The coal trouble was cured effectively by our agreeing that the
company sell all its men coal at the net cost price to us (about half
of what had been charged by coal dealers, so I was told) and arranging
to deliver it at the men's houses--the buyer paying only actual cost
of cartage.
There was another matter. We found that the men's savings caused them
anxiety, for little faith have the prudent, saving men in banks and,
unfortunately, our Government at that time did not follow the British
in having post-office deposit banks. We offered to take the actual
savings of each workman, up to two thousand dollars, and pay six per
cent interest upon them, to encourage thrift. Their money was kept
separate from the business, in a trust fund, and lent to such as
wished to build homes for themselves. I consider this one of the best
things that can be done for the saving workman.
It was such concessions as these that proved the most profitable
investments ever made by the company, even from an economical
standpoint. It pays to go beyond the letter of the bond with your men.
Two of my partners, as Mr. Phipps has put it, "knew my extreme
disposition to always grant the demands of labor, however
unreasonable," but looking back upon my failing in this respect, I
wish it had been greater--much greater.
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