A. W. Shaw Company's "Handling Men"
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Published October 23, 2022
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“Handling Men” was published in 1917 and is a collection of articles written by American Industrialists on a variety of issues categorized in the following manner with each section introduced by an individual of distinction of the day.
The abbreviated, single-page introductions to these four sections are included in this review.
The abbreviated, single-page introductions to these four sections are included in this review.
- Selecting and Hiring
- How to Hold Your Employees
- Breaking In and Developing Employees
- Putting More than Money in Pay Envelopes
[Editor’s note: In some places “men” has been replaced with the word “employee” or “workers.” This change was made so that the core value—the main idea of each chapter, would not be lost to a reader today. This author believes that many of these executives used the term “men” in a generic sense for all of “mankind,” including women.
As proof of this, read the included sidebar with John Wanamaker’s article—the first introduction provided in this section. He writes adamantly about women’s place in the retail work environment and how they were achieving higher status in the business world.]
As proof of this, read the included sidebar with John Wanamaker’s article—the first introduction provided in this section. He writes adamantly about women’s place in the retail work environment and how they were achieving higher status in the business world.]
Peter E. Greulich
A Review of A. W. Shaw's "Handling Men"
- Reviews of the Day: 1917
- Some Observations of Early 20th Century Industrialists
- Four Executive Introductions in “Handling Men”
- Selecting and Hiring Employees: My Measure of Success
- How to Hold Your Employees: Putting Trust in Workers
- Breaking in and Developing Employees: Founding a Business
- Putting More than Money in Pay Envelopes: Making Partners of Workers
- This Author’s Thoughts on this Collection by A. W. Shaw
Reviews of the Day: 1917
There were no reviews found for this book in the timeframe of its publication.
Some Observations of Early 20th Century Industrialists
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"Those who, in the golden age of art, painted, carved, or wrote beautiful things, did so primarily for the love of art itself. So, may I not assert that if in an age of industry, a man devotes himself to industry for industry's sake, he is following the same artistic instinct of trying to do a fine act simply because it is fine?
"A business must be profitable if it is to continue to exist, but the glory of business is to make it so successful that you can do great things because they are great and because they ought to be done." Charles M. Schwab, Chairman, Bethlehem Steel Corporation, 1917
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"My theories are not at all original. They were first stated in the Golden Rule. I restate them because so many employers have confused effectiveness with what might be called non-humanity.
"Each human machine requires its own peculiar oil."
"Each human machine requires its own peculiar oil."
Henry L. Willard, President, Brooklyn Traffic Club, 1917
"A machine is a unit of a “plant investment” with very restricted limitations. It performs today what it did yesterday, provided it is well taken care of, protected from harm and abuse, oiled, fed with power, and given periods for rest and repair. A worker is a human being, the highest expression of cosmic creative power, a person of peculiar inherent abilities, capable of great development, with thoughts and feelings responsive to human interest and justice."
William Armstrong Fairburn, President, Diamond Match Company, 1917
Four Executive Introductions in "Handling Men"
- "Selecting and Hiring Employees: My Measure of Success" by John Wanamaker
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"The … executive who designs and directs and yet strives to do the bricklaying, will not advance far and will quickly wear out. …
"A good executive finds, develops and leans upon those who can carry forward for him the increasing divisions of his single great work. … The proverbial reluctance to allow those to enter the water whom we would have swim has given short measure to many a success. …
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- "How to Hold Your Employees: Putting Trust in Workers" by Frank Disston
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"A man will be happier in his work if he knows that he is a real part of the concern, if he knows that he can spend all his working days with you without danger of an overnight discharge.
"We believe that our men deserve something from us over and above the wages we pay them, and that something is our own personal affection and interest. In return we get loyalty and good work. "The whole thought of our establishment, and the reason that we gain such extraordinary loyalty, is that we work with our men and they work with us. There is no gulf between the shop and the counting room. We expect the men to come to us with their troubles, and they come as friends. We know them and they know us. "Are not some of the so-called efficiency methods in handling workmen merely an attempt to substitute rule for understanding—to get a human machine, because the employer does not know how to get a fellow workman? |
"We put our chief trust in men; they know it and make good."
Handling Men: How to Hold Your Men
Frank Disston, 1917
Frank Disston, 1917
- "Breaking in and Developing Employees: Founding a Business" by Edward B. Butler
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"Under the building recently erected by Butler Brothers stand one hundred and ninety-two caissons, six feet in diameter, extending down to hardpan seventy-five feet below the basement.
"If, before the superstructure was erected, the earth had been excavated from about these caissons, they would have appeared like a forest of huge concrete columns rising high in the air. "And yet, as one looked upon the work just before the basement was walled in, he saw no evidence of caissons; only the trampled pit. There was nothing in sight to indicate the mighty lifting power that had so patiently been prepared for the lofty structure to come. "And so it is with a great business, although the unthinking man does not appreciate this fact. He tries to build a business upon the shallow foundation which he sees, without providing caissons that go down to the solid rock. |
"He overlooks the fact that back of—and under—every great success, there are years of right thinking and right doing—cemented columns of honest effort and honest dealing—which, like massive piers of concrete, will sustain that business from generation to generation ."
Handling Men: Breaking in and Developing Men
Edward B. Butler, 1917
Edward B. Butler, 1917
- "Putting More than Money in Pay Envelopes: Making Partners of Workers" by James A Farrell
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"The biggest problem of the employer is to provide a stable, happy operating force which will work with him as well as for him.
"As the number of men increases, the complexities increase and the impersonal character of the corporation enters. Reduced to their elements, however, big business and little business have much the same points to be solved. "They each have the individual workman eventually to deal with, and no matter how pretentious the plan, it will fail unless the individual is the controlling consideration. "The great thing is not only to make the man working for wages actually a partner interested with the employer, but to let him show that he has such a relation with his company that his welfare and the welfare of the employer are identical. "When this basis is established, most differences will solve themselves." |
"Handling Men: Putting More than Money in Pay Envelopes"
James A Farrell, 1917
James A Farrell, 1917
This Author's Thoughts on this Collection by A. W. Shaw
This is another amazing collection of articles from the A. W. Shaw Company. Every page has “quotables” which come from a wide collection of business men from around the country and across a variety of industries. The companies’ chief executives wrote some of the articles, and some articles were the work of writers based on extensive investigations, interviews, and formal inquiries.
As always, something new was revealed about Tom Watson Sr. In studying his life, it was initially thought that it was an original policy of his to pay his employees a salary while they were in the service of their country during World War II and also guaranty them their jobs upon their return. In my research. I discovered that George Eastman of Eastman Kodak Company and a good friend of Tom Watson’s continued the full pay for those employees who attended the Plattsburg camp in preparation for World War I less only “an amount equal to the sum received by them for military services.”
Now in this series of articles I discovered the following written by Frank Disston, President, Henry Disston & Sons, Incorporated:
As always, something new was revealed about Tom Watson Sr. In studying his life, it was initially thought that it was an original policy of his to pay his employees a salary while they were in the service of their country during World War II and also guaranty them their jobs upon their return. In my research. I discovered that George Eastman of Eastman Kodak Company and a good friend of Tom Watson’s continued the full pay for those employees who attended the Plattsburg camp in preparation for World War I less only “an amount equal to the sum received by them for military services.”
Now in this series of articles I discovered the following written by Frank Disston, President, Henry Disston & Sons, Incorporated:
When the Civil War came on, Henry Disston [founder of the company] told the men that he would give volunteers a bonus of half the army pay and hold their jobs open. A company was formed and went to war; the survivors came back to the shops. The force was a sort of family, and a family it has always remained.
Its history repeated itself in 1915, when the same arrangement was carried out with the forty employees who answered the call of the militia and served on the border.
There is no doubt, though, that the extensiveness and completeness of what Tom Watson provided for IBM servicemen exceeded any benefits paid in earlier times. It was not a difference in kind or intent but in completeness of coverage: both the quality and the quantity of coverage.
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I highly recommend this book as a way to understand the economic foundation that built this country. It will confront those who cynically believe we did not have good men and women doing their best, which was sometimes a better and more comprehensive approach to handling the human relations issues in a company than is being done today.
In that vein, I would recommend selecting the image provided here to read the article from this book written by Will I. Ohmer entitled “Why We Are Hiring Women in Preference to Male Employees.” It is an amazing, eye-opening read. Cheers, Peter E. |
Article: "Why We Are Hiring Women in Preference to Male Employees."
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