One of the divisions of the War Industries Board that was chiefly concerned with the labor situation through the indirect channel of the employment manager, was the Employment Management Division. During the latter part of the last summer, I received a request from this division for aid along one or two of the lines of industrial environment in its relation to plant management, and on reporting to Washington, I learned with a great deal of interest of the aims and ideals of this division and what it was trying to do to aid and promote the success of the industries during that time when the war emergency was so keenly felt.

After this interview and the subsequent work which it was my privilege to do under the direction of this division of the War Industries Board, my respect for the great problem of doing large things in a large way and under the all important limitation of the shortest possible time allowance, has become profound and I believe lasting in its mental impress. To those who were not called upon to face this particular kind of problem, the appeal for gratitude and unlimited praise towards those who were called upon to act quickly and to revolutionize, for a temporary need, the ordinary routine of the industrial world, may not seem so deep or so far reaching. I believe, however, that few of those who faced the situation squarely and who were called upon to deal quickly with the solution of a problem, which under other circumstances would ordinarily have followed a natural development over a longer period of time, few of these, I say, failed to grasp the meaning of the emergency and the depth of its significance.

In order now to outline somewhat more definitely the idea back of the subject of this discussion, it may be stated that the term physical environment is intended to cover those features of the industrial establishment which fall under such heads as cleanliness and sanitation, heating and ventilation, adequate and well planned natural and artificial lighting facilities, attractive yard spaces, with some care to pleasing the eye of employees, whose only outlook beyond the four walls of the factory for a majority of the daylight hours, is limited to the

shop yard areas; sod and flower beds with carefully planned walk-ways versus those yards where chaos rather than order prevails; the careful attention within the shop to the upkeep of walls and ceilings in a light and cheerful color so that they may contribute to the general feeling of satisfaction on the part of the employee.

To the foregoing rather general summary of a number of the items which go to make up the environment of the shop, there might also be added certain other items which constitute a more or less important aspect of the problem,-thus the whole question of fatigue, whether it be caused by undue standing when the employee could work just as effectively seated, or possibly eye fatigue caused by an inadequacy of light. Again the question of fatigue produced by excessive noise might be classed as an item of importance to the question as a whole. And so we might go on enumerating the large category of influences and factors which make or mar the industrial environment and which go a long way towards promoting or breaking down the satisfaction with which an empoyee regards his job. I have mentioned some of these environment factors in detail for the double purpose, first, of showing that they really constitute a field of many sided characteristics, and second, with the further idea of emphasizing in this manner the attitude taken by the Division of the War Industries Board mentioned above, that items of this kind constituted an important part of the problem of the employment manager during the war, and, as anyone can readily see, they do, in much the same manner, possess an influence of very widespread importance to the present industrial situation. In fact, as I look at it, the acute attention which was given to these environment factors by one of the divisons of the War Industries Board in a well directed effort to aid the war industries under pressure of the war emergency, merely emphasizes their fundamental importance to the successful management of any industry in times of peace, and points forcibly to the conclusion that if the adherence to these factors in times of war was looked upon as a valuable contribution to the management of an industry under adverse

conditions, in much the same manner those industries which voluntarily adhere to the practice of excelling in the maintenance of a high standard of their environment, under normal times, may well expect to reap rewards of no small consequence in the form of more satisfied employees, larger returns in the rates of production, reduced spoilage of material in the processes of manufacture, fewer accidents to employees in the routine of a day's work, and so on.

These relations of the environment, as just stated, while they may appeal in a general way, must necessarily appeal to the average mind as a qualitative statement of facts in the form just given. The advantages of good surroundings are in themselves perhaps self evident, but it should always be remembered by the too hasty critic of industrial management that these items associated with a high standard of environment, such as proper heating and ventilation facilities, plenty of artificial and natural lighting, a well organized sanitary routine and janitor service, white walls and ceilings, where, perchance, the nature of the operations is such as rapidly to blacken the wall and ceiling surfaces, and attractive yards, all represent cost values, and hence it is only natural that the factory manager should pause to see if his outlay for these things brings with it a return worthy of the price paid.

To attempt to answer this aspect of the case makes it necessary to look somewhat more closely at one or two typical examples of the kinds of things involved in this somewhat general term environment. Possibly such a brief study into several of these items will be more convincing than statements such as the foregoing, which have been rather general. From among the typical environment factors mentioned above, we might select any one or several, and in showing some of their relations to industrial management, demonstrate not only their importance to industry as a whole, but by giving tangible data, prove in a most convincing manner that the expenditure for the best is well worth while in terms of the returns to the plant, either through indirect advantages or possibly through direct financial gains promoted by the improved environment.

I shall select for this brief demonstration the item of light for the factory, first, because natural and artificial lighting were two of the three items assigned me by the Employment Management Division of the War Industries Board last summer in the development of their courses for use in the various instruction centres throughout the country for the training of employment managers, and second, because the particular field of industrial lighting happens to be one of my special interests as an engineer.

Practically any one can see without difficulty that there are tangible advantages in having a shop or a factory bright and cheerful instead of gloomy and forbidding in appearance. Adequate natural lighting by day and a good system of artificial light for use in the early morning and late afternoon hours of the winter, on excessively cloudy or foggy days, and at night, are essential to this end. However, notwithstanding the apparent advantages of such facilities to every shop, there is a woeful neglect in this respect on every hand, and many shops are to be found where the most elementary principles of good lighting are violated.

The point which it is the intention to emphasize here, however, is not so much the side of neglect in this respect, bad as it is, but rather the tangible relations of this environment factor to the industries, where the best form of lighting is made a part of the factory equipment.

Towards the end of the war a report was issued in one of the engineering societies of tests which have been conducted recently in Chicago under the pressure of the war emergency, in which attention is drawn to the fundamental value of using marked increases in the quantity of illumination in given shops over what has been considered good practice in the past. One of these tests, for example, conducted over several months, showed that by increasing the illumination in a shop to four times the value previously used, the production of the shop was increased from 8 to 27 per cent. in various parts of the plant. Another

•Reported by Wm. A. Durgin, Trans. Illuminating Engineering Society, Vol. XIII, No. 8.

test gave evidence that a marked improvement in the lighting resulted in from 30 to 100 per cent. increases in production. General conclusions based on these tests are that a 15 per cent. increase in production can on the average be realized through an increase in lighting at a cost of not more than 5 per cent. of the payroll in the plant.

Here, then, it is readily seen that the expenditure by the management of a shop for the best form of lighting, is capable of a financial return in improved rates of production. Put into simple language, it was found possible during the war to speed up the work of a shop by improving the lighting, not by forcing the men to greater speed, but apparently, from the reported tests, merely by the stimulating effect which the more cheerful surroundings had upon the workmen. It is also obvious that a man who works under conditions of poor light, is delayed in his work often in the days routine by the inability to see clearly. Highly adequate illumination which eliminates the dark spots throughout the shop and which enables each employee to see clearly, should apparently reduce these time losses which are experienced in the dark and gloomy shop spaces, and as a natural result permit the performance of a given amount of work in less time than before. During the war, this was of course a most important point when speed in getting out work was of the utmost consequence.

However, this lesson, which was learned during the war, contains the essence of a most fundamental principle in the management of industry in times of peace. If plenty of light in a shop during the war was found to stimulate the worker in the sense of placing him in a favorable frame of mind with regard to his work, not to speak of its effect in aiding vision, then it follows that the same procedure in times of peace, in addition to its humane features in giving the workmen a beneficial condition for their work, is also capable of giving a return to the shop management through the increased production of the plant. In other words, if an expenditure of 5 per cent. of the payroll for better lighting yields a return of 15 per cent. in