Industrial Relations

THERE is fascination in entering a city, to delve into its formation, its early and later growth, and to view it with an open mind.

In 1800 the city fathers, with lanterns met in a Borough of the Town of Stratford, and incorporated the city of Bridgeport, now the capital of Fairfield County, of the State of Connecticut.

Today, this city is manufacturing five thousand separate and distinct commodities, and is known as the city of diversified industries. The writer stood in front of the new five story building of the D. M. Read Company, and counted more people entering the store in twenty minutes, than the five hundred and seventy-two people who lived in Bridgeport in 1810.

Interested, the writer entered and learned that this store started in a small way in 1857, and has always shown increase until today it is really an institution. People said so — More than two hundred citizens said to go to the D. M. Read Company, corner of Broad and John Streets, when asked where was the leading department store. Every answer was the same.

You say whence comes this situation, and you learn that the principle under which this concern operates is that the buyer is always right. — That goods sold must be satisfactory in the home. That what you see in this new five story building is really the growth of faith, integrity, service. Goods purchased are returnable. You can buy these goods no matter where you live, and you can return them if they are not right. This is a department store showing a range of goods from the moderate in price to the exquisite in creation; buys in the world markets — sells not only to its shopping area of two hundred and twenty-five thousand people, but practically is a State Store — does a business of many millions annually.

The forty-three departments show nearly every thing for the home, for women and youth, and Mens Furnishing Goods, as well. There are more than five hundred on the pay roll. Every one has been selected carefully. Every one realizes the importance of service.

— In turn you find the management serves its working personnel. You find rest rooms, nurses care, restaurant, yearly vacation time. The air is renewed every six minutes, spelling comfort for buyer and seller.

Another angle that makes this a community center is the interest the store takes in the youth of the city. Children are always welcome, and indeed there are days set apart for their enjoyment. Everything is done to interest them. The management wants the children. They believe it has caused the growth of the store. Youth knows what it wants and insists. Once a year the High School girls keep store for a day, and this shows them the dignity of service.

The Book Shop is one of the show places of Bridgeport. You can browse in the old fashioned way among the authors of the world.

The last service rendered by the workers of the D. M. Read Company is one which interests all in Bridgeport. David F. Read, at his death willed that sixty-five per cent of his stock holdings in the Corporation should be devoted in perpetuity to various charities, in which the Bridgeport Hospital participates largely. Many other associations and church organizations receive a part as well.

Bridgeport has always been noted for its broad minded liberal views, for its open democracy among men. Here is a view that shows how far reaching this conditions goes. The writer is quoting from a booklet. “First we ask all employees to go through a short physical examination, so that you will be certain to measure up to the standards of health with all your fellow workers. In six months you are entitled to an insurance policy on your life for $500.00. This will increase yearly, until the sum is $1000.00. You can join the Savings Club, and you will be paid at the end of the year, in addition to the interest the bank allows, ten per cent more. Your savings are placed in the bank in your name. The company pays the insurance, pays the added ten per cent interest because it wants its employees to remain with the work.” It is not charity, just good business, and every one is told the true status of the matter.

This is the initial operation of the Raybestos Company of Bridgeport, manufacturers of brake lining for automotives, and by far the largest consumers of long fibre asbestos in the world. This Bridgeport concern operates in Bridgeport and Stratford, Connecticut, in North Charleston, South Carolina, Peterboro, Ontario, and in London. Silver Edge Raybestos brake linings are to be found on automobiles and trucks in every clime, and at every hour dependably.

The writer asked those in authority what they sell, and the answer was service, safety, an effort to prolong life, and make the automobile a more dependable institution. The day the writer went through the Bridgeport plant interviewing, he was shown ready for shipment to one Motor Manufacturer one hundred and seventy-five miles of Silver Edge Raybestos Brake lining, and every inch of every yard of every mile was guaranteed for a year.

Silver Edge Raybestos Brake lining is really woven rock asbestos, reinforced with brass wire. The Raybestos Company has found Canadian Asbestos to be the finest spinning fibre. It takes fifty tons of rock to obtain one ton of Asbestos fibre suitable for spinning. Two hundred pounds of rock refines one pair of brakes. The material is crushed, dried and fibreized by machinery which delivers the rock in a silky form, ready for spinning.

The spinning operation is much the same as that used in cotton. The yarn is spun around brass wire, then woven into tape. It is sent to a treating department where it is impregnated with a heat and a wear resisting compound, passed through intensely heated ovens, and directed under pressure between heated rolls, which deliver it in uniform width and thickness. Inspection is the order of the day.

Inspection is carried on continually. Raybestos brake lining came into operation in 1905, and its history is one of service to the automotive world.

These asbestos weavers have a standard of quality in mind, and you see it in shop and office observance, in civic pride and duty — and the result is service.

Officers and men work together. They plan together. It is not unfair to say it is one industrial family. Every one has an opportunity to make and get what he earns, to solve every problem with the managers and every man knows that he can always go into the president’s office and that what he says will be taken into consideration. There are no plant sicknesses. Every precaution is taken to safe-guard the machinery. Labor turnover is at a minimum. Dependability is an asset. Reliability is of first consideration. These are just actual ideas gathered from a day’s interview. The company sets its standard on reliability. The adults employed here are home owners to the extent of about thirty per cent, although the average for Bridgeport is but twenty four per cent.