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for a day and takes about 4,500 persons for a picnic. Several other things are provided for the comfort and pleasure of the employees. On top of one of the numerous buildings there is a pretty roof garden, with handsome plants and flowers and an awning against the summer's sun. Here the employees may take in Pittsburgh oxygen during the 30-minute lunch period. Near by the company has a natatorium 40 by 25 feet, with needle, shower, and tub baths open to all employees free of charge, the only requirement being that the bathers bring their own suits. Different hours are set apart for men and women. About 25 persons a day-mostly men-use the natatorium. In the summer every Saturday afternoon, about 50 girls are taken down the river in a launch for an outing. The large convention room is the scene of various entertainments given by the company to its employees. At Christmas, presents are distributed to every person in its employ. Vaudeville shows, mostly of talent in the works, and lectures and dances make up the round of entertainments throughout the year. Drawing classes are conducted in the convention hall. Sewing and cooking classes are provided for the women, the forewomen teaching.

A premium for good work is given the girls, in the form of a small percentage on the total output. This is divided twice a year and practically every girl receives it.

The employees have a sick-benefit association to which, in its infancy, the firm subscribed; but now the association does not need that help. There are two classes of members-children paying 5 cents a week and adults paying 10 cents. A sick benefit of $6 a week for 10 weeks is paid, and at death, $50.

The office force is very handsomely quartered in the Administration Building, with a dining room, suitable dressing rooms, and conveniences.

SHREDDED WHEAT CO.

The factory of the Shredded Wheat Co., at Niagara Falls, is situated in a beautiful expanse of trim green lawn, relieved by shrubbery and flowers. Indeed the building itself, practically all windows, might be taken for a huge greenhouse, rather than a workshop, were there not already a greenhouse on the grounds. The company has, besides, grounds running down to the river, where the men employees play baseball. The building has spacious, high-pitched workrooms, with light on every side, and everything within it, from the floors to the white caps and aprons of the women employees, is immaculate. The company supplies the employees with caps and aprons, but does not launder them.

Every care has been taken to make the working conditions of the employees sanitary and comfortable. By a wonderful system of

ventilation, the air throughout the entire building is changed every 15 minutes. There is no such thing as a crowded workroom. All the toilet rooms and lavatories are clean and sanitary. The wash rooms are handsomely fitted with porcelain stationary stands, and soap and towels are supplied free. Individual steel lockers are provided so that the necessary change of apparel before going home is made easy. There are tub baths for the women. A woman employee is specially detailed to have charge of the lavatories. The men employees have both shower and tub baths.

A large lunch room is equipped for the women employees, where a hot lunch is practically given them every day. The price of articles on the menu is stated and each employee is allowed food to the amount of 15 cents free. The men have a lunch counter and secure a luncheon of soup, meat and potatoes, dessert, and coffee for 10 cents. The prices charged do not cover the cost of the food.

Adjoining the women's lunch room there is a beautiful large rest room, presided over by the welfare secretary. The room is pleasingly furnished in mission furniture, with comfortable chairs, writing desks, and couches. Plants and flowers add to the attractiveness. Periodicals, books, and various games and amusements are here to entertain the employees. There is also a station of the city public library, so that employees can secure any special books they may want. In order that the women may really rest, relief periods of from 20 minutes to 1 hour are granted them each day, which they may spend here. Usually a 10-minute rest period occurs in the forenoon and again another in the afternoon. The length of time depends of course on the character of the work. An hour is given for lunch. Often after lunch the girls spend the rest of the hour dancing in the large auditorium, which has a seating capacity of 1.000 persons. There is a piano and the women employees are allowed to have dances here in the evenings when they choose. The annual Christmas entertainment for employees, which is quite elaborate, takes place here. Besides this, once a year the company gives the employees an outing. One year they had a trip to Toronto and another year to Ontario Beach.

The welfare secretary devises various clubs and social gatherings for the women. They have organized a flower fund and send flowers to women who are ill and away from work. There is no emergency room, but when the women employees are ill they are either sent home or to a hospital in a carriage at the company's expense.

At the instance of the company, the employees have organized a relief association. At first the company contributed as much as the employees, until there was $1,000 in the treasury. The dues are collected by the company through wage deductions. Members are of two classes, those whose weekly wages are $6.50 or more, and those

whose wages are less. The former contribute 5 cents a wee latter 2 cents. In case of illness or disability, first-class me receive $1 a day and second-class 50 cents a day. No mem entitled to more than 13 weeks' benefit in a year. The affairs association are administered by officers elected by the me About 50 per cent of the employees belong to the association.

NATIONAL BISCUIT CO.

The National Biscuit Co., while objecting to the term "w work," provides a number of comforts for the employees in its group of factory buildings. There are two lunch rooms, one f office force and one for employees, where food is sold at reaso rates. In addition, stationary coffee urns are placed in the tories, where coffee is sold for 1 cent a cup and milk at 2 cent completely equipped emergency hospital, in charge of a tr nurse, cares for employees temporarily indisposed. Adjoinin hospital is a library and reading room for employees. The dr rooms have special allotments for employees' outer garments. A employees manufacture foodstuffs and as cleanliness is an adv ing virtue, the company launders overalls and aprons for the ployees. It grants the women two rest periods, one during the noon and one during the afternoon, extending from 15 to 40 min according to the character of the employee's work. Where the is particularly exacting and monotonous, as, for example, a closing machine, the employee is given a long period of relief a change to some other work. This system of rotating monot occupations has worked successfully. Care has been taken to pr backs to benches for the comfort of the women.

There is no profit sharing, but the company has been interest the employees' becoming owners of the preferred stock of the poration. In 1901 the plan was established by which empl could purchase preferred stock on installment. The first and pa payments are in amounts of $5 or a multiple of this sum. The pany purchases the stock and carries it for them at market crediting intermediate dividends. Not more than six mont] allowed to lapse between partial payments. Only one share ma be bought by this plan at a time. The employee is charged 4 per interest on the unpaid balance of the stock. Over 8,000 shares been bought in this way, exclusive of the stock owned by officers managers. As an illustration of the extensive ownership of by employees, out of 7,560 shareholders in 1910, 2,528 were emplo The employees have organized the National Biscuit Company ployees' Association, to furnish disability and death benefits. members pay 35 cents a month and in case of sickness recei

weekly benefit of $5 for the first 12 weeks, and after that $3 a week for the next 12 weeks. At death the sum of $100 is paid to the legal representative of the deceased. Affairs are administered through officers chosen by the members. The relief committee visits the sick once a week and reports to the association. The dues are not sufficient to maintain the association; accordingly the funds are reenforced by entertainments, balls, picnics, etc. There are 450 members, about half of whom are women.

LOWNEY CHOCOLATE CO.

The Lowney Chocolate Co., on the outskirts of the village of Mansfield, Mass., has the advantage of large grounds and rural conditions in its welfare work. The factory has light and air on all sides, and the naturally good ventilation is further aided by fresh air being blown into the workrooms. This system helps do away with fine cocoa dust and smoke and fumes from roasting cocoa beans. The wash rooms are comfortable, with soap and towels furnished. The male employees' overalls and the women's aprons are laundered by the company. Lunch and recreation rooms are missing, as there is no need for them. Most of the employees live near enough to have their noon meal at home. Some distance from the factory, in a large open field, the company has erected a very attractive clubhouse of bowlders and shingles for the employees. There are bowling alleys, pool tables, magazines, etc., here. No membership fee is charged, but employees pay a small sum for the use of the bowling alleys and pool tables. Several times a year ladies' evenings for the women employees are held.

Like most manufacturing establishments in the country, the company has had to house its employees. This has led the company to build a number of tenements, which it rents at low rates to its employees. These are two-story frame double tenements, with a porch. Inside there is running water, but no bathtubs. Around each house there is enough space to have a small vegetable garden. A six-room house rents for $10 a month.

There is no profit sharing, but a bonus of 5 per cent is paid on all wages earned within a year, a custom rather common in the confectionery industry. In order to be eligible, the employee must have been with the company the 1st of January of the preceding year. Thus those receiving the bonus in January, 1913, must have been with the company in January, 1912.

HUYLER'S.

Huyler's grants to its employees a vacation in summer with full pay. Every girl in the factory department who has been employed

by the company for two years gets one week with pay in summer. Heads of departments have a longer holiday. At the retail shops. every employee six months with the company has a holiday. At Christmas employees are given a present of a week's salary, and in some departments more than this. Once a year a bonus is given to department heads and assistants dependent on the company's profits. Cases of accident and illness are cared for by the company on their merits. Lunch rooms are provided for the women employees where they may eat the lunches they bring with them, and there is also a recreation room with a matron in charge.

MISCELLANEOUS.

SOLVAY PROCESS CO.

The Solvay Process Co., near Syracuse, N. Y., began its welfare work over 25 years ago with the children of employees, as it was thought best to lay the foundation for the future with these. A sewing class was the first betterment work organized for them. This grew until the company built Guild House, a clubhouse large enough to include the various welfare activities. There is a large auditorium, Guild Hall, with a stage and a seating capacity of 600. The work is under the direction of the King's Daughters, to which the wives and sisters of the officers of the company belong, but a paid welfare superintendent has direct charge. There are besides a number of instructors for the classes. The policy of the welfare department has been to charge a small fee for instruction, with the idea that the work would be more appreciated by the employees. There are several classes in dressmaking, started primarily for mothers, with a small fee of 25 cents a month. Cooking lessons are also given in the evening. The children may have piano instruction for 25 cents a lesson, also lessons in embroidering and dancing, and in housekeeping and sewing, all at very low prices. There are various dramatic and amusement clubs for the children.

A day nursery also is conducted in Guild Hall primarily for the children of widows whose husbands were employed at the Solvay works, but at present children of any widows are taken. There are about 15 children in the nursery.

Guild House formerly had a library for the employees, but the village of Solvay now has a Carnegie library of its own, which has made the other library superfluous. The company has also built a gymnasium, and classes in physical culture are conducted for men and children. It has provided both a dining room and a lunch counter for employees outside the works in the patrol building. Here the men can obtain a well-prepared luncheon at very moderate rates, barely enough to cover the cost. At present there is some talk of the

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