day of any calendar month, one day vacation with pay, so that operatives who have been fortunate enough to have worked every working day in the year, have two weeks vacation with full pay for the time. The hours of labor have been reduced from ten to eight per day, and certain machinery formerly in use that had caused considerable injury to operatives, has been replaced by modern types, which causes no further trouble of that kind. Other reforms and projects for improving the condition of operatives are being planned and will be put in operation when perfected. Hygienic Chemical Company of New Jersey, Manufacturers of Chemicals. The company has furnished a bath-room, with hot and cold water, also soap and clean towels, free, and every employe is allowed twenty minutes once a week during working hours for bathing purposes without deduction of wages. The only formality required is application to the foreman for a bath ticket. There is no restriction as to the use of the bath after working hours except the avoidance of conflict. The employes are contented and seem to appreciate the interest which the company takes in them. The Ingersoll-Sergeant Drill Company, Phillipsburg, N. J. Manufacturers of Air Compressers, Rock Drills, etc. The employes of this company, acting in co-operation with the firm, have established a benefit association on a very comprehensive plan, which has been in operation since 1898. The results are highly satisfactory and all concerned as contributors or beneficiaries agree that the system has been productive of much good. The plan on which the association is organized provides, as shown by the constitution, that the Board of Directors shall consist of five members, three of whom are elected by the employes from among themselves and two appointed by the company. None but employes of the Ingersoll-Sergeant Drill Company and Haesler-Ingersoll Pneumatic Tool Company, above the age of fifteen (15), and under the age of fifty-five (55) years, are admitted to membership; but persons above the maximum age may become members if they have been in the employment of either of the companies named for a term of two years, on condition that they obtain a physician's certificate of good health. Persons ceasing to be employes forfeit membership in the benefit association and have no right in it thereafter, except such as may have accrued and been awarded them by the Board of Directors previous to leaving the company's employment. The membership dues are fixed at twenty-five (25) cents per month, for which the following benefits are paid: 1. Five dollars ($5.00) per week for disability resulting from accident or sickness. 2. One hundred dollars ($100.00) burial fee in case of death resulting from disease or accident otherwise than as hereinafter provided for. 3. Five hundred dollars ($500.00) in case of the loss of a hand or foot resulting from accident while at work, or in going to or returning from same. 4. Two hundred dollars ($200.00) in case of the loss of an eye through accident while at work. 5. One thousand dollars ($1,000) in case of total blindness or other total disability resulting from accident while at work, or in case of death resulting from accident while at work, or in going to or returning from the same; provided, however, that such result shall have occurred within one year from the time when the injury was received. 6. Benefits are not cumulative, and the greater benefit shall cover the less, and if the lesser shall have been paid, it shall be deducted from the greater benefit accruing to the same person from the same injury. 7. No claim shall be allowed for loss of life or limb, or any other injury occasioned by the injured party being upon the tracks of any railroad, except at public or necessary and usual crossings of the same. 8. Failure to make payment of dues within the proper time forfeits the right to all benefits. 9. Weekly sick benefits shall not begin until after one week's sickness, and shall date from the beginning of the second week; weekly accident benefits shall begin from the date of the accident; provided, that no benefits shall be paid for the first week on account of an accident or injury that does not show external marks. 10. Weekly payment of benefits shall continue for only four (4) months for any sickness or injury resulting from the same disease or accident; but such payments may be extended for an additional period not exceeding two months, by a vote of the directors. II. Members are not entitled to and shall not receive benefits for disability or death occasioned by accident or injury received, or disease contracted before becoming a member, or caused by intoxication or the violation of any law, or by willful or gross negligence on his part. The accident which shall entitle a member to benefits shall be such as he is exposed to in his employment, or in going to or returning from the same. The Ingersoll-Sergeant Drill Company acts as treasurer of the association and supplies all necessary office room and clerical service without cost to the association. The company also gives to the treasury each year a gratuity equal in amount to the dues contributed by its employes. The Haesler-Ingersoll Pneumatic Tool Company, whose employes are eligible to membership in the benefit association, follows the same policy of duplicating the payments made by their workmen. The company reserves to itself the right to cancel its agreement and end its connection with the association by giving six months' notice to the Board of Directors of its intention to do so. In such case, provision is made for the dissolution of the association. In the event of this taking place, the constitution provides that the surplus money in the treasury of the association shall be used for securing hospital privileges for employes of the company, or turned over to any mutual benefit association organized to take the place of the one that has been dissolved. Three thousand dollars ($3,000) is the maximum amount of money to be retained in the treasury of the association as a guarantee fund. All surplus above three thousand dollars is awarded from time to time in sums not exceeding five hundred dollars ($500) to one person, to employes of the company who have been in its service for ten years or more, and are permanently disabled because of old age or any of the causes for which benefits are paid. Such awards are wholly at the discretion of the Board of Directors, and are made only in cases that are in every way meritorious and deserving. This association and the work it has planned to do and is doing shows how thoroughly all the protection afforded by ordinary life and accident insurance can be secured for workmen in large industrial establishments through the intelligent co-operation of employes and employers. The benefits of such a plan to both the firm and its workmen are very far-reaching, the advantages to the latter being of course in the most concrete form. For them it is a guarantee of immunity from the distressing poverty that often follows illness, and to their families it is a sure protection against at least immediate want in case of the bread-winner's death. The liability of the employer is amply repaid by the closer and warmer personal interest which workmen are sure to take in the business from which they draw a present livelihood, and to which, in the event of their disability or death, the dependent ones may confidently look as a matter of right for that sympathy and material help which goes so far toward comforting those who are thus afflicted. It is hardly necessary to say that the best of feeling exists between the company and its employes, and that these pleasant relations have never been interrupted by a misunderstanding of any kind. The Johnston & Murphy Shoe Company, Newark, N. J. Manufacturers of Fine Shoes. Employs 300 Males and 115 Females. The employes of this company have a benefit society of about sixty members; the dues are ten cents ($0.10) per week, and the sick or disability benefit five dollars ($5) per week. The society also provides a burial fund, from which twenty-five dollars ($25) is paid toward the funeral expenses of a member. Keuffel & Esser Company, Hoboken, N. J. Manufacturers of Mathematical and Surveying Instruments. This company's line of manufacture is of a kind that requires a high degree of skill on the part of its workmen. The factory buildings are kept clean and well ordered, and much attention is given to ventilation and sanitation. The employes have a sick-benefit society which has a membership of one hundred and sixty-six (166). The constitution and by-laws of the society, a copy of which was kindly furnished by the company, provides that its name shall be the Sick-Benefit Association of the Employes of the Keuffel & Esser Company, and its purposes, to aid its members in case of sickness. |