on conditions of work, wages, and hours of labor. No more interesting topic is ever touched upon. It is vital, pressing, human -since first, in Eden, mankind was condemned to toil and the ominous words pronounced: "By the sweat of thy brow shalt thou earn thy bread." The problem of how long mankind shall sweat and for how much bread, has been all-absorbing. Ages have groaned in travail in fulfilment of that sentence upon mankind of "hard labor for life." Two classes have arisen since then-the men and the masters--and it has taken nearly nineteen centuries of Christianity to teach that there is no great gulf fixed between these two that their interests are, indeed, one.

Sir Robert Hadfield was one of the pioneers in England of certain far-reaching reforms. He believes in the workers' right to happiness.

"Twenty-four years ago," Sir Robert said, "I put into operation in the Hadfield works, our forty-eight-hours-a-week system. Had I not been to some extent independent as regards finance I doubt whether I could have either risked the experience or accomplished what I set out to do. Such a short working week was then little heard of. I was told that I was losing money-that I was running my firm into irrevocable disaster.

Sir Robert Hadfield says in this
Exclusive Interview with THE
NEW SUCCESS:

In a large well-appointed room, I sat at luncheon with some of the principal figures of Hadfields, Limited, one of the largest steel corporations in Great Britain. At the head of the table was the host, Sir Robert Hadfield, head of the firm. On his right sat Judge Henry Neil, of Chicago; next Mr. Alexander Jack, vicechairman of the firm, and several associates.

I want

"I have a dream of a fairer future.
to see old things, bad conditions, vice, squalor,
and misery, done away with and things be-
come as new. I want to see a contented
people, well paid, well housed, enjoying labor
as well as leisure, having a full, deep appreci-
ation of all that life in its fullness can mean."

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"Well, I persisted in my forty-eight-hours-aweek system. Now, after twenty-five years, I find that the shorter hours have been all to the good. Workmen are more able to cope with the demands made on them if they have had reasonable time to recuperate. Overdriven men never do good work. It is cheaper to keep them at high-water mark and not try to overstep the bonds of human endurance. For this reason, I would gladly do away with overtime in my works. "Sometimes at great sports meetings," Sir Robert went on, "I have seen men running Marathon races. They made superhuman efforts; they kept on long past the time they were even conscious of exertion. Their movements became mechanical and at the end of the race they were useless. Trainers stood around, fanning them and applying wet towels But the runners were almost unconscious. The oxygen in their bodies had been used up. They had been poisoned by their own efforts.

"Exactly the same results obtain in the case of the workman. The workers are poisoned by the fatigue of monotony. The only alternative is to so improve the hours of leisure that a clearbrained invigorated man comes fresh to his task every morning."

Judge Neil leaned forward. "I wonder," he said, "if these worn out men feel the need of what Edwin Markham, America's great philosopher and poet, expressed so well. He said that the three essentials of life are 'Bread, Beauty, and Brotherhood.'

Sir Robert looked up quickly. "How true that is," he replied. "Just as the world's greatest teacher once said, 'Man shall not live by bread alone.' Man must, of necessity, have leisure to enjoy both Beauty and Brotherhood.

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but, as a matter of fact, they have become enured to the position of the underdog. When one endeavors to teach them differently, they almost refuse to believe it.

"A scientist told me that, as an experiment, he took half a dozen half-starved waifs from the streets and alleys of one of our big cities, housed them decently, and fed them on nourishing foods. After two weeks of this treatment, the children, instead of looking better, were thinner than ever. Their stomachs could not assimilate the food, their emaciated little bodies seemed to protest against being interfered with-seemed to suggest that they were better in their old haunts of starvation and misery.

"Blong time, the change began to tell. The

UT the scientist persisted. And, after a

children got accustomed to right treatment. They gained weight rapidly and grew into strong and healthy young specimens of humanity.

"In the Hadfield factory, we used to start at six o'clock in the morning. Before the men had slept sufficiently, they had to rise and hurry to work-their minds and bodies in a sort of mute dazed protest against a system which demanded that they should get up and labor while other men slept. There was much bad time-keeping. The men turned up late or didn't come until breakfast time. We tried starting half an hour later, but that did not improve matters. Then we made a radical change, altered the hour to twenty-five minutes after seven and did away with the break at nine o'clock. Would you believe it, the scheme nearly fell down owing to the attitude of the workers themselves? They thought we were out to make more money out of them! Then their wives were up against the innovation. They grumbled at having to rise and prepare breakfast at that hour. However, feeling we were on right lines, we went on our way undaunted. And now, neither the men nor the women would go back to the old six-o'clock start.

"The primary factor which we had recognized was that human labor is not a marketable commodity like a bale of cotton or a ton of pig iron. We discovered that a man at a machine is not a part of it but a sentient being with passionate human aspirations which should be fostered, not crushed.

"My philosophy is that men are forced to become law breakers through not having enough money to live decently and keep the law. I firmly believe that every man would rather go straight than go crooked. It is the unequal distribution of things that make so many malefactors.

"Selfishness is at the root of all opposition to reform," continued Sir Robert, "and the firms which are doing their best to bring about a new

order of things are those in which the employers can put themselves into the places of the workers. Every man should have a wage which not only ensures the means of sustenance to himself and family but, also, the possibilities of enjoyment and a chance to get the best out of life. "Employers overwork and underpay and generally degenerate the workers by the treatment they receive. Then these employers complain that their men are a poor lot, when they themselves are responsible for it all. The treatment employers hand out to their men is like a boomerang. It comes back at them with doubled force.

"Speaking as a private individual, without, of course, wanting to commit my firm or other employers, I may say that a scheme I have long had in mind," he went on earnestly, "is to pay the workers for an annual vacation."

"But your workers do have vacations," said one of those present. "The works are closed down for ten days in the summertime."

"Yes; we insist upon the workers having vacations at their own expense," Sir Robert rejoined. "When the clerks take their vacation they get paid for the time they are away, so do shopmen, so does everyone else. Only the workers have to pay for the privilege of playing. They, perforce, must take a vacation SO that they may be able to continue working in

"It is intolerable to me," Sir Robert went on, "to think of the strain which the cost of a vacation sometimes must entail upon the breadwinner of the family. By paying the men during this time, the strain would be easier-the vacation would do more good and become much more

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SIR ROBERT HADFIELD

valuable. Thus the worker would return to his old place at the machine full of life and energy, fit to turn out double the work he did before going away.

"As for the cost! Well, no matter what it cost, I think it would pay in the end. You cannot balance dollars or pounds against the health and wellbeing of thousands of men and women. Holding up continually before their eyes the threat of starvation, the fear of unemployment and the horror of the poorhouse never called forth the best efforts of the workers. Yet industrialism has been run for centuries on these lines.

The largest maker of steel in Great Britain
and inventor of manganese steel

"Wealth creates an increased obligation to render service to mankind. Why should a man wait until the shadow of the grave falls upon him before he shows gratitude? Why should he linger until the nearness of eternity frightens his conscience into doing something for his fellow men, when, all his life has been enriched by the service he has compelled mankind to render him? It is because so many men-richly blessed, richly benefited-have died without paying their debts to humanity, that the world's progress has been so slow."-Sir Robert Hadfield.

good health. It is all to the employer's benefit that his men and their families go away to the seaside or the country to recuperate after a year's hard work. Change of scene and fresh air work wonders in health and spirits. Thus the employers reap the benefit while the worker foots the bill.

"Substitute for these outworn methods the love of life with all the tremendous possibilities for those who care to seize them; instil into the worker a sense of the beautiful in nature; make him understand the deep contentment which comes from work well performed, and you have, not a drudge toiling blindly without joy but a man realizing himself and his powers, quickened to the appreciation of a world full of interest and beauty and possibilities from which he is

no longer shut out, of which he is really a part.

"I would instil into every worker, hope," said Sir Robert, his eyes glowing. "For hope is the greatest stimulus of mankind. Why should there be a limit set upon ambition? Education is free and the world is wide.

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"Yes, Carnegie did pay a heavy price for victory," said Sir Robert Hadfield. "Strikes are a hopelessly inefficient way of settling differences. The ones who really suffer are the wives and children at home, and it is surely a monstrous act to bring the men to their knees by striking at those they love best in the world. Happily, in the Hadfield Works, we have never had to shut down for a strike, owing to the agreement with our own workmen. We have always found a talk with

Making Men

"When I was a boy at school, in Sheffield," he went on, "we used to have a day which we called Mark Holiday, that is one in every fortnight. Every Monday afternoon, before being dismissed for lunch, our total number of marks during the preceding fortnight were announced and those who had gained a maximum of sixty marks out of a possible one hundred and thirty, were given the afternoon off. This half holiday was a tremendous stimulus to study, and, at first, only a very small percentage of boys gained the required number of marks; but, gradually, all worked up until only three or four were detained in school, and they were fellows who couldn't or wouldn't work. I have often wondered if the Mark Holiday could not be applied just as successfully to industry. Some sort of competitive spirit or reward arranged on reasonably practical lines and to formulate this would not be at all insuperable-might be organized which would increase the interest of the worker in his output and operate for the benefit of all."

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IN the early days of this country, the

Indians were invited to send six youths to William and Mary College, Williamsburg, Virginia, to be educated free. It was a rule of Indian courtesy not to answer questions on the day they were received. The Indians finally declined the invitation and this was their excuse: they said they had sent several young men to the colleges of the northern provinces, and when they returned they were poor runners, ignorant of how to get a living in the woods. They could not bear cold or hunger, could not build a cabin, take a deer or kill an enemy, and they spoke their own language badly. They were not fit for hunters, lawyers, or counselors; in short, they were totally good for nothing.

"If the gentlemen of Virginia," said the Indians in reply, "will send us a dozen of their sons, we will take great care of their education, instruct them in all we know, and make men of them."

They believed that the glory of the young man was in his strength, in his skill in hunting and doing the things which the Indians take pride in doing.

The Indians' reply gives us a good lesson.

"Because I fear we are not yet ready for it. Besides, may I ask, would America join in with us? Great Britain cannot stand alone in an important development of this kind. It would be even more difficult to introduce in this country as conditions are different here than in America. We are bound to go slowly or we should defeat our ends; that is to say, if America and other countries don't take a similar line of action, it will be seen that it would not be practical to carry out this excellent idea in one country alone. With some firms, wealth is the chief aim; not so ours. Our workers' welfare is our first concern. When that is right and things go smoothly, wealth comes along naturally."

"Several very rich men have told me that they paid too great a price for their wealth," Judge Neil said. "Andrew Carnegie once said that if

our men, round the table, settled most of the difficulties. To my mind, there isn't nearly enough of this roundtable discusson between employer and employee. It is the healthiest thing in the world. I have continually discovered that discussion, full and unafraid, between the men and ourselves not only cleared the air, took the ground from discontent and emboldened the men to state what they wanted and to ask for more."

"To appreciate things we must first desire them. Workers should be shown how to get more, not less, out of life. All my life, I have been opposed to teaching working people how to live on less," said Judge Neil. "Why should workers require to learn to live on less? The first thing to teach them is how to live and get the most value out of life. But they must cast suspicion and distrust aside.

"I feel," Sir Robert concluded, "that wealth creates an increased obligation to render services to mankind. Why should a man wait until the shadow of the grave falls upon him before he shows gratitude? Why should he linger until the nearness of eternity frightens his conscience into doing something for his fellow men when all his life has been enriched by the service he has compelled mankind to render him?

"It is because so many men-richly blessed, richly benefited-have died without paying their debts to humanity, that the world's progress has been so slow."

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